HOURS after a Federal Court ruled against the federal government for placing a gag order on the Canadian Wheat Board to stop it from speaking in favour of the single desk, prime minister Stephen Harper appeared undeterred.
Harper vowed to push forward with his party’s plans to eliminate the CWB monopoly on barley and carry on the campaign, even going so far as to warn off those who might have contrary opinions.
“The bottom line is this – mark my words – western Canadian farmers want this freedom and they are going to get it and anybody who stands in their way is going to get walked over.”
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It is a comment reminiscent of agriculture minister Gerry Ritz who in February denounced barley monopoly supporters as “the tinfoil hat and decoder ring crowd.”
The Conservatives have rationalized their zeal to dismantle the CWB monopoly by saying they are fighting for what farmers want. It is, they say, administrators, courts, opposition members and leftie farm groups who stand in the way.
Balderdash.
If the Conservatives have proof of such overwhelming support for their policy, the time to bring it into the public spotlight is long overdue. The results of last year’s barley marketing vote, often cited as evidence, drew a picture of a much more divided farm community than the Conservatives would undoubtedly prefer.
The three-question vote offered little to clarify the situation, with 48.7 percent voting for a CWB that competes in the open market, 37.8 percent voting to keep the single desk untouched and 13.8 percent voting for a completely open market.
By grouping the answers in strategic ways, the results can be massaged to suit arguments on either side of the debate. However, the point coming into sharper focus is that the Conservatives are bent on engineering a desired outcome.
According to cabinet documents made public at the court hearing in Winnipeg June 16, the Conservatives planned to take action against the board as early as August 2006.
The documents outlined a set of options the government could adopt to remove the CWB’s single desk powers, which included placing a gag order on the CWB, firing its chief executive officer, replacing appointed directors with supporters of the open market and holding a producer vote on barley marketing with three options rather than a clear two-question vote.
It was a methodical attempt to quell opposition, assert control and shape public debate.
Still, farmer opinion is divided. A recent survey commissioned by the CWB contained many contradictory findings. But in perhaps one of its clearest results, 77 percent of farmers surveyed said decisions on the CWB monopoly should be made by the farmer-elected directors.
Lacking any fresher evidence, this suggests the Conservatives would be wise to leave the future of the board’s marketing powers to farmers, who can exercise their rights by voting for pro- or anti-monopoly farmer directors.
Bruce Dyck, Terry Fries, Barb Glen, D’Arce McMillan and Ken Zacharias collaborate in the writing of Western Producer editorials.
