Prince Albert MP Randy Hoback praised fellow Saskatchewan MP and Minister of Agriculture Gerry Ritz for his hard work promoting markets for Canadian farmers, while speaking at the Canola Council of Canada’s annual meeting here July 27.

“I think if you look at beef markets in particular and the price of cattle where they were two years ago and where they are today I think you can thank Gerry Ritz almost exclusively for doing that,” Hoback said. “He definitely grabbed the bull by the horns and opened up a lot of markets and I know he’s committed to doing that in the future.”

Because the government held only a minority of the seats in the House of Commons before the last election, Ritz had to conduct trade missions during parliamentary breaks. Ritz gave up a lot of personal time to work for Canadian farmers, Hoback said.

Hoback praised the council for helping to make Canadian canola a success.

“And you know, you didn’t get this done by wishful thinking,” he said. “You got this done by hard work.

“I’d hate to imagine what our communities would look like if there wasn’t canola because I know in the ’80s and ’90s it was canola that paid the bills.” [email protected]