It may seem a little presumptuous of me to swing a weekly farm commentary into election territory, but I did happen to glance at a map of Canada broken down by the colour of the political representation and it occurs to me that not a lot of red is painted across farming ridings.
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This is unfortunate, because agriculture needs to know that it has at least a chance of grabbing the government's attention. Under Conservative rule it clearly did not on some issues.
Ag Ministers were no more known for taking questions at the farm gate than Stephen Harper was known for having a warm relationship with the media.
Although in international trade the Conservatives certainly did score some wins and deserve some thanks from at least some farm sectors.
So there is a bit of a question now facing agriculture and the new Liberal federal government, and maybe if it is played correctly an opportunity for both.
On agriculture's side, you need the federal government to pay attention, and you need to be willing to work with the government. That seems likely to happen, the farm organizations are already making the right noises.
The trouble is recent Liberal government haven't paid much attention to agriculture. I know Wayne Easter would disagree with me, but it could be argued the last time the Liberals really paid attention to agriculture the senior Trudeau was Prime Minister.
Some may scoff at that but under Ag Minister Eugene Whalen, you may have like or abhorred the policies, but it would be hard to argue you were ignored.
On the part of the government, it needs to realize it needs agriculture and farm votes. First because agriculture is a major economic driver and the country's economy needs all the help it can get.
But also, Justin Trudeau is likely smart enough to realize he didn't get elected to lead a majority government because he has good hair. He didn't even get elected to lead a majority government because his policies resonated with huge numbers of Canadians.
We have a Liberal government because a lot of traditional Conservatives could no longer support the secretive divisive tactics of Stephen Harper and because a lot of NDP supporters switched to Red because they figured, rightly as it turned out, that was the best chance to knock out the Conservatives.
Next time around those reasons won't exist and those votes will revert back to their traditional parties.
If the Liberals want to retain their momentum and Justin Trudeau wants to be more that a one shot wonder he is going to have to win back some favour in at least part of rural Canada and that means doing a lot more to grab the farm vote than some other Liberals, notably in Ontario have done.
We don't know yet who will be the next federal agriculture minister, the previously mentioned Wayne Easter wouldn't be a bad choice. He at least has put his feet on the ground of a number of Ontario farms.
But in order to do his job he will need government support for some farm friendly policies.
The map of rural Ontario is mostly blue and the rural prairies, a either blue or orange. The next election is a long way off of course but the honeymoon will be over, the bitterness of the Harper era faded and there will be opportunity out there.
The last elections show you don't absolutely need rural Ontario to win an election, but if you don't have it, you need everything else.
A wise Prime Minister would be wise to bear that in mind.
