Prairie farmers may be divided over the future of the Canadian Wheat Board but they are almost uniformly offended by the suggestion that they are stupid, says a Conservative MP from rural Manitoba.
James Bezan, chair of the House of Commons agriculture committee in the last session, was responding Oct. 24 to an opposition attack on a government throne speech pledge to end the CWB barley monopoly.
“Most farmers, whether they are on one side of the issue or the other, are not pleased by opposition members who continue to say that they were too stupid to understand the question when they were voting in the plebiscite,” Bezan said.
Read Also
Pakistan reopens its doors to Canadian canola
Pakistan reopens its doors to Canadian canola after a three-year hiatus.
During the debate in the House, Winnipeg New Democrat Pat Martin denounced the “mad ideological crusade” of the Conservatives to undermine the CWB.
“The Conservatives are in for the fight of their life if they intend to tear down this great prairie institution because we will not let them,” he told Bezan.
“We intend to do everything in our power to stop this ideological crusade.”
Martin’s downtown Winnipeg riding includes the wheat board’s head office. He is the recently appointed wheat board critic for the NDP.
The previous day, Liberal agriculture minister Wayne Easter accused the government of disrespect for the law because it is appealing a court judgment that stopped government efforts to end the barley monopoly by regulatory change.
Agriculture minister Gerry Ritz accused the Prince Edward Island MP of having an “unhealthy obsession” over an issue that does not concern his riding.
“I can pledge to the people of Malpeque (Easter’s constituency) that after the next election, they will be rid of that one-trick pony,” Ritz said.
Easter, who has won five consecutive elections, said the issue is important to his rural eastern voters because the campaign against the wheat board monopoly reveals the government’s real attitude toward marketing boards, which are important to P.E.I. dairy and poultry farmers.
Easter said the government’s attack on the wheat board monopoly renders meaningless its pledge of support for supply management.
“The alleged support for supply management in the throne speech is an absolute and complete fraud, nothing less, nothing more,” Easter said.
Ontario Conservative Dean Del Mastro immediately denounced Easter for hypocrisy because of the Liberal agricultural record, including refusing to control dairy-displacing milk protein concentrate imports.
The Peterborough MP also suggested the Liberals were complicit in the BSE affair because they did not prevent it from affecting Canadian cattle.
