The Politics of Agriculture

Well friends, I hope that all of you in the over 18 (at least in Alberta) category cast your ballots last Monday! Some of you, like myself, may not yet be of age to vote, but that doesn't mean we can't still be informed about what is happening in Canadian politics... after all, we are going to be voters in the next couple of years and the decisions we make can shape our country and way of life. I'm not going to tell you who you should be voting for - because that depends solely on yourself and your values as a Canadian... however I will tell you that you really should get out and vote - exercise your democratic right and let your opinion matter, it will only take a few minutes out of your day, and then you can feel empowered by the fact that you just had an impact on the future of Canada! Kinda a big deal when you think about it that way hey!? The election has come and gone for this year, but when the next one rolls around will you be informed and ready to choose your leader?

As hopefully everyone has heard by now, our Conservative leader, Stephen Harper, has finally achieved a majority government! A majority government is when the governing party has a majority of the seats in parliament and the opposing party (in this election's case the New Democratic Party also known as the NDP), have the second highest number of seats in parliament but that number is still less than half. The remaining parties such as the Liberals, Bloc Quebecois, and Green Party have the remaining seats in parliament. This is great news if you voted Conservative,because as a majority government, the Conservatives now have the power to make their platform (their plan for Canada) a reality without being stalled by the other parties as they were before when they were a minority government. Besides the big news of the majority government, the fact that the NDP are the opposition party and not the Liberals is a historic upset! Time will tell but being the optimistic person I am, I would like to think that these big changes are going to be of benefit to Canada.

Now, the big question... what does this all mean for agriculture!? In April 2011, the month prior to the federal election, Stephen Harper announced the following plan to support farmers in Canada should he be re-elected as Prime Minister:

• A two-year Agricultural Innovation Initiative to support knowledge creation and transfer, and to increase commercialization of agricultural innovations.
• A management and monitoring strategy to contain and prevent the spread of plum pox.
• An extended strategy for disease control in the hog industry.
• Ensuring that the Agri-Québec program is accorded the same tax treatment that is currently provided to the federal AgriInvest program.
• Increasing the budget of the Canadian Food Inspection Agency for five years to improve food inspection capacity.
• A five-year national farm and food strategy to guide Canadian agricultural policy and to ensure the survival of family farms.

Prime Minister Harper also announced that he will “continue to resolutely defend supply management in current and future trade agreements.”

The above information was gathered from: http://www.conservative.ca/press/news_releases/harper_announces_support_for_farmers

Photograph Source: http://www.hackettitc.com/mandrfeeds/

Today, there seems to finally be a glimmer of hope in the agriculture industry... and a much deserved one at that! Farmers and ranchers have been hit hard by one issue after another in the last decade - from BSE to weather, we haven't been able to catch much of a break! Looking outside I can draw parallels between the weather this year and the agriculture industry today... it was a long, bitter winter but today I look outside and see the sun shining, green grass growing, and each night I can finally hear the chorus of frogs outside! Somehow this seems very similar to the hard times the agricultural industry has seen, but now things seem to finally be improving! Today just feels like an optimistic day, and I think that as agricultural producers we need to be some of the most optimistic people around! So lets look forward to a positive future for agriculture with our newly elected majority Conservative government!!