Making the case

The NDP's Alex Atamanenko chimes in on the Cons' attempt to exclude many farmers from any say in the future of the Canadian Wheat Board:

“The Conservatives call this an opportunity for dialogue among farmers, but it’s really a setup to design an end to the Canadian Wheat Board,” said Atamanenko. “They’ve only invited their friends and people who tout the corporate dual-marketing agenda, and they’ve excluded all those who support the Board’s single-desk selling system.”

Atamanenko called on Agriculture Minister Chuck Strahl to cancel July’s partisan event. He noted that the Canadian Wheat Board is a self-sustaining organization whose representatives are elected by farmers — and whose future should be driven by all sectors of the farming community.

“This event is an outrage,” said Atamanenko. “This government is spending tax dollars to cover expenses for a rent-a-crowd at a forum whose only goal is to discredit farmers’ own organizations and promote the corporate agribusiness agenda.”...

“The Conservatives must stop pretending that the last election was a plebiscite on the Canadian Wheat Board’s future. They have no mandate to apply a back-door process to dismantle what farmers have worked for decades to build,” said Atamanenko.

It remains to be seen whether the movement to force the government to acknowledge either the current democratic structure of the CWB or the vast number of farmers and groups who support it. But a little more attention now can't hurt...and may well be enough to force the Cons into a more reasonable process in the long run.