The Rural Voice, 2019-09, Page 10 With a federal election coming up
this October, farmers can expect to
be courted, and insulted. It’s already
begun.
The courting began earlier this
summer when Conservative leader
Andrew Scheer promised, if he
becomes Prime Minister, that he’ll
scrap the Canada Food Guide which
irritated livestock farmers when it
promoted the idea that a healthy diet
included less meat, dairy and eggs
and more grains and vegetables.
The response was almost
immediate as nutritionists leapt to the
defense of the Food Guide, saying
science was on their side. The
Liberals, of course, were happy to
amplify that criticism.
Scheer also struck out at the
Liberals for, in his view, being too
tardy in getting the cheques out to
dairy, chicken and egg farmers in
compensation for the market share
they had taken away from them for
the Canada-European Union (EU)
Comprehensive Economic and Trade
Agreement and Comprehensive and
Progressive Agreement for Trans-
Pacific Partnership.
That got under the skin of
business writers like the Globe and
Mail’s chief business columnist
Barrie McKenna. Business
columnists are among the most vocal
opponents of supply management.
All through the negotiations of these
trade agreements they regularly
voiced the opinion that dairy farmers,
in particular, shouldn’t be protected.
I have a feeling that it’s about
more than supply management being
counter to free enterprise. “Real”
business people are those who
process farm products and they aren’t
getting their raw materials as cheaply
as they could if there were no supply
management. And of course,
columnists are also consumers and
most consumers are convinced
they’re paying too much for food.
Farmers of other commodities are
often unsympathetic to their supply
management neighbours but don’t
think you’re off the hook. McKenna
ended his column by saying: “Next in
line for government handouts may be
pork farmers who have been hit by
China’s recent move to suspend
imports.” The suspension of imports,
of course, is the result of a political
game being played to punish Canada
for arresting a Chinese business
executive on an American warrant
for fraud. Apparently, pork farmers
(and wheat, canola and soybean
farmers who also got caught in the
political games) are just supposed to
suck it up on behalf of their country.
Critics will accuse all major
parties of “buying votes” with the
taxpayers’ money for any programs
that cater to a specific group like
farmers. Political strategists
understand that a few hundreds or
thousands of votes in some rural
ridings might make the difference
between a party forming the
government or not.
Of course, what’s vote buying in
one person’s eye is listening to your
constituents in another’s – generally
based on whether you agree or
disagree with the politician and the
policy. Personally, I want a member
of parliament who listens to the
needs of his constituents and fights to
represent their needs.
We’ll all have more than enough
of politics over the next couple of
months as politicians misrepresent
what their opponents say and stand
for and get down and dirty fighting
for every vote. Each of us will have
to weigh what matters and who will
do the best job of running the
country. Government financial
support should be only one of many
reasons a farmer chooses to support
one party or another.
Farmers can’t prosper if the
country as a whole doesn’t prosper.
But on the other hand, the country as
a whole will suffer if we don’t keep
farmers and rural communities
healthy. Few things matter more than
our citizens having good, healthy
food. I think urban columnists like
McKenna often forget that.◊
6 The Rural Voice
Election brings
farmers love,
abuse
Keith is former
publisher of
The Rural
Voice.
He lives near
Blyth, ON.
Keith Roulston
411575 Sideroad 41,
Mount Forest
519-323-9841
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