Canadian solicitor general Wayne Easter expects opponents of the
Canadian Wheat Board monopoly to continue challenging the law, possibly
even breaking it, despite farmer expression of support for the single
desk.
“The wheat board law is there and must be respected,” said the Prince
Edward Island farmer and longtime CWB supporter who became the cabinet
minister in charge of enforcing the law and the prison system in early
autumn.
“I think this should end the testing of the system, but it won’t. The
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forces who are in it for their own private personal gain are going to
continue to fight the system.”
Easter said that in light of third-party money being used to finance
the campaigns of some monopoly opponents, he will be suggesting to
cabinet that stricter spending controls be imposed for future CWB
elections.
“I think that whole area of advertising and spending limits has to be
looked at,” he said in a Dec. 16 interview on his way to Washington for
talks on security issues with United States officials.
Easter said the candidates who won on a platform of supporting the
monopoly did so despite heavy odds. He said their opponents were better
financed and media reports of farmers choosing to go to jail rather
than pay fines for trucking wheat to the U.S. painted the board in a
bad light.
“They were up against in some cases fairly substantial odds and yet
they came through,” he said. “I think they have to be respected for
that.”
But Easter said the grain trade has too much at stake for board
opponents to give up now.
“If the wheat board was to be destroyed as a single desk seller,
there’s much to be gained at the expense of the farm community by some
powerful forces in the trade. So they will continue to play that game.”
