USMCA fight once again exposes ‘us vs. them’ approach with farmers

In reality, we’re much more nuanced and dynamic than you think, Toban Dyck says.

The city didn’t respond the way I thought it would. It was 2013 and I had just written an article on a Manitoba community getting its first liquor store. A big step for a conservative, religious community — I thought. The article took a historic approach to the town, its immigration patterns, its attitudes and its polarized position on alcohol.

I thought it was balanced, accurate and interesting. I believed that any community, no matter how small or large, would appreciate a self-critical, introspective look at its own thoughts, beliefs and bylaws.

It wasn’t received this way. It was the kind of piece that left an off-flavour in the mouths of many of the community’s residents. Those in favour of the liquor store didn’t want to be associated with those who weren’t. And those not in favour felt their position was misrepresented and trivialized.

I’m the same way: when I’m confident, I’m able to realize how accidental life and its successes are — how the person on the street struggling to make ends meet and I are only separated by an unpredictable calamity or two. I can be self-critical and aware of the conditions that have moulded me.

When I’m not confident, I overcompensate and work hard to differentiate myself from those less fortunate. I become defensive and protectionist.

Many small communities are like this. They have endured criticism and are used to operating fiscally, socially, religiously and politically as if most interactions outside their local boundaries can be reduced to us vs. them.

In many respects, Canada’s farming/rural community has become this way, too. It has become accustomed to a public that doesn’t trust its actions, trivializes its beliefs and considers us a homogenous group. We’re not confident right now. We are defensive and protectionist, a point exacerbated when the federal government starts playing with institutions like supply management and the headlines read some version of, “Farmers will be hurt by USMCA.”

Who are these farmers? There are more than 190,000 farms in Canada, each one with its own boss and its own way of operating. To say we will be hurt is to expose a deep misunderstanding many people in leadership position have toward rural life and agriculture.

And for those affected, it’s a hard pill to swallow for the concession to supply management to come at the hand of an idealist government that, historically, does not see eye to eye with Canada’s agricultural community. A government that reduces farmers to the brutes in the room instead of the people who are at the leading edge of food production, food research and who, in many ways, are leading the conversation surrounding how it is we’re going to sustainably meet the demands of a growing and hungry world.

Canadian farmers are guilty of viewing their government through an us vs. them lens. And, arguably, vice versa. When in reality, we’re much more dynamic and nuanced than that. And so are our leaders.

One of my last columns for Financial Post dredged up some differing attitudes toward rural dwellers. While some agreed that it’s not fair to assume all those who choose to live along gravel roads are the same, others took it a telling step further by differentiating themselves from those who do.

Farmers need the confidence of the public and of their governments. Then and only then will we be in a place to introspect, self-criticize and work together to advance the food sector, both in Canada and through its trading partners around the world.