| New ag minister a logical fit; MLA |
 |
 |
 |
| Local Content - Local Agriculture |
| Written by Trevor Busch |
| Thursday, 04 February 2010 17:54 |
|
In an attempt to refocus caucus to deal with issues facing the province, Premier Ed Stelmach recently opted for a cabinet shuffle to re-energize his party’s leadership. Little Bow MLA Barry McFarland has seen his share of cabinet shuffles during his tenure as MLA, but he never makes predictions. “I’ve been through about 12 of them. There’s always surprises, and this is no exception. But after hearing everyone else’s speculations and guesses and the media comments about a few of them and who they thought would be in, it really wasn’t a surprise, because there’s never been a pattern that you can foreseeably predict with any amount of accuracy.” One of the big dominoes to fall was in the agriculture portfolio, which saw Jack Hayden, MLA for Drumheller-Stettler, replace the former minister George Groeneveld. Groeneveld, who represents the Highwood constituency, was not included in the new cabinet. Considering his rural background, McFarland anticipated the new minister will make a logical fit. “I know that his background is municipal, and I know that he knows a lot of municipally-elected people, and rural, through the AAMD&C (Alberta Association of Municipal Districts and Counties) as past president. So he’s going to be quite familiar with many of the agricultural people through the Ag Service Board representatives that come from municipal councils, small urban and rural.” Hayden, himself a farmer, comes to the agriculture portfolio by way of infrastructure, to which he was appointed minister in March 2008. Hayden has served two terms as an MLA representing Drumheller-Stettler. McFarland perceived the rural-urban dichotomy to be problematic when representing the province, especially when considering the demand of the larger urban centres to be heavily represented in cabinet, which in turn skews the political landscape. “I know that geography and gender are always part of the equation. I know the premier was looking to put a more youthful look to cabinet, so I think he’s trying to do that in Calgary, and that’s where geography plays a part in it. Everyone in Calgary expects there to be quite a bit of representation from their city.” Rural constituencies should hold just as much weight, if not based on population, then based on their other strengths, he added. “The rest of us in other parts of the province also represent almost the same numbers of people — not all the time necessarily, but what we don’t have in numbers we definitely make up for in the size of our constituencies, and the complexity of it. I guess that’s the unfortunate part about living in a city. You soon become disassociated with what happens in the rest of the province. You’ve kind of got tunnel vision — if it’s not happening in your large urban location, it really doesn’t matter to them about the rest of the province.” According to McFarland, the former minister of energy, Mel Knight, was often unfairly blamed for problems plaguing the oil and gas industry in the province. Knight represents the constituency of Grande Prairie-Smoky, while the new minister, Ron Liepert, represents the constituency of Calgary-West. “He’s (Knight) very well versed. He actually had a background in the service side of the oil and gas sector. People underrated him in my opinion, they gave him a bad rap at times when he probably knew as much or more about the industry than people in the industry.” McFarland supports the premier’s moves and admitted it was time for a change. “I think people were expecting it especially after the leadership, they wanted to see something happen. I think I was a bit indifferent to it all. It’s changing faces, there’s no doubt about it. It’s something that had to be done in some respects.” For McFarland, those MLAs who were removed from cabinet or moved to a portfolio which is considered a demotion, that’s just a part of politics. “I feel for those that feel they were undeservedly moved out, but it’s a part of politics, and life goes on. Probably the thing that people should appreciate is that you’ve still got an MLA. It’s your representative from your riding trying to work on your behalf, no matter what riding you’re from. Being a minister is not an easy job. It’s kind of 24/7. You get your schedule and your activities dictated by a lot of people — it’s no longer your baby anymore. You don’t have the flexibility anymore, because you’re in demand, people want to meet with them, and expect them to be out and about and making speeches and all that other good stuff. That’s just from my brief experience — it’s an honour to do it, but it’s tedious.” |