Ralph Ferguson, PC

Queen's Privy Council for Canada

The Queen's Privy Council for Canada ), sometimes called Her Majesty's Privy Council for Canada or simply the Privy Council, is the full group of personal consultants to the monarch of Canada on state and constitutional affairs, though responsible government requires the sovereign or her viceroy,...

 (born September 13, 1929) is a farmer

Farmer

A farmer is a person engaged in agriculture, who raises living organisms for food or raw materials, generally including livestock husbandry and growing crops, such as produce and grain...

 and former Canadian

Canada

Canada is a North American country consisting of ten provinces and three territories. Located in the northern part of the continent, it extends from the Atlantic Ocean in the east to the Pacific Ocean in the west, and northward into the Arctic Ocean...

 politician.

Ferguson is a farmer in south-western Ontario

Ontario

Ontario is a province of Canada, located in east-central Canada. It is Canada's most populous province and second largest in total area. It is home to the nation's most populous city, Toronto, and the nation's capital, Ottawa....

, and co-founder of the Lambton Pork Producers Association. In the late 1950s, he was chairman of the Lambton County Egg Producers.

He was first elected to the Canadian House of Commons

Canadian House of Commons

The House of Commons of Canada is a component of the Parliament of Canada, along with the Sovereign and the Senate. The House of Commons is a democratically elected body, consisting of 308 members known as Members of Parliament...

 in the 1980 federal election

Canadian federal election, 1980

The Canadian federal election of 1980 was held on February 18, 1980 to elect members of the Canadian House of Commons of the 32nd Parliament of Canada...

 as the Liberal

Liberal Party of Canada

The Liberal Party of Canada , colloquially known as the Grits, is the oldest federally registered party in Canada. In the conventional political spectrum, the party sits between the centre and the centre-left. Historically the Liberal Party has positioned itself to the left of the Conservative...

 Member of Parliament

Member of Parliament

A Member of Parliament is a representative of the voters to a :parliament. In many countries with bicameral parliaments, the term applies specifically to members of the lower house, as upper houses often have a different title, such as senate, and thus also have different titles for its members,...

 (MP) for Lambton--Middlesex.

Fergurson served as parliamentary secretary

Parliamentary Secretary

A Parliamentary Secretary is a member of a Parliament in the Westminster system who assists a more senior minister with his or her duties.In the parliamentary systems of several Commonwealth countries, such as the United Kingdom, Canada and Australia, it is customary for the prime minister to...

 to the Minister of State

Minister of state (Canada)

A Minister of State is a junior cabinet minister in the Canadian Cabinet, usually given specific responsibilities to assist a senior cabinet minister in a specific area....

 for Small Businesses and Tourism from 1980 to 1982, Deputy Government Whip from 1982 to 1984, and parliamentary secretary to the Minister of Finance

Minister of Finance (Canada)

The Minister of Finance is the Minister of the Crown in the Canadian Cabinet who is responsible each year for presenting the federal government's budget...

 from March to June 1984.

When John Turner succeeded Pierre Trudeau

Pierre Trudeau

Joseph Philippe Pierre Yves Elliott Trudeau, , usually known as Pierre Trudeau or Pierre Elliott Trudeau, was the 15th Prime Minister of Canada from April 20, 1968 to June 4, 1979, and again from March 3, 1980 to June 30, 1984.Trudeau began his political career campaigning for socialist ideals,...

 as Liberal leader and Prime Minister of Canada

Prime Minister of Canada

The Prime Minister of Canada is the primary minister of the Crown, chairman of the Cabinet, and thus head of government for Canada, charged with advising the Canadian monarch or viceroy on the exercise of the executive powers vested in them by the constitution...

, he brought Ferguson into the Cabinet as Minister of Agriculture

Minister of Agriculture (Canada)

The Minister of Agriculture is a Minister of the Crown in the Cabinet of Canada, who is responsible for overseeing several organizations including Agriculture and Agri-Food Canada, Canadian Dairy Commission, Farm Credit Canada, Canadian Food Inspection Agency, National Farm Products Council and...

, succeeding long-time Trudeau Agriculture minister Eugene Whelan

Eugene Whelan

Eugene "Gene" Francis Whelan, PC OC is a retired Canadian politician. Whelan, a farmer, first won a seat in the Canadian House of Commons in the 1962 election representing the southwestern Ontario riding of Essex. He sat continuously in the House of Commons until his retirement in 1984 and was...

.

Ferguson's cabinet career was short-lived, however, as both he and the Turner government were defeated in the September 1984 federal election

Canadian federal election, 1984

The Canadian federal election of 1984 was held on September 4 of that year to elect members of the Canadian House of Commons of the 33rd Parliament of Canada...

.

As a backbench MP, Ferguson participated in several trade missions as an advocate of export market expansion. He also played a role in the creation of the Canadian Agricultural Export Corporation or CANAGREX, a crown corporation formed in 1983 and disbanded by the Mulroney

Brian Mulroney

Martin Brian Mulroney, was the 18th Prime Minister of Canada from September 17, 1984, to June 25, 1993 and was leader of the Progressive Conservative Party of Canada from 1983 to 1993. His tenure as Prime Minister was marked by the introduction of major economic reforms, such as the Canada-U.S...

 government in 1987. As minister, he established the first controlled environment seed bank

Seed bank

Seed bank may refer to:*Seedbank, a repository of preserved seeds*The store of viable plant seed in an ecosystem; for example:** Soil seed bank, the viable seed present in the soil;...

 in an effort to protect parent seed stocks.

He was successful in his attempt to return to the House in the 1988 federal election

Canadian federal election, 1988

The Canadian federal election of 1988 was held November 21, 1988, to elect members of the Canadian House of Commons of the 34th Parliament of Canada. It was an election largely fought on a single issue: the Canada-U.S. Free Trade Agreement ....

 having campaigned strongly against the Canada-US Free Trade Agreement. Ferguson did not run in the 1993 federal election

Canadian federal election, 1993

The Canadian federal election of 1993 was held on October 25 of that year to elect members to the Canadian House of Commons of the 35th Parliament of Canada. Fourteen parties competed for the 295 seats in the House at that time...

, preferring to retire from politics and return to the farm where he has been an active conservationist

Conservationist

Conservationists are proponents or advocates of conservation. They advocate for the protection of all the species in an ecosystem with a strong focus on the natural environment...

. He is also an environmentalist

Environmentalism

Environmentalism is a broad philosophy, ideology and social movement regarding concerns for environmental conservation and improvement of the health of the environment, particularly as the measure for this health seeks to incorporate the concerns of non-human elements...

 and advocate for renewable energy

Renewable energy

Renewable energy is energy which comes from natural resources such as sunlight, wind, rain, tides, and geothermal heat, which are renewable . About 16% of global final energy consumption comes from renewables, with 10% coming from traditional biomass, which is mainly used for heating, and 3.4% from...

.

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