Dear Editor,
It seems a bit odd and sad to me that The Conservative Party is giving away all the assets in the Canadian Wheat Board that were formerly owned by Western farmers. A foreign grain conglomerate, one of whose members used to be a big competitor, is the recipient. This sets a very ominous precedent that all private property owners would do well to take notice of.
While some folks don’t like the idea of farmers joining together to take care of each other’s survival, the CWB had its merits. It made sure that farmers received a fair price for their wheat and barley crops, and it kept that money in the local rural economy. Smaller and larger grain producers received equal prices for their crops.
The Wheat Board was worth approximately $17 billion. The Government overrode the Wheat Board Act in firing the directors, changing the directors to the Board to be only Harper appointees. Now it has taken all the assets and given them away to a US grain company that is joined with a Saudi Arabian investment company. When many of the farmers joined together in a company to buy the assets, the Government simply refused the offer of cash.
Why would The Conservative Party prefer that Canadian assets, accumulated over many years and supporting Canadian farmers be given to foreign companies to profit from? Real conservatives know that giving away the farm only destroys the the economic vitality of rural regions. This is the biggest transfer of wealth away from farmers in the history of Canada.
Is it an easy connection to see why a recent poll found that 90% of Canadians don’t feel financially secure?
This all reminds me of Murray Dobbin’s recent quote: “Exactly how historians will describe this period in Canadian history is anyone’s guess., but one approach could be to look upon the Harper era as an experiment in revealing how vulnerable democracies are to political sociopaths who are bold enough and ruthless enough to bend or break every rule and tradition on which democracy’s foundation rests.”
And today, our Conservative Member of Parliament emailed me suggesting that I not look at what’s going on with Senator Duffy’s bribery case and the Canadian Wheat Board. Rather she wants us to look at the faults of another big Party. The pot calling the kettle black. And we’re left to wonder why Mr. Duffy is being prosecuted for taking a bribe, yet the PMO is not being prosecuted for giving him a bribe. Is the PMO above the law?
Just wondering what’s going on,
Robbie Anderman
Killaloe ON
