(no subject)
Oct. 27th, 2006 10:30 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
theweaselkingPolicy formed by ideology rather than facts: dismantling the Canadian Wheat Board.
Naturally, that's exactly what Harper is trying to do, in service to the monopolists who've spent the last two decades trying to eliminate the ability of individuals to resist monopoly.
What is the Canadian Wheat Board?Click the link and read up on it. Basically, the CWB is a massive collective bargaining arrangement, a government service to allow independent farmers to compete fairly with megacorporations. Not only does it work, but changing it without the approval of *the only people it affects* is illegal.
The Canadian Wheat Board (CWB) is a farmer-controlled organization that markets wheat and barley grown by western Canadian producers. Based in Winnipeg, Manitoba, the CWB is the largest single seller of wheat and barley in the world, holding more than 20 per cent of the international market.
As every respected farm economist who has studied it has affirmed, the Canadian Wheat Board is a well-designed and sustainable policy mechanism that delivers price equity to Canadian grain growers - equity that amounts to over $800 million a year in benefits to Prairie communities.It is also overwhelmingly supported by Canada's grain growers.
BILL C-300
This fall, Bill C-300, An Act to Amend the Canadian Wheat Board Act, will come before the House of Commons for Second Reading. Under the banner of “freedom of choice”, this Bill, if passed, will destroy the one desk selling structure of the Canadian Wheat Board, the only thing standing between prairie grain farmers and the market power of the highly concentrated transnational grain sector.
American grain interests have been gunning for the CWB for over 20 years. Canada has won every trade challenge. We should be touting the CWB model for farmers in other countries to emulate. Instead, Bill C-300 would wipe it off the table, and with it, the future of Canadian agriculture.
Seemingly innocuous, Bill C-300 purports to simply offer growers “choice” in the marketing of their wheat. When introduced in the House, it will be couched in terms such as “grower choice” and “support for bio-fuels development”. Make no mistake. Bill C-300 will destroy the single desk selling authority of the Canadian Wheat Board, opening the door to take-over of Canada's grain sector by powerful, transnational grain conglomerates.
What this is and isn't about.
This issue is not about debating the merits of the CWB. Surely we must be able to agree that farmers in a given commodity sector know what is working best for their sector.
The Canadian Wheat Board has withstood challenges under both the WTO and NAFTA and has emerged intact. Despite this, Ottawa is poised to destroy it, placing Canada’s grain sector in the hands of US based transnationals...
Ottawa is prepared to act in contravention of CWB Act
Section 47.1 of the Canadian Wheat Board Act expressly forbids the Minister to change the act without a prior referendum in support of such changes by the growers.
Chuck Strahl and his new government says that doesn't matter.
Naturally, that's exactly what Harper is trying to do, in service to the monopolists who've spent the last two decades trying to eliminate the ability of individuals to resist monopoly.
(no subject)
Date: 2006-10-28 02:49 am (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2006-10-28 03:13 am (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2006-10-28 03:14 am (UTC)Hey, one can hope, right?
(no subject)
Date: 2006-10-28 04:07 am (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2006-10-28 04:21 am (UTC)Seriously. Why not suggest "Prime Minister Gilles Duceppe" while you're at it?
I do have to ask where "Taliban Jack" comes from, though. While I refer to the Canadian parties as "the liberals, the separatists, the socialists, and the national socialists", that last one ain't the NDP.
(no subject)
Date: 2006-10-28 05:54 am (UTC)Something about him wanting Canadian soldiers out of Afghanistan, and not having enough respect for what they are doing to shut up about this until later.
I'm sure there's more to it, and a more coherent argument but (1) it's late, (2) I'm busy, (3) the whole "Taliban Jack bin Layton" kind of has me blinking at the screen, and (4) the monkey likes numbered lists.
My grandpa is a farmer. North-East Saskatchewan farmers are the basis for the following analysis:
Date: 2006-10-28 07:55 am (UTC)Unfortunately, no. Most farmers figure that the Wheat Board is fucking them out of a fortune. In reality it is basically what keeps most family farms intact. Farmers, however, will bitch about the sun when it's sunny and the rain when it's rainy. They will bitch about the CWB while they have it, but you better believe they will bitch about no collective bargaining abilities if the CWB is disbanded.
Basically what I'm saying is the farmers around here fucking love this idea, and will continue to do so until it is implemented. Then they will bitch about it. They can't help it. Fish gotta swim, farmers gotta bitch.
So I suppose it might destroy the Conservatives' popularity eventually, but for now it's just what everyone's clamouring for.
Re: My grandpa is a farmer. North-East Saskatchewan farmers are the basis for the following analysi
Date: 2006-10-28 01:31 pm (UTC)So basicly, the farmers are screwing themselves over.
(no subject)
Date: 2006-10-28 04:08 pm (UTC)However, I'm in the group that thinks that negotiating power-sharing with the Taliban is akin to negotiating power-sharing with Stalin. Sharing power isn't really up there in their list of priorities.
-- Steve prefers the frustrations of diplomacy over the pains of war, but there are folks you just can't expect to negotiate with in good faith.
Re: My grandpa is a farmer. North-East Saskatchewan farmers are the basis for the following analysi
Date: 2006-10-28 06:04 pm (UTC)Re: My grandpa is a farmer. North-East Saskatchewan farmers are the basis for the following analysi
Date: 2006-10-28 10:17 pm (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2006-10-28 10:47 pm (UTC)This one will affect my region pretty badly once it does hit, though.
(no subject)
Date: 2006-10-29 04:08 am (UTC)And yeah, the NDP are unlikely to ever get even a minority government. But I wouldn't rule it out, unfortunately.
(no subject)
Date: 2006-10-29 04:12 am (UTC)Wanting to negotiate with the Taliban? That is an unforgivable stance, and THAT is a demonstration of his lack of respect for Canadian Forces Soldiers.
(no subject)
Date: 2006-10-29 04:15 am (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2006-10-30 03:21 pm (UTC)(Yes, I am uninformed. Given that looking for information turns up poised, reasonable arguments like "really hates Bush, loves dead Canadian soldiers", it's very hard to fight the urge to stay uninformed.)