{"id":224119,"date":"2019-07-23T21:18:09","date_gmt":"2019-07-24T01:18:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/?p=224119"},"modified":"2019-07-23T21:18:09","modified_gmt":"2019-07-24T01:18:09","slug":"scheer-says-liberals-exaggerating-over-his-call-to-review-canada-food-guide","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/2019\/07\/23\/scheer-says-liberals-exaggerating-over-his-call-to-review-canada-food-guide\/","title":{"rendered":"Scheer says Liberals exaggerating over his call to review Canada Food Guide"},"content":{"rendered":"
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Scheer drew the Liberals’ ire last week after he told dairy farmers in Saskatoon the guide is flawed. Health Canada’s new guide did away with traditional food groups and portion sizes and focused instead on broader guidelines, including eating more plant-based protein and drinking more water. (File Photo<\/a>: Andrew Scheer\/Facebook<\/a>)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

ST-HYACINTHE, Que. \u2014 On a visit to an agricultural fair in a battleground riding east of Montreal Tuesday, Conservative leader Andrew Scheer defended his promise to review the Canada Food Guide in order to make the document reflect research put forward by the country’s food industry.<\/p>\n

Scheer drew the Liberals’ ire last week after he told dairy farmers in Saskatoon the guide is flawed. Health Canada’s new guide did away with traditional food groups and portion sizes and focused instead on broader guidelines, including eating more plant-based protein and drinking more water.<\/p>\n

The Liberals say the document has received an overwhelmingly positive response, including from nutrition experts. They allege Scheer is bowing to special interests and declaring war on Health Canada’s research.<\/p>\n

\u201cTheir reaction is exaggerated and merits an Oscar for acting,\u201d Scheer said in St-Hyacinthe, Que., about 60 kilometres east of Montreal.<\/p>\n

\u201cThere are (industry) sectors saying their information was not included,\u201d he added. \u201cThere have been dietitians and nutritionists that highlighted weaknesses in the guide, such as a lack of emphasis on iron and calcium.\u201d<\/p>\n

While Scheer rejected Liberal accusations he was pandering to the agricultural industry, he and the province’s dairy farmers have a history together.<\/p>\n

Scheer’s former rival for the leadership of the party, Maxime Bernier, accuses him of colluding with the province’s farmers in the last months of the 2017 race. Bernier says roughly 10,000 Quebecers joined the Tories during that period but didn’t renew their membership the next year.<\/p>\n

Bernier, who advocates abolishing the federal supply management system that protects the poultry, dairy and egg industry from foreign competition, says farmers bought memberships in order to ensure he lost to Scheer, who advocated keeping supply management. Scheer ended up narrowly beating Bernier.<\/p>\n

Marcel Riendeau, 71, was one of those farmers who voted for Scheer in the Tory leadership race. But he kept his party membership.<\/p>\n

\u201cI’m voting for Scheer (in the election),\u201d the farmer from St-Hyacinthe said Tuesday. \u201cI’ve stopped voting Liberal.\u201d Riendeau said he doesn’t think Trudeau can defend Canada’s interests on the world stage. \u201cTrudeau walks around saying he’ll stand up, but he doesn’t. He sits down,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

\u201cLook at what Trump did to him at the last G-7 meeting,\u201d Riendeau said, referring to the U.S. president calling Trudeau weak and dishonest following last summer’s conference in Quebec.<\/p>\n

Scheer will need more people like Riendeau on his side if he hopes to take the riding of Saint-Hyacinthe-Bagot. The agricultural region is currently represented by the NDP’s Brigitte Sansoucy, and the Tories finished fourth in 2015.<\/p>\n

This year the Conservative candidate is former television boxing analyst Bernard Barre.<\/p>\n

Lise Boulay, 56, said though she voted Liberal in 2015, she is open to considering other parties \u2014 but not the Conservatives.<\/p>\n

\u201cI don’t think so,\u201d Boulay said about the Tories as she watched Scheer walk through the agricultural fair. \u201cThey don’t share my convictions, my values. He is just too conservative.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

ST-HYACINTHE, Que. \u2014 On a visit to an agricultural fair in a battleground riding east of Montreal Tuesday, Conservative leader …<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":44,"featured_media":224120,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[18,16],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-224119","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-news-ca","category-news","mauthors-giuseppe-valiante","mauthors-the-canadian-press"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/224119","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/44"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=224119"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/224119\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":224121,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/224119\/revisions\/224121"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/224120"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=224119"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=224119"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=224119"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}