Michael Chong Is Wrong

I want to tell you a bit about my story. It's not only a Canadian story, it's a conservative story. My Canadian story started in 1981, when I was born in a hospital in Regina, Saskatchewan. I was raised by a single mother and my great grandparents, who came to Canada from Hungary as refugees during the second World War. I haven't seen my father since I was eight, but I'm sure his parents or grandparents or great grandparents or great great grandparents were immigrants or refugees from Europe at some point or another. My great grandfather watched as his fellow Hungarians were ripped away from their families and thrown beside him into a Russian gulag in Siberia, where they were forced to eat out of the same buckets they used to defecate in. Eventually my great grandparents were reunited and they came to Canada for a better life founded on strong Canadian values.
“There are three pillars to supply management. Supply management is like a three-legged stool. There are production quotas, pricing controls and import controls. Those are the three elements that are important to supply management.” – Michael Chong, June 7, 2005.
Before explaining the basics of supply management, he stated his love for those production quotas and pricing controls:
“Supply management has been the one bright light in agriculture. I support supply management....I support supply management because supply management works.”
Economists and academics from the likes of Christopher Sarlo, Larry Martin and others have refuted the idea that supply management “works”. Vincent Geloso and Alexandre Moreau wrote this in the Financial Post:
“The reason milk, cheese and butter (and poultry and eggs) are so expensive in Canada is simple: supply management. That’s the system where producers pay thousands of dollars to acquire a permit for the right to operate. Since the number of permits granted by the government is limited, our supply of milk, cheese, butter, poultry and eggs is limited as well.
However, as Canada’s growing population keeps getting richer, demand for these foods keeps increasing. The result is soaring prices, since Canadians can’t import these goods from abroad because of the sky-high duties imposed to keep foreign dairy out.”
The truth is, supply management is a protectionist policy. It's a policy that has been strongly supported by past Liberal governments and the NDP. Following the Kellie Leitch controversy, progressives and Michael Chong supporters accused Leitch of trying to bring the “alt-right” nationalism expressed by Donald Trump into Canada. Unfortunately, we could accuse Conservatives who support supply management (import controls) of the same thing. Donald Trump's criticisms of free trade and opposition to the TPP have earned him the nationalist label, along with his immigration policies.
It could have been assumed that Michael Chong would change his position from 2005 on supply management, like he did his position on gay marriage, but that doesn't seem likely to happen. In 2005, Chong voted against same-sex marriage, but changed his mind in 2016 to a more convenient, progressive stance.
To his credit, Michael Chong was the first Conservative leadership
candidate to fire shots at his fellow contenders. He has thrown
subtle criticisms at Maxime Bernier and Tony Clement. He was one of
the first to openly oppose a leadership bid by Kevin O'Leary and he
was the first to hurl accusations of racism. Meanwhile, the rest of
the Conservative candidates seem reluctant to fire any shots at him
over his blatantly Liberal policies. At some point – we can only
hope – the Conservative leadership race will heat up and Michael
Chong won't be the only one acting like he wants to win.
A lot of rank and file Conservatives fear the party will fracture
or divide if the candidates disagree with each other on certain
policies. That couldn't be further from the truth. If anything, the
party's leadership race will keep falling under the radar while the
candidates politely tip-toe around each other. The policies of most
of the candidates will fail to resonate with Canadians if they aren't
properly debated. If the race doesn't heat up soon and the candidates
keep refusing to spar, the Conservative Party will stumble into 2019
unnoticed. If Conservatives want a leader with clearly defined
policies and a vision for 2019, the current crop of candidates will
need to take their gloves off. If Michael Chong sneaks under the
radar and fails to attract criticism, he could win. In such a case,
there wouldn't be much left to differentiate the Conservative Party
from the Liberal Party in 2019.