Deloraine, Man. – Agriculture minister Gerry Ritz seems to take his cues from the book, “how to lose friends and alienate people,” according to farmers at a regional meeting of the Canadian Wheat Board held March 6 in
Deloraine, Man.
The agriculture minister hasn’t won many converts from the “tinfoil hat and decoder ring crowd,” as he reportedly described wheat board supporters.
In a family newspaper, perhaps it’s best to paraphrase Jim Spence’s assessment of Ritz’s knowledge of the needs of barley growers. As Spence put it, the minister doesn’t know his main excretory orifice “from a hole in the ground,” he said to guffaws of laughter from farmers seated nearby.
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Spence, who plants about 1,000 acres of mostly feed barley near Waskada, Man., feeds most of his barley to his cattle. The issue of changes to barley marketing wouldn’t affect him greatly.
He doubted that the electorate would vote the Tories out of office if proposed changes to the Wheat Board Act were presented to Parliament as a confidence motion and the opposition parties refused to support it, forcing a federal election.
“It probably wouldn’t make any difference how I voted, because the riding is still going to go Tory,” he said.
Farmers may be divided on the wheat board issue, but he noted they almost always vote Conservative due to the party’s stance on other issues.
In the Brandon-Souris constituency, a Tory stronghold for generations, “they could put a dog up for election, and it would still win it,” joked one farmer.
However, Ryan Martins, a wheat grower from Boissevain, Man., expressed dismay with Ritz’s tactics and prime minister Stephen Harper’s ideology. He added that if barley marketing became an election issue, he wouldn’t vote for the Conservatives.
Dave Stewart, from Goodlands, Man., noted that Ritz’s comments in the farm press have plastered an uglier layer on the ongoing debate over single desk marketing.
“Ritz has got a lot of power. It’s supposed to be a democratic country, but he’s just doing whatever he wants,” said Stewart, who grows 2,000 acres of malting barley a year.
Russ Adams, also from Goodlands, added that his gut feeling is that barley is going to be removed from the wheat board.
“Whether you’re for or against the wheat board, I think the way Ritz is going about is not good. It’s not democratic at all,” said Stewart.
Power shift
Both farmers fear the legislative changes being introduced for the Canadian Grain Commission and the CWB put too much power in the hands of grain companies, which, along with the railways, have been consolidating their grip on the trade.
“We’ll be at the mercy of the grain companies, just like we were in the 1930s,” said Stewart.
Merv Tweed, MP for Brandon-Souris, described Ritz as a “straight-shooting guy who doesn’t mince words. Obviously, people’s approaches to issues are different and that’s how he’s perceived.”
Speculation that the barley issue would be presented to Parliament as a confidence motion is premature, he added, saying the final call is in the hands of the prime minister.
Tweed, who cited last year’s barley plebiscite as proof that farmers support marketing choice, said he would campaign in any future election in favour of removing barley from the board.
“Producers are ready for change and I’m prepared to support that,” he said.
