EDENWOLD, Sask. – If Stephen Harper’s Conservatives win a parliamentary majority in the Oct. 14 election, the sharply divided Canadian Wheat Board board of directors will lose a staunch defender of the single desk.
Twice-elected District 8 director Rod Flaman, on leave from the CWB as he runs for the Liberals in Regina-Qu’Appelle riding, said Sept. 22 he would not seek re-election to the board if there is a majority Conservative government.
Flaman has until Oct. 20 to file nomination papers if he plans to contest the CWB election this autumn.
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“If Stephen Harper wins a majority, I don’t think I want to be part of it,” he said. “I would not be filing my papers. I have no interest in being part of a sinking ship.”
He said a majority Conservative government would end the monopoly and the CWB would be doomed.
If Flaman sits out the CWB election, it could open a tight race in District 8 between pro and anti-monopoly candidates. With the 15-member board of directors thought to be almost evenly split with the pro-monopoly forces having a slight majority, loss of Flaman could shift the balance.
If he wins the federal riding, something no Liberal has done since 1957, he would be ineligible to run for CWB director.
