ANECDOTAL evidence has it that the Conservative government came within hours Aug. 1 of facing a political nightmare involving barley border runners, the Canadian Wheat Board monopoly and a law-and-order government forced to deal with law-breaking supporters.
The story goes like this:
A number of prairie farmers, anticipating the implementation of the government’s promised end to the barley monopoly at midnight July 31, planned to exercise their newfound freedom with a symbolic trip across the border.
One farmer reportedly bought a cheap second hand truck at an auction, willing to have it confiscated at the border if it wasn’t open.
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Then came a late-in-the-day court ruling that the government could not end the monopoly by changing regulations rather than legislation.
The border would remain closed.
What to do? These are Conservative farmers planning to take advantage of a promise their party at long last fulfilled.
Why not make a statement by carrying through with the border run? Freedom delayed is freedom denied.
In the end, they all calmed down and none of them ran the border but for the Conservative government, it was a close call.
What would it have done? Would it have turned a blind eye to lawbreakers or followed the Liberal precedent of charging farmers trying to evade the monopoly?
Relief in the offices of the prime minister, the justice minister and the agriculture minister must have been palpable Aug. 1 when there were no reports of border-running freelancers.
In fact, keeping their anti-CWB monopoly supporters in check has been one of the most delicate dilemmas for the Conservatives during 21 months of government.
Many supporters equated electing Conservatives with ending the monopoly. Instead, the realities of Canada’s version of checks and balances – an opposition majority in the House of Commons and a court system that upholds the law as it interprets it – means that almost two years into Conservative rule, there has been no change.
The message from the government to its supporters has been: be patient, practice restraint, change is coming.
And that brings us to last week’s Throne Speech promise from prime minister Stephen Harper. “Our government will recognize the views of farmers, as expressed in the recent plebiscite on barley, by enacting marketing choice.”
It brings us to the court ruling appeal.
That brings us to agriculture minister Gerry Ritz’s vow last week to bring legislation into this session of Parliament to change the CWB Act if that’s what it takes, even though such a manoeuvre would have limited chance of success.
It brings us to Harper’s ruminations in Lloydminster shortly after the court decision and in the national Press Theatre just before the session began that the government will do whatever it has to do to accomplish the goal.
Critics denounced it as an end-justifies-the-means pronouncement of a dictator.
A more nuanced reading of the signals would be that they are pleas from a government to its anti-wheat board militants to give it time, be patient and don’t force a choice between barley producer “freedom” and upholding the rule of law.
