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Monopoly issue 2Hot2Touch?

By 
Ed White
Reading Time: < 1 minute

Published: September 30, 2011

Want to know how serious commercial people handle a really touchy, divisive topic like the Canadian Wheat Board’s monopoly?

They don’t take a stand and they say they’ll work with whatever and that they will be just fine.

That’s a line of thinking I’ve heard quite a few times today at Fields on Wheels, and if you consider the decades of rancour and nastiness and emotion and passion and outrage and fury and billions of tonnes of ink spread upon the issue by newspapers like ours, I guess it’s understandable.

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Cow-calf pairs are grazing in a pasture with a barbed-wire fence in the foreground.

High prices see cow-calf producers rushing to incorporate

Farm accountants are reporting a steady stream of cow-calf producers rushing to get their operations incorporated ahead of selling their calves this fall.

But after seeing how hugely prairie crops dominate the business of the port of Thunder Bay, are the second most important commodity moving through Vancouver, are a massively important commodity for CP Rail, and are the big moneymaker for OmniTRAX, I think even if their representatives don’t want to give farmers a firm opinion on the CWB monopoly vs. no monopoly debate, they could at least send us free Canucks hockey tickets, send us free Persians, and give us free rides down the rails – or at least have the engine drivers honk their horns for our children.

They’re moving our crops, and we’re providing their lunch.

About the author

Ed White

Ed White

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