While it’s possible roles and responsibilities will be shuffled around, nearly all of the familiar faces when it comes to agriculture policy in Ottawa were re-elected on Monday.
Agriculture minister re-elected
Incumbent Liberal Agriculture Minister Marie-Claude Bibeau was re-elected in her riding of Compton-Stanstead in the Eastern Townships of Quebec, defeating the Bloc challenger by over three thousand votes.
Ag committee members
All but one of the members of the most recent version of the House of Commons agriculture committee that were running in the election appear to have been re-elected, as of Tuesday morning:
- Incumbent Conservative agriculture critic Lianne Rood won her riding of Lambton—Kent—Middlesex.
- Incumbent NDP ag critic Alistair MacGregor was victorious in his Vancouver Island riding of Cowichan-Malahat-Langford
- Incumbent Bloc ag critic Yves Perron narrowly defeated challenger Ruth Ellen Brosseau, former NDP ag critic, in Berthier-Maskinongé.
- Dairy farmer Richard Lehoux maintained his seat for the Conservatives in Beauce, once again defeating People’s Party of Canada leader Maxime Bernier in the riding Bernier held from 2005 to 2019 as a Conservative.
- Conservative Dave Epp was re-elected in Chatham-Kent-Leamington.
- Conservative Warren Steinley was re-elected in Regina-Lewvan.
- Liberal Francis Drouin was elected again in Glengarry-Prescott-Russell.
- Liberal Kody Blois was re-elected in Kings-Hants.
- Liberal Tim Louis is currently ahead of Conservative Carlene Hawley by a razor-thin margin — less than 200 votes — in Kitchener-Conestoga, with 196 of 197 polls reporting.
- Liberal Neil Ellis, who also served as the Parliamentary Secretary to the Minister of Agriculture, was the lone agriculture committee member to lose their race. Conservative Ryan Williams defeated Ellis in the Bay of Quinte in Ontario.
- Ag committee chair Pat Finnigan (Liberal) and Liberal committee member Lyne Bessette did not seek re-election.
Other candidates with ag ties
As for other candidates with ties to Canadian agriculture, here’s a summary:
- Former Liberal Agriculture Minister Lawrence MacAulay extended his winning streak that dates back to 1988 in Cardigan, PEI.
- Former Conservative ag critic John Barlow was re-elected in Foothills riding in Alberta.
- Another former Conservative ag critic, Luc Berthold, was also re-elected in his Quebec riding of Mégantic-L’Érable.
- Conservative Philip Lawrence, who sponsored a private member’s bill in the last session to exempt fuels used on farms from the carbon tax, was re-elected in Northumberland—Peterborough South in Ontario.
- Conservative Larry Maguire, former Western Canadian Wheat Growers president, was re-elected in Brandon-Souris in Manitoba.
- Former Keystone Agricultural Producers president Dan Mazier was re-elected for the Conservatives in Dauphin-Swan River-Neepawa.
- Masterfeeds Canada CEO Rob Flack, running as a Conservative, finished in second to the Liberal candidate in London West.
For more discussion on many of these seat races and what the results could mean, check out our live election night edition of RealAg Politics here.
More to come.
