Agriculture and the election
Will the Conservatives form a majority government or will they be forced to continue in a minority position? Based on the polling results being published, those would seem to be the two most likely election results. If there is a Conservative majority, what policy changes can farmers expect? The two obvious ones involve the Canadian Wheat Board and the long gun registry. The Conservatives, all the way up to Stephen Harper, have long wanted to remove the single desk, monopoly selling powers of the Canadian Wheat Board. Farmers are divided on the issue, but the marketing choice crowd has become more vocal and motivated over the years. This is one of the few issues on which you can actually differentiate the Conservatives from the Liberals. It’ll be interesting to see how often it comes up during the election campaign. If the Conservatives are true to their promises, a majority government would also see the end or serious curtailment of the long gun registry. This would be far less controversial that the CWB change in rural Canada, but urban areas would sing a different tune. In other farm policy areas ranging from farm safety nets to international trade, there’s not much difference between the two parties. And we’re at one of those rare junctures when farm income isn’t a hot issue, so there might be even less ag policy discussion than usual in this campaign. I’m Kevin Hursh.