It was minutes before the Liberal convention was to debate grain transportation. On the crowded convention floor the morning of March 19, foreign affairs minister Lloyd Axworthy was playing quarterback for supporters of the Canadian Wheat Board.
He was huddled with MPs and delegates planning their assault on the microphones to convince the convention that the CWB should continue to play a key role in grain transportation.
This would be the culminating moment of a bruising weekend-long fight over what transport minister David Collenette should soon announce as a new grain transportation policy.
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The federal government leans heavily on producers to “take one for the team” and risk their livelihoods without any reassurance of support.
The battle had been played out in Liberal policy workshops, at parties and in convention centre hallways since the morning of March 17.
The resolution from Alberta Liberals to support the board was opposed behind the scenes by followers of environment minister David Anderson, who is convinced wheat board involvement would be bad for the port of Vancouver.
He had some support from delegates connected to Edmonton MP and justice minister Anne McLellan and Collenette followers who worried the resolution would tie his hands.
On the board side, the fight was led by CWB minister Ralph Goodale and Axworthy, with the enthusiastic support of Liberal MPs from rural, northern and western caucuses, and a band of well-organized farm and transportation activists from the West.
The fear early March 19 was that opponents would succeed in having the motion tabled or amended before the largely non-prairie crowd understood the passions and the stakes.
The key was to get to the microphones and get the issue onto the floor.
At the last moment, Axworthy joined a huddle of CWB supporters.
The resolution should be moved by a farmer, he said. Chaplin, Sask., farmer Ron Gleim was directed to the nearest microphone.
An MP with a gift of powerful oratory should give the first supporting speech. Prince Edward Island’s Wayne Easter was picked.
At the second supporting microphone, a long line formed, led by Manitoba farmer Bill Ridgeway. At the last moment, Toronto MP Dennis Mills was substituted to appeal to urban delegates.
The opponents chosen for the “contra” microphones, Alberta farmers from Red Deer and the Peace River, were outgunned.
Gleim led off the debate.
The issue is whether farmers, who have been given control of the wheat board, should also be able to control their future, he said.
The railways and grain companies want the board out of transportation but Liberals should stand with farmers who want a say in how their grain is moved.
The Liberal government created the elected wheat board, he said. “We should not tell the board to evolve and then take away one of its main tools.”
Axworthy enthusiastically joined a standing ovation.
The opponents argued that the wheat board is controversial in the West and the issue should be studied further.
In the end, it wasn’t even close. The vast majority supported the motion and Collenette had his message.
If he sticks with his original instinct to support the proposals from justice Willard Estey that the CWB become involved only when the grain is being loaded at port, he will have the party against him.
On March 17 in a transportation policy workshop when the issue first surfaced, the rhetoric was stronger.
A sheet distributed by British Columbia calling for a “totally commercial system” was dismissed by pro-board MPs as propaganda for the railways.
“This issue is about private interests wanting to plunder public assets,” shouted Winnipeg MP Reg Alcock.
After the March 19 vote, a number of MPs said Collenette will have a difficult time ignoring the party position, even if Transport Canada bureaucrats want him to do so.
“My view is that this shows when you get the railways out of the boardrooms of Transport Canada and into the open where we can see the whites of their eyes, we can take them on and beat them,” said Easter.
