DAUPHIN, Man. – The Canadian Wheat Board Alliance asked former Conservative MP Inky Mark last week to prepare a supportive CWB message that could be played across the West.
It is part of the group’s attempt to fight the prospect of a Conservative majority May 2 and the political assault on the CWB single desk that would follow.
Alliance organizers thought having a former Conservative MP on board would help bolster their claim to be non-partisan, even if the Conservatives are their target.
Mark turned them down flat.
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“I told them I couldn’t do that,” he said. “I am no longer an MP. When I took my stand, it was to represent my constituents, but I don’t represent anyone now. They (the CWBA) have to fight their own battle.”
It was a typical “I’m my own man” gesture by the maverick Conservative.
He stepped down last year after 13 years as a Reform-Alliance-Progressive Conservative-Conservative MP for this vast northwestern Manitoba riding.
He took the riding in 1997 from a Liberal, won it five times and stepped down in an unsuccessful attempt to reclaim his former position as mayor of Dauphin.
Although a loyal Conservative caucus member on most fronts, he clashed with prime minister Stephen Harper and party leaders over the wheat board, insisting his farmers supported the board single desk.
He voted several times with the opposition on bills and motions to allow farmers to decide the issue.
The defiance infuriated Conservative party officials, who tried to overthrow him as candidate in 2008. Mark rallied his supporters and won.
“They tried to get rid of me because I wouldn’t toe the line but the people supported me,” he said during the 2008 campaign that he won handily.
He is now a private citizen and while still supportive of farmers who support the CWB single desk, Mark said he has no interest in becoming a poster boy for the anti-Conservative pro-wheat board forces.
“I did my job as MP to support my voters,” he said. “I’m a private citizen now and no longer can speak for them.”
Despite a divided local party base, Mark said he has no doubt Sopuck will win May 2.
