The next election of Canadian Wheat Board directors is four or five months away, but some farmers who want to end the board’s export monopoly are already kicking their campaigns into gear.
A group of about 15 farmers says it will support “freedom of choice” candidates when farmers vote for new directors in five of the board’s 10 electoral districts.
The group, calling itself CARE – an acronym for choice, accountability, responsibility and efficiency – wants to elect directors who will change the board into a voluntary grain marketing organization.
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And it’s inviting other farmers who share that view to contribute money to help get the message to voters.
“We want a voluntary board and we think if the right information is out, and if people who should vote do vote, we’ll get what we’re looking for,” said Glen Goertzen, an Alberta farmer and CARE spokesperson.
The farmers who have organized CARE say they’re convinced a majority of prairie farmers prefer a voluntary board.
But they believe that viewpoint is not being represented around the board table, where nine of the 10 elected directors are strong supporters of the agency’s export monopoly.
They say the key to getting dual marketers elected to the board is to increase the voter turnout, which was 43 percent in the inaugural election in 1998.
Goertzen said a majority of the 57 percent who didn’t vote were people who wanted a voluntary board, but abstained from voting to express opposition to the agency.
“I know there were a lot of people who just said ‘we’re not going to be a part of this’,” Goertzen said.
At the time, there was a widespread belief among board critics that the directors would have no real power and the way to change the board’s marketing authority was through political lobbying or the courts.
But now, said Goertzen, they have come to accept wheat board minister Ralph Goodale’s statements that the way to change the grain marketing system is through the democratic process of electing directors.
“I guess we’ve come around and decided Goodale was serious,” he said. “Our intent is to at least get some sort of a balance on the board.”
Support role
The organization will not actively seek candidates or encourage specific individuals to run for the board. Rather, it will endorse those candidates who share its views, provide information to promote the idea of a voluntary board and campaign to encourage voter turnout.
Goertzen said CARE has no official connection with any existing farm organization.
“We’re not influenced by the Western Canadian Wheat Growers Association or the Alberta Barley Commission or the Alberta government,” he said. “We just want farmers who are interested in having a voluntary board organized.”
But the group won’t turn down financial or other support from farm groups that support its goals, Goertzen said.
CARE’s election activities will have to fall within the third-party spending guidelines that apply to the CWB election. Non-candidates are limited to spending $10,000 for all electoral districts taken together.
The organization has one representative in each province – Goertzen in Alberta, Bill Cooper of Foam Lake, Sask., and Paul Orsak of Russell, Man. – along with about a dozen other farmers across the Prairies. The group plans to hire an executive director and set up a formal structure in order to accept and administer funds donated by farmers.
