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The Hill: In today's Parliament, agriculture is rarely on the radar

Wednesday, January 16, 2008

With few agricultural MPs on the Opposition benches, agricultural matters rarely come in that daily Question Period. Result: there is little pressure on the government to act

by BARRY WILSON

In January 2006, Canadians elected a Conservative government which arguably contains a higher percentage of rural and farm-connected MPs than any government since John Diefenbaker's 1957 minority.

One of the unexpected and unfortunate results of that massive rural show of support for the Stephen Harper Conservatives is that it has all but made agriculture disappear as a House of Commons issue.

The reason is simple. Opposition MPs set the agenda for topics to be raised in daily Question Period and that sets the day's news agenda. With so few agricultural MPs on Opposition benches, it rarely is on the radar.

Through the autumn, hog and cattle industries were warning that collapsing profits were putting many farmers at risk. The hog industry in particular was described as in meltdown.

Yet rookie minister Gerry Ritz received almost no House of Commons pressure to act. Liberal agriculture critic Wayne Easter demanded government action in several speeches, but his was a lonely voice and the pressure was far from sustained.

History shows that an aggressive opposition focusing on an agricultural issue can force action. In this Parliament, most of the agricultural questions have actually been soft, planted questions from Conservative backbenchers.

Commons and Senate agriculture committees have held hearings on the crisis, of course, but they operate far from the spotlight that shines on Question Period. And it is there that sustained pressure can create results.

What a difference a decade makes.

In the late 1990s, Parliament was a regular forum for debate about the farm crisis of the day. The House dynamic was reversed with a Liberal government heavy with urban MPs (although to be fair, all the rural Ontario seats as well) and an Opposition heavy with rural MPs, particularly from Western Canada.

Opposition MPs were persistent in their recitation of the problems and repetitive and often loud in demands that government do something. Then-minister Lyle Vanclief could count on being on his feet several times every week and sometimes daily.

Grain prices were low, farm income was falling and the hog industry was sliding into a crisis that triggered creation of the Agricultural Income Disaster Assistance program.
Opposition MPs like bombastic Manitoba Progressive Conservative Rick Borotsik were persistent. "Producers are selling at a loss. Income is down 55 per cent. This is a $20 billion industry and the minister is fiddling while farmers are going down in flames," he shouted at Vanclief.

Sustained pressure like that can and has shamed or forced governments into action. Just as importantly, it alerts the broader population to the problem.

In this Parliament, the livestock sector crisis receives little public attention and the minister is able to deflect calls for ad hoc aid without much fear that Liberal leader Stéphane Dion or NDP leader Jack Layton will be up the next day demanding a better answer.

As if to concede the party's weak performance on agriculture, Liberal leader Dion announced in December the creation of a party task force to develop solutions and focus on agriculture. He appointed Quebec farmer and candidate Cindy Duncan-McMillan as a special advisor on Quebec agricultural issues.

"We're going to try to provide a sharper focus for the leader's office on these issues," said task force co-chair Wayne Easter.

For the sake of a more vigorous and informed parliamentary debate, that could only be a good thing. BF

Barry Wilson is a member of the Parliamentary Press Gallery specializing in agriculture.

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