Veteran politician John Milloy of Kitchener told the annual meeting for the Ontario Pork marketing board that they need to offer more praise and less criticism if they want to influence politicians.
Blasting politicians for perceived mistakes and failures will leave a long-lingering bad taste that will hamper efforts to get what farmers want from their governments, he said.
He was an Ontario Liberal member of the legislature for 11 years, a cabinet minister for seven and served in the Prime Minister’s office under Jean Chretien.
He said farmers should make an effort to inform their politicians, including those representing nearby urban ridings. He praised John Wilkinson of Stratford for inviting him and other city MPPs to tour farms.
Because politicians are overwhelmed with work and lobbyists, he said the pork farmers ought to keep their requests brief and focused on two or three top-priority issues. Leave the rest for the future.
It will be easier to bring them forward after a rapport has been established.
He said farmers who expect politicians to put effort into responding to them need to put effort into communicating with them. For example, if your effort is forwarding a copy of a petition, you will probably get only a canned response.
He said producers ought to take every opportunity to inform people about how they farm and the issues they face because those people will also be engaging directly or indirectly with politicians.
He said MPPs typically do constituency work and meetings on
Fridays and what they hear and learn they will report Mondays at caucus meetings.
If what MPPs from your riding match what MPPS from other parts of the province report, it has multiplied impact, he said.
