Handing ammo to the enemy

I can't blame the Canadian Wheat Board for seeing a need to get creative in response to its position on the wrong end of Chuck Strahl's wrecking ball. But its proposal to become privatized rather than losing its monopoly position sales seems only too likely to give the Cons ideas as to how to further undermine the CWB:

The Canadian Wheat Board, fighting for its survival, has proposed that Ottawa cut it loose to operate in the private sector instead of dismantling its monopoly power.

The board unveiled a plan to snip the apron strings to Ottawa but retain control over marketing wheat and barley for 85,000 Western Canadian farmers...

The quasi-government agency hopes the overhaul it offered serves as a compromise for the federal Conservative government, which wants to erode its market power by letting Western Canadian farmers sell their own wheat and barley...

The board is seeking $1.5-billion from Ottawa to set up a capital fund that would make up for the loss of government-guaranteed payments to farmers as well as lending and borrowing guarantees.

It also wants Ottawa to rewrite legislation so it can own assets and partner with other players in the global food industry. The federal government would also lose its power to appoint directors to the board, most of whom would be elected by farmers instead.

Predictably, Strahl doesn't seem the least bit interested in the proposal as a trade-off. But when it comes time to work out the details of the Cons' plan, it doesn't seem the least bit unlikely that the ideas of privatizing the CWB and removing its loan guarantees will be seized on by the Cons and their anti-CWB allies. And with Strahl now able to claim that the ideas come from the CWB itself, it'll be far tougher for the CWB to even contain the damage at merely losing its current market position.