The Rural Voice, 2006-01, Page 14John
Beardsley is
a freelance
journalist
and crop
specialist
with Huron
Bay
Cooperative.
"I'm mad as hell
and I'm not going to take it any
more."
Thus said the deranged newsman
on the movie Network. We don't get
to decide much in what goes on in
government and it can cause many of
us to yell at our televisions in
frustration. This January 23 we can
finally do something about our
repressed rage. We can actually send
a message to Ottawa. I have great
respect for our incumbent Member of
Parliament. Paul Steckle is asking us
to return him to Ottawa once again.
John Beardsley
Time to send a message
He says everyone knows he has
fought tirelessly for the plight of
farming in the riding.
Paul represents the most
productive agricultural riding in the
country. Our agriculture is bigger
than most Maritime Provinces. Early
in his career he was well known as a
rebel for his stand on gun control and
the rights of the unborn child.
But the past 18 months when grain
and oilseed farmers needed him most,
he was strangely silent. Granted he
has come out swinging in the run up
to the election and was quoted in the
press as publicly chastising Andy
Mitchell over the need for better
funding to grain and oilseed farmers.
But he also chided local agricultural
leaders for their stands criticizing the
CAIS program. He now says the
CAIS program needs changing.
Unfortunately he was silent two years
ago when the OFA and the Ontario
commodity council begged the
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10 THE RURAL VOICE
Liberals to continue the Market
Revenue program.
It is absolutely no consolation to
farm leaders to be proven right on the
CAIS program failure. It, like the gun
registry, is spending huge amounts of
time and money auditing each
individual farmer's situation rather
than leaving that up to Revenue
Canada.
The biggest, cruelest blow of all
was when the Liberals clawed back
BSE aid unless people were enrolled
in CAIS. When Belinda Stronach
crossed the floor and saved the
Liberals from defeat, Steckle had the
power to ask for anything he liked for
Ontario farmers. He could have made
his support contingent on scrapping
CAIS and providing a program that is
available to farmers in Quebec. But
instead he listened to the experts in
Ag Canada and did nothing. Propping
up the status quo may get you
invitations to lunch with Paul Martin
but it does little for the 15 percent of
the voters in this riding who get their
incomes from production agriculture.
We need a new voice in Ottawa.
More importantly we have to tell the
big red machine that while farmers
and rural folk may not be able to elect
a government we can sure elect a
different farmer who is going to stand
up for the riding in government.
NDP candidate Grant Robertson is
one of the youngest farmers in the
riding and like many farmers he and
his wife must both work off farm to
pay the bills. Robertson has come out
strongly in support of the risk
management program proposed by
the Grain and Oilseed farmers.
Robertson is also proposing a non-
partisan private member's bill which
will ensure that all future government
investments in agriculture will get to
the farmers and not to American
corporations.
Ben Lobb is a nice man and it is
good to see him get excited about the
risk management program. Lobb also
points out that the Huron -Bruce
Conservative Riding Association was