Maxine Bernier,
candidate for the leadership of the Conservatives, says it’s time
to debate the continuation of supply management for Canada’s dairy
and poultry farmers.
He calls it a
government-sanctioned cartel and said he favours free enterprise.
He is only the
second politician to publicly challenge supply management. The other
was Martha Hall Findlay when she was running for leader of the
federal Liberal party.
Bernier said he only
supported supply management when he was part of Stephen Harper’s
cabinet because he needed to maintain cabinet solidarity.
There were, however,
some hints that some Conservatives had doubts about the wisdom on
maintaining solid support for supply management. For example,
Agriculture Minister Gerry Ritz led the government’s initiative to
end to Canadian Wheat Board monopoly over exports of Prairie-grown
wheats and barley.
There were also
widespread concerns as the Conservatives negotiated free-trade
agreements with Europe and 11 Pacific-area nations, including the
United States and Japan.
As it turned put,
supply management is able to survive both of those trade-agreement
challenges.
Bernier’s
declaration came after the Conservative convention, but just before a
rally of tractor-driving Quebec dairy farmers is scheduled to show up
on Parliament Hill to press for even greater supply-management
controls over the market.
