A memorial will be held next week for Bob Speller, the Ontario businessman who served as Canada’s agriculture minister in the thick of the country’s BSE crisis.
Speller, the MP for the southwestern Ontario riding of what’s now Haldimand-Norfolk from 1988 to 2004, died Thursday at age 65. A cause of death wasn’t given in his obituary Friday.
Speller served in Jean Chretien’s Liberal government as parliamentary secretary for international trade from 1998 to 2000, and chaired Chretien’s 2001 caucus task force on future opportunities in farming.
Speller also served as a member of the Commons standing committees on agriculture and agri-food (2000-03), health (2002) and foreign affairs and international trade (1997-2000), chairing the latter’s subcommittee on international trade, trade disputes and investment (1997-98).
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After Paul Martin replaced Chretien as Liberal leader and prime minister, he named Speller as his first minister of agriculture and agri-food, replacing Lyle Vanclief.
The ag portfolio went to Speller in December 2003, just a few months after the discovery of Canada’s first case of BSE and the resulting closure of the U.S. and other countries to Canadian beef and live cattle.
As ag minister Speller spearheaded a $930 million Transitional Industry Support Program and arranged another $65 million to shore up shortfalls in drought-related claims made in 2002 under the Canadian Farm Income Program. Of that $995 million, about $680 million was directed to producers of cattle and other ruminants affected by the BSE-related border closures.
Speller was also agriculture minister during Canada’s first-ever outbreak of highly-pathogenic avian influenza in commercial birds, an H7N3 strain found in chickens in British Columbia’s Fraser Valley in 2004. The strain raised further concern when it was found to have infected two workers involved in depopulating affected flocks.
Speller had held his southwestern Ontario riding for the Liberals in four consecutive elections, but was defeated in 2004, 2006 and 2011 by the Conservatives’ Diane Finley and was replaced as Martin’s ag minister by Andy Mitchell after the 2004 election.
Leslyn Lewis, the current Conservative MP for Haldimand-Norfolk, said Friday on Twitter she was “shocked and saddened” to learn of Speller’s passing.
Former Saskatchewan MP Ralph Goodale, who served as Martin’s finance minister and as Chretien’s minister for the Canadian Wheat Board, hailed Speller on Friday as “a good friend, a dedicated parliamentarian and a relentless fighter for farmers. I admired his tenacity.”
The Liberals’ current agriculture minister Marie-Claude Bibeau, also writing on Twitter Friday, praised Speller as an “excellent ambassador for Canadian agriculture.”
A visitation for Speller is to be held Tuesday at Hagersville, Ont., about 35 km south of Hamilton, followed by a private graveside service. Speller’s obituary asks that memorial donations be directed to the Canadian Cancer Society. — Glacier FarmMedia Network
