More questions about the Canadian Wheat Board and supply management

From Barrie McKenna in the Globe and Mail:

“Agriculture Minister Gerry Ritz says he’s all about putting “farmers first.”

At first blush, this sounds like a pretty reasonable motto for an ag minister raised on a Saskatchewan farm. Who doesn’t like farmers, after all? They do tough, essential work that feeds us all.

The catch is that “farmers first” often implies “consumers last.” And what Mr. Ritz really means is that some farmers come first, but not all farmers.

Harper ends wheat board monopoly

From The Canadian Press:

“OTTAWA – The Canadian Wheat Board’s monopoly on western wheat and barley, a mainstay of Prairie agriculture for generations, is over.

Killing it has been on the Tory wish list for years, up there with tough-on-crime laws and an end to the gun registry.

After being stymied by minority Parliaments, the Harper Conservatives flexed their majority muscle Monday night and stripped the board of its legal lock on Prairie wheat and barley crops.

The House of Commons voted by a 153-120 margin to support the bill that ends the board’s monopoly.

Raw milk, the Canadian Wheat Board, and dairy supply management

From Jim Algie, in the Owen Sound Sun Times:

“An obvious ideological gap exists between the current federal government’s staunch defence of supply-management, marketing limits for some Canadian farmers while insisting on “marketing freedom” for western wheat and barley growers.

I refer, of course, to the government’s controversial decision to abolish the Canadian Wheat Board’s marketing monopoly. Reporters ask logically, “Can abolition of supply-management for cows’ milk and poultry be far behind?”

Federal Agriculture Minister Gerry Ritz has a sensible, political explanation. He can handle criticism for philosophical inconsistency because supply management has flourished.

Harper ready to scrap Wheat Board in spite of prairie farmers voting to keep it

From Huffington Post Canada:

Minister of Agriculture and Agri-Food and Minister for the Canadian Wheat Board Gerry Ritz rises during Question Period in the House of Commons on Parliament Hill in Ottawa, Wednesday June 15, 2011. Canadian Press photo via Huffington Post Canada website.

Canadian Wheat Board Defies Ottawa, Organizes Own Farmer Vote On Monopoly

THE CANADIAN PRESS — WINNIPEG – Ottawa won’t do it, so the Canadian Wheat Board’s farmer-controlled board of directors is organizing its own vote on the marketing agency’s future.

Federal Agriculture Minister Gerry Ritz has announced plans to strip the board of its monopoly without a vote, even though one is required by the current Canadian Wheat Board Act.