Is it time for an apology to western Canadian farmers? Noel Hyslip letter

[wmoebis]

Harper gave full pardon to all for breaking the laws of the day.
He also gave pardon, by not charging the seed company and grower that leaked Triffid flax into system and creating a mess.
Also to Hudye Farms, by not charging them, for delivering non registered varieties into CWRS wheat system. Or to the grain company for accepting it.
And to Nabor Seeds for misrepresenting bond and screwimg farmers out of grain.By not making sure they were fully covered.
And to grain companies for not making them honor delivery contracts but instead giving them up to 3 months to take delivery with no penalty.
And to RR for not charging them $100k a day for not moving grain but instead changing it to $100k per infraction. If they ever paid it.

[foragefarmer]

Looks to me they should be more worried about harvesting the wheat in the picture.

There are still many farmers out there that feel the CWB was wrongly taken from them by Closet Boy and Ritz Cracker. So should Trudeau have to apologize to them as well? Where does it end? This self pity thing doesn't look good on any of us farmers. Where's their pride?

All I see is three whining farmers with nothing better to do, who deep down are looking for a handout from the government. Really pathetic coming from the Right who claim to be all capitalist.


Maybe they could join the WCWGA and regurgitate the good old days when that organization still had a mission plan to work on.

[Klause]

Klaus

The the earlier WW 1 systems were varying in scope and powers I suppose could be considered a precusor to the 1935 reintroduction.

[URL="http://www.thecanadianencyclopedia.ca/en/article/canadian-wheat-board/"]http://www.thecanadianencyclopedia.ca/en/article/canadian-wheat-board/[/URL].

As far as what else I said why would that be an issue? Is not a system, any system that maintains control and or discriminates unfairly upon one segment or group of a population while allowing another segment of the same population different rights and freedoms wrong?

Wrong again...

The Board of Grain Commissioners of 1912 was purely for regulation (to supervise grading, etc.), but by 1915 the government had seized control of all wheat exports to help the war effort, and by 1917 futures trading on the Winnipeg Exchange was banned. In 1917, the new Board of Grain Supervisors was given monopoly powers over wheat, and fixed uniform prices across the country. Soon afterwards, the Board took over marketing of other crops as well. Farmers were worried that after the war, prices would crash and various agrarian groups lobbied Ottawa to keep the Board in place. The government relented by creating the Canadian Wheat Board for the 1919 crop only. Farmers got a guaranteed price for that crop, paid immediately, and later a further payment once the Board had completed the year's sales. This system of guaranteed prices and distributed income was extremely popular and when the Board dissolved in 1920, many farmers were livid. It certainly did not help that, "from a peak of $2.85 per bushel in September, 1920 [prices] began a slow and sickening decline to less than a dollar a bushel in late 1923."[3] This marked contrast to the stable prices of 1919–1920 Board seemed to confirm farmers' suspicions of market trading.

There were massive protests in the early '20s... trying to bring the board back.


See, originally it was implemented to keep wheat (because of the ongoing war) from skyrocketing any further... mainly caused by England's trade... the price of wheat skyrocketed during the war... That part was true.

When the war ended, the price of wheat collapsed... and as it did, farmers wanted the board back because at that time it did serve a purpose and maintained pricing.

They didn't get it, but the UGG and the Pools showed up... which worked well (and they were supported by government loans and guarantees)... until 1929 when the price of wheat collapsed and pretty much wiped the Pools and UGG out.

In 1935, the board was re-created... to stabilise and increase the prices of wheat for farmers (remember... dirty thirties...)...


During WWII it was then mandated to maintain "sane" prices for grains under the War Measures Act.



See: Craig McNamara... and what he did to support Cdn grain farmers...

[RWT101]

Just to clear up a point or two about the CWB.

The actual total stolen from western farmers by the CWB from 1943 to 1950, was closer to $2 bil from the sources I have tracked down.
That is the equivalent of about $20 bil today.
The purpose of the CWB was to prevent Western Canada from becoming too rich and powerful and a competitor to central Canada.

(Which was exactly the same reason for Pierre Trudeau's National Energy Program.
In fact Bruce Rawson, one the NEP administrators, admitted to that purpose many years later in an interview.)

The Liberals and the press at the time gave the impression that continuing the CWB after 1945 was a debated question and fairly decided.

But there is every reason to believe that the continuation of the CWB was made before the end of the War.

Why else would CD Howe's right hand man, E P Taylor, decide to purchase a malt company to EXPAND HIS BUSINESS DURING A WAR, if he did not know how he would profit from it ahead of time?

It was the ideal situation. He already knew that his beer and liquor empire would have access to cheap regulated western grain to keep costs down and he could export huge amounts for the higher unregulated prices in the US market. The US clearly stated they had no interest in price and wage controls at the time.

Gradually most flour mills in the west closed over the years and jobs were exported to central Canada.
Western barley was used to subsidize central Canada's livestock thru the use of the "corn competitive pricing" which conveniently had a ceiling price but no floor price.
Liberal times in Ottawa are always tough times for Western Canada.

BTW, E P Taylor was better known as the owner of Argus Corp which is the company Conrad Black eventually bought.

[Klause]

Just to clear up a point or two about the CWB.

The actual total stolen from western farmers by the CWB from 1943 to 1950, was closer to $2 bil from the sources I have tracked down.
That is the equivalent of about $20 bil today.
The purpose of the CWB was to prevent Western Canada from becoming too rich and powerful and a competitor to central Canada.

(Which was exactly the same reason for Pierre Trudeau's National Energy Program.
In fact Bruce Rawson, one the NEP administrators, admitted to that purpose many years later in an interview.)

The Liberals and the press at the time gave the impression that continuing the CWB after 1945 was a debated question and fairly decided.

But there is every reason to believe that the continuation of the CWB was made before the end of the War.

Why else would CD Howe's right hand man, E P Taylor, decide to purchase a malt company to EXPAND HIS BUSINESS DURING A WAR, if he did not know how he would profit from it ahead of time?

It was the ideal situation. He already knew that his beer and liquor empire would have access to cheap regulated western grain to keep costs down and he could export huge amounts for the higher unregulated prices in the US market. The US clearly stated they had no interest in price and wage controls at the time.

Gradually most flour mills in the west closed over the years and jobs were exported to central Canada.
Western barley was used to subsidize central Canada's livestock thru the use of the "corn competitive pricing" which conveniently had a ceiling price but no floor price.
Liberal times in Ottawa are always tough times for Western Canada.

BTW, E P Taylor was better known as the owner of Argus Corp which is the company Conrad Black eventually bought.

Currently our grain companies with interests in malt plants are not running malt export programs. Artificially dropping the price of malt in Canada in order to benefit their own businesses.


Sound familiar?



Also I'd like to know who the source of that 2 billion number is... And why those 7 years were cherry picked.


If you look at actual historical documents from the 40s showing the price of wheat here and the price of wheat in the US we we're actually almost always at an advantage. Remember the US had massive trade protection programs at that time also.

[RWT101]

Aww, Klause.

You mean you have not read the letters marked SECRET from Jimmy Gardner to the PM of the day?

I have.

Lots of scurrilous activity took place by the Liberals to hide their dealings from the public and western farmers in particular.

But I have to screw up my courage to descend into the musty old, bat-filled vaults to dig up this old info.

But I can assure you it is accurate.

Not sure what you mean by cherry picking. I'm only talking about the War time screwing we took.

It started in 1943 and continued to 1950 or 1951.

That was when the Liberals threw $60mil in the pot to even the account up.

And because the general public did not know exactly how much the Liberals gave away, they were upset that the Liberals were even giving those damn farmers the $60mil to make up for the billions!!!

You do know that South American govts were selling their grain into post war Europe at the same time for up to $5/bu though, eh?

[farmaholic]

Merchant Law Group LLP.........First class in Class Action.

I wonder what the government's response would be.

[wmoebis]

Merchant Law Group LLP.........First class in Class Action.

I wonder what the government's response would be.

Why was nothing like this brought up when CPC was still in power? Maybe should get CWB books opened at same time and why it was given to Saudi's without a farmers vote.

[farmaholic]

Probably because everyone and their dog has received an apology and compensation for suppression and repression.

May as well get in the queue

[mcfarms]

Which was the question I wanted discussed rather than a semantics argument about dates of inception which can be analyzed somewhere else.

[farmaholic]

My arguments are so wishy-washy I can make anyone sea sick. I can come in on either side of the debate because there are usually both pros and cons to both sides.

Did Producer's have no equity in:
Buildings
Lake Freighters
Good will
Rail cars

Seems it was always the farmer CWB until some groups tried to lay claim to the above mentioned assets.

It wasn't ours yet the operations were paid for by us.... Not the Canadian taxpayer as a whole?

How do you ever put a value(positive or negative) on the forced monopoly?

I've moved on, but I can't help but to think.

[grassfarmer]

I think the timing of this OpEd was very poor - they should have released it around March 31st.

[farmaholic]

Now now Grassfarmer. Everyone is too busy April 1st.

Christmas is the season of giving.

[blackpowder]

This topic like a Walking Dead episode. Wont die no matter how rotten and long dead.
Shouldnt surpise I suppose given nearly a century of indoctrination.
Funny how the most landlocked (railing west instead of south) keep it alive the hardest.

[farmaholic]

Am I as "predictable" as everyone else on here?