The Canadian Wheat Board Director elections really matter to the livelihood of thousands of prairie grain farmers.
Because the CWB is central to our financial survival, the director elections are always hotly contested and the turnout is high. And it’s no mystery why farmers regularly give 80% of the Director seats to candidates who support the single desk. Farmers like that the high quality grain they grow is going directly to their own customers. There’s nothing like cutting out the middleman!
Farmers have seen the Wheat Board balance the power of the two railways and keep their heels off our financial throats. But the bottom line is really that every grain cheque, 14 International Trade Investigations, and the Auditor General of Canada all show that the CWB gets premium prices.
Now we have a majority federal government and a Federal Agriculture Minister who wants to take all that away from us.
Despite what the government would like everyone to think, farmers (along with people who want to go on eating locally-grown grain product) and our elected CWB Directors are all fighting back.
But they need our help and support.
Over the next couple of weeks the CWB will be holding public meetings to give us the big picture of what it means to end the CWB and what the world might be like without it.
Democracy and public meetings are old prairie traditions that never go out of style. So set your GPS to one of those CWB town hall meetings and bring your questions and comments. Our CWB directors need our support and we need to send Ottawa and the middlemen a message before it is too late: “hands off our Wheat Board.”