Justin Trudeau has united farmers

The Trudeau Liberals continue to find new ways to alienate rural westerners in general and farmers and ranchers in particular.

Farm organizations need to work with governments no matter their political stripe so they tend to be diplomatic in their statements. Not so for the regular farm crowd, a surprising number of whom wear hats, or fly banners and flags to make it clear how much they despise Justin Trudeau.

In a world where political views are more divided than ever, farmers in Western Canada are amazingly united in their disdain for the federal Liberal government and their contempt for the Prime Minister. And every week or two the Liberals make another policy pronouncement that digs the hole deeper.

Increased gun control is a recent example. New laws seem poised to ban .22 calibre gopher guns holding more than five rounds. This may seem logical to someone in downtown Toronto, but for farmers and ranchers it would be yet another restriction that makes little sense.

Meanwhile, Health Canada has degreed that ground beef and pork will have to be labelling with a high saturated fat warning. While this can’t directly be blamed on the Trudeau Liberals, it’s viewed as yet another attack by Ottawa. Political leaders wear the actions of their bureaucrats.

A new ag policy framework is being negotiated between the federal and provincial governments and the feds are reported to be pushing the idea of linking business risk management programs to reductions in greenhouse gas emissions.

Imagine the furor if a farmer is required to complete an Environmental Farm Plan before being eligible for crop insurance. In fairness, it’s difficult to know what degree of linkage the feds are seeking and how hard they will push this approach.

However, the feds are certainly fixated on the so-called climate crisis. It underpins their whole approach. Ag research dollars are being seriously restricted except for projects with a climate change focus.

That’s the impetus behind their drive for a 30 per cent reduction in absolute emissions for fertilizer. The worry is that a heavy-handed government approach will at some point limit how much fertilizer a producer is allowed to use.

The fears over gopher guns, farm safety net requirements and fertilizer use may be overblown relative to what actually transpires, but many in the farm population are expecting the worst based on the government track record.

Farmers just need to look at how the fossil fuel industry has been treated. The government’s anti-pipeline stance has prevented Canadian oil and gas from being exported, but hasn’t contributed one iota to reducing fossil fuel production and consumption worldwide.

The same greenhouse gas virtue signalling could happen within agriculture. Make life more difficult and expensive for farmers so the government can tell the world it’s saving the planet.

While Justin Trudeau is a magnet for much of the vitriol, policies would likely be much the same under a different Liberal leader. Deputy Prime Minister and Finance Minister Chrystia Freeland is widely seen as a possible successor when Trudeau steps down. While Freeland has farm roots in Western Canada, nothing she says indicates any significant change in policy direction.

As for a possible change in governing party, the Conservatives are so busy fighting among themselves and making policy missteps that they’ve been unable to make public opinion headway in central Canada where elections are won or lost.

Many farmers have channeled their Trudeau hate into the Conservative leadership race.