Once again the Canadian government is determined to end the single desk mandate of the Canadian Wheat Board. Even though at the beginning of the last election campaign, agriculture minister Gerry Ritz was quoted as saying that no changes would be made to the CWB without a vote from the farmers, the day after winning a Conservative majority he stated that the single desk would be removed by August 2012. Apparently winning the election was interpreted as a vote to do just that.
However, farmers only make up two percent of the population and to my knowledge make up a majority in very few, if any, federal ridings. The election results were not decided by the farmer vote and the dismantling of the CWB was not an election platform.
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This argument has been in the media extensively and if you are a non-farming Canadian you are probably asking why you should care….I would like to tell you that it does affect all Canadians. The reason is simple. The CWB is controlled, directed and funded by farmers, not the government.
There is presently legislation in existence that prevents any changes being made to the CWB without a plebiscite of the grain producers themselves, but when the House of Commons resumes this fall, one of the first orders of business is to rescind this legislation completely, disregarding the democratic rights of the western Canadian producers.
If we allow this to happen, we have set a precedent, and next time it could be your rights that are taken away, just as easily.
I urge you as Canadians to contact your MP, the minister of agriculture and the prime minister.
Tell them that we live in a democracy, not a dictatorship, and to respect the results of the clearly worded farmer plebiscite. Let the producers really have the choice our government keeps insisting we should have.
Sharon Eshpeter,Daysland, Alta.
