Return to
 Table of Contents

Serving Agriculture:
Canada's Ministers of Agriculture

Douglas Scott Harkness

Birthplace

Federal Constituency

Education

Professional Background

Political Affiliation

"He was the only person who could make both farmers and city folk mad in the same speech...He was against all forms of subsidies to farmers and you don't say that sort of thing to farmers. Then he'd go out and blast city people for trying to get low prices for agricultural goods when they already had the lowest priced food in the world."
-- Alvin Hamilton

Political Career

Harkness returned to Calgary a hero after the Second World War, and was quickly elected MP for Calgary North in 1945. He was a popular local politician, re-elected for either Calgary North, East or Centre over nine successive elections.

By June 1957, western farmers were unimpressed with the governing Liberals and blamed them for unsold grain stocks left sitting on the Prairies. After the election that month, John Diefenbaker's Conservatives formed a minority government with a margin of only seven seats. For the first time, Western Canadians dominated in Ottawa. Harkness became minister of both northern affairs and natural resources, and agriculture. Two portfolios soon proved onerous, and his Saskatchewan colleague Alvin Hamilton took over the northern affairs and natural resources portfolio a few months later.

In 1958, Diefenbaker called another election and won an unprecedented 53.6 per cent of the popular vote, taking 208 seats in the biggest majority government ever. His government was popular with rural voters, which made it easier for Diefenbaker, Harkness and Hamilton, chair of the cabinet wheat committee and longtime agriculture policy activist, to introduce and implement an aggressive national agricultural program over the next two years.

Harkness was effective but not popular as agriculture minister, so Diefenbaker moved Hamilton into agriculture and switched Harkness to the defence portfolio. Defence was a difficult assignment in the early 1960s given the Cold War, Diefenbaker's poor relations with the U.S. and the recent cancellation of the Avro Arrow aircraft project. Diefenbaker was always against nuclear arms, but after the Cuban missile crisis most Canadians saw a need for nuclear protection. When Diefenbaker refused Harkness' recommendation to arm Canadian missiles with nuclear warheads, a leadership crisis emerged in cabinet. Ministers wavered in their support for Diefenbaker, and Harkness resigned from cabinet on February 4, 1963.

The Conservatives were defeated in the general election of 1963 but Harkness remained an MP until he retired in 1972. He still lives in Calgary.

Industry Issues

Agriculture was one of the few sectors not to benefit from the post-war boom. Despite the Conservatives' free enterprise rhetoric, Harkness' tenure was relatively interventionist. Harkness and Hamilton believed the long-term effects of their policies would help farmers adjust to changing market conditions. But faced with increasing pressure to help farmers over short-term financial crises, the government offered modest acreage payments. Farmers were not satisfied with this help, and expressed their frustration to Minister Harkness and the cabinet wheat committee through petitions and a march on Ottawa in March 1959.

Departmental Developments

Harkness reorganized the department and reunited pure science with the experimental farms in the Research Branch. Production and marketing formed a second branch, and administration (including economics) formed a third.

The Research Branch was organized geographically into research institutes, regional laboratories and branch farms. Senior scientists co-ordinated research on a problem rather than a discipline basis. Authority was decentralized among regional and institute officers so headquarters could focus on planning and development. Illustration stations were renamed experimental project farms and consolidated in order to better equip the most important facilities.

The Department of Forestry was created in 1960 and incorporated the Forest Biology Division and its 10 regional laboratories.

Accomplishments as Minister

• The Prairie Grain Advance Payments Act (1957) provided payments for harvested grain in storage while the Canadian Wheat Board disposed of surpluses from the early 1950s.
• The Agricultural Stabilization Act (1958) established a system of flexible guaranteed prices for key commodities based on a 10-year moving average formula.
• The Farm Credit Act (1959) established the Farm Credit Corporation to encourage and facilitate new farm investments.
• The Crop Insurance Act (1959) allowed the federal government to make direct contributions to provinces that established crop insurance schemes.
• The government intervened to help farmers deal with increasing freight rates and established a royal commission on rail transportation in 1959.
• The Humane Slaughter of Food Animals Act (1959) established standards to guide livestock processing establishments in dignified killing practices.

Worth Noting

• Harkness' principal when he taught at Calgary's Crescent Heights High School in the early 1930s was William "Bible Bill" Aberhart, Alberta's famous Social Credit premier.
• Harkness received the George Medal in the Second World War for "courage, gallantry and devotion to duty of a higher order" during the Sicilian campaign.
• Douglas Harkness Community School in Calgary commemorates his accomplishments.
• Harkness was admitted to the Order of Canada in 1978.