QUEBEC CITY (Staff) — What do you get when you put two Americans in a room together?
The way Canadian Federation of Agriculture president Jack Wilkinson sees it, you get two pushy power mongers who won’t be satisfied until they take from you what they want.
“That’s the U.S. way,” he told a convention of Dairy Farmers of Canada that spent much time last week worrying about American demands that Canada lower tariffs and allow more ice cream and frozen yogurt imports.
“I love them as individuals but put two of those bastards into a room and they think differently. They think they are a super power.”
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To strong applause, Wilkinson told the dairy farmers in a Jan. 19 speech that Canada should not make any concessions to the Americans in the dispute over access for U.S. dairy products.
“You can never give them enough,” said the CFA president. “You have to decide when enough is enough …. When you feel that you have to draw the line, go for it.”
He said the U.S. would love to push the Canadian government to adopt policies that would undermine supply management, giving American agri-business interests greater access to Canadian markets.
Stabilizing influence
But in a boom-and-bust farm sector where market-driven grain and meat prices have bounced up and down over the years, supply management sectors remained a steady, stabilizing influence in the farm economy across the country, said the Ontario cattle and grain farmer.
Since local businesses could count on supply management farmers to stay in operation because of guaranteed prices, “the rural infrastructure stayed in place,” he said.
So it is in the interests of all Canadian farmers to see supply management remain, according to the CFA president.
He urged farmers to pressure the federal government not to make concessions to the Americans in trade talks.
