The defeat of two Saskatchewan Wheat Pool directors in local delegate elections is a sign of unhappiness among pool members, say the winning candidates.
“There is unrest out there,” said Leonard Haukeness of Estevan, who narrowly upset pool vice-president Marvin Shauf of Stoughton in his southeastern Saskatchewan electoral district.
George Hickie of Waldron, who edged out veteran director Dave Sefton of Broadview by three votes, 182 to 179, said there’s a clear message in the results.
“There are an awful lot of upset members,” he said.
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However, pool president Marvin Wiens said he doesn’t think too much should be read into the election results.
He added that while Shauf and Sefton will be missed by the board of directors, it’s good for any democratic organization to have some turnover at the top.
“New people bring in new ideas and challenge those of us who have been around a while,” said the pool president.
Election evaluated
Haukeness and Hickie said a number of factors contributed to their victories over sitting directors: the pool’s financial problems; the erosion of members’ equity; elevator closures; changes in member programs; and grain transportation policy and communication issues.
On top of that, some farmers may have decided to express their general frustration with the state of the farm economy by voting for change.
“When you’re financially strapped, you’re going to strike out at a lot of people, whether they deserve it or not,” said Haukeness.
Sefton, a director for eight years and delegate for 27, said he’s not sure why he lost.
Elevator closures and changes in the way the pool does business upset some people, he said, although members usually told him they understood that changes had to be made.
“A lot of things have happened in the eight years I’ve been a director and I guess some folks determined that this was their protest vote,” said Sefton.
Hickie, a delegate for the past two years, agreed there was a protest vote, and said that as a director, Sefton was more identified with unpopular pool policies.
Shauf, a director since 1989 and vice-president since 1997, could not be reached for comment.
These were the first elections under the pool’s new delegate map, redrawn to reflect the declining farm population and the company’s expansion into Manitoba and Alberta.
In 100 of the pool’s 105 sub-districts, delegates won by acclamation.
Wiens said it’s hard to judge whether that means members are satisfied, apathetic, unaware of the elections or too busy to run.
“You can’t read too much into that either way,” he said.
“That’s just the way it works. There have never been a lot of challenges of incumbents.”
In the three other elections, the results were as follows:
- District 1 subdistrict 7, delegate Norm Overland of Churchbridge defeated delegate Fred Harrison of Melville.
- District 8 subdistrict 2, newcomer Larry McCullough of Qu’Appelle defeated newcomer Les Kolody of Dysart.
- District 9 subdistrict 3, delegate Ron Pilipow of Goodeve defeated delegate Roy Selland of Melville and newcomer Edward Sagan of Melville.
Seven of the pool’s 12 districts will elect directors in the first week of April.
The 12-member board will meet April 6 to elect a president, vice-presidents and two other executive members.
