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THE WESTERN PRODUCER | WWW.PRODUCER.COM | FEBRUARY 28, 2013
OBITUARY | FORMER AGRICULTURE MINISTER
A CAREER IN THE SERVICE OF AGRICULTURE
Farmers came first for Eugene Whelan
• Born July 11, 1924, in Anderdon Township in southern Ontario.
Contributions of former agriculture minister remembered STORIES BY BARRY WILSON
• Quit school at age 16. • First elected to the House of Commons in 1962 as the member of Parliament for Essex South.
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prices and limits imports on dairy, poultry and egg products. It is still considered a successful program today in terms of returns to farmers, but is under attack from other agriculture sectors as inhibiting freer trade.
• He served the riding uninterrupted until he retired from the Commons in 1984.
• Ran for the Liberal party leadership in 1984 but finished last among the seven candidates.
• Served as agriculture minister from 1972-79 and from 1980-84. He was instrumental in setting up Canada’s supply managed system, which sets production quotas,
• Retired from the Canadian Senate in 1999 at age 75 after serving three years. • Died Feb. 19, 2013.
OTTAWA BUREAU
When former federal agriculture minister Eugene Whelan was buried in Amherstburg, Ont., Feb. 23, former prime minister Jean Chrétien was there to say goodbye to his old friend “Gino.” Whelan, a one-year veteran of Parliament not known for his strong command of proper English, took rookie MP and unilingual francophone Chrétien under his wing when he was first elected in 1963 and helped him learn English. They remained comrades for the next 40 years and in 1996, Chrétien appointed his old friend to the Senate. Whelan’s death Feb. 19 from the after-effects of a stroke brought tributes from across the political spectrum. He was agriculture minister for almost 11 years — 1972-79 and 198084 — the third longest term in Canadian history. He served as president of the World Food Council in 198385 and championed farmers and supply management in urban-dominated Liberal governments under prime minister Pierre Trudeau. Whelan was an MP for 22 years and ran unsuccessfully for the Liberal leadership in 1984. He was dropped from cabinet and appointed by winner John Turner as Canada’s first ambassador to the United Nations Food and Agriculture Organization in Rome. Incoming Progressive Conservative prime minister Brian Mulroney fired him before he could move to Rome. “I was fired by two prime ministers in one year,” Whelan later groused. However, he remained popular in the Liberal party and his reputation as a federal minister who stood up for farmers grew as the years passed. “His incredible contributions to agriculture and rural Canadians will long outlive this shining example of a man,” interim Liberal leader Bob Rae said last week. Conservative agriculture minister Gerry Ritz joined in the tribute. “Eugene was a strong voice for Canadian farmers for decades, serving in both municipal and federal politics,” Ritz said in a statement. “As Canada’s agriculture minister and his trademark green Stetson, Eugene was planted firmly on the side of farmers.” Ritz said he followed in Whelan’s footsteps of “putting farmers first.” In interviews during his later years, Whelan had little good to say about the Ritz agenda, which he saw as putting agri-business first. The Canadian Foodgrains Bank praised Whelan for his international development work and concern for small-scale farmers around the world. CFB executive director Jim Cornelius said in a statement Whelan took a keen interest in the church-supported international aid agency
OBITUARY | ‘TIRELESS SUPPORTER OF AGRICULTURE’
Fighting for farmers right to the end Eugene Whelan had drive but sense of humour
ABOVE: Eugene Whelan served as president of the World Food Council from 1983-85. He wasn’t afraid to state his views and debate critics. LEFT: Eugene and daughter Susan pose on Parliament Hill in 1996, where he served as senator until 1999. | FILE PHOTOS
when it formed in 1983. “He would call up or send notes when he thought something should be done differently.” National Farmers Union president Terry Boehm said in a statement that Whelan remained concerned about farmers and critical of government policy throughout his life. “He connected with people in an honest, generous and humorous way.” For mer NF U leader and now 20-year Liberal MP Wayne Easter said that despite their battles in his NFU days, Whelan was one of a kind. “He really was the farmers’ minister and whatever our battles, it was always clear where his interest lay,” Easter said. “And he wasn’t afraid to face his critics and debate them.” Whelan had no lack of critics during his often-tumultuous time as Canada’s 21st agriculture minister. He oversaw creation of supply management marketing boards in the 1970s and had to deal with an
uproar over rotting eggs under the care of the Canadian Egg Marketing Agency. He defended dairy farmers and yet found himself doused with milk by protesting producers in 1976 when the federal government rejected Whelan’s proposal for a dairy subsidy to compensate for low prices. He faced down Food Prices Review Board chair Beryl Plumptre and her criticisms of farm prices during the high inflation years of the 1970s. He fought for a crown corporation, Canagrex, to market Canadian farm products abroad and was stymied by Liberal cabinet colleagues and then the successor Conservatives. He also fought to turn what was then called Farm Credit Corporation into more of a true “farmers’ bank” but was also stymied by cabinet opposition. Still, in retrospect he is hailed as one of modern Canada’s most acknowledged and popular agriculture ministers.
A few weeks before his Feb. 19 death and already suffering from the aftermath of a stroke, former agriculture minister Eugene Whelan was still fretting about Canadian agricultural policy. This time, it was a threat to his cherished supply management system from within his beloved Liberal party. Whelan was watching the Liberal leadership race now underway and dismayed by a proposal from candidate Martha Hall Findlay to phase out the protectionist, production control and price-setting system. “He was really concerned about Martha’s supply management position,” Liberal MP Wayne Easter said. “Here he was, 88 years old and suffering from a stroke, and his head still was thinking about farmer interests. It was a sad conversation because it wasn’t his old voice on the phone but his old heart was there.” Easter is a former president of the National Farmers Union, who often battled Whelan and later became a colleague when he joined the Liberal party and was elected an MP in 1993. “One of the things about Gene was, as much as we fought when I was with the NFU, his door was always open to his critics,” said Easter. “It is so different now.” In the after math of Whelan’s death, friends and foes alike shared stories of his drive, fierce convictions about farmer rights and his sense of humour. Charlie Gracey, a key player in the Canadian Cattlemen’s Association when Whelan was promoting supply management for the beef industry in the 1970s and 1980s, said he and the minister often tangled on the marketing board issue, but Gracey never doubted his core instinct. “He was a tiger on supply management and we agreed to disagree because for our industry, he was wrong,” said Gracey. “But he was a tireless supporter of agriculture, and while he didn’t always say it well, people remember what he said.” As a former speechwriter for Whelan, Henry Heald remembers the minister as an agricultural advocate. “Normally, I didn’t have direct contact with him, but occasionally I
Here he was, 88 years old and suffering from a stroke, and his head still was thinking about farmer interests. It was a sad conversation because it wasn’t his old voice on the phone but his old heart was there. WAYNE EASTER LIBERAL MP
would get a call from him,” Heald said. “Put more of this in or more of that, but it was never politics, it was more about the importance of agriculture or supply management.” And then Whelan would take the speech prepared inside Agriculture Canada and use it as a small base to say what he really wanted to say. “Only once in my time there did I see in a news story any quotes that I wrote,” said Heald. “It must have been a time when the reporter wasn’t there and wrote from the text. Otherwise, Whelan spoke off the cuff.” As one of the Pierre Trudeau government’s most colourful ministers, Whelan was often the target of attacks. He relished telling and retelling one of those times. In 1974, a Conservative opposition MP found evidence that Whelan had used government resources to fly to Miami in the dead of winter. “I did fly to Miami,” the minister replied. A media and opposition feeding frenzy broke out about abuse of taxpayer dollars. When a reporter finally asked him about the trip, Whelan’s comment was that it was cold in Miami when he was there, -40. As he recounted the story in his 1986 memoir, the reporter said it is never that cold in Florida. “Whoever said anything about Florida? I’m talking about Miami, Man.” He was there for a Manitoba corn awards banquet. Whelan loved the story.