The agriculture critic for Francois Legault’s Coalition avenir Quebec (CAQ) will be among the party’s returning MNAs as it forms Quebec’s next government. The CAQ pulled a majority government in Monday’s election with 74 seats, defeating Philippe Couillard’s Liberals, who were reduced to 32 seats, followed by Quebec solidaire with 10 seats and the Parti […] Read more
CAQ’s ag critic among winners in Quebec election
Quebec ag minister won’t run again
With just under four months before the province’s next election, Quebec’s current minister of agriculture, food and fisheries won’t be in the running. Laurent Lessard ended weeks of speculation Friday when he announced he won’t seek a sixth term as the MNA for Lotbiniere-Frontenac. In a statement on Facebook, Lessard, 55, thanked his constituents for […] Read more
Ontario ag minister downed in Tories’ election win
The Ontario Liberals’ minister of agriculture, food and rural affairs is among the election-night casualties as the province’s Progressive Conservatives get set to form a majority government. As of midnight CT Friday, Doug Ford’s Tories were elected or leading in 76 of 124 ridings, followed by Andrea Horwath’s New Democrats in 40 and Kathleen Wynne’s […] Read more
Freeland to visit Washington this week for NAFTA talks
Ottawa | Reuters — Canada’s Foreign Affairs Minister Chrystia Freeland will visit Washington this week in another bid to help unblock talks on the North American Free Trade Agreement, a spokesman said on Monday. Freeland will be in Washington on Tuesday and Wednesday, said spokesman Adam Austen. The U.S., Mexico and Canada are struggling to […] Read more
NAFTA nations ‘nowhere near’ a deal, USTR says
Washington/New York | Reuters — The top U.S. trade official on Thursday poured cold water on the prospect of an imminent breakthrough in talks to rework the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA) hours after Canada’s prime minister struck a positive note. “The NAFTA countries are nowhere near close to a deal,” U.S. Trade Representative […] Read more
Canada welcomes Trump suggestion of NAFTA deadline extension
London, Ont. | Reuters — Canada welcomes the suggestion by U.S. President Donald Trump that the deadline for concluding talks to modernize NAFTA could be extended beyond the end of March, Foreign Minister Chrystia Freeland told reporters on Friday. Trump told the Wall Street Journal on Thursday that “a lot of things are hard to […] Read more
Sector growth to occupy Ontario ag minister in 2018
Ontario’s Liberals will have their agriculture standard-bearer back for the 2018 election. Jeff Leal, Ontario’s minister of agriculture, food and rural affairs, is staying in politics, running for his fifth term as a member of the provincial legislature in the Peterborough riding. Leal, who as a resident of Peterborough is about as rural as any […] Read more
Few stand for Ontario vegetable board elections
Ontario’s 450-odd processing vegetable growers have put up just three people to fill four open spots on the board of their marketing organization. The Ontario Processing Vegetable Growers (OPVG) on Friday announced the results from an election meeting for two District 1 directors, held Thursday evening in Chatham. Tomato and bean grower David Epp of […] Read more
B.C. ag minister, ag critic hang on in election
British Columbia’s incumbent agriculture minister and opposition agriculture critic have both held onto their seats in the legislature so far through the province’s harrowing election Tuesday. Complete results aren’t expected to be available until after the final count starting May 22, but preliminary results put the province’s governing Liberals in minority status with 43 of […] Read more
Ignoring Trump, UN talks seek to turn climate pledges into action
Morocco/Reuters – Almost 200 nations began work on Monday to turn promises for fighting climate change into action at a UN conference that played down threats to a 2015 global agreement if Republican Donald Trump wins the U.S. presidency. At the start of two-week talks in Morocco, many delegates wore badges with a smiling picture […] Read more
Cyber-Savvy Farmer
