Board supporters are accusing dual marketers of using “fascist tactics”
in the 2002 Canadian Wheat Board election.
“For several years the anti-board forces have adopted a bully boy
technique,” said National Farmers Union president Stewart Wells, who
accused them of trying to suppress open debate and rational dialogue.
“(They) shout down the opposition so that no one can hear what they are
saying and just shout it down with slogans and emotions.”
Alanna Koch is chair of a group called CARE, which supports dual market
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candidates. She said Wells’s claims are preposterous.
“That’s the most ridiculous accusation that I’ve ever heard of.”
She said the wheat board is a divisive topic in the farming community
that sometimes leads to heated debate. People get “hot under the
collar” and find it hard to keep their emotions in check, but that’s
just part of the democratic process.
“Do people get excited and very agitated and frustrated and passionate
about what they believe in? You bet,” said Koch.
But she said the anti-monopoly side is no more prone to shouting than
pro-board supporters. She said she has been verbally assaulted at
meetings by those in favour of maintaining the export monopoly on
western wheat and barley.
Wells said dual market supporters are guilty of hijacking democratic
debate by clouding the issue with emotionally charged, knee-jerk
slogans that play well on radio and television.
Telling farmers how the wheat board puts more money in their pockets
requires a more detailed conversation.
“Explaining how the wheat board works cannot be done in a 10 or 20
second clip,” said Wells.
He said this electronic campaign lends itself to “abbreviated
misrepresentations” of important issues.
Koch said that’s a two-way street. She accused board supporters of
using fear mongering and scare tactics by telling farmers that “big bad
guys” are going to take over their family farm if the system moves to a
dual market.
The nasty tone of the campaign showed up at a recent District 7 meeting
in Yorkton, Sask.
Incumbent candidate and board supporter Micheal Halyk said since the
Nov. 13 all-candidates debate he has been approached by producers who
said they have never been so “disgusted and humiliated” by their fellow
farmers than at that meeting.
Halyk said dual marketers bused in out-of-district and out-of-province
people to attend the meeting. He also accused them of planting the most
vocal members of the anti-board crowd by the one and only microphone in
the room to intimidate board supporters from coming forward with
questions for the four candidates.
“A lot of people, I don’t care if we’re talking the farming community
or anybody, are reluctant to ask questions verbally, especially when
you have a rambunctious crowd like we saw in Yorkton.”
Dual market candidate Brad Hanmer said his father organized a busload
of 20 supporters to be transported to the Yorkton meeting, but all of
them were from District 7.
“I think it’s irrelevant whether these people all came by car or they
came on a bus. What’s the difference?”
He said the room was stacked with dual market supporters because those
three candidates did a better job getting people out to the meeting
than the board supporter.
District 9 dual market candidate James Downy, from Melita, Man., was
the only out-of-district person he noticed at the meeting and his
presence was announced to the crowd.
Hanmer agrees the meeting got nasty at times and said it was
unfortunate that hecklers from both camps stole the limelight.
“I would argue that the most vocal people on both sides were probably
not representative of the majority of the people.”
Hanmer thinks the wheat board itself is attempting to influence the
outcome of the election by doing things like using incumbent director
Larry Hill, who is a candidate in District 3, as a spokesperson on the
North Dakota Wheat Commission’s trade challenge issue. It gives him
more public exposure than other election candidates, said Hanmer.
“I have serious concerns that my own pool account money is working
against me.”
The board said Hill was used because he is the head of the agency’s
trade committee and as such is the best person to address trade related
issues.
