Ralph Ferguson

The Honourable Ralph Ferguson (born September 13 1929) is a farmer and former Canadian politician.

Ferguson is a farmer in south-western Ontario and co-founder of the Lambton Pork Producers Assocation. In the late 1950s he was chairman of the Lambton County Egg Producers.

He was first elected to the Canadian House of Commons in the 1980 federal election as the Liberal Member of Parliament for Lambton—Middlesex.

Fergurson served as parliamentary secretary to the Minister of State for Small Businesses and Tourism from 1980 to 1982, Deputy Government Whip from 1982 to 1984 and parliamentary secretary to the Minister of Finance from March to June 1984. When John Turner succeed Pierre Trudeau as Prime Minister of Canada, he brought Ferguson into the Cabinet as Minister of Agriculture succeeding long-time Trudeau Agricullture minister Eugene Whelan.

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

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 government in 1987. As minister he established the first controlled environment seed bank in an effort to protect parent seed stocks.

He was successful in his attempt to return to the House in the 1988 federal election having campaigned strongly against the Canada-US Free Trade Agreement. Ferguson did not run in the 1993 federal election preferring to retire from politics and return to the farm where he has been an active conservationist. He is also an environmentalist and advocate for renewable energy.