A telephone survey asking prairie farmers their views on the Canadian Wheat Board’s sales monopoly will likely show a large majority in favor of dual marketing, says one of the groups buying the survey’s results.
But a farm group that supports single desk selling says the survey is meaningless because it asked loaded questions.
The poll was conducted last week, in the midst of the campaign for the election of CWB directors, by Charlton Communications of Regina.
An official with Charlton declined to release any details of the survey, saying it’s up to the groups buying the information to decide whether to make it public.
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The survey asked two questions:
- Are you in favor of having the ability to sell your grain to any buyer, including the CWB, in domestic and export markets?
- Do you support the current Canadian Wheat Board and its traditional monopoly?
One of the groups buying the results of the survey is CARE, an organization promoting the election of CWB candidates who support a dual market.
CARE chair Glen Goertzen expects the poll will send a strong message about what prairie farmers want.
“We don’t know the results for sure, but the preliminary numbers we’ve heard showed around 67 percent in favor of marketing choice based on those two questions,” he said.
Darrin Qualman, executive secretary of the National Farmers Union, said the survey is clearly designed to get answers that favor dual marketing.
“Every pollster knows you just decide what results you want and then tailor the questions to give it to you.”
Qualman said the first question erroneously assumes the wheat board can operate in a dual market. The second invites a negative response by using the word “traditional.”
Meanwhile, the board received some angry calls from farmers who thought it was conducting the poll. They criticized the board for doing a survey during the election.
“We want to make it very clear we had nothing to do with that survey,” said CWB spokesperson Justin Kohlman, adding the board is being careful to do nothing that could influence the election.
The automated telephone message didn’t identify who was making the call, saying simply, “I’m calling to get your valuable feedback about the upcoming CWB election.”
It asked to speak to the farm manager, then said the listener could participate by visiting the internet website www.cwbelectioninfo.com.
That’s the address for the website of CARE, which volunteered to put the questions on its website.
