Past Nelson-Creston MLA Corky Evans is endorsing Mike Farnworth for the NDP leadership.
Evans says it was a tough decision, as he knew all five candidates, but it came down to Farnworth’s food policy.
The former agriculture minister says he was surprised when Farnworth visited him at home and asked what it would take to get his support.
Evans replied that B.C. is the best in Canada for supporting farm land, but the worst for supporting actual farming.
“Worse than Newfoundland. Worse than a province where people don’t even think they grow stuff. We are the bottom, the laughingstock of Canada.”
He knew Farnworth was developing a food policy and asked that he commit to acting on a motion by the B.C. Fruitgrowers Association to move B.C.’s support to the national average.
“Lo and behold, the guy did it. This candidate is going to try to make food a political issue for the first time since the Barrett era.”
Evans says even the name of the Ministry of Agriculture “is a kind of a lie … because the minister has no funds to work with, no experimental farm, not even offices in most rural towns.”
Farnworth, however, has committed to reversing that. “It moved me to decide something was going on that I had never seen before,” Evans says. “Although I like, respect, and appreciate all the other candidates, I will support Mike.”
He isn’t sure what sort of role he will take in the campaign, although he is willing to talk to farm groups. He says regardless of how people vote, he would be pleased if all parties took positions on agriculture, which “I haven’t known to happen since the election of 1972.
“Usually that’s what it takes: a leader saying ‘I care about this’ and then the other parties follow suit. They don’t have to have a position unless somebody else does.”
He says urbanites are now showing an interest in food security, “so maybe it will come back to the political agenda.”
Evans joins Kootenay West MLA Katrine Conroy in supporting Farnworth. All five contenders will be in Nelson for a debate next Thursday. The new leader will be chosen April 17.