Former agriculture minister Gerry Ritz is leaving federal politics. Ritz, 66, plans to announce he will step down as MP for Battlefords-Lloydminster on Thursday morning. First elected to parliament in 1997, Ritz served as minister of agriculture from 2007 to 2015. Following the Liberal victory in the 2015 election he served as critic for the… Read More
Tag: Gerry Ritz
Canada’s heading into the NAFTA renegotiation next week, but a deal that hasn’t been discussed a lot lately is the Trans-Pacific Partnership — and why is that? The U.S. pulled out of TPP and left eleven remaining countries. Canada has participated in all of the meetings post-U.S. pulling out. The Canadian govenrment has provided a… Read More
When U.S. President Donald Trump followed through on his promise to withdraw the United States from the Trans-Pacfic Partnership, many people speculated the deal was dead in the water. Similarly, Canada has also faced threats of NAFTA withdrawal by the U.S. within the same three month period. For many of the remaining countries, including Canada,… Read More
President Trump’s attacks on Canadian dairy are short-sighted and don’t reflect the reality of the Canada-U.S. dairy relationship, says former Canadian agriculture minister Gerry Ritz. “This is typical President Trump. It’s all shock and awe, throw down the gauntlet and then really not have a lot of details that his assumptions are based on,” he… Read More
Calling this week’s meeting between Prime Minister Trudeau and President Trump a “pre-arranged first date in an organized marriage,” Conservative trade portfolio critic Gerry Ritz possibly came as close as we’ve heard to complementing the Prime Minister. “The first rule is ‘do no harm,’ and I think that’s exactly what happened. Nothing got done, but… Read More
Despite the protectionist rhetoric coming from President Trump, the trade critic for the federal Conservatives sounds hopeful — even optimistic — about Canada’s trading relationship with the United States. “It’s fine to say you want to put America first. It’s fine to say you want to create jobs at home, but at the end of… Read More
Despite President-elect Trump’s clear intention to remove the United States from the deal, Japan became the first country in the Trans-Pacific Partnership to ratify the 12 country trade agreement on Friday. The move is seen as being somewhat symbolic, since the TPP’s text requires U.S. participation. Trump has said he will pull America out of… Read More
A photo surfaced yesterday showing former federal trade minister Ed Fast and current federal minister of international trade Chrystia Freeland sharing a full-on hug in the House of Commons at Ottawa. Wait a minute…how can this be? Fast is a Conservative with the former ruling government. Freeland is with the still-shiny-new current Liberal government. Aren’t they supposed… Read More
Southwest Saskatchewan MP and farmer David Anderson has been tapped to look after the agriculture portfolio for the federal Conservatives. He replaced Peace River MP Chris Warkentin as the Official Opposition Critic for Agriculture in the new shadow cabinet announced by leader Rona Ambrose on Thursday. Anderson “has the energy and experience to ensure the… Read More
Bayer has sent a purchase offer over to the folks at Monsanto, former ag minister Gerry Ritz thinks the federal Liberals should get moving with ratifying the Trans-Pacific Partnership, even if the U.S. isn’t on board, and planting continues across the country, despite dry conditions, frost and other challenges. As we catch up on this… Read More