Will Wynne Hold Her Promise to be Ontario’s Agriculture Min. for One Year?

Jan 28, 2013

Ontario’s First Female Premier Pledges to Take on the Role as Agriculture Minister

Ontario made history on Saturday, as the Ontario Liberal party elected Kathleen Wynne as the first female, and openly gay party leader as premier of the province.

Wynne, who was one of the front-runners since the campaign began, won the leadership on the third ballot at the leadership convention held at Maple Leaf Gardens in Toronto.

Out of the six leadership hopefuls, Wynne was also one of the only candidates who had a plan outlined for rural Ontario. Wynne also surprised many during the first campaign debate when she pledged to appoint herself as Minister of Agriculture for one year in addition to her role as premier.

Many in rural Ontario have been frustrated with the Liberals seemingly unpopular policies such as the Green Energy Act and the approach that was taken to deal with Ontario’s horseracing industry. The rural and urban divide has been exacerbated by the Liberal governments approach thus far.

As one of the leading agriculture news sources online, Farms.com had been closely following the leadership race and last week send out an agricultural questionnaire to all of the campaigns; and Wynne and Charles Sousa - who ended up backing Wynne in the race - were the only two campaigns that responded. The full questionnaire can be found at – Ontario Liberal Candidates Answer Agricultural Questionnaire.

Farms.com would like to congratulate Kathleen Wynne on her leadership victory, and we’re looking forward to seeing her hopefully take-on a new approach to tackling rural Ontario issues.

Video: LALEXPERT: Sclerotinia cycle and prophylactic methods

White rot, also known as sclerotinia, is a common agricultural fungal disease caused by various virulent species of Sclerotinia. It initially affects the root system (mycelium) before spreading to the aerial parts through the dissemination of spores.

Sclerotinia is undoubtedly a disease of major economic importance, and very damaging in the event of a heavy attack.

All these attacks come from the primary inoculum stored in the soil: sclerotia. These forms of resistance can survive in the soil for over 10 years, maintaining constant contamination of susceptible host crops, causing symptoms on the crop and replenishing the soil inoculum with new sclerotia.