Nov. 28 was an odd and unique day on Parliament Hill, a day filled with emotion and anger, wild rhetoric and nostalgia and even the hint of potential conflict and violence.
And it was all about agriculture. The decades-long House of Commons debate over the Canadian Wheat Board monopoly came to an end in an evening vote after an all-day debate.
Through the day, scores of farmers poured into Ottawa on both sides of the historic debate.
Conservative invitees — farmers who opposed the CWB monopoly and sometimes went to jail for their convictions and the children of anti- CWB pioneers who died before they saw their dream realized — sat in the visitors’ gallery overlooking the floor of the Commons as Conservative speakers paid tribute to their fight, often emotionally.
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On the other side were former wheat board directors, board supporters and National Farmers Union members who gathered outside a building at noon where federal and provincial agriculture ministers held a news conference to herald the new era about to unfold. As the ministers emerged, the protesters ran after them booing and calling them liars.
They held a news conference to denounce what they called government dictatorial tactics to push the changes through the Commons in days. They also predicted economic devastation on the Prairies and the eventual end of supply management.
After an incident Nov. 23 when Manitoba farmer Dean Harder from Lowe Farm was taken out of the visitors’ gallery for holding protest signs and shouting pro-CWB comments at MPs, Hill security staff spent Nov. 28 nervous that the two sides would end up in the gallery together with unforeseen consequences.
Demonstrations from the gallery are not allowed.
There was a feeling of history in the making and a clear illustration of the continuing emotional and angry divide.
For anti-monopoly farmers, it was sweet. For their opponents, it was toxic.
Adding to the drama was wild rhetoric on the floor of the Commons.
Saskatchewan Conservative Tom Lukiwski likened it to a yoke being removed from prairie farmer necks.
Winnipeg New Democrat Pat Martin talked about the mansions of the robber barons in Winnipeg who made their money on the backs of farmers a century ago. Today’s CWB opponents were their modern agents, he charged.
Meanwhile, ministers who were supposed to be travelling were ordered to be in Ottawa for the vote.
Although little noticed by urban media (although protester signs and name-calling were magnets for television cameras), it was a remarkable day on Parliament Hill, the culmination of a long debate. While it now goes to the Senate, the outcome is guaranteed.
There really hasn’t been a day like it since Nov. 22, 1983, when the Liberal government succeeded in getting a bill to end the Crow rate grain subsidy into law over strenuous opposition protests and then organized a triumphant evening reception in a historic parliamentary room where governor-general Ed Schreyer was to sign proclamation of the bill into effect.
The former Manitoba NDP premier agreed to sign the proclamation and some replicas, but he refused to attend the celebratory event. He supported the Crow and was married to the daughter of a Manitoba grain farmer.
His absence deflated the event.
On Nov. 28, there was no deflating the Conservative sense of victory and triumph.
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