New Brunswick’s agriculture and aquaculture minister, Ronald Ouellette, was among the casualties of his party’s defeat by the Tories in Monday’s provincial election.
Ouellette, a former mayor of Grand Falls, a Liberal MLA since 2003 and agriculture minister since 2006, lost in his riding of Grand Falls-Drummond-St-Andre to the Progressive Conservatives’ Danny Soucy on Monday night by a spread of 343 votes.
The Progressive Conservatives, led by former Tory agriculture minister David Alward, handily captured a majority government Monday, winning 42 of 55 seats, leaving the Liberals with 13 and shutting out other parties including the NDP.
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Alward, a human resources consultant who handled the agriculture portfolio (2003-06) in the Bernard Lord government and also raises purebred Herefords at Riceville, won in his Woodstock riding.
Now-deposed Premier Shawn Graham defeated Bruce Hickey, president of the New Brunswick Hereford Association, to hang onto the Kent riding for the Liberals.
It’s not known whether premier-elect Alward would take on the agriculture portfolio himself when he forms a new cabinet. His talent pool, however, includes at least a few representatives from the ag sector.
Tantramar MLA Mike Olscamp, who was the Tories’ agriculture and aquaculture critic during Ouellette’s stint as ag minister. also won his riding Monday by a spread of over 1,800 votes over Liberal candidate Beth Barczyk.
Olscamp, an MLA since 2006 and a teacher by profession, also served a stint in the early 1990s as director of inmate programs at Westmorland, a federal penitentiary at Dorchester, N.B. and home to one of six prison farms the federal government recently slated for closure.
Among the other Tory candidates who won seats Monday night are Ryan Riordon, a 28-year-old livestock nutritionist by profession with a master’s degree in ruminant animal nutrition, in the Nepisiguit riding.
Dr. Jim Parrott, a well-known heart surgeon, won the riding of Fundy-River Valley for the Tories. He operates a vineyard and winery on his farm, where he raises Quarter horses and Australian cattle dogs.
Provincial labeling
Whoever handles the ag file in Alward’s cabinet, the premier-elect has already committed his party to a number of promises through its ag platform, which it made public Sept. 18.
The Tories pledged to work with farmers to develop a “cost of production index” that would guide provincial decision-making on ag programming.
The party also said it would work to “enhance programs to encourage new entrants to farming, including funding for capital start-up costs and training wage supports that allow farmers to create more jobs.”
Alward promised a Tory government would put up “an accurate labeling system that clearly designates New Brunswick-grown food products to improve clarity for consumers.”
The party also pledged to “simplify” farmers’ fuel tax rebate by reducing red tape and accounting requirements, and to “take advantage of renewable agri-fuel to generate heat and electricity, and create secondary revenue sources for farmers.”
Alward also said a Tory government would “establish a new partnership between regulators and the agricultural industry to ensure balance between environmental protection and fair compensation.”
