‘When Rural Canada prospers, all of Canada prospers’: Candice Bergen on the launch of the Rural Prosperity Group
Rural Prosperity Group vice-chair Hon. Dennis Dawson and chair Hon. Candice Bergen, pictured at the National Arts Centre.
The following is a brief interview I did on Thursday with Candice Bergen, former leader of the Conservative Party of Canada and now Chair of the Rural Prosperity Group, which just launched.
Theo: What is the Rural Prosperity Group?
Candice: We're a group of individuals that have a goal, and our goal is to ensure that our government leaders and our decision makers think about Rural Canada, and the impact that their policies have on the people who live and work in Rural Canada, which, by the way, is a huge contributor to Canada's economy in terms of our natural resources, agriculture, mining, oil and gas and forestry.
Theo: Why now?
Candice: Parties are right now developing their election platforms. We believe this is a good time. We sent each of the leaders an open letter. We've seen through some past policy that Rural Canada isn't always considered. One of the challenges is Rural Canada doesn't have the population base that Urban Canada does. And so we understand political parties are looking for policies that will get them more votes, but we want them to look at the country's economic future as a whole. And when they do that, and they consider Rural Canada, we believe they’ll see that when Rural Canada prospers, all of Canada prospers.
Theo: What role is there for corporate Canada to play in this?
Candice: I have observed as a member of parliament—in my past life as an MP for a rural area—that many times, Corporate Canada really didn't understand Rural Canada. They don't understand that when Rural Canada is doing well, they all are. So what we would like to see is a government and parties lead the way in having a rural focus and a rural lens. We hope it will also impact Corporate Canada and those on Bay Street just like they do, whether it's a gender-based analysis, environmental assessment, or other types of filters that they look through. We're not looking for another bureaucracy, but we would like Rural Canada to be given meaningful consideration by policy makers and also by those in Corporate Canada who maybe have historically not thought about these parts of Canada, as much as the urban centres.
Theo: What's next?
Candice: We're hoping for a response from the leaders to our letters. We're hoping for a commitment from them. We've just submitted a pre-budget submission, and would love to be able to go to the Finance Committee or the Ag Committee or Natural Resources, really any committee that is interested in hearing about Rural Canada. Our focus is not one particular sector. We believe that when again, whether it's internet connectivity, services provided to Rural Canadians, fair tax and regulatory policy, all of these things, which is what's in our pre-budget ask, all of these things addressed globally and broadly will help individual sectors. So we'd love to go before committee, talk to members of parliament, and then hope for a positive response.
Listen, this is really a unifying topic. My vice chair is a former Liberal senator. Everyone that we've been talking to about this, even in Corporate Canada, thinks it's a very good idea. They see the need for it. This is a unifying campaign that we believe everyone can get behind. Many times Rural Canada's not forgotten about purposely or with bad intentions. We just work hard, punch above our weight and don't ask for special treatment. And we believe that now, Rural Canada needs to say, ‘Excuse us. You've forgotten about us for too long. You need to give us serious consideration.’
