It is a hunch, but it’s hard to imagine many key players in this Conservative government sitting around listening to the liberal, drug-laced music of Crosby, Stills, Nash and Young.
Too bad, really, because it is great music and because CSN&Y produced an anthem that could well be the theme song for the Conservatives and their supporters hell-bent on abolishing the Canadian Wheat Board monopoly without a sliver of published analysis about the financial repercussions.
In 1969, Stephen Stills (who almost certainly has never heard of the CWB but knew a bit about opposition to the Vietnam war) penned a beautiful song with the lyric: “Find the cost of freedom, buried in the ground.”
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Anti-monopoly crusader, MP and parliamentary secretary on CWB issues David Anderson should appreciate the words and maybe even learn to hum the tune. His freedom as a farmer also is buried in the ground where his crops grow.
Last week, the government finally decided to commission a study to find out what financial obligations might await Ottawa (and taxpayers) when the wheat board is dissolved or wound up.
Ottawa will spend up to $1 million for an audit to determine what liabilities might flow from employee severance, pension obligations, broken contracts and the like.
The CWB, fighting for its life, says the obligations will be in the hundreds of millions.
Critics say this is an astounding example of irresponsible government, shooting first and asking questions later. They will ask Parliament how the government could make such a momentous decision without bean counters breaking down the financial pros and cons.
All we have are government claims that the board deprives farmers of income and board supporter claims that the CWB provides hundreds of millions of dollars in benefits.
How can a policy decision be based on such flimsy anecdotal evidence?
It is an excellent question for non-farming taxpayers who may be stuck with a hefty bill in the middle of government restraint.
But for CWB monopoly enemies, it is an irrelevant question. It is not an issue of cost-benefit analysis. It is a question of economic freedom and the right of farmers to market their property (wheat and barley) as they choose without having a marketing system imposed.
Anderson, an amiable grain farmer from southwestern Saskatchewan, has answered critics by saying it is not a political or financial issue but a question of human rights.
Minority rights and privileges should not be decided by the majority and when they have been in the past, the results often have been to deprive minorities of rights.
Anti-monopolists also argue that while the majority of “farmers” who will vote in the current informal CWB plebiscite will support the single desk, farmers responsible for the vast majority of production have a different viewpoint.
In other words, the two sides in the debate come at it from different pulpits.
Pro-monopoly proponents argue democracy and lack of a cost-benefit analysis means the government is being reckless and anti-democratic.
Opponents say this is not a dollar issue but an issue of basic economic rights.
Maybe Anderson doesn’t need to learn the tune to “Find the Cost of Freedom” after all. Freedom is priceless.
