Revolving agriculture ministers

You sometimes forget how lucky we are to farm in a province where agriculture is taken seriously at the political level. You just have to look at British Columbia to see a province where agriculture is treated like a political afterthought. Christy Clark, the new B.C. Premier named her first cabinet on March 14 and she selected Comox Valley MLA Don McRae to be the new minister of agriculture. As the farm newspaper Country Life in B.C. points out, the position of ag minister has been a revolving door. McRae is B.C.’s third minister agriculture in the last six months and he is the seventh person to hold the position since the Liberals formed government in 2001. So what are Don McRae’s qualifications? He’s a secondary school teacher and a former city councilor. He’s a rookie MLA elected in 2009 with no previous ag experience.  Agriculture isn’t a major part of the B.C. economy the way it is in Saskatchewan, but it’s a diverse industry ranging from beef cattle to orchards and greenhouses. One wonders whether McRae will be in the portfolio long enough to learn anything. There’d be hell to pay if a Saskatchewan government treated agriculture that badly.

I’m Kevin Hursh.

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