Canada held its 42nd general election on Monday (Oct 19). It was one of the longest campaigns in Canadian history.
The ruling Conservative party is out after nearly ten years in power, and the Liberals under leader Justin Trudeau, will form the new government.
Canadian farmers have had a rocky relationship with the outgoing Conservatives so I asked National Farmer’s Union President Jan Slomp for his thoughts on what the change will mean for farmers in Canada
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In the past few weeks, most polls suggested it would be a tight 3-way race among the three main parties, the ruling Conservatives, the third place Liberals, and the second place, official opposition, New Democratic Party.
Because of the closeness, most also thought that whichever party won, it would be a minority win. In what came as a surprise to most, the Liberal party won a majority with 184 seats to the Conservative 99, now becoming the Official Opposition, and the New Democratic Party slipping to third with 44 seats
This means the Liberals will have control of the House of Commons in Parliament, and will be under virtually no threat of having their bills and policies rejected.
Jan Slomp says a number of policies and programmes under the outgoing Conservatives were harmful to farmers. This included the selling off of the Canada Wheat Board which marketed Canadian wheat on behalf of farmers, and selling off of grain research facilities, closing of agricultural and fisheries research libraries, the passing of Bill C-18 on seed ownership rights, the Comprehensive Economic Trade Agreement (CETA) with Europe, and the latest Trans-Pacific Partnership.
NFU unwelcome by Conservative Government
He also says under the past government the NFU was clearly not welcome in discussions on farming issues which directly concerned them.
He says during this recent campaign all parties promised protection for farmers, including the Conservatives, but he hopes the incoming Liberal government has heard the message from farmers about their concerns, for themselves and also for Canada’s food supply system.
He does note however the Liberals did support C-18 while in opposition, a bill which the NFU says gives multinational corporations more control over the food system while taking away farmer’s rights and traditional practices.
He also says liberalization of dairy markets in Europe in recent years has caused great disruption and anger among farmers there, and he says newly leaked information about the secret TPP deal would appear to cause even further damage to Canadian dairy and poultry farmers.
He says the NFU hopes the Liberals will not now support the TPP as is, especially as the CETA deal allows 17,000 tons of European cheese to enter Canadian markets.
He hopes the Liberals will make good on their campaign promises, and that they will work more closely with farming groups before making policy decisions which could have wide ranging affects on Canadian farmers.
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