David Kilgour’s ongoing role on the Agriculture Committee and his impassioned critique of the Competition Bureau and Canada’s largest packers during the BSE crisis, makes him the odds-on favourite among Liberals for the job as Agriculture Minister. Kilgour is the MP for Edmonton-Southeast and a former Progressive Conservative MP (he joined the Liberals in 1991).

The other westerner, whose name always pops up when discussing the agriculture portfolio, is Ralph Goodale. But the Saskatchewan MP, as Minister of Finance under Paul Martin, is too high profile in the Liberal cabinet to be taken seriously for the role of Agriculture Minister. But he could get agriculture as a second portfolio. He was Agriculture Minister from 1993 to 1997.

Two other Liberal MPs from the east coast, Mark Eyking and Wayne Easter, are possible candidates for the job. Easter is a P.E.I. native with a background in agriculture, having graduated from Nova Scotia Agriculutre College. Easter spent more than 10 years as president of the National Farmers Union. With his wife he runs a mixed farm. Of the two easterners, he brings the most political experience. In 2002, he was appointed Solicitor General of Canada.

Eyking is a Nova Scotia MP who was raised on a farm and operates a vegetable operation, one of the largest in the province. He is also an egg farmer. He is a graduate of Nova Scotia Agricultural College (1980) and was named Outstanding Young Farmer in Nova Scotia in 1990. However, since his election in 2000 in the riding of Sydney-Victoria, his political career has reached a plateau. As a backbencher, Eyking may simply be overlooked.

The fifth possible candidate for the job as Agriculture Minister is Ontario’s Andy Mitchell, MP for Sound-Muskoka.