The fax machine and postal carriers have been busy delivering letters to our newspaper about the Canadian Wheat Board.
Approaching the November deadline for votes for the advisory committee to the wheat board, the heat has been turned up on both sides of the debate.
The vote is considered critical to the anti-board lobbyists and to the farmers who support single-desk selling of their commodities. After the voting is completed for the committee, it’s expected there will be increased pressure for a plebiscite on the future of the wheat board. The federal agricultural minister is monitoring the debate closely.
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This point hasn’t been lost on the battling sides. If our mail is any indication of what to expect, it will be a long and arduous fight. Everyone from the Western Canadian Wheat Growers Association to wheat board commissioners are jostling for elbow room in our pages.
Their contributions are often far beyond our 300-word limit for letters to the editor. However, it’s important to present their perspectives and let our readers judge what direction they wish to go in the future.
Do farmers want to be responsible for their own marketing and compete against each other in the world market, or do they wish to continue pooling their commodities and allowing the wheat board to seek the best markets available internationally?
This week we present a list of the candidates for each district in the committee elections and a bit about them.
In the upcoming weeks, we will expand our letter and opinion space to accommodate the material we’re receiving on the subject.
We also feel it’s a very important issue to our Prairie farmers, and want them to have ample opportunity to share their views and hear from more than one side of the argument.
