OAK BLUFF, Man. — The yawning cavern between pro-and antimonopoly farmers was obvious at the southern Manitoba Canadian Wheat Board rally, even before it officially began.
“I don’t have a choice,” said farmer Blaine Rutter, who opposes the board monopolies and showed up at the rally to voice a view common among farmers in southern Manitoba near the U.S. border. He got into an impromptu pre-rally debate with board supporters outside the meeting hall.
“You can sell into the U.S. any time you want, just use the buy back,” replied Beausejour farmer Andy Baker.
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The informal debate between the two farmers, with Rutter expressing the exasperation of farmers who feel limited by the board’s powers and Baker demonstrating the frustration of farmers who support the monopolies, was echoed later in the official question and answer period at the end of the rally.
And while pro-monopoly farmers showed no signs of weakening their campaign against the federal government’s determination to break the board’s single desk, federal Liberal party leaders also made it clear that they aren’t going to back away from the issue.
“For me, it’s really quite fundamental to our sense of democracy in the country,” said Liberal leader Bob Rae in an interview, as he mingled with farmers outside the hall before the rally.
“Mr. (Stephen) Harper says he thinks farmers should have a choice and I agree they should have a choice. They should have a vote.” Rae and Liberal MP Ralph Goodale, the architect of the current wheat board legislation, attended the rally along with the province’s only Liberal MP, Kevin Lamoureux, and Jon Gerrard, the provincial Liberal leader.
While summer is often a quiet time in politics, Rae said the CWB issue needs to be addressed now if farmers hope to reverse the government’s course.
“I want to keep doing this because I think it’s important,” said Rae.
“I think it’s important for people to know we’ re serious about it.” Although the hall was packed with hundreds of pro-monopoly supporters, Conservative MPs James Bezan and Candice Hoeppner were there and stayed to the end to hear farmers’ views.
MP Pat Martin, an outspoken critic of the Conservative government’s CWB plans, was in British Columbia for a family gathering and missed both the Oak Bluff and Dauphin rallies, and the other Manitoba NDP MP, Niki Ashton, was in Greece getting married.
“I really did wrestle with this, but I sent two of my staff and I knew (Manitoba agriculture minister) Stan Struthers’ whole department was going to be there, so I felt we were well represented there,” said Martin in a later interview.
Struthers said he and the federal NDP are working together to fight the federal government’s plans, and noted the absence from the rally of the provincial Progressive Conservative leader.
“The people right now who are scurrying down the rabbit hole are the Conservatives, Hugh McFadyen, who won’t stand up for Manitoba farmers,” said Struthers in an interview at the rally.
“We have been very clear in the NDP. We have been very clear for decades.”
