John Barlow returns as Conservative Agriculture Critic

Nov 09, 2021

Erin O’Toole announced his shadow cabinet Tuesday

By Diego Flammini
Staff Writer
Farms.com

A familiar Conservative Member of Parliament is back as the party’s agriculture critic.

Conservative Leader Erin O’Toole selected John Barlow, the Alberta MP for Foothills, to present the party’s views opposite Liberal Agriculture and Agri-Food Minister Marie-Claude Bibeau.

Barlow first held the ag critic position under former Conservative Leader Andrew Scheer in 2019.

In September 2020, O’Toole appointed Lianne Rood as the party’s ag critic. Rood will now serve as the shadow minister for rural economic development & broadband strategy to counter Liberal Rural Economic Development Minister Gudie Hutchings.

Barlow voted on 181 issues during the second session of the 43^rd Parliament, which ran from Sept. 23, 2020 to Aug. 15, 2021.

He cast 50 votes against items and 131 votes in favour.

He voted in support of two bills designed to benefit Canadian ag.

Barlow supported Bill C-208, which amended the Income Tax Act, to “establish uniform tax treatment” for the sale of a farm or fishing operation whether it’s sold to a family member or not.

He also voted in favour of Bill C-206, which would’ve exempted propane and natural gas from the federal carbon tax.

He voted against Bill C-10, which aimed to amend the Broadcasting Act. Conservatives argued the bill would provide the Canadian Radio-television and Telecommunications Commission (CRTC) authority to control online content.

The Bloc Québécois also announced its shadow cabinet.

Leader Yves-François unveiled his portfolio critics on Oct. 5.

Yves Perron, the MP for Berthier – Maskinongé will serve as the party’s ag critic again.

Yves Perron.

Like Barlow, Perron voted against Bill C-10 and in favour of Bills C-208 and C-206.

Simon-Pierre Savard-Tremblay, the MP for Saint-Hyacinthe – Bagot, will be the party’s international trade critic.

Video: Western Canadian Agriculture: Hard Times Made the World's Best Farmers

Western Canadian agriculture produced the most advanced farmers in the world not through abundance but through adversity. The crow rate fell. The wheat price went nowhere. The brown envelopes stopped.

When the subsidies disappeared, the bad farmers left and the good ones stayed. And the ones who stayed could not just grow wheat anymore. They started growing lentils and canola and peas and flax and faba beans. They built crop rotation. They got serious about agronomy because there was no government backstop. That process produced the Western Canadian agriculture Dennis Bulani describes in this clip: the most advanced, most educated farming culture in the world.

His contrast with Iowa corn and soybean farmers is sharp. At a DeKalb farmer meeting in Okoboji, Iowa, he asked what crop rotation they ran. Beans on corn stubble, corn on bean stubble. How do you fertilize? The co-op agronomist handles it. Have you considered other crops? No need. We make so much money on corn and soybeans. Western Canadian agriculture was never allowed that comfort. And now those Iowa farmers are watching soybean markets lock up with China and corn prices slide, and they do not have the agronomy knowledge or the research base to pivot. Western Canadian farmers adapted on a dime because they had done it before.

Dennis also makes the case that Western Canadian agriculture keeps adapting in real time. Low commodity prices over the past year have pushed growers to look seriously at precision spot-spray technology. He knows a neighbor who bought a sprayer with the seeing-eye system and sprayed only 80 out of 320 acres. As a chemical retailer Dennis acknowledges that will affect his sales. He supports it anyway, because if it advances Canadian agriculture and makes farmers money, that is a good outcome.

The lesson Dennis draws from the tale of two farms: continuous improvement is the only durable strategy. When canola was $22 a bushel some growers went to Arizona instead of the Crop Production Show. When the price came down those same growers came back to the research and the discipline. Products do not go on Rack Petroleum's shelves unless they pass a replicated trial first. That is what Western Canadian agriculture built through hard times: farmers who do the work whether the times demand it or not.

Dennis Bulani is CEO of Rack Petroleum and Ultimate Yield in Biggar, Saskatchewan. Dan Aberhart hosts GTF Productions, Western Canadian Agriculture's foremost live briefing platform and its foremost AI training platform for ag operators