OTTAWA (Staff) – Agriculture minister Ralph Goodale wonders if the Reform party isn’t becoming a little more sympathetic to the Canadian Wheat Board.
After fending off more Reform questions about board management practices and secrecy, he emerged from the House of Commons last week with some questions of his own.
Reform questions these days seem to be aimed at improving board operations and “modes of governance,” said the minister.
The lead questioner now is Sask-atchewan MP Elwin Hermanson.
Last year and the year before, the main questioner was Albertan Leon Benoit, who took what Goodale called a more strident position, the “nuclear attack” approach to the board.
“This may be an effort to put a kinder, gentler face on the position they take,” Goodale said March 14.
He said it could be because farmers have let Reformers know that while changes to the board can be discussed, there is little support for getting rid of it.
