Wheat Board President Fired

Nik;
Stephane Dione said in an interview now, that he will restore the Canadian Wheat Board,
if the Harper gov/t dismantles it, when he is elected the new PM. That this is a more
democratic way for the farmers. Recently, some farmers went to Ottawa to voice their
disapproval to PM Harper. I heard something to the effect that they would not have access
to grain elevators, and the farmers would have to try and sell their own produce, whereby,
they do not want this hastle.. Also, in a bad crop reaping year, it would be bad for the economy, and affect other economies in the world. The farmers should decide!
Cheers,
bloss
blossomf@videotron.ca

The CWB is marketing the grain of all prairie farmers around the world succesfully under the existing one desk system. Steps have been taken to accommodate those who wish to negotiate and sell individually and to encourage value-added processing involving farmers within this structure.

The government is erring in not working with those with whom they share governance ( the farmer elected board members) to further adapt the current system - but rather has committed itself to ending the monopoly and the benefits accruing from it .

The New Government of Canada has been most impolitic in its handling of the issue. It has committed itself to change, yet is seeking to develop the appearance that it is supported in this. Though those able to vote for directors were reduced, yet four out of five opposing change were still elected. Government appointees opposed to the change were replaced, but even with the "firing"of Adrian Measner its view is opposed by a majority of the Board.

Agricultural Minister Strahl saying that "People make decisions for all kinds of reasons, but the input that's going to be most valuable as far as changes to the board goes is going to be the plebiscite." is setting the stage for another political negative, should plebiscites support the continuance of the Board as it is and the Harper government proceed anyway.

One New Government Member, Inky Mark, has said publicly he will oppose change. There are overall a score in Manitoba and Saskatchewan who will have to weigh loyalty to Leader versus constituents' opinion when considering the probabilities of re-election.

All in all hardly wise politics on the part of a government seeking to obtain a majority.

About 30 years ago Trudeau (never thought I would ever reference him) said words to the effect that to have good foreign policy you need sound domestic policy. Well in this case, and with so many others we are dealing with today, its our foreign policy that is driving domestic policy. The CWB has been a thorn in the side of Americans since its inception but they have been unable to do any thing about it, until now.

If you recall the old L'll Abner cartoon and General Bullmoose with his moto "what's good for GM is good for America and what's good for America is good for GM". I think we can replace "Bullmoose" with "Harper" and GM with Canada and we have Canada's policy drivers both domestic and foreign.

I go back to "DEF" in terms of my politics, so don't read liberal into this simply a little objectiveness and common sense.

I agree totally and once again if Dion is Prime Minister, British Columbia is leaving for the USA, he will only screw Western Canada, like Trudeau,Mulroney,Turner,Chretien the Corrupt, Martin the Ship Tax Evader, all expect for one out the Province of Quebec, the next Prime Minister should come from British Columbia, bring WAC Bennett out of the Grave, he will shake things up in Ottawa, now that we have the Power and even more if could this Gas and Exploration, but not because of greedy and jealous Central Canadians, that think they have a god dam given Right to Power!

As a consumer looking at marketing boards, I beleive they have both positive and negative effects just as they have supporters and detractors. They often appear as legislated monopolies which allows for no "creativity". The Wheat Board appears to be a quasi political co-op with taxpayers money often tossed into the pot which is a subsidy of sorts. Agriculturat subsidies are common to all industrialized nations no matter how they are disguised within the national agricultural policy and that is not saying they are good or bad but a fact of life. There often appears to be cutthroat pricing policies when a national product, such as wheat, is exported and, if my memory is correct, the federal government often has stepped in with tax dollars to protect the floor price which protects the farmers and I agree. I have no quarrel with a grower who wishes to opt-out of the Wheat Board for the advantage it may offer him. I have every difficulty with that "independent grower/marketer" when he demands every advantage of the Wheat Board membership when the market is not so good. If a grower wishes to opt-out, fine, but there should be a two year wait period before he can rejoin. I think it is critical that farm incomes are protected and independent farm families are kept on the land. With no alternatives on the horizon, the Wheat Board appears to do that but I am also sure the membership should have valid suggestions for the improvement of that Board's practices. Without the Wheat Board and an unstable market, the industrial farm / the suitcase farmer may replace the independent family farmer-----what a disaster for Canadians.

Given that the Wheat Board yesterday handed $1,000 bonuses to each of 500 employees because of the "stress" being caused by the Harper government, I believe he should "fire" them all. It's obvious to me that the sense of entitlement so entrenched in the Liberal Party of Canada is also alive and well at the CWB. His firing the president was obviously a good first step. Now he should follow his instincts and get rid of all of them.

Employees of the Big 3 automakers here in Ontario are getting pink slips for their "stress", not bonuses. Regulation and collectivism are not consistent with conservative principles in any case, and this latest move by CWB pooh-bahs is yet one more clear example of why such ideas have long since become passe'. The 70's ended (thankfully) 30 years ago.

It's time these dinosaurs did a 20-year stint in the private sector where they can re-learn the value of a dollar earned (and lost!) in the free market. It's clear to this taxpayer that they don't get it.

If you all want the skinny on whether the wheat board should stay or go, ask a third generation son of a western farmer like myself. We've been getting grain checks from the wheat board for 50 years. Not one bounced. In the climate of worldcoms and Enrons, if a Cargill or a Monsanto went down (because farmers finally wized up), the wake of devastation with no wheatboard to go to would effectively bankrupt anyone who relied on grain sales to private corps who go broke. Put it on a 50 year timeline, folks. Harper comes in and wants to bowl it all over in one term and why?

He was the president of the National Citizens Coalition for 5 years from late 97' to late 2001, after all. www.morefreedom.org This organization is really nothing more than a front for U.S. multinationals who want to errode any and all barriers to further market expansion. They also have major ties to the Republican party. This means getting rid of public daycare (which is only 70% of the market), to make room for a wide open insurance market, any and all crown corps and wheatboards that have large percentages of the market, the CBC, well, anything that stands in the way of U.S. ownership of what they don't already own.

So while farmers only make up 2% of the population and most people don't understand the issue surrounding the wheatboard, lets just say that its a monopoly that is Canadian farmer owned and run. And while I don't like monopolies of any kind, the wheatboard has allowed farmers to penetrate markets that the U.S. couldn't traditionally due to the U.S. traditional lies to make war to further globalization for the largest U.S. based multinational shareholders to own even more (you know, open international markets or its an engineered coup and if that doesn't work, its war) and in this climate, the U.S. has made enemies. Remember the cold war? We were selling grain to Russia when the U.S. couldn't. Same with China. And the Canadian government shouldn't be involved in trade? What, are some of you daft? Harper is known as "shrub" for a reason. Just a little Bush.

Little things like destroying the wheatboard to pave the way for U.S. grain handling multinationals is just the tip of the iceburg. We have the General Agrement in Trade and Services, GATS, negotiated at the WTO, eliminating public control, including health, education, water, sewers, local zoning bylaws, etc., from over 160 services and opening them up for multinational takeovers.

Plus the opening of borders for the free importation of foreign labour for resource extraction, logging, roads, etc.

Then we have the Free Trade Areas of the Americas, FTAA, now in serious trouble with the election of new South American governments, but still going on in Florida.

Then we have the NAFTA plus, the Security and Prosperity Partnership. The internationalization of our armed forces and the building of the mile wide, 10 lane NAFTA superhighway and pipeline project, designed for the total deindustrialization of North America and the free movement of resources and Canadian waters South and imported labour North.

And then we have the North American Union, NAU, the dream of every good capitalist of Harper's ilk, eliminating the borders, again for the movement of resources and peoples to "where the jobs are", under a new form of power elitist government, the North American Competitiveness Council, ruled by the big business moguls of the Council on Foreign Foreign Relations (USA), the Canadian Council of Chief Executives (Canada) and the Consejo Mexicano de Asuntos Internacionales.

Then, of course, the big saviour of bankrupt America, the elimination of the worthless US dollar, together with the Canadian and the Peso, and their replacement by the Amero, controlled by the big banks, ensuring the perceived power of imaginary capital to rule North America and the world.

Were so alseep... like little sheep, holding on to illusions of pieces to a puzzle of a picture thats too large for most of us to see, with a few pretenders who think they've seen the big picture with just one piece in their hands. I'll just cut to the chase, take my word for it. The U.S. puppet plant republican Harper has got to go, no if ands or buts. Only a traitor or misinformed voter would dare vote for him. (and it seems that there's plenty of those)

[updated Fri Dec 29 00:02:20 EST 2006]

January 17th-----After the release of the Manitoba government's own referendum on the Wheat Board showing overwhelming producer support for that Board, the federal government ( Chuck Strahl) has had to change their tune again. Minority governments seem to have improved hearing------long may they remain ! ! !

[updated Wed Jan 17 14:31:15 EST 2007]

The CWB was established to prevent profiteering during the Nazi blockade of the UK in WWII. WWII has been over for 60 years, but the CWB is still around. Historically it's been a great retirement home for political fart-catchers and party bagmen. Like most of our Crown Corporations, it has long since outlived its usefulness and should have to come up with a compelling reason for its continued existence. Bottom line, wheat and barley farmers in Ontario and Quebec have no trouble selling their own crops on world markets, but the CWB puts prairie farmers in jail for the temerity of trying to sell their own crops. Whatever happened to equality of all citizens under the law? Apparently that's a principle that is overlooked by overweening monopolies trying to maintain their existence in the face of a vastly changed world that no longer needs them. The CWB is a hangover from an era when farms were 40 acres and a mule (if that ever really existed). Modern wheat farmers in the West cultivate vast acreages, using GPS, sophisticated tractors and other equipment, and are surely capable of selling their own product on world markets, not to mention hedging their own crop risks on the Chicago or Winnipeg commodities exchanges. CWB is dead. Time to finish it off once and for all.
BTW, the bigger question ought to be, why is it that Canada has more of these "Government-Related Entities" like Crown Corps than any other developed country in the world, including Sweden? Not only the CWB, but all of them, including such egregious money-pits as AECL, and the BDBC (banker of choice for Chretien pals), should be eliminated, and the money saved passed on to taxpayers in tax cuts (otherwise the government will just spend it on some other stupid thing).