Understanding the fight to save the Canadian Wheat Board . . .
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'The man who killed the family farm'
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Roving rural columnist finds Harper's decision to dismantle the wheat board goes against the grain for many Manitoba farmers
By: Bill Redekop 02/25/2012 1:00 AM
GILBERT PLAINS -- Clare McBride has already lost her Irish accent, even though her farming family just emigrated from the Emerald Isle in 1998. Except when she gets angry.
When asked what she thinks of Prime Minister Stephen Harper's decision not to let farmers vote on the future of the Canadian Wheat Board, her eyes dilate, her nostrils flare and that clipped, Irish tongue returns in all its glory.
"Stephen Harper's taking something that doesn't belong to him. It belongs to farmers," she fires back.
"It's like he sees a car and goes, 'That's a nice car. I'll just take it.' It's not his."
That feeling of betrayal is being expressed by farmers across the prairies over the Harper government's decision to dismantle the 69-year-old wheat board without allowing farmers a vote.
A recent poll found 62 per cent of farmers favoured keeping the wheat board's monopoly on wheat sales.
I hear the word "dictator" again and again, from farm to farm, as I travel this staunchly pro-wheat board region around Dauphin and to the south of Riding Mountain National Park.
"I remember when we were in the Reform Party together and we talked about direct democracy," recalled Inky Mark, the former MP for this area, about his days with Harper.
Direct democracy was where constituents would be allowed to vote on government policy initiatives and would even have a mechanism for recalling their MP.
Where's that direct democracy now? Mark asked. The federal government refuses to allow farmers to vote on the wheat board.
"It's because (Harper) knows he can't win it," growled McBride.
The Harper government has hardly discussed the issue. One can contrast this process with the intense debate over the Crow Rate rail subsidy in the 1990s.
Then, the government of the day held public meetings with farmers across the Prairies.
There's been none of that.
The Harper government's campaign has been tightly controlled, sticking to two main talking points.
One is the government believes in marketing freedom. Three generations of farmers have been forced to sell their wheat to the wheat board but will no longer after the board is gutted Aug. 1.
The other is the Harper government claims that it doesn't have to give farmers a vote because it was elected in most rural Prairie ridings that have farm constituents.More on these arguments later.
Mark's successor in the riding is Robert Sopuck (Dauphin-Swan River-Marquette). Sopuck recently sat with the PM in lower level seats at the Winnipeg Jets season opener -- a favour that never would have been afforded to Mark. Mark was shunned by the party for representing his constituents' wishes and voting against the government's motions on the wheat board.
Privately, Sopuck has told people he's "a team player" and will abide by his government's decision. Mark has always been a maverick. In an interview with the Free Press, Sopuck denied his region is staunchly pro-wheat board. He maintained farmers in his riding are "split 50-50" on the issue.
"A 50-50 split?" people here reply. "Are you kidding?"
Informed estimates show 80 to 90 per cent of farmers in this riding favour the wheat board.
"People out here think co-operatively. My grandfather said many times the reason he survived was because he could turn to his neighbours," said Larry Bohdanovich, who farms 2,500 acres of crop land south of Grandview and supports the wheat board.
It's a highly ethnic community with a history of pulling together, he continued.
"It's the Ukrainians and Germans and French guys that want the board the most. We tend to co-operate more as a community.
"They are also staunch wheat board supporters simply due to logistics. They are too distant from the Canada-U.S. boundary to benefit from an open border with the U.S. -- that is, if the U.S. keeps its border open after the wheat board's gone.
Some here go so far as to say the government's discourse has tried to mislead. An example is a parliamentary communication sent by MP Merv Tweed (Brandon-Souris) to constituents that said the wheat board was "imposed" on farmers by government. That's a false statement.
The wheat board has been the sole seller of Prairie wheat since 1943, when a Liberal government agreed to farmers' demand to make the wheat board their mandatory seller. Under pressure from farmers, Manitoba later allowed votes to add oats and barley to the wheat board sellers' monopoly, which farmers passed with a majority of about 90 per cent. Saskatchewan and Alberta quickly followed Manitoba's lead.
"I was there. I remember," said Gerald Pederson, 79, who still farms with his son, Delbert, near Newdale.
"It wasn't imposed on us. Farmers were on their knees begging for the wheat board."
Someone who has taken an interest in the wheat board case is Arthur Schafer, Director of the University of Manitoba's Centre for Professional and Applied Ethics.
"The facts seem pretty clear," Schafer maintained. "One is that Western farmers have benefited significantly by selling their wheat through this monopolistic, collective marketing system. It's given them power vis-a-vis the huge grain companies and the international marketplace.
"Dick Dawson, a former senior vice-president of Cargill Canada, once told the Free Press, in a candid moment after his retirement that farmers would be "dumb" to give up the wheat board.
"It's worked bloody well," Dawson said. "The overall scorecard for the wheat board would be a strong one."
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