Sowing discontent

For those wondering what a new, Western-heavy Con government would do to improve the lot of Canada's agricultural industry based on its better knowledge of the needs of farmers, the answer is...absolutely nothing:

There aren't any current plans to dole out more emergency farm aid to producers for spring seeding, federal Agriculture Minister Chuck Strahl said Monday at the close of his first meeting with his provincial counterparts.

And Strahl also seems to have picked up on the Lib habit of taking credit for anything and everything, even if it came from his political rivals:

Strahl did point to the $755 million payout the Conservatives are fast-tracking to farmers. That aid money, of which Saskatchewan producers should get about $290 million, was announced late last year by the former Liberal government.

While it's fair enough to note as Strahl does that there's a need for longer-term planning to develop a more sustainable base for farmers, the current nine-figure losses in Saskatchewan alone should be the first hint that a solution coming out of a drawn-out process will arrive too late for many. And with the Cons refusing to acknowledge that problem, it shouldn't take long for rural Western Canada to stop putting its trust in the Cons at the polls.