A Saskatchewan farmer who fought passionately for the right to market his own grain has died just as the legislation to end the Canadian Wheat Board’s monopoly appears to be near the end of its journey through Parliament.
Art Mainil, who farmed near Benson, was 78 and had cancer. He died Nov. 5.
He was well known for his opposition to the wheat board’s export monopoly and worked for years to see the change that is now coming.
He unsuccessfully tried politics, running as an independent in the federal riding of Souris-Moose Mountain in 1993 and for a seat at the CWB board table.
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He also used other tactics to make his points. In the mid 1990s he was among hundreds of prairie farmers who trucked their own grain across the international border and then spent years in court defending themselves.
An obituary said Mainil was interested in anything that made sense and was the right thing to do. It said freedom was something to fight for every day.
Among Mainil’s accomplishments was the establishment of Weyburn Inland Terminal in the mid-1970s.
As a member of the then-Palliser Wheat Growers’ Association, now the Western Canadian Wheat Growers, Mainil was the driving force behind the project.
Mainil is survived by his wife, three daughters, and three grandchildren. Funeral services were scheduled for Nov. 10 in Estevan.
