Lingenfelter takes ag critic role

Agricultural issues should have an elevated profile now that Dwain Lingenfelter has named himself as the NDP’s agriculture critic. Unlike anyone else in the NDP caucus, the new leader of the Saskatchewan New Democrats is a long-time farmer. He served a short stint as agriculture minister in the Romanow government. Lingenfelter is taking over the ag critic role from Pat Atkinson. Atkinson did a pretty good job on the file, but it’s hard to get traction of farm issues when your party lacks rural representation. The Saskatchewan Party has a number of bona fide producers and has a lock on rural constituencies. With Lingenfelter, the NDP finally has someone who can potentially give the party a measure of rural credibility. Of course, it’s easy to be a critic. It’s much tougher to come up with your own rational and functional policies. At this point, little is known about the ag policies the NDP will advocate under its new leader and ag critic. Hopefully, the policies will be pragmatic rather than dogmatic. I’m Kevin Hursh.

www.hursh.ca

Kevin Hursh, PAg, CAC