Today, Stephen Harper tried to distract Canadians from his own past position on supply management by erroneously claiming that Liberals do not support supply management.
As the Liberal “Rural Canada Matters” strategy clearly outlines, Michael Ignatieff has committed to continued support for supply management.
Our “Clean Slate Commitment” will also build practical, bankable farm programs in partnership with farmers. We will restore AgriFlex with flexibility to support regionally responsive programs, such as the Assurance stabilisation des revenus agricoles in Quebec (ASRA), the Ontario Business Risk Management Program, market price insurance for livestock or improved premiums for crop insurance in the West, and a Buy Atlantic program in Atlantic Canada.
Stephen Harper, on the other hand, has a long history of denouncing supply management, referring to supply management as “price-fixing cartels.”
As president of the National Citizens Coalition he said:
“The damage inflicted by the Quebec situation can be found in many places. Take for example, ‘supply management,’ our government-sponsored price-fixing cartels. Canada’s restaurant industry finds itself paying 3% more for cheese this year, and 74% more than an American food manufacturer. One dairy farmer admits that politics might have something to do with it – ‘if the federal government did something anti-dairy, there would be howls of outrage from our French brothers.’ Quebec gets nearly half the country’s allocated dairy quota.” (The Bulldog, National Citizens Coalition, February 1998)
If this is Stephen Harper’s real opinion of supply management, why should any farmer believe his campaign promise today?
