52% have spoken

[Fransisco]

http://www.siemenssays.com/?p=13145#more-13145

Alex Blinkley makes a good observation and asks a good question.

"So what does it say when only 52% of western farmers who were eligible to vote in the recent election for Canadian Wheat Board directors bothered to return the ballots mailed to them? The CWB should be concerned about the impact on its credibility when nearly half the eligible farmers don’t vote."

He makes a good point, this whole voting on how your neighbors grain should be sold process is a creation of the wheat board. Half the eligible farmers either don't believe in it or don't care.

[cchurch]

Same goes for Harper government only 57% voted in last Federal Election. Therefore no one wants Harper.

Same goes for Alberta Government low voter turnout. Therefore no-one wants them.

[bgmb]

It says most people don't think the CWB is a big issue.

But you'd never know it on this site.

haha

[mustardman]

Sadly the same can be said for our last federal election. Being Able to vote is often taken for granted.

[Fransisco]

Let's think about this another way

http://www.cwbelection.com/pdf/2008_final_results_2.pdf

Out of the 31,244 eligible votes single deskers got 8018 or 25.6% of them.

http://www.cwbelection.com/pdf/2008_final_results.pdf

I realize that its up to the people who actually bother to vote who get the final say but as far as popular support for the Monopoly goes it's pretty pathetic. It's a big fish in a small pond and that pond is drying up.

[Fransisco]

Are comparisons to government valid in all of this? I'm not so sure.

The wheat board is not supposed to be a government, it's supposed to be a business. When half the people in the business, half the supposed shareholders if you will, don't care how or who its run by, it should cause those at the top some concern.

[Fransisco]

Half don't care, out of the other half its pretty much an even split.

[furrowtickler]

Should the public be forced to vote in elections? It is sad to see that just over 50% canadians vote on anything in a democracy that the rest of the world wishes they had.

[FarmRanger]

How many just never received their ballot and thought that they weren't in a jurisdiction having an election?

[LWeber]

2006 results:

Voter turnout was 51.5 per cent. Approximately 31,000 producers in total were eligible to vote

http://www.cwb.ca/en/newsroom/releases/2006/121106.jsp

[Fransisco]

If half don't care enough to fill out a ballot that is sent them in the mail. When they don't even have to drive to a polling station to vote. Would this half even care if the CWB no longer existed? I don't think they would.

Again the comparison to government is not a good one. If we decided to get rid of government because of low voter turnout there would be anarchy. When it comes to the CWB life would carry on without so much as a hick-up.

[LWeber]

2006 Census:

http://www.statcan.gc.ca/pub/95-629-x/5/4124201-eng.htm#48

Total wheat farms:

MB - 7,156
SK - 24,488
AB - 11,791
BC - 237

Total - 43,672

"Total wheat" includes "Spring wheat," "Durum wheat" and "Winter wheat."

I've never been able to make sense of the number of eligible voters in CWB elections.

The CWB used to use 85,000 as the number of farmers it represents:

http://www.ccag.com.cn/downloads/a_wto_cnag_fs/AgriProd_Line_Asso/eng/%5Beng%5DCWB.ppt

Then 80,000 farmers:

http://www.nupge.ca/news_2006/n11my06a.htm

Then "75,000 farmers"

http://www.cwb.ca/public/en/about/investor/pdf/funding_factsheet.pdf

and yet less than 65,000 are eligible to vote based on the 06 and 08 elections and 22,000 less actually are classified as wheat farmers.

Add on landowners in permit books are one reason. Anyone have anything else?

[TOM4CWB]

Fransisco,

The whole election system is a BAD JOKE.

I was at a meeting last night... and a politician who supports the CWB single desk was boasting how his family farm had 4 ballots returned.... and could have had one more.

Our family had 1 ballot... and farms much more.

THis whole election is a farce... it should be one vote for each person involved in a farm... or a vote per actual farm unit.

Better yet... the farms should be selling by the true test of democracy... where they want to sell their grain to.

We had a good meeting... good discussion and lots of opinions and options... he said after the meeting.

I stared him in the eye... you mean choices... and he turned red faced.

The CWB has no legit moral authority to do what they are doing.

The single desk is dead even in Aussieland... which proves... never say never.

[LWeber]

It is like the 70's when the more permit books you had the more malt barley cars you were eligible for.

Today its the more permit books you have - the more votes you get.

How many of you have more than one permit book on your farm?

[Fransisco]

And who is more likely to apply for more permit books when the only reason for it is to get more votes? I'd argue its the monopolists.