2006 Election Commentary

by Bob Friesen, President
Canadian Federation of Agriculture

It’s election time again. It’s something we’ve all been expecting, ever since the last election presented Canadians with a minority Parliament. For Canadian farmers, this means we have an opportunity to redress the big flaw of the last election – the failure to address agriculture issues.

I don’t think there is anyone who will disagree that, outside rural Canada, agriculture was a non-issue in the last election. The urban Canadian public and media were fixated on a few key issues like health care and government accountability. Now, as we have just finished the first week of the election period, we are seeing that, as yet, no one issue has managed to captivate the hearts and attention of Canadians, the media, or the politicians. That means there is an opening for farmers to seize the agenda.

To exploit that opening farmers – all farmers – are going to have to work very hard. We are going to have to mobilize. We are going to have to get active. We are going to have to work like election candidates and focus our energy on the campaign trail.

The Canadian Federation of Agriculture once again has an election strategy. We will send our message to every candidate in every riding in this country, and we will ask them to make a firm commitment to agriculture by signing their name to a statement supporting agriculture. We will provide our member organizations with a toolkit to help producers engage candidates at the local level. We will call on the national parties to endorse our proposal for the APF II – a Canadian Farm Bill. And we will once again host a national debate on agriculture featuring the Minister and agriculture critics.

In this election CFA will highlight four major themes: 

• Industry-driven farm policy. CFA just met with Canada’s agriculture ministers and presented its plan for the next generation of agriculture policy – a Farm Bill for Canada. All parties must commit in their policy platforms to working with the industry and supporting industry-driven farm policy, including short-, medium- and long-term measures.
• Trade. WTO negotiations are reaching a crucial juncture. All parties must make a firm commitment to defending Canada’s interests at the WTO – reducing global export subsidies, expanding market access, and preserving our domestic marketing systems like supply management and the Canadian Wheat Board.
• Farm income and the Easter Report. The income crisis is one of the most pressing issues facing Canadian farmers today. CFA is calling on all party leaders to set aside partisanship and commit to implementing the recommendations of the Easter report.
• Supporting farmers who provide a public good. CFA is calling on all parties to include in their platforms a recognition of the public benefits farmers provide – such as food safety and environmental stewardship initiatives – and a commitment to ensuring the cost of providing those benefits is shared equally among all the beneficiaries – consumers and the public.

How can farmers help us make sure the media and the election candidates can’t ignore agriculture issues this time around? Attend all your local debates and all-candidates meetings. Ask questions. Organize your own debates. Watch the news coverage in the mainstream media. If there’s a call-in show, call in. Visit the web sites of the major media. If they have links to submit comments or ask question, use them. If you hear that a party leader is going to be in your area, get together a farmer delegation and attend their events. If you live near the cities where the national leaders debates are going to be held – Vancouver, December 15 and 16, and Montreal, January 9 and 10 – come out and help us establish a farmer presence there.

There are over 300,000 farm operators in this country, and our industry directly impacts the lives of millions of other Canadians. The farm vote counts. And in this election, if we work together, we will show that our issues cannot be ignored.