The former prime minister had his official portrait unveiling last week
On the heels of former Prime Minister Stephen Harper’s official portrait unveiling in Ottawa on Feb. 3, Farms.com connected with his agriculture minister Gerry Ritz about working with Canada’s 22nd prime minister.
Ritz, who in 2020 was elected reeve for the Rural Municipality of Mervin in Saskatchewan, couldn’t attend the unveiling.
But by all accounts, the former prime minister’s speech at the event reflected his way of working.
“Everyone was trying to read into his speech,” Ritz told Farms.com. “But if you know (Harper), you know he’s a straight shooter. He said what he said and he meant what he said.”
Harper tapped Ritz for the agriculture portfolio in August 2007 during a cabinet shuffle that saw Chuck Strahl moved from ag to Indian Affairs and Northern Development.
At the time Ritz, who was the MP for Battlefords—Lloyminster, was the minister of state for small business and tourism.
“It was about seven or eight months into that gig, and I got a call from (Ian Brodie), his chief of staff, saying the prime minister wanted to see me in Ottawa,” Ritz said. “He sat me down and said, ‘Gerry I’m going to give you the portfolio you want.’”
From that appointment came a close working relationship.
That’s because the prime minister wanted regular updates.
“He was a great delegate and designate guy,” Ritz said. “He wanted to know what was going on.”
Ritz had opportunities to move onto other files but chose to weave additional issues into his work in ag.
“The prime minister would sit me down and tell me I’ve been doing a great job in ag and asked if I wanted to work in other ministries,” Ritz said. “I’d say, ‘Well I have this problem in transport, and I have this other issue in health, so if you put those into my mandate, I’m more than happy to stay in ag.’”
Folding challenges from other ministries into agriculture helped Ritz and the Harper government pass bills like C-30, the Fair Rail for Grain Farmers Act, in 2014.
This bill mandates CN and CP (now CPKC) meet minimum weekly grain volume requirements and increases competition through extended interswitching distances.
As ag minister, Ritz helped provide grain farmers marketing freedom with the removal of the Canadian Wheat Board in 2012.
And he did so with the prime minister’s support.
“He’s a free marketer so he was onside with that change,” Ritz said.
In addition, Ritz found himself sitting in multiple committee meetings the prime minister chaired.
Prime Minister Harper always tried to increase ag’s status in Ottawa because he understood its role as an economic driver.
“At the time agriculture was the third largest contributor to the GDP and food processing was the largest manufacturing sector,” Ritz said. “The prime minister realized what a sparkplug agriculture is. The farmers and ranchers of Canada are the bottom of that pyramid, and they drove a multi-billion-dollar industry each year.”
Some of those meetings include the trade minister as the government, including Ritz, negotiated trade deals like CETA and CPTPP, while trying to navigate supply management.
“It was never off the table,” he said. “But you worked around it. The tricky thing with dairy and poultry is it’s dated, so you don’t have a lot of time to package it and get it somewhere in the world. It’s very different than a boat load of grain.”
Harper also understood the complexity of the ag file.
It’s a shared responsibility with the provinces, which can lead to regional challenges.
“Ag is a unique portfolio because the funding is shared 60/40 with the provinces but the ideas are 50/50,” Ritz said. “But something that works in Alberta won’t work in Newfoundland. The prime minister understood that and gave me the rope I needed to work with the provinces so they could best implement the federal programs in a way that supported their producers.”
But just because he and Prime Minister Harper worked closely doesn’t mean it was always in agreement.
The prime minister didn’t support everything Ritz proposed, but he gave his ministers the freedom to make proposals.
“He didn’t agree with everything I brought before Cabinet, but he always let me make my case,” Ritz said. “We would develop a program and then ultimately it was up to him to work with the finance minister to find the funding. And if they couldn’t make it work, he told you that, and you moved forward.”