You can tell whether a man is clever by his answers. You can tell whether a man is wise by his questions. – Nobel Prize winning author Naguib Mahfouz.
Questions are on the minds of prairie farmers these days vis-à-vis the Canadian Wheat Board and the question to be asked in the Jan. 31-March 6 barley plebiscite. Everyone agrees that the answer will depend on the question asked, but that’s pretty much the only shared opinion among the various factions when it comes to wording.
Various suggestions were offered and on Jan. 22, federal agriculture minister Chuck Strahl announced the question. Though sure to be controversial, as is everything to do with the CWB these days, Strahl did avoid the more egregious types of questions that could have been put on the plebiscite.
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As proof of that, allow us to offer this primer on the nature of questions and the types to be avoided.
The Leading Question
Example: “Do you, as a barley grower and believer in marketing choice, capitalism, individual liberty and democracy, choose to throw off the paralyzing yoke of CWB oppressors by marketing your barley in a free and open market?”
The Loaded Question (a close relative of the above, also known as the “have you stopped beating your wife” conundrum)
Example: Do you, as a barley grower, responsible human being and paragon of agricultural society, believe in the common good and the benefits of mutual co-operation so that all parties can unite against the combined forces of multinational grain companies by marketing grain through a single-desk sales agency?
The Double Negative
Example: Do you not want to any longer market your barley through a single-desk sales agency?
The Confusing Alternative
Do you not want to market your barley through a single-desk sales agency or do you not want to market it through the open market or a combination of the two?
The Omnibus Question (common in U.S. election bills and propositions)
Example: Do you wish to remove the single desk marketing system from the CWB, sell all malting and food barley through an open market system, eliminate world hunger for posterity and increase the GST?
The Hypothetical Question
Example: If you could earn more money every year by marketing your barley through the CWB’s single-desk system, would you vote for its continuation?
The Rhetorical Question
How many times do we have to ask all you barley growers about grain marketing, anyway?
