Read the following here is a reporter from Regina believes. After reading it I just about lost it, But my NDP neighbors are all astonished how the Great CWB is being torn down by the Conservatives. Read.
BRUCE JOHNSTONEBruce Johnstone is the editor.
financial
So Agriculture Minister Chuck Strahl got his wish and 62 per cent of 29,000 western Canadian farmers voted to get rid of the Canadian Wheat Board’s monopoly over barley sales.
“What a great day for western Canadian farmers,’’ Strahl enthused. “Sixty-two per cent of barley producers said they want their freedom of choice to market their own barley … We are going to give them the choice that farmers demanded.’’
Maybe it was a great day for Strahl and Stephen Harper, but I’m not so sure it was a great day for western Canadian farmers and Canadian democracy.
First of all, 62 per cent of farmers didn’t vote clearly for marketing choice, as Strahl would have us believe.
In fact, 45 per cent of the 15,300 Saskatchewan producers who voted — roughly half of all the producers polled — wanted the single desk retained, as did more than 50 per cent of 3,700 Manitoba producers.
Only in Alberta, where the government campaigned against the CWB monopoly on barley marketing, did a clear majority (63 per cent) favour marketing choice.
But what does marketing choice really mean?
In addition to options to keep the status quo or remove barley from the board, the plebiscite posed this loaded option to producers: “I would like the option to market my barley to the Canadian Wheat Board or any domestic or foreign buyer.”
Could some producers have been fooled into believing that they could have their cake and eat it too? In other words, keep the Canadian Wheat Board but have the option to market their grain elsewhere?
Why wouldn’t they? That’s what Strahl kept telling them, even though Strahl’s own handpicked task force said operating the Canadian Wheat Board in an open market was unworkable.
As the National Farmers Union president Stewart Wells noted, ask a misleading question and you’ll get a misleading answer. Wells said many farmers voted for Option 2, thinking they were supporting the CWB.
In fact, it was surprising the Tory government didn’t receive a more resounding vote in favour of “marketing choice,’’ given that the deck was stacked against the CWB from the getgo.
Here are just a few examples of the questionable tactics used: misleading plebiscite options; issuing “gag orders’’ against CWB directors and staff; firing the CWB president during the election; arbitrarily changing the voters’ list during the election; disenfranchising thousands of producers; sending multiple, numbered ballots to producers, then calling them to ask which ballot they wanted counted; no third-party spending limits; etc.
The list of dirty tricks and undemocratic practices (no public voters’ list, no secret ballot, no thirdparty spending limits) would make a Third World dictator blush.
But it appears that Strahl and company aren’t finished yet. Not content to trample over producers’ democratic rights, the Conservatives want to push through changes to the CWB without passing legislation.
Strahl believes barley marketing can be dropped by simply changing the CWB’s regulations. The CWB thinks otherwise and is threatening to take the government to court.
The last time this happened (when then-agriculture minister Charlie Mayer removed barley from the board in 1993), the Tory government lost the battle in the courts and were defeated in the following general election.
I’m not suggesting that the barley plebiscite challenge will bring down the Harper government. But the government knows it would face an uphill battle to pass anti-CWB legislation in this minority Parliament.
Therefore, Strahl is attempting to do indirectly (change the board’s regulations) what he can’t do directly (pass legislation ending the monopoly).
Whatever one thinks about the Canadian Wheat Board, the tactics employed by the Conservative government during its year-long battle with the CWB are reprehensible, undemocratic and possibly illegal.
All Canadians should be concerned about the depths to which the Conservatives will sink in order to sink the Canadian Wheat Board.
When someone that understands business, hell he is their financial editor so he should and he only takes the Farmers Union side and the Liberals WE HAVE A BIG PROBLEM>Why not talk to a real farmer and get their opinion. Now the Question was rigged. Yes do it again and this time the NDP and Liberals should pay for the plebiscite and ask two questions.
1 Keep the CWB.
2 Kill the CWB.
Winner #2 by a landslide.
or should it be.
1. Keep Liberal and NDP Farm Programs and influence.
2. Take all Liberal and NDP farm programs and influence and watch Agriculture Grow.
Winner #2 by a landslide.
BRUCE JOHNSTONEBruce Johnstone is the editor.
financial
So Agriculture Minister Chuck Strahl got his wish and 62 per cent of 29,000 western Canadian farmers voted to get rid of the Canadian Wheat Board’s monopoly over barley sales.
“What a great day for western Canadian farmers,’’ Strahl enthused. “Sixty-two per cent of barley producers said they want their freedom of choice to market their own barley … We are going to give them the choice that farmers demanded.’’
Maybe it was a great day for Strahl and Stephen Harper, but I’m not so sure it was a great day for western Canadian farmers and Canadian democracy.
First of all, 62 per cent of farmers didn’t vote clearly for marketing choice, as Strahl would have us believe.
In fact, 45 per cent of the 15,300 Saskatchewan producers who voted — roughly half of all the producers polled — wanted the single desk retained, as did more than 50 per cent of 3,700 Manitoba producers.
Only in Alberta, where the government campaigned against the CWB monopoly on barley marketing, did a clear majority (63 per cent) favour marketing choice.
But what does marketing choice really mean?
In addition to options to keep the status quo or remove barley from the board, the plebiscite posed this loaded option to producers: “I would like the option to market my barley to the Canadian Wheat Board or any domestic or foreign buyer.”
Could some producers have been fooled into believing that they could have their cake and eat it too? In other words, keep the Canadian Wheat Board but have the option to market their grain elsewhere?
Why wouldn’t they? That’s what Strahl kept telling them, even though Strahl’s own handpicked task force said operating the Canadian Wheat Board in an open market was unworkable.
As the National Farmers Union president Stewart Wells noted, ask a misleading question and you’ll get a misleading answer. Wells said many farmers voted for Option 2, thinking they were supporting the CWB.
In fact, it was surprising the Tory government didn’t receive a more resounding vote in favour of “marketing choice,’’ given that the deck was stacked against the CWB from the getgo.
Here are just a few examples of the questionable tactics used: misleading plebiscite options; issuing “gag orders’’ against CWB directors and staff; firing the CWB president during the election; arbitrarily changing the voters’ list during the election; disenfranchising thousands of producers; sending multiple, numbered ballots to producers, then calling them to ask which ballot they wanted counted; no third-party spending limits; etc.
The list of dirty tricks and undemocratic practices (no public voters’ list, no secret ballot, no thirdparty spending limits) would make a Third World dictator blush.
But it appears that Strahl and company aren’t finished yet. Not content to trample over producers’ democratic rights, the Conservatives want to push through changes to the CWB without passing legislation.
Strahl believes barley marketing can be dropped by simply changing the CWB’s regulations. The CWB thinks otherwise and is threatening to take the government to court.
The last time this happened (when then-agriculture minister Charlie Mayer removed barley from the board in 1993), the Tory government lost the battle in the courts and were defeated in the following general election.
I’m not suggesting that the barley plebiscite challenge will bring down the Harper government. But the government knows it would face an uphill battle to pass anti-CWB legislation in this minority Parliament.
Therefore, Strahl is attempting to do indirectly (change the board’s regulations) what he can’t do directly (pass legislation ending the monopoly).
Whatever one thinks about the Canadian Wheat Board, the tactics employed by the Conservative government during its year-long battle with the CWB are reprehensible, undemocratic and possibly illegal.
All Canadians should be concerned about the depths to which the Conservatives will sink in order to sink the Canadian Wheat Board.
When someone that understands business, hell he is their financial editor so he should and he only takes the Farmers Union side and the Liberals WE HAVE A BIG PROBLEM>Why not talk to a real farmer and get their opinion. Now the Question was rigged. Yes do it again and this time the NDP and Liberals should pay for the plebiscite and ask two questions.
1 Keep the CWB.
2 Kill the CWB.
Winner #2 by a landslide.
or should it be.
1. Keep Liberal and NDP Farm Programs and influence.
2. Take all Liberal and NDP farm programs and influence and watch Agriculture Grow.
Winner #2 by a landslide.
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