Like beauty, victory can be in the eye of the beholder. Was the barley plebiscite a resounding victory for the Canadian Wheat Board? Or a demonstration of the strength and legitimacy of those who want to reduce CWB powers?
Farmers had a clear choice: maintain the board’s exclusive jurisdiction over barley exports, or turn everything over to the open market. An impressive number of producers took the trouble to vote – 58,042 farmers, 75 percent of those eligible.
The wheat board system won the support of 62.9 percent. Even Ralph Klein couldn’t manage that.
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If federalists won 62.9 percent of the vote in a referendum on Quebec separation, it would be equally decisive.
We might even get a few years’ relief from separatist rhetoric. And the national government might spend more time worrying about regions other than Quebec.
Unfortunately, it is unlikely that the barley plebiscite will stop farmers arguing among themselves. Many of those who want an open market believe they should have that freedom even if they are a minority.
There are also people still promoting the myth that a dual marketing system would be feasible. That unrealistic option was not on the plebiscite ballot, and rightly so. But this group sees that as justification for rejecting the results.
So the difference in opinions will continue.
But is that really so bad? It means that those who support the board’s system of orderly marketing will have to continue to defend it, and the board itself will have to make every effort to keep improving its service to farmers.
The fact is that 37.1 percent of the ballots, representing 21,347 farmers, were cast in favor of an open market.
That large a group will not shrivel and wither away. If orderly marketing is going to survive for barley exports, their concerns will have to continue to be addressed through dialogue and good performance.
It’s also worth emphasizing that the vote was about barley, which already has a domestic open market.
If the vote had been about wheat, which is a much larger and more export-oriented marketing challenge, the pro-board side would presumably have been much stronger.
One defect in the plebiscite results is worth noting – omission of a breakdown of voting by province.
Without provincial results, the stereotypes of anti-CWB Albertans and pro-CWB Saskatchewanians will continue to persist, rightly or wrongly. It would have been better to have all the facts, to see whether farmers in the two provinces really differ that much.
