How'd they vote.ca checkup

[kato]

Now that parliament is back in session, I dropped by howdtheyvote.ca to see if any of our fearless leaders have had anything to say. Checked out G.Ritz, and apparently he hasn't said anything yet. Wayne Easter, on the other hand has brought us up with about the same amount of success as we've had.

I'm going to paste his question, and the response he got, and I sure hope it doesn't format all weird. If it comes out looking strange, all I can say is oopss....

Quote
Hon. Wayne Easter (Malpeque, Lib.):
2010-03-05 13:15 (Government Orders)
library of parliament version | more quotes from this MP

Mr. Speaker, I am looking at page 98 in the budget book which is supposed to be the place where there is something comprehensive on agriculture.

I just cannot understand it. How can this parliamentary secretary, this member for the rural riding of Macleod, this former farm leader, stand in his place and support this budget that does not have one new dime in it for farmers who are in tragedy in this country?

We are losing the hog producing industry. The industry is going down the tubes and production is being replaced by American production. There is nothing in this budget for hog producers.

There is nothing in this budget for the potato producers in Prince Edward Island and Manitoba who had their processing contracts cut.

There is a wee bit of money in here for beef farmers, but it is not the proposal that the beef processing industry and the producers asked for which would be a per head payment to deal with the uncompetitive position we are in as the result of SRM removal.

Worse yet, the money that is announced in this budget to deal with that problem in a half-mannered way comes from AgriFlexibility. So that money that is going to go to the SRM removal, to the processing plant, actually comes out of current funding for Agriculture Canada through AgriFlexibility and in fact is goring other farmers in the process.

My question is simple. Does the government just not care about farmers in this country? Will the parliamentary secretary now admit that there is absolutely nothing
The Deputy Speaker:
2010-03-05 13:20 (Government Orders)
library of parliament version | more quotes from this MP

Order. The hon. Parliamentary Secretary to the Minister of Finance.
Mr. Ted Menzies:
2010-03-05 13:20 (Government Orders)
library of parliament version | more quotes from this MP

Mr. Speaker, that reminds me of my days when I was in a leadership role in several of the largest agricultural organizations across this country, back in the dark days, if I can refer to them that way, when we used to sit and listen to Liberal budgets that actually cut funding to agriculture. When there were droughts in western Canada, a Liberal never represented anyone in western Canada and how do you think we fared, Mr. Speaker? I think you know the answer to that one as well as I do.

I happened to have a long discussion with one of the major cattle producers just last night and, as a matter of fact, it will come as a surprise to the hon. member, who cannot seem to control his yelling from that side of the House, that the cattle industry actually understands that if we had done what the hon. member suggests, we would have had an immediate trade challenge.

I (Kato - the quote is done LOL) for one would like to encourage Mr Easter to keep on yelling, and never stop. At least someone is trying to stick up for agriculture. I hope he knows that we all appreciate his efforts. Sometimes it seems like he's the only one who is paying any attention at all.

[hlg]

part of the problem is to much politics and not enough government.

[smcgrath76]

The part that makes me mad is the
continual response of blame. At this
point I really don't care much what the
liberals did or did not do 10 years ago,
or what the conservatives did before that.
I think they need to learn from history
and work to craft the future, rather than
finger point and place blame.

[skhadenuf]

Your absolutely right they need to focus on what are they going to do for us now not what was done in the past, but why would they since we currently are handing the Conservatives a vote on a silver platter so to speak just because we didn't like past issues with the Liberals. But realistically the Conservatives what have they done for agriculture f-all, actually they are totally incompetant in handling the loss of the cattle industry, hog industry, and grain farmers absolutely no vision other than a sell out to the corporations that pad their election costs, as far as scandals $1000 dollar bills in a brown bag exchanged in a hotel in New York sounds kinda interesting in fact to me that one shows how those in power are above all of us in terms of treatment by the law.
the point is if we don't make our voices heard we get what we deserve.

[hlg]

don`t forget the liberals green plan! that`s proof that nobody listens or cares what happens west of Winnepeg. There`s not enough votes out here and they assume we all will vote for the current dictator and so does he.

[rkaiser]

So we take responsibility in our own hands. Sue them and take that "money tool" to rebuild the industry ourselves.....

And we don't even have to do much except support a lawsuit that "IS" happening and affects each and every one of us... Unless you have signed off.