This week’s federal election means the next parliament will look an awful lot like the last one, despite minor changes in representation for BC farmers.
While the votes have yet to be fully counted at this writing, federal Liberal leader Justin Trudeau won re-election in his riding to become prime minister of his second minority government. Joining him will be Marie-Claude Bibeau, who served as federal agriculture minister during the last term and is poised to return in that role in the coming parliament.
While many ridings in BC remained in the hands of their incumbents, rookie Conservative MP Tamara Jansen lost the riding of Cloverdale-Langley City to her predecessor John Aldag, who she defeated in 2019.
Yet the election leaves most MPs trudging back to business as usual in Ottawa, where work deferred by the early election call will continue as best as possible in the few weeks remaining until the Christmas holidays.
Among other matters, this includes the annual federal-provincial-territorial minister’s meeting, work towards compensation to farmers for recent trade agreements and development of a new agricultural policy framework to succeed the Canadian Agricultural Partnership in 2023.
Parliament is scheduled to resume sitting on October 18. The session will run 40 days before recessing December 17.
BC blueberry crop down 30%