Election Blunders

[seabass]

Anyone who got there MNP election ballots get the wrong one? I live in District 9 and received District 5 candidates ballots. Just wondering if this has happened to anyone else.

[parsley]

I went on the cwbelection webpage.

With these kind of mistakes, Meyers Norris Penny LLP should not have the contract for another CWB election, should they?

MNP screwed up last election if you will recall when a Manitoba encumbent erected Wheat Board signage. Young Penner ran against the encumbent, but the playing field wasn't level for a young guy who isn't bbanking CWB per deims.

I despise that kind of organizational strategy.

MNP lacks competentence. Wonder if farmers call them and ask how much farmer money they are getting paid to run the CWB election. Was it tendered?


http://www.cwbelection.com/

For more information, please contact:

Ian Craven

Election Coordinator

TF: 1.877.780.VOTE (8683)

P: 1.204.788.6063

E: ian.craven@mnp.ca

W: cwbelection.com

[wd40]

You're C&P
"Wayne Easter: Madam Speaker, I am pleased to speak on Bill C-47,
Speaking in my role as agriculture critic, I can tell this House that the budget was one of the biggest disappointments ever for the farm community....Sadly, the government has become known as a borrow and spend government, with both the debt and the deficit out of control."

What a crock

He's forgoten that his script comes from the PC's when the tables were reversed and the Lib were in control.

[littledoggie]

We found ourselves in an overpayment position after accepting $60,000 in 2004 under the CAIS Equity Loss program. Not once was the word "loan" ever used when they sold us on this money. Consequently over the next several years we had to pay back that "loan" with any CAIS payments we were entitled to. We also had to borrow $50,000 from the bank at the beginning of BSE just to keep going. We figured that we lost about $120,000 in the first 2 years of BSE alone on reduced cattle prices. Do the programs work for primary producers? I know they sure worked for the feeders and the packers. The government foolishly believed that the money would trickle down to the primary producer. It probably aided in keeping the whole complex going, but at a huge cost to the primary producer.
I have thought many times of quitting the CAIS/Agri-stability program - it's a lot of work for nothing but frustration in return. But then, if you're not doing it you might miss out on any future payments.

[JohnGalt]

You can't expect an organization that thrives on incompetence to punish someone else for their mistakes.

The CWB will continue to have MNP as their "fair and unpartial" election people.

Maybe the extra 150 ballots sent out would have let the pro-CWB candidate win. Maybe they got worried about getting caught.


What I wonder about is how can you actually cancel a supposedly annonomous ballot? Should there not have to be an entirely new (and costly) set of ballots mailed out?

MNP should have to eat any costs associated with this error. I doubt that will happen.

[parsley]

Where is the 'explanation' from the CWB or from the elected directors?

[grassfarmer]

Just scanned your post quickly Kato and assume you are talking about the APP program and not CAIS/Agristability.
We have used the APP for 3 years now and are writing cheques just now to repay the first 2 years rather than use the latest extension to next spring. Good program in my opinion, no problem paying it back or I wouldn't have borrowed it in the first place. That's personal financial management not a Government program fault though. If you get into open ended debt arrangements without an exit plan that's your choice - just the same as if you borrow from a bank or a loan shark.

[seabass]

Just talked to a CWB election person and she said they have reissued the proper ballots to the people that have been sent the wrong ones. Not exactly sure how they new which people got the wrong ones but she sure knew we were one of them.

[FarmRanger]

Got my district 5 ballot yesterday too. I'd have to drive 300 miles from the farm to get to district 5.

<b>Question for Agrivillers who would know:</b> How likely is district 5 to elect a candidate who is for an open market?

Don't want to sound paranoid, but if the district you should be in might go either way, could District 5 is the default district they put you in?

Just asking.

[FarmRanger]

oops, that should be:
...could District 5 be the default district they put you in?

[parsley]

seabass, that is exactly what the CWB shouldn't know. Which ballot is yours.

And their relationship with MNP is, in my humblest opinion, incestuous.

Is there a potential conflict of interest that could be uttered from the mouth of the 2Million Dollar Board CEO to MNP? :

"Identify the ballots, and tell the CWB election committee who voted what, so we can gerrimander the election boundaries and put Ranger and some of his pals in another district.

If you don't, we'll have to revisit who will do our auditing next year."

Now, of course, joedales, this is movielines material, isn't it? Can't be sued for thinking the outrageous, can we now.

But I'll bet AV'ers will read that line twice. Pars

[seabass]

Hate to be a conspiracy theorist but that was exactly what I was thinking. They then could have past voting tendancies and forward that to the wandering eyes of the CWB. Always was suspicious of there involvement and how they became the chosen ones. I guess thats a good question for Sandborn or D****r.

[parsley]

Don't call it 'conspiracy' theory. Maybe more like putting two and two together.

A lot of the gentler-Left in the USA are just beginning to realize the spending stick George Soros is wielding, means to try and defeat capitalism.

Sometimes two and two can result in a "Eureka" monment. Or not.

*****Ask questions.*****

(Maybe stubb is not paranoid after all, and maybe some of DepPapes Followers ARE paid by Multinationals, intent on anonymous meddling and funding.(John just spattered his coffee on his shirt. LOLOL)

Imagined or real, intrique in politics, is an exciting exercise. LOL Enjoy it. Pars

[kato]

I have no problem with APP, however, it's the concept that debt is a replacement for support that I have an issue with. Especially when that debt is a result of negligence that caused the need for support in the first place.

I know where we'd be right now if BSE hadn't happened. We'd be sitting on a paid off farm, with a minimal debt load, and who knows, maybe some money in the bank. Instead, we sit financially in the same spot as we were years ago when we were much younger, and farther away from retirement.

I saw an article the other day trumpeting the good news that calf prices are higher than they've been in ten years. Baby, let the good times roll! Ya. I can't imagine anyone else getting all excited because "Whoopee, we're getting 1999 wages now! Oh boy!"

We are in real danger now that the government is going to back off on us even more than they have, just because prices are better. This totally disregards the debt load that's leftover from seven years of grief.

As for the Agri-Vation program, last year our application was processed and completed in six weeks. This year, it's six and a half months and counting, and all they can tell me is that they've got the file in the building.

Good grief.........

[grassfarmer]

I guess Government pays out what the "cattle industry" asks for and the cattle industry organisations don't want a commie style welfare system - hell, they're the last cowboys - proud independent and resentful of Government involvement. Joke is the other players get the money - the packers to expand and update their plants, then a subsidy on top to help them process every cow.

BSE didn't cost me very much and wasn't the cause of the far worse depressed prices of a year ago. Try corporate piracy, captive supply plus the fact the industry was overbuilt in the days of a 66c/$ exchange rate - BSE or not things were a changing anyway.