Thanks to retiring Gerry Ritz Former Canadian Ag minister Gerry Ritz noted for his courageous work in giving farmers in Western Canada marketing freedom retired as a Member of the Canadian Parliament in Ottawa.

In my last official interview with my friend as an MP, “Gerry, I just thoroughly congratulate you on the work you’ve done. I wish you well in your future endeavours. I know you’re going to be around but at the same time, tell me your initial feelings of finally stepping down and retiring from being a Member of Parliament.

“Well, thank you, Harry. Of course, all the work that got done I didn’t do it alone. I had great people around me, from my own staff to staff in other departments, the civil service, and a tremendous amount of great people there. The work with my colleagues in trade and health, in industry and so on that put the whole package together. We got to quarterback and can take some of the bows, but at the end of the day there’s a lot of players that made these things happen,” said Ritz.

Next, my obvious question what are the highlights?

“Well, everybody points to the marketing freedom. The changes from the old mandatory conscription that we called the Canadian Wheat Board. The logistics that went along with that, a few bumps but in the end, it is moving smoother than it ever has before. More tonnage is going out than we’ve ever seen before, a tremendous expansion in both the footprints across the prairies and at port capacity. Those are the obvious things that you see. The one thing that I’m most proud of is the actual value chain roundtables that we put together industry by industry. Funded them that way so that the results were what industry was looking for not what government wanted to deliver,” he said. “Bringing in butchers and marketers and so on from around the world to centers of excellence to find out exactly what they wanted, not what we had so that we could streamline into some of these Pacific Rim markets which are very important. Just bringing a business attitude to government, I think was the biggest thing: Working to get results not just process.” When you look at the system, agriculture as a whole that federal the Trudeau Liberals are looking at, working on a national food policy, where do you think it is going?

“Well, around in circles. We’re chasing our tail in a lot of cases. As I said, we always focused on results, not on process. The Liberals tend to work the opposite way. They will worry everything to death like a cat with a mouse as opposed to just setting a trap and getting the job done. I wish them well,” said the outgoing MP. “People have something around a food policy for years. It’s a left-wing strategy system that there is no answer to. Canada is so diverse, with many variables and vagaries in Canadian agriculture and there is no easy way to do any of this. It’s a distraction at best. I know I’ve seen the results of some of their so called discussions and all they’re doing is alienating people and again, splitting up those value chains as opposed to bringing everybody together to build a stronger system.”

You know, that’s one of my biggest concerns. You know, we’ve got bureaucrats and politicians deciding how we’re going to farm and all those kinds of things, as you say, the entire value chain. I hope we’re going to end up somewhere instead of just in circles.

“The problem too, Harry, is the diversity between what we consume domestically, what we import to consume locally and of course what we export. You can’t have a one size fits all. You can’t even have provincial programs that are the same across the country. We built into Growing Forward suites of applications, the ability for the provinces to make changes within a particular set of parameters, so no one was more strikingly different than the province next door, but at the same time, everybody had parameters to work within, and that made the biggest change,” said Ritz.

What’s going to happen do you think, as you step down? You’re not taking a seat this fall I understand, and I guess you’re going to take a rest or where do you go?

“Well, I’ve projects that have lined up around my yard here that need looking after. A lot of time with family. I’m going to be able to attend my grandson’s 10th birthday this Sunday that I’ve missed probably half or more of those ten years. Just little family things that have gone neglected. Get re-acquainted with my family, with my friends here and then start to look at what challenges I want to take on next. I’m done as a politician but not done with the agricultural sector for sure. •