SASKATOON – It’s becoming clear this year’s Canadian Wheat Board advisory committee election will be a battle between supporters and opponents of single-desk selling.
The first concrete evidence came last week, when candidate Conrad Johnson withdrew from the race in district 7 to try to ensure the defeat of incumbent Derek Dewar, a supporter of orderly marketing.
Also, both the National Farmers Union and the Western Canadian Wheat Growers Association have publicly endorsed a slate of candidates who agree with their view of the wheat board.
Read Also
Canola support gets mixed response
A series of canola industry support measures announced by the federal government are being met with mixed reviews.
The wheat growers say their favored candidates want a “service-oriented and accountable wheat board”, while the NFU simply describes its list as “orderly marketing candidates.”
Johnson, who farms at Bracken, Sask., believes the board must be made more “open, accessible and efficient” and favors giving farmers complete freedom to sell outside the board.
He was one of two candidates in district 7 to receive the stamp of approval from the wheat growers association, along with Warren Jolly of Congress, Sask. The other candidates are Dewar and James Bateman.
In an interview last week, Johnson said he pulled out of the race for one reason: “My concern was that if all four of us ran, the three of us would split the vote up and Mr. Dewar would carry the day again.”
Defeating Dewar main concern
He said both Jolly and Bateman were more committed to running, while his main interest is seeing Dewar defeated.
“For the good of all the producers involved, I just felt it was in the best interests of everyone to drop out,” he said, adding the decision was his alone.
Dewar declined to comment directly on his opponents or Johnson’s reasons for pulling out of the race, saying he would rather talk about his own views and his belief in the value of a strong single-desk selling agency.
But he did reject Johnson’s charge that he ignores the interests of farmers who don’t subscribe to NFU or Saskatchewan Wheat Pool policies:
“I would like to think that I reflect the majority view of farmers in this area,” he said.
Jolly said while he’s not as critical of the wheat board as Johnson, the withdrawal probably does give him a better chance of winning, especially since Johnson pledged to actively support Jolly’s campaign. Bateman could not be reached for comment.
Meanwhile, wheat growers president Hubert Esquirol said that while his organization did not actively encourage anyone to run, he’s not surprised that proponents of a dual market are running in every district.
People will take action
“I think people are hurting so much and have been exposed to so many cases where the wheat board has failed, that they are prepared to do something,” he said.
Any institution that’s been around as long as the wheat board, has to be in need of a major overhaul, he said, adding that it’s important to defeat candidates who have blind loyalty to the old ways of doing things.
“Those advisory committee members who support the wheat board wholeheartedly, with no reservations and without question, are doing the board a disservice,” he said.
NFU executive secretary Stuart Thiesson agrees with Esquirol that the upcoming election is vitally important, but for totally different reasons.
He urged farmers not to swallow the argument that there can be a dual market, with the wheat board competing with private grain companies. Either you have single-desk selling or you don’t, he said.
And he said supporters of the wheat board can’t afford to take the election lightly, since the results could affect future policy decisions by the federal government.
“If the anti-wheat board candidates get a majority, it would send a signal to the government that there is majority support for open marketing rather than single desk selling,” he said. “There’s got to be a really concerted effort made to make certain the supporters of orderly marketing in fact vote for an orderly marketing candidate.”
