-Morris Dorosh nails it in this weeks Agriweek.-
"Without necessarily knowing it, the elected directors of the Canadian Wheat Board, the menshevik governments of Manitoba and Saskatchewan and a deluded group of uncertain lineage known as Friends of the Canadian Wheat Board have just finished sowing the seeds of its destruction. The Wheat Board is toast.
The directors are hoping that a federal election will be held soon and that its friends in the Liberal and NDP parties will prevail over its enemies in the Conservative party. Faint hope. The polls do not show much change in voter sentiment, except for a general revulsion when it comes to the alleged Liberal leader Dion. The dynamics of the electoral process are in favor of the discipline and organizational competence of the Conservative party. They are unfavorable to the Liberal party, which has no money, big debts, disappearing support from people who matter and a leader who is easily meeting the lowest expectations that anyone has ever had of him. An election will not save the Wheat Board monopoly. If a federal election is precipitated any time soon it will repeat the last results, give or take a few seats. Even so it will greatly strengthen the position of the Conservative party because taking it again to the polls will not be an option for the opposition for several years.
We know enough about agriminister Strahl, and also about other figures in the government that they are not about to be pushed around and bullied by the Wheat Board. The only people who don't realize it seem to be the Wheat Board directors. They have apparently become so drunk with their own importance that they do not understand that the Wheat Board is not a sovereign independent country. It is just a government agency.
The government is not going to stand still for the humiliation and abuse that it has taken from the directors. The opposition parties will not defeat the government, not now but especially not after the next election, to preserve the Wheat Board monopoly. Sooner or later it will occur to Liberal and even NDP organizers that the Wheat Board monopoly controversy is not so much between the hated Conservative government and farmers as it is between distinct groups of farmers. One group of farmers wants to maintain the assumed, alleged security of the single desk. Another group, clearly growing in size and influence, wants the elementary liberty to sell its production to the highest bidder. Sooner or later political operatives will understand that advocating on behalf of one faction of farmers will alienate the other faction. Either way any gain of votes is insignificant. The best use of the latest events that the opposition can make is to try to show that the Harper government has little respect for constitutional law. This is not much of an issue among the city-cousin voters who decide elections. Urban voters, even sophisticated people who try to be engaged in the political process, are baffled by the Wheat Board, the system of grain selling, the monopoly and especially by the artificially-hyped intensity of the controversy.
The government will now, as soon as practicable, move to restore authority over the Wheat Board to the government, which is responsible to taxpayers for the billions that the Board has at risk. The Canadian Wheat Board Act will be rewritten to remove the clauses which have encouraged the directors to act as if they were on the same plane as, or on a higher plane than, the elected national government. By the time it is done the federal government will regain the clear and undisputed power to decide what the functions, activities and structure of the Board will be. A dual market for wheat as well as barley will be mandated in the new legislation.
The Wheat Board directors have betrayed the trust put in them by moderate-minded farmers, who have believed and maybe still believe that the Board could easily have continued in a non-monopoly environment. Hardly anyone on any side of this decades-old controversy ever wanted the Board to be eliminated. The most reasonable opinion was that if the Board had the competence and expertise that it claims, it should have no trouble surviving and providing valuable services to farmers on a voluntary basis. If it does not have that expertise and competence then it is a fraud.
The Board and its directors have lost tremendous and crucial support from the middle-road farmers enraged by the fanatic ends to which they have gone to preserve their turf. If an agency such as the Wheat Board can confront and defeat the government, which is its owner, it sets itself above the popularly-elected government and claims a position from which it can dictate to the government what the government may and may not do. If the Wheat Board can do this, who exactly is the ultimate authority in this country?
Why not the army? "
"Without necessarily knowing it, the elected directors of the Canadian Wheat Board, the menshevik governments of Manitoba and Saskatchewan and a deluded group of uncertain lineage known as Friends of the Canadian Wheat Board have just finished sowing the seeds of its destruction. The Wheat Board is toast.
The directors are hoping that a federal election will be held soon and that its friends in the Liberal and NDP parties will prevail over its enemies in the Conservative party. Faint hope. The polls do not show much change in voter sentiment, except for a general revulsion when it comes to the alleged Liberal leader Dion. The dynamics of the electoral process are in favor of the discipline and organizational competence of the Conservative party. They are unfavorable to the Liberal party, which has no money, big debts, disappearing support from people who matter and a leader who is easily meeting the lowest expectations that anyone has ever had of him. An election will not save the Wheat Board monopoly. If a federal election is precipitated any time soon it will repeat the last results, give or take a few seats. Even so it will greatly strengthen the position of the Conservative party because taking it again to the polls will not be an option for the opposition for several years.
We know enough about agriminister Strahl, and also about other figures in the government that they are not about to be pushed around and bullied by the Wheat Board. The only people who don't realize it seem to be the Wheat Board directors. They have apparently become so drunk with their own importance that they do not understand that the Wheat Board is not a sovereign independent country. It is just a government agency.
The government is not going to stand still for the humiliation and abuse that it has taken from the directors. The opposition parties will not defeat the government, not now but especially not after the next election, to preserve the Wheat Board monopoly. Sooner or later it will occur to Liberal and even NDP organizers that the Wheat Board monopoly controversy is not so much between the hated Conservative government and farmers as it is between distinct groups of farmers. One group of farmers wants to maintain the assumed, alleged security of the single desk. Another group, clearly growing in size and influence, wants the elementary liberty to sell its production to the highest bidder. Sooner or later political operatives will understand that advocating on behalf of one faction of farmers will alienate the other faction. Either way any gain of votes is insignificant. The best use of the latest events that the opposition can make is to try to show that the Harper government has little respect for constitutional law. This is not much of an issue among the city-cousin voters who decide elections. Urban voters, even sophisticated people who try to be engaged in the political process, are baffled by the Wheat Board, the system of grain selling, the monopoly and especially by the artificially-hyped intensity of the controversy.
The government will now, as soon as practicable, move to restore authority over the Wheat Board to the government, which is responsible to taxpayers for the billions that the Board has at risk. The Canadian Wheat Board Act will be rewritten to remove the clauses which have encouraged the directors to act as if they were on the same plane as, or on a higher plane than, the elected national government. By the time it is done the federal government will regain the clear and undisputed power to decide what the functions, activities and structure of the Board will be. A dual market for wheat as well as barley will be mandated in the new legislation.
The Wheat Board directors have betrayed the trust put in them by moderate-minded farmers, who have believed and maybe still believe that the Board could easily have continued in a non-monopoly environment. Hardly anyone on any side of this decades-old controversy ever wanted the Board to be eliminated. The most reasonable opinion was that if the Board had the competence and expertise that it claims, it should have no trouble surviving and providing valuable services to farmers on a voluntary basis. If it does not have that expertise and competence then it is a fraud.
The Board and its directors have lost tremendous and crucial support from the middle-road farmers enraged by the fanatic ends to which they have gone to preserve their turf. If an agency such as the Wheat Board can confront and defeat the government, which is its owner, it sets itself above the popularly-elected government and claims a position from which it can dictate to the government what the government may and may not do. If the Wheat Board can do this, who exactly is the ultimate authority in this country?
Why not the army? "
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