Here’s another number from the recently completed Canadian Wheat Board elections.
Twenty-six percent of the 19 candidates who ran for a seat at the board of directors table went to bed happy on Dec. 7, the night the elections results were released.
Those would be the five candidates who emerged as winners at the end of the six-week campaign.
That includes two incumbents and three newcomers.
Here’s what those winners had to say the next day:
DISTRICT 2
Jeff Nielsen was happy to win, but sorry he won’t have more open market supporters as allies at the board table.
Read Also
Agriculture ministers agree to AgriStability changes
federal government proposed several months ago to increase the compensation rate from 80 to 90 per cent and double the maximum payment from $3 million to $6 million
“I’m disappointed because we had some strong pro-choice candidates,” he said.
The Olds, Alta., farmer and long-time critic of the single desk as president of the Western Barley Growers Association, won a two-person race against single desk supporter Gerald Pilger, taking 62.8 percent of the vote.
He takes over as director from fellow open market supporter Jim Chatenay, who represented the district for 10 years.
Nielsen will be one of two elected directors who want to end the single desk and replace it with a system of marketing choice (the other is Henry Vos of District 10), along with four government-appointed directors.
Nielsen said he wants to work with other directors and CWB management to develop new programs and policies that benefit all grain producers.
He added he will continue to work hard to bring in an open market option for barley.
“I certainly understand that the directors elected support the single desk but I hope we can all approach this with an open mind,’ he said.
DISTRICT 4
Bill Woods knew he had to win on the first ballot, and he did, convincingly.
The first-time candidate, looking to replace former CWB chair Ken Ritter, won 63.4 percent of the vote, outpolling two open market candidates in Sam Magnus and Walter Suntjens.
Woods, whose district includes part of federal constituencies represented by CWB minister Gerry Ritz and his parliamentary secretary David Anderson, said he thinks some of his votes came from farmers who were annoyed by the federal government’s attempts to interfere in the election process.
In the last week of the campaign, Anderson distributed a letter to farmers in the district urging them to vote for Magnus and Suntjens, not Woods.
“I think maybe there was some backlash against that,” said Woods, an Eston, Sask., farmer best known as a founding member of West Central Road and Rail.
Woods, a strong supporter of the single desk, said while he was happy when told of his victory, he was even happier to learn that four of the five districts were won by single desk supporters.
“If not, that would have sealed the board’s fate,” he said.
DISTRICT 6
Cam Goff won his district with 62.4 percent of the vote on the third ballot.
But that wasn’t enough for the newly elected director from Hanley, Sask.
“I’m happy with the outcome but I would have liked to see more support for the single desk,” he said. “The more farmers that support it, the better.”
In fact, he won a higher percentage of the vote than did outgoing District 4 director Ian McCreary, who won 61.5 percent of the ballots cast in 2004.
He said the election results should send a message to the federal government about support for the single desk, but he doubts it will have much of an impact.
“Only if it’s attached to a big two-by-four,” he joked.
The government has shown it doesn’t care what farmers or the CWB board of directors think, he said.
Goff said he hopes the single desk issue will be set aside at the board table and directors will move forward with developing programs that benefit farmers.
“Let’s get down to business and do what’s best for farmers,” he said.
DISTRICT 8
It took four ballots, but incumbent Rod Flaman held on to his seat in the 2008 election.
The two-term director held off five challengers, eventually taking 60.3 percent of the vote on the last ballot to defeat marketing choice candidate David Schnell.
“I think it went pretty well as I would have predicted,” said the Edenwold, Sask., farmer, who ran unsuccessfully as a Liberal in the Oct. 14 federal election.
At the same time, he acknowledged there was some uncertainty because of the drastic reduction in the size of the voters list (in his district, 6,860 producers were on the list, down from 14,039 four years ago).
He was happy to see two solid single desk supporters win election in districts 4 and 6, adding the government was clearly trying to sway the election in favour of candidates who support its position against the single desk.
“Now we have a solid majority of eight at the board table with a strong mandate to support the single desk,” he said.
Flaman doesn’t expect the federal government to ease up in its efforts to dismantle the CWB’s current selling system.
DISTRICT 10
Incumbent Bill Toews faced down a trio of open market candidates, who had urged their supporters to use the preferential ballot to ensure they shared the votes in a second or third ballot.
A strong proponent of single desk selling, Toews won re-election to his second term as director, taking 53.9 percent of the vote on the first ballot.
That’s up slightly from his winning percentage four years ago.
Toews said he hopes the strong showing by single desk candidates across the Prairies and the presence of three new faces will reduce some of the pressure around the board table and prompt directors to work together co-operatively and effectively.
He also hopes it will convince the Conservative government to halt its efforts to undermine the single desk, although he’s not holding his breath.
“There is a message in these election results and I hope the government will treat the elected directors with more respect now,” said Toews, who farms at Kane, Man.
The elected directors have never had a significant meeting with minister Ritz or any of his Parliamentary advisers, he said, something he would like to see happen.
Toews added he thinks he won not just because of the single desk issue but also because he has worked to serve the interests of all farmers in his four years as a director.
