As expected, Adrian Measner has been replaced;
The Honourable Chuck Strahl, Minister of Agriculture and Agri-Food and Minister for the Canadian Wheat Board, today announced the appointment of Greg Arason as interim President and Chief Executive Officer of the Canadian Wheat Board (CWB). Mr. Arason will serve for a three-month transition period until a new President can be selected.
“Since Mr. Arason was the Wheat Board’s President for four years and has an enormous amount of experience as an executive in the grain industry, I am confident he will provide the leadership required during this transition phase,” said Minister Strahl. “I am pleased he has accepted this interim appointment, as it will allow us sufficient time to make sure we find the right person to do the job on a permanent basis.”
Mr. Arason was President and CEO of the CWB between 1998 and 2002 and prior to that was CEO of Manitoba Pool Elevators. He has served as a director of a number of agri-business companies and industry associations including CanAmera Foods, Can-Oat Milling, The Chamber of Maritime Commerce, Canada Grains Council, Prince Rupert Grain, Westco Fertilizers, Western Grain Elevator Association, and XCAN Grain.
The Western Producer responds with an attempted self-immolation. When it comes to editorial rants, that’s going to be hard to top!
In related news – a standing ovation from Quebec farmers for PM Stephen Harper.
PreviousBells tolled and a packed parish hall of grateful locals gave Stephen Harper a standing ovation after the Prime Minister confirmed yesterday his government’s intention to return nearly all of the remaining farmland expropriated for the construction of Mirabel airport.
How long until Mr. Measner appears (along with legal counsel, of course) before the cameras (and a sympathetic left-lib press), declaring he was “unfairly dismissed” and is therefore entitled to his entitlements?
You can take this prediction to the bank, folks.
Just came from the meeting where Strahl made the announcement. Around 200 people showed up, the vast majority of whom support Strahl. Pretty good turnout considering that the organizers had to beat the bushes on short notice and spread the message mostly by word of mouth. Several farmers from Saskatchewan also made the trip.
It remains to be seen whether Arason can inject an element of sanity into the looney bin. It wouldn’t surprise me if the existing board of directors decided to stonewall Strahl on every substantive issue.
If you are a board member and you really cannot live with the direction of the company, then you do the honorable thing and resign….hmmm but that imply you were not a Liberal appointee….
Have you heard the CTV coverage of this? all the Liberal talking points here…..idealogical move, nobody really wants it except some big Alberta farmers, etc., you get the drift. Wow
This is where spin-doctors come in handy. You need to portray this as a “pro-choice” move. Who would object to giving farmers more choice?
The government shouldn’t be forcing it’s citizens to sell their products to a government agency. This was done as an exceptional measure during WWII. Someone tell the liberals the war is over.
…..and someone tell the Saskatchewan farmers (some of them) that the Depression is over.
Watch the communists decry the fact that the dangerous thing called freedom is begining to be unleashed and the world as we know it will come to an end. These Cconservative bastards have to be stopped otherwise people will start to prosper under this damned thing called freedom the next thing you know people will become strong enough to do succeed on their own rather that depending on the omnipotent state.
Dion and the Liberals will drop a load in their pants when they hear this news.
Stephen Harper will go down as one of the greatest PMs Canada has ever seen. I think he is Canada’s Ronald Reagan. You aint seen nuthin yet.
“weekly farm tabloid” from the CBC article…
Pot calling the kettle black??
http://www.ctv.ca/servlet/ArticleNews/story/CTVNews/20061219/wheat_board_061219/20061219?hub=TopStories
“Other people would counter that in the federal election, 85 per cent of the MPs elected in wheat board country were Conservative,” he said on Dec. 11. “And Conservatives campaigned openly and aggressively on moving to marketing choice. – Chuck Strahl
I didn’t know (less than) 200,000 farmers spread over a few hundred thousand kilometers and 50 odd ridings had that kind of voting clout. Makes you wonder why the east isn’t pandering to the farmers to get their votes…. lmao
Albertaman: it’s even worse. The lefties will scream about how free market capitalism is inherently evil. A little Canadian company like the CWB could never compete with big bad American agri-business. (Even though there a whole lot of Canadian agri-business companies that compete very nicely, thank you very much.) Sounds like the free trade debate all over again.
~~~ MIRABEL THE WHITE ELEPHANT (Dumbo’s Cousin) ~~
In Nov 1977 we were visiting friends in Montreal. They had moved there from our small town in MB.
I had often heard of Trudeau’s ‘world-class’ airport from the news media(only source in those days). Our friend was driving us around Montreal, which was like being in a different country. For one, the traffic could best be described as lawless.
He then said, ‘I’ll show you something.’ He took an exit ramp and we proceeded onto a huge, new multi-lane freeway. We headed north at 85mph. For just a short distance. On the super Trudeau Expess Way we were going to be … nowhere in a hurry. The ‘road’ abruptly ended with a baricade. Is this unfinished waste of our money still there ??
My point is, I had never heard of this fiasco before from our beloved MSM. And I was a news hound even at that young age.
Today the Trudeau-ian scam would be revealed at the speed of light. Literally. Someone in the Montreal area would comment on a blog and no editor-in-chief would be able to snared it.
Rocky Balboa:
“Yoh, AAAAAAAAAaaaadriaaaaaaaaaaaaaaannnnnnnnn!”
IMHO, those who want the CWB to be the only option for Canadian farmers are anti-free enterprise. No wonder the Liberals and NDP want some state body to dictate to all farmers: “Sell through us or don’t sell at all”.
The CWB simply isn’t wanted by many farmers. Why force them to sell to only a monopolistic body of the state? What is this, Cuba?
If some farmers want to sell thru the CWB, fine. But don’t force everyone to do that. It’s contrary to the liberal nature of Canada. By “liberal”, I mean freedom of the individual to live and make a living as he/she wants, not state control of peoples’ lives, as is preferred by the “Liberals”, NDP and Bloc.
Hot off the presses, Dion garbled in English “we have to win the next election for Canada”. If that doesn’t make you throw up, nothing will!
In the spirit of Tiny Tim, God bless us one and all.
I was in the building when the fire started (Western Producer). The building is occupied by the Producer and Printwest Communications. The fire was in the Printwest part of the building, over a printing press, not in the portion of the building occupied by the Producer.
Not a big deal, but Kate does from time-to-time claim to be concerned with accurate reporting…
Beaker Dion: “What Mr. a..a..a..a..a..arrrrper destroy, I will rebuild.” Beautiful. Reminds me of Ghostbusters.
Scrooge McHarpo is certainly doing a good job of ensuring that the voters of Canada throw him out on his tush next election. It is over for you Conservative types…. you are just to mean and blinded by your ideology to see it.
You heard it here first. Harper is toast electorally. It’s back to the oppositon benches for you folks. Soon …… real soon!
I note the latest polls show that dion’s tiny tsunami of post convention support has almost disappeared. Shortest.bump.ever.
big alberta served yet again today while lowly manitoba and saskatachewan get screwed.. shameful. thankfully, harper’s days are numbered.
Left dog
Why should farmers not be able to sell their produce to anyone they want?
If the wheat board which controls 20% of the world market is such a good deal then the farmers will sign up with them anyway?
How can you champion the rights of the individual [abortion, same sex marriage and all the other liberties you vie for and yet farmers do not get to be included?
If 2 gay farmers wanted to get married and sell their wheat themselves why would only one of those freedoms be OK with you?
I just watched Barry Wilson from the Western Producer on Don Newman CBC show. Newman showed profound ignorance of the CWB and the farm situation, but at least he didn’t claim to be an expert on it. He gave Wilson at LEAST 4 minutes. I was surprized that Wilson did not point out that this is a human rights issue, plain and simple, by any Charter of Rights in any country that has one, except Canada.
Does Newman, the CBC, and the Liberal Party of Canada really believe in fascism where private ownership and production is allowed, but all commerce is strictly controlled by a crooked government thru a crooked government agency? We know that Measner and Ritter certainly do.
Since this is a human rights issue for farmers (individualism versus forced collectivism), I wonder why Newman did not spend at least as much time on the CWB issue as the years the CBC spent on the totally artificial and contrived rights of the gay marriage issue in the Court Challenges Program. But I guess that is why the MSM is increasingly out of touch.
And YOU is Person of the Year.
Its a great day for farmers. The picture of Measner sucking up to Dion said it all. The faster we purge the boards and directorship of these mindless liberal leeches, the sooner this country will rise to its full potental.
Oh by the way Leftdog, if you take your head out of your ass once in a while and breath, you might see the tide of common sense sweeping across the country drowning the likes of you.
Leftdog is right us mean spirited bastards have to quit supporting freedom and stop fighting the oppression of the rights of the minority. Good god what who have the gall to believe they should be able to sell legally grown products freely with out the interference of their jealous neighbor or oppressive state. I think it is really criminal that the Conservatives are working to give economic freedom to tens of thousands of farmers and all at the expense of that single poor bureaucrat. Especially given the fact he had all those letters of support from those customers who were pleased at the prices they were able to buy.
”Makes you wonder why the east isn’t pandering to the farmers to get their votes…. lmao”
But they are pandering, barcs….to the tune of $5 billion of other peoples hard earned money every year.
Fuuunny!
The Lefties want to be free to sell marijauna as they please, but just forget about a farmer selling his products to who he pleases.
jeff,
If you’re going to play the victim card (yet again) would it be too much to ask that you at least get the *spelling* of this poor, downtrodden province correct?
Don’t worry, it’s rhetorical. I don’t expect any better from you and your ilk.
Some lefty said: “Scrooge McHarpo is certainly doing a good job of ensuring that the voters of Canada throw him out on his tush next election. “
Stephen Harper increased spending by 6.9% in the last year. He introduced a brand new social programe, the Child Care benefit, costing $2 billion a year. He gave students a break on textbooks, working people got an employment tax credit, he increased immigration, gave residential school survivors $4billion, apologized for the Chinese head tax, refrained from killing the rebellious terrorist Indians, pensioners got income splitting, and everyone got a tax break from GST.
This is the opposite of mean spirited, friend. In factually accurate terms, Stephen Harper is a tax and spend liberal. It didn’t work when you said Harper was scary, and the new “mean” meme won’t work either.
Jeff you simple-minded twit, I’ve got a couple of generations of farming relatives spread across BC, Alberta, & Saskatchewan and none of them support the CWB. Leave your anti-Alberta bias out of this.
Left dog
Why should farmers not be able to sell their produce to anyone they want?
I agree. One way to shut up the protesters is to hold a referendum among wheat farmers. Once this is done, we will know what the farmers want to do.
Anybody have any idea what impact the removal of Measner and addition of Arason will have have on the board of directors’ voting intention? Especially after the recent elections. I’ve been a bit out of touch, but do I detect a tie?
the CWB is just like other Canadian unions with forced membership.
Make it voluntary, break the CWB/Union monopoly and every one can have what they want.
Its a matter of choice, so the feminists have to support it.
Get ready for the big bang, Dion has picked his dream team from the gang of also rans.
He made one arrogant statement in garbled English, he said “we have to win the next election FOR CANADA”. How about that, the air freshener expert is plotting to save us from those pesky Conservatives who had the nerve to win the last election.
Andy,
The majority of directors voted to maintain the monopoly. But this is irrelevant as it still denies 4 out of 10 farmers their right to sell a legal product the way they want with the same freedoms as Ontario and Quebec farmers. Imagine if you were told by your neighbors that you can only work anywhere but where they say you can. This is communism based on jealousy at the expense of freedom and prosperity.
Glad to see Harper returning land that was expropriated. Good to see Harper going after the Quebec vote at the expence of the voters that put him in power.
He won’t keep his campain promises but he can certainly brown nose to the seperatists.
He’ll win the next election NOT
Stephen Harper increased spending by 6.9% in the last year. He introduced a brand new social programe, the Child Care benefit, costing $2 billion a year. He gave students a break on textbooks, working people got an employment tax credit, he increased immigration, gave residential school survivors $4billion, apologized for the Chinese head tax, refrained from killing the rebellious terrorist Indians, pensioners got income splitting, and everyone got a tax break from GST.
Well, I don’t necessarily think that killing Indians is the only way to defend private property rights, and I won’t say ‘no’ to a tax cut, however miniscule. But other than those things, Bob has stated pretty succinctly why it was a waste of time voting in Harper and his bunch of Toronto-based, cynical, power-grubbing, fake-conservative advisors and bagmen.
It would have been better for conservatives to stay out of power and concentrate on educating the public about why communism is a dead end, than to grab power and spend all their time demonstrating what good communists they are.
The ‘road’ abruptly ended with a baricade … Today the Trudeau-ian scam would be revealed at the speed of light. Literally. Someone in the Montreal area would comment on a blog and no editor-in-chief would be able to snared it.
I think you’ll find that as long as you are hoaxed into giving the government half of your money, they will manage quite well to conceal the ways in which your money is wasted and stolen, blogs or no blogs. Blog writers are smart, and there’s a lot of them, but they don’t have all day to figure out where every dime that was ripped out of their paycheques gets spent, they can’t tap all the government phones, and they can’t give a forensic audit every year to every department of every ministry. But the people in government do have all day to figure out how to waste and steal the money. This is not an accident of being “liberal”, it is the fundamental nature of government spending. And BTW those highways to nowhere are all over the province of Quebec. Every time they squeeze another $100M or so of “infrastructure” money out of a federal political leader with more ambition than common sense, the highways are extended another 10km or so.
But back to the subject at hand. I would be happy if the CWB is abolished, and if farm subsidies (and all other subsidies and federally funded welfare programs) are abolished or at least subjected to significant cuts, but is that what you expect Harper to do? Even if he eventually gets a majority in the House of Commons? I doubt it very much. The new, “un-progressive” Conservative Party strikes me as being a little bit too afraid of being known as such.
While I take some satisfaction in the end of Measner, what we prairie farmers really need is the end of the monopoly.
The CWB monopoly is not rocket science. The Act requires all exporters to have a licence. Licence granted – you’re out of the monopoly; licence denied – you’re forced into the monopoly. Licence granted is all that Ontario, Quebec farmers have ever had. Strahl could do the same for western farmers with the simple order to the CWB to grant licences to producers.
Ironically, the CWB themselves have showed Strahl how to do it by just releasing small processors from the monopoly. If the CWB can do it, why can’t Strahl?
Hey Albertaman,
I have no argument with you. My question is whether the 2 or 3 elected directors who favour choice plus the appointed directors plus Arason are a majority or whether it results in a tie.
I fail to see why there should even be any debate over this issue. If you as an individual want to sell your grain to the CWB, go ahead. If your neighbour as an individual wants to sell their grain privately, go ahead.
Why can one individual be allowed to decide how another person does business? That’s like Apple telling Microsoft who they can or can’t sell too. Makes no business sense.
Well I have to agree that Harper is showing some pretty Liberal colors while making some conservative noises. One can only hope that Canadians will slowly move towards being educated about how politics/bureacracy work to control the voters. I am coming to think that the taxing powers of governments need to be severely curtailed (and enshrined in the constitution) in order to limit the runaway powers of government and bureaucrats.
I seem to remember learning in high school or junior high something about landowners that had to give a certain amount of their crop to the king and how unfair it seemed to me at the time. I wonder how many people know that half of their time spent working goes to government and if they think they are getting fair value for their money???
Here’s something from one of my left-leaning friends:
Farmers and friends are asked to join a rally at the Galleria, Bldg. 15, Innovation Place tomorrow morning at 9:30 a.m. (December 20) to demonsatrate our disapproval of the way Chuck Strahl is trashing the CWB. He fired Adrian Measner today. Mr. Strahl will be making an announcement from the Galeria regarding some biofuel initiative. Come and bring friends! We want to assure this ‘new government’ that their disrespect for farmers and for democratic processes is totally unacceptable. Please pass this email (or phone) to invite other people to attend this short demonstration. The NFU are also organizing recruits. – Noreen Johns (Real Voice for Choice)
PS: I can only assume he means Innovation Place in Saskatoon at the UofS.
Sorry Andy,
I knew that.I just kinda lumped in an anology for some of the lefties on this site.
And the gong show continues. Can you guess who will be in the crowd tomorrow carrying signs and making a general nuisance of themselves? The NFU, including S.Wells, and the perennial pain Nettie Wiebe. Throw in Orchard, a couple liberals, numerous NDP hacks and the usual ‘they’re having a demonstration’ crowd. Seeing it’s the UofS, there will be some ag economists, (maybe not.. they’ll be in Hawaii).
Guess who will be missing? The wheat producers that actually grow most of the grain in Western Canada. The ones that have the greatest vested interest, and the most to lose or gain in this whole debate. They will be too busy making a living.
Can anyone guess what the media line will be??
OK. So I understand why it could be beneficial for the entire farming community to be marketing your grain as a monopoly assuming that the people running it were honest, intelligent and operating with the farmers best interests in mind. Why won’t the CWB open their books??
Some problems I see with this are that farmers wanting to add value to their product (Pasta, bread etc) are not allowed to with their own product.
Also, is the tyranny of the majority acceptable?? Even if all of the farmers except one want to sell through the CWB why should they be allowed to dictate to that one farmer how he is allowed to market his own product??
I know that for many left wingers the only argument they need against an idea is that it came from a conservative.
I would like just one of you that are FOR the CWB explain to me why it is fair to imprison another Canadian for selling his own legally produced product?
Dion, citizen of France, l’etat c’est Moi, “I”, says:
“Anything Mr. Harper will have destroyed, I will rebuild, with the will of the farmers of Canada,” Dion, who was chosen to lead the opposition Liberals on Dec. 2, said today. “It will be for them to decide,” he told reporters in Toronto.
Dion, 51, plans to meet tomorrow with farmers in Winnipeg, Manitoba, the home of the Wheat Board, to discuss the government’s plans. The Liberal leader said he’d consider reinstating Measner, depending on the person chosen to permanently replace him, if the Liberal Party forms the next government. …-
http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=20601082&sid=aXheDwQsLGPY&refer=canada
Praise The Lord for freedom
Off topic: [Attn lefties] very few conservatives will disagree the system, as much as a gov’t is failing us. But when the Conservatives try introduce an Accountability Act which will make improvements you are the first to holler.
On topic: re vote by all wheat growers. Unfortunatelty the pro-CWB voters would win because the small hobby/commie farmers out-number the larger progressive farmers
Mary. Even with the tax breaks I get my farm and me still pay more in tax than you make.
I’ll compare value for money with you anytime you want.
Excerpts from the Canadian Wheat Board Act:
Read that and tell me who the CWB is accountable to. For the life of me, I cannot understand how anyone can NOT understand 18(1) below.
Accounts and Reports
Duties of the Corporation
9. (1) The Corporation shall
(c) report in writing to the Minister as soon as possible after the end of each month, as at the close of business on the last day of that month, its purchases and sales of all grain during the month and the quantities of grain then held by it, the contracts to take delivery of grain to which it is then a party, all securities then held by it and the financial result of the Corporation’s operations as at the end of that month, which report shall be certified by the auditors of the Corporation;
(d) make such reports and furnish such information as the Minister may from time to time require; and
(e) in each year, on or before March 31 or such other date as the Governor in Council may fix, report to the Minister in writing, as at the close of business on the last day of the preceding crop year, its purchases and sales of all grain during that crop year, the quantities of grain then owned by it, the contracts to take delivery of grain to which it is then a party, all securities then held by it and the financial result of the Corporation’s operations as at the end of that crop year and such further information as the Minister may require, and the report shall be certified by the auditors of the Corporation.
Report to Parliament
(2) The Minister shall lay a copy of each report of the Corporation made under paragraph (1)(e) before Parliament on any of the first fifteen days that either House of Parliament is sitting after he receives it.
R.S., 1985, c. C-24, s. 9; 1998, c. 17, s. 28(E).
Directions by Governor in Council
Directions to the Corporation
18. (1) The Governor in Council may, by order, direct the Corporation with respect to the manner in which any of its operations, powers and duties under this Act shall be conducted, exercised or performed.
Purchase of wheat only
(2) Except as directed by the Governor in Council, the Corporation shall not buy grain other than wheat.
__________________________________________
I can’t believe that the NFU and company will try to upstage strahl and ambrose on the new Bio-fuel policy over the firing of Measner.
If they cannot see the benifit of a policy that is good for the environment, will help keep jobs in the west and makes us less reliant on exporting raw products to tidewater. How can they claim any credibility.
As far as their defense of Measner, he was a political apointee who’s had it his way since 98 you live by the sword , you die by it