Saskatchewan grows more grain than the other two prairie provinces combined and will be the big loser when the Canadian Wheat Board monopoly ends – not only its producers but grain revenue to this province. That should be recognized by premier Brad Wall, as he did with Canpotex.
This is not the Progressive Conservative party of John Diefenbaker we all came to support. He grew up and practiced law in the West and understood western people had to band together to do things they couldn’t do as individuals to survive.
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They formed Co-operators Grain Co., … credit unions, the first oil refinery in Saskatchewan and the world-renowned marketing organization we now have, the CWB, that will be scrapped without a vote by farmers.
When the board learned that China desperately needed grain to avert starvation, Diefenbaker arranged through diplomatic channels to allow the CWB to go there, leading to a major wheat sale, which farmers needed as well as China. They have been a major customer ever since. The last figure I heard we had sold them over 125 million tonnes or more.
I checked out the National Citizens Coalition and what their mission was. I can’t remember all (the tenets) but the ones I do were less government and lower taxes. The one that really disturbed me was they were going to get rid of the CWB. And, the head of the group was a person by the name of Stephen Harper.
I have done a lot of research since as to who belongs to that organization and who provides the funding, so you can see it’s not the Diefenbaker Conservatives all westerners came to know. It was a mix of National Citizens Coalition, Reform and a group known as the Calgary School that call themselves the Conservative party who will be the big winners. So, draw your own conclusion as to where the financing is coming from.
Avery Sahl,Mossbank, Sask.
