Mostly it has been farmers fighting the government over the Canadian Wheat Board’s future, now it’s farmer against farmer.
Three western Manitoba producers paid for an inserted advertisement in the Manitoba Co-operator last week accusing the Keystone Agriculture Producers (KAP) of not working to save the Canadian Wheat Board and suggesting KAP members request their membership fees back or complain about KAP’s position.
The single-sheet insert alleged KAP made an undemocratic change to its wheat board policy due to intimidation from the federal government.
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But KAP president Doug Chorney says the ad is wrong.
“There’s no shift in policy,” he said. “We support the democratic approach to making changes at the wheat board.”
However, Chorney added, KAP has resigned itself to the board’s monopoly being removed without a farmer plebiscite because that’s what the federal majority government says it will do.
KAP’s standing policy states, in part, that “KAP supports the balance offered by both an inclusion and an exclusion option (for crops under the board) providing producers have the final say.”
KAP’s current position on the wheat board followed the passing of three resolutions at KAP’s July general council meeting, Chorney said.
None of the resolutions said KAP should stop advocating for a farmer plebiscite on the CWB’s future. Rather, one called on KAP to develop a strategy for the continuation of non-marketing services currently provided by the board; another, for KAP to lobby for an efficient transition; and the third, for the government, not farmers, to cover the costs of ending board marketing.
The purpose of the insert is to make farmers aware of KAP’s position and encourage it to support the board, Brookdale farmer Andrew Dennis, one of the farmers who paid for the ad, said in an interview.
“That doesn’t mean we’re suggesting they take their money out, but we’re suggesting they kind of assess what’s going on,” he said. “If they want to save the wheat board these guys (KAP) are actually working against them at this point.”
Lyle Bremner of Neepawa and Grant Jardine of Brookdale were the other farmers who paid for the ad.
“Historical moment”
KAP has members on both sides of the CWB debate. Mindful of the Manitoba Farm Bureau, which blew apart in the early 1980s over the equally divisive Crow Rate, some observers believe KAP was trying to avoid a similar fate.
Some KAP members are angry the Co-operator ran the insert, and KAP’s lawyer sent a letter asking it not be run again. But John Morriss, the paper’s associate publisher and editorial director, said ads are not censored.
“Essentially as long as the ad meets normal standards of taste and they’re not libelous or slanderous we’re prepared to run the ad,” he said.
Earlier this month the National Farmers Union (NFU) issued a press release condemning KAP’s decision to withdraw from the wheat board debate and invited disaffected KAP members to join the NFU.
The NFU has no qualms about trying to poach KAP members, said NFU president Terry Boehm. “This is a historical moment when people need to be steadfast,” he said in an interview. “So, no, I have no misgivings.”
— Allan Dawson is a reporter for the Manitoba Co-operator at Miami, Man. The full version of this article appeared in the Co-operator, Oct. 20, 2011, page 1.
