What happened on election night for ag?

Oct 22, 2019

Justin Trudeau’s Liberals won a minority government

By Diego Flammini
Staff Writer
Farms.com

Here’s how the polling results shaped up after nearly 18 million Canadians voted in Monday’s federal election.

Justin Trudeau’s Liberals captured 157 seats, Andrew Scheer’s Conservatives won 121 seats and Yves Francois Blanchet’s Bloc Québécois won 32 seats.

The NDP, led by Jagmeet Singh, earned 24 seats while the Green Party, led by Elizabeth May, won three seats. Jody Wilson-Raybould, the former minister of justice and Attorney General in Trudeau’s cabinet, won a seat as an independent.

Because no party captured the 170 seats needed for a majority, the Liberals will form a government with either the support of the Bloc or the NDP. That support could come through a formal coalition government, on a case-by-case basis, or the supporting party could agree to work with the Liberals in exchange for a list of priorities or policies.

Trudeau’s minister of agriculture will return to the cabinet.

Marie-Claude Bibeau, who took over for Lawrence MacAulay in March, retained her Quebec riding of Compton-Stanstead with 21,550 votes compared to the Bloc’s David Benoît, who received 18,507 votes.

The incumbent agriculture critics for the Conservative, Bloc and NDP parties also won their respective seats.

Luc Berthold (Conservative) received 23,046 votes to hold off Priscilla Corbeil from the Bloc in the Quebec riding of Mégantic-L'Érable.

Simon Marcil (Bloc) won the Quebec riding of Mirabel by more than 17,000 votes over Liberal challenger Karl Trudel. NDP agriculture critic Alistair MacGregor won his B.C. riding of Cowichan-Malahat-Langford with 23,095 votes compared to Conservative Alana DeLong’s 16,456 votes.

Kate Storey, who represented the Green Party in the ag leaders’ debate, came in fourth in her Manitoba riding of Dauphin-Swan River-Neepawa. Dan Mazier, the former president of Keystone Agricultural Producers, who left the organization to pursue federal politics, won the riding with 64.5 per cent of the vote.

The Canadian ag industry looks forward to working with the new government.

The sector “should be a key priority for the new government, regardless of political ideology and the CFA looks forward to working with the Liberal party to help the Canadian agriculture sector thrive, and bring these benefits to all Canadians,” Mary Robinson, president of the Canadian Federation of Agriculture, said in a statement.

Trudeau must name some new cabinet ministers as some MPs lost their seats on Monday.

Ralph Goodale, the MP for Regina-Wascana in Saskatchewan and minister of public safety in Trudeau’s first cabinet, lost his seat to Conservative Michael Kram.

And Amarjeet, who served as minister of natural resources, lost the Edmonton Mill Woods riding in Alberta to Conservative Tim Uppal.

Video: Evolution of Beef Cattle Farming

The Clear Conversations podcast took to the road for a special episode recorded in Nashville during CattleCon, bringing listeners straight into the heart of the cattle industry. Host Tracy Sellers welcomed rancher Steve Wooten of Beatty Canyon Ranch in Colorado for a wide-ranging discussion that blended family history and sustainability, particularly as it relates to the future of beef production.

Sustainability emerged as a central theme of the conversation, a word that Wooten acknowledges can mean very different things depending on who you ask. For him, sustainability starts with the soil. Healthy soil produces healthy grass, which supports efficient cattle capable of producing year after year with minimal external inputs. It’s an approach that equally considers vegetation, animal efficiency, and long-term profitability.

That philosophy aligned naturally with Wooten’s involvement in the U.S. Roundtable for Sustainable Beef, where he served as a representative for the Colorado Cattlemen’s Association. The roundtable brings together the entire beef supply chain—from producers to retailers—along with universities, NGOs, and allied industries. Its goal is not regulation, Wooten emphasized, but collaboration, shared learning, and continuous improvement.