THE CYNICS among us like to dismiss politicians as fat-cat leeches, unconnected to the people, cruising to a handsome pension and living the good life.
They take particular aim at the amount of time MPs spend away from Parliament. It’s a “holiday” when the House of Commons adjourns in June and returns in the autumn.
The Reform party likes to play to this prejudice, although it is the party that sensibly has its MPs rotating back into the constituency even when Parliament is sitting. By this view, MPs only work when they are in Parliament, in Ottawa.
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Of course, these same cynics also tend to dismiss Parliament as an amateur mud-wrestling forum and Ottawa as a place where nothing ever gets accomplished.
Critical inconsistencies aside, parliamentarians are poised to return after their almost 16-week “vacation.”
And if this is what agriculture minister Lyle Vanclief looks like after an extended vacation, it’s hard to imagine what he would like after a work marathon.
During an interview, he looked tired, spoke softly, seemed preoccupied.
When asked about the farm aid file, he talked about what government might be able to do to help, but also about the reality that some of those hurting farmers might not make it and should think of jumping before they are pushed.
“This is eating me up,” he said at the end.
He looks it, for it has not been a good political summer for Vanclief, and the autumn doesn’t look much easier.
Since the parliamentary adjournment in June, he has been subjected to a steady stream of prairie complaints about a lack of government aid action, was roughed up by a protester in Prince Albert, Sask., heard widespread criticism of his performance by senior agriculture leaders and struggled to explain why Ottawa cannot do what Washington and Brussels do to support their farmers.
Meanwhile, he has presided over a political stalemate in federal-provincial negotiations over a new long-term safety net funding system.
Even some voices within his own political party have suggested Vanclief has to become more activist and show more leadership if the political hammering the Liberal Party has been taking on farm issues is to subside.
This new session will give the agriculture minister ample opportunity to show leadership on some of the hottest files.
He will co-manage Canada’s agricultural trade file when World Trade Organization talks open at the end of November.
He has to manage the farm aid file, deftly backtracking from earlier intransigence, finding a way to get more money to farmers and convincing finance minister Paul Martin to find more money for a richer long-term safety net system.
He has to find a way to break the logjam that has developed between provinces over design of new farm support spending rules.
And he will be one of the lead ministers in trying to deal with the growing public debate over whether genetically engineered foods are safe and should be allowed on the market, with or without labels.
It is time for Vanclief to get some sleep, and then show some political skills.
