By Lisa Schick

Gerry Ritz talks Conservative Party in Meadow Lake

Apr 17, 2011 | 8:34 AM

It was a stop back in his home province for Gerry Ritz.

He met with people in Meadow Lake on Friday. Ritz was the federal agriculture minister and MP Battlefords-Lloydminster before parliament was dissolved last month.

“It’s a good chance to sit down with farmers and talk about farm issues and we had the opportunity to take part in the Canadian federation of agriculture debate in Ottawa earlier this week. So it’s a good chance to come out to the other end of the country and talk directly with farmers,” he said at a bull and heifer auction sale at the Meadow Lake stockyards.

“Things are looking good on the farm sector, but of course as a farmer I recognize that one or two good years don’t make up for ten lean ones – having said that, we’re on the right track.”

He said Canada currently has a strong market, with up to 85 per cent of commodities exported. It is something that he said the federal government plans to keep up.

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The government plans to continue to look after farmers, he said.

“We always want to make sure we’re there for farmers and ranchers should things go wrong, we saw that happen last year, you know, east of here, flooded out, a lack of hay, a lack of feed, so we wanted to make sure those farmers had access to cash flow so they could buy, from say this side of the province where we actually had extra hay.”

He said if re-elected, a Conservative government would work in the same way, trying to help farmers.

On his stop, Ritz also endorsed incumbent Conservative MP Rob Clarke, for Desnethe-Missinippi-Churchill River.

“I don’t think anybody has a problem endorsing Rob,” he said.

Ritz told people to make sure to get out and vote.

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