"warns food costs could rise if the wheat board is eliminated."

???

I thought farmers *wanted* higher prices for their grain.

With a big Lib here, and a little Lib there,
and a photo op here and a photo op there,
and $$$ here and $$$ there,
and flip flop here and a flip flop there,
and a CBC here and a CP there,
a reporter here, and a reporter there...
EE, I,EE I, OOO!

I suspect the Liberals are terrified of the possibility that an audit of the CWB is going to unveil a scandal that will leave the Liberals yearning for the good ole days of ADSCAM.

We shall see...

Maybe they could have interviewed Captain Jamil Hussein about the CWB, I'm sure he would have happily agreed with their politics and more promptly disappeared. I guess CP is almost as good as AP.

Libranos. *spit*

Sure says a lot about the media's powers of investigative reporting when a bunch of Liberal party hacks can corral them this easily.

I thought they were ignorant before. Now I just think they're dumb.

Why did they preface with "independent" unless the reporter knew the farmer wasn't?

Hey! What about that spear-chucker thing? Are you ever going to bring that on home? Remember how you got so mad about it a while ago?
Betcha a lot of farmers you are pretending to be defending used to be or may still be spear-chuckers. Or perhaps they sprouted out of the ground all of a sudden, like foreign seeds or pine-beetles. Suddenly, they take over the place and make people say stupid things, like ergot on rye.
Soon as you come down off your high, I am sure you'll have a cogent rationale for the spear-chucker thing, though you'll likely be paying more for your oats.
Happy Holidays :)

Hey! What about that spear-chucker thing? Are you ever going to bring that on home? Remember how you got so mad about it a while ago?
Betcha a lot of farmers you are pretending to be defending used to be or may still be spear-chuckers. Or perhaps they sprouted out of the ground all of a sudden, like foreign seeds or pine-beetles. Suddenly, they take over the place and make people say stupid things, like ergot on rye.
Soon as you come down off your high, I am sure you'll have a cogent rationale for the spear-chucker thing, though you'll likely be paying more for your oats.
Happy Holidays :)

Locusta emersonia

You don't mean to imply that you think the "spearchucker" comment is on the same level as Former Minister Dr. Hedy Fry's lies about "burning crosses on the lawns of British Columbia, as we speak," do you? Fry even went as far as to actually name some BC mayor, as her source of information. He promptly denied it all. Yet Fry remained in Chretien's cabinet for quite some time after that reverse racist line of B.S.

But that's the Liberal way, ain't it. Anyone who is not 100% behind the Liberal Party Line, is a red-neck racist cross burning KKKlanner, or a Nazi ir an idealogically driven Christian.

BTW: Why is it that Ontario, Quebec and Maritime farmers are exempt from this brilliantly glorious CWB?

We need our own version of Baghdad Bob:

Barley Barry.

Locust Hypocritacus says "Hey! What about that spear-chucker thing?"

I don't see the big deal, Kate predicted you guys would freak out if a supporter or member of Canada's New Government called you a spearchucker, and that's what you proceeded to do, completely oblivious to the fact that we supporters of Canada's New Government get called neanderthals, trogoldytes, and KKK members on a daily basis in the media and blogsphere.

"Or perhaps they sprouted out of the ground all of a sudden, like foreign seeds or pine-beetles."

This is a good opportunity to point out that the Liberals did nothing to combat the pine beetle epidemic; Canada's New Government promised and delivered on $1 billion in spending to fight the pine beetle epidemic.

Steve Harper and Canada's New Government: getting things done for all of us.

Thankyou, Bob.

Alright the co-ordinated campaign has begun. Either that or Liberals are so rare west of the Ont Manitoba border that they have to do triple duty, board appointee, press agent and pretend "everyman" spokesperson.

Once again, I dont know the minutae of the CWB but I these circumstances tell me the government must be doing something right.

I do wonder what an agency that was under Liberal control for so long will have hidden in its books. I suspect there will be more than a few donations to the Liberal party, tickets purchased, donations made and jobs given to out of work staffers.

MAybe the investigation will arise just in time for the next election!

Just cus I support it doesn't mean it can't be improved. Where's my christmas bonous??

http://www.canada.com/nationalpost/news/story.html?id=0702750d-451d-4c9c-aed8-d1c829db552d

The CWB's bogus bonous
National Post
Published: Saturday, December 23, 2006

I don't know why anyone makes a big deal about the "spearchucker" comment, if they're trying to prove racism on Stockwell Day, they're reaching beyond the bounds of credibility.

In times past, before and even after, the invention of firearms, all races used spears, not just "persons of color".

The term "spearchucker" is probably remembered from the movie "MASH", not the tv series. One of the doctors in that movie was called "Spearchucker Jones", and he was a former pro football quarterback.

He was called "spearchucker' because of the accuracy and distance of his passing the ball. "Spearchucker" was his nickname,bestowed as a compliment to his athletic ability.

How anyone could use Day's remark as racist is beyond common sense. If a Swede competes in the Olympics(TM)as a javelin thrower, we can call him "spearchucker", but if a person from Nigeria does, we can't call him the same, ridiculous!

Misspoken words and "slips of the tongue" don't connote a racist attitude, but this "gotcha" BS does nothing for the state of political debate, but lower it to sandbox level.

We are all becoming a bunch of backseat lawyers, trying to turn anything a politician says against him. One day we may come to the point where, during interviews all questions are met with "no comment".

And some nutcase will undoubtedly claim he heard racist or sexist or homophobic undertones in the way someone pronounced "comment".

Clicked on the Winnipeg Sun link; lovely picture of Dion, Anita Neville and Angry Ken Dryden. I am quite worried about Ken. He constantly looks angry, indignant and full of absolute white-hot hate for Conservatives. He's gonna anger himself into a quick heart (hate?) attack if he's not careful...My respect for the man has gone wayyyy down.

Skeletons in the CWB closet? Hmmm.
Let's see now. Cretin named "Honest Ralphie?" Minister of Agriculture in 1993, in 1997 became the Minister of Natural Resources and Minister resonsible for the CWB. In 2003 Cretin gave him the Minister of Finance portfolio, in which position Goodale gave us the infamous Income Trust waffle, which included a meeting with certain individuals from the Investment Dealers Association, we all saw what happened there. Oh, and "Honest Ralpie?" worked for the CBC News from 68-72, suprised?

Correction, Bruce, Goodale was Martin's Finance Minister.

your point is still well made. That he was a Trudeau MP as well shouldn't be lost on anyone.

Thanks Trev, how could I overlook that it was Smaul Fartin' who named him to Finance? Speaking of which, when do the Audits begin on the CSL contracts while former PMPM was Finance Minister?

Liberal want to reduce all our farmers to raising herbs for the wackos and turn 50% of our nation into wilderness for wealthy eco-freaks like TED TURNER and AL GORE and crazy wackos like MARICE STRONG

Did Dryden check the polical leanings of fans who went to his games. Dryden is always angry, and I agree, a candidte for a stroke, as was Graham, as opposition leader. Angry liberals say and do stupid things but the blogs will catch them.

food prices arent going to rise with the elimination of cwb; they could conceivably go down without the skimming going on. furthermore, entry of new growers no longer impeded by the presence of a strictly man made regulatory monopoly will drive any temporary price increases down to an equilibrium.

the only thing for sure over time is farmers will get more for their produce.

Get your facts straight. The CWB is NOT a government agency. Employees of the CWB are NOT government employees.

http://www.cwb.ca/public/en/about/myths/

There is no "skimming" going on. Figure out what Cargill and other transnationals do. That's "skimming". That will cause an increase in prices at the consumer level and not some perceived decrease.

This isn't a "right" vs. "left" fight. The CWB is a valuable tool for the farmers to compete against transnationals in a domestic and global marketplace. Eliminate that tool, which isn't the government's place to do, regardless of who's in power at the time, and no-one but the transnationals win.

str8dope: Well who is skimming the canola market? Or the flax market, oats, sunflowers and any other non board crops?

Well str8dope, remember when ralfie goodfornothin was in control of the cwb? Who do you think appointed him to this position? Who do you think appoints the top dogs to this communist piece of crap? and why?? Who do you think ok'd the theft of at least 460'000 dollars of (western farmers) money for cwb employee's christmas bonus? yesterday or the day before?? The word (sue) should be inserted here!
Here is one other fact for you...my malt barley has a cwb pro of 203. dollars. thats 4.42 a bushel, looks good doesn't it... Now take off freight and handling 2.06 a bushel and i'm left with 2.36 projected final for my malt and i have to waite a year to get all my money.
Right now, i can sell that barley for feed to a plant seven miles from me(in sask) for 3.00 bu and all that money will be in my pocket within a week or less. It might also interest you to know the plant is run by cargill....and guess what else....there will be no money left on the table for cwb emploee's to steal from me! or anyone else for that matter! I especially like that idea!

Merry Chritmas Kate.
Thanks for all the work you put into this.

well, bygeorge, get your mitts out of the public cookie jar while you're extolling the virtues of the free market.

str8dope and dor, run away like good little "cheese eating surrender monkey's."

Well dor, if i can keep your mitts outa my cookie jar, maybe i won't need any!
Or how about the court case just started by the dear cwb to protect their cushy jobs, and by the way, want me to pay for? More fingers in my cookie jar, dor!

rebarbarian: do you think that Cargill is giving you full value for your crop?

bygeorge: do you know the history of the wheat board? It was created with the help and support of the government, yes. The government then realized they shouldn't have their fingers in that pot. So they distanced themselves from it. But already, the transnationals indicated they felt the wheat board would be a threat, so they made claims of unfair competition. So the government mandated that they have 5 spots on the board in order to prevent collusion and other marketing controls. Having 5 spots on the board does not make it a government agency.

As a corporation, there is nothing wrong with bonuses. They happen all the time. To publicly justify it as "stress bonus" may have not bee the best term, but there's nothing wrong with it. Stop growing cwb handled crops if you feel you're getting such a crappy price. Are you saying that selling to the transnationals is going to get you a better freight price? When's the last time you sold canola or flax and didn't have to pay freight? Go ahead and sell your barley to Cargill, then. If it's all about margins to you, then go do it and stop complaining.

Getting into the cost of freight? Where were you when they killed the Crow? Because it was GOOD FOR YOU? It saved you money? Whatever. Stop complaining about the freight prices, because you probably wanted to get rid of the crow.

bruce: the only people that need to run away from this are farmers who feel they are getting some bum rap with the CWB. It's all about some perceived profit margin increase that the transnationals are promising. It doesn't matter if the barley is sold for malt or feed then, if it's all about profit. And the cwb doesn't stop those who want to go that route. Walk away from the wheat board managed crops then or sell to alternate markets for a better margin, rather than try to get rid of it.

You know st8dope, a cwb supportin freind of mine told me the other day he was mad as he** at PHSH becasue he wasn't going to qualify for some gov. handout???

So, I phoned him to see what he thought of the handout to the cwb employees of his money..like you, he thought that was ok. WOW! As for me, they should have added it to that dismal 2.36 a bu. the cwb wants to give me for my malt! You know, the one that cwb monopoly advantage your braggin about was supposed to get me? I can see why their customers endorsed their work!

Freight, i was pointing out freight had to come off the cwb pro price...it doesn't have to come off the 3.00 price, already off, thats net to me! The crow? the crow was on everything from soup to nuts! Lumber comeing out of british columbia was being shipped with crow rate subsidy on it.... and Lord only knows what else, you don't think the gov. wanted that thing dead???? If you and i agree on anything, that would be it. The crow was supposed to cover our freight one way so we weren't paying freight both ways when they shipped the flower back to us processed in the flower mills in the EAST! And that would have benifitted everyone in the west, not just farmers!

If you want to stay in the cwb, go ahead. Some people like being mushrooms and liveing off handouts, and liveing in the past, i guess! We have a saying at our farm, you can lead a horse to water but you...oh, you've heard it!

On our little farm, we have a saying about the blind leading the blind and leading a horse to slaughter...

Invest in any publicly traded company and complain when the pay bonuses. Don't like it, don't invest in it.

If you want to make a better margin, why don't you sell your malt barley for feed to cargill? In the mean time, what advantage do you have with the CWB dismantled.

And talk about hypocrisies. What's the deal with all the seed cleaning plants in Alberta being co-ops? And cargill making a deal with the saskatchewan government to produce fertilizer. More talk about skimming, when Cargill can sell you your fertilizer and your seed at a high price and then buy your crop back at "market value" in a polluted fall.

Yeah, I'll take my initial price from CWB and take my final payout along with whatever bonuses that comes along when the CWB can sell my grain at higher than expected prices.

Electric Vehicle = No more gas bills.

Links to know before you buy your first electric car [EV].

PliginAmerica.com

TonyGuitar.blogspot.com

WrightSpeed.com [Fairly long wait for RealPlayer video to load]

Any other links like the Eestore Super Cell or the Toronto EV company
Or the GM EV-1 can be found from the above links. = TG

I have another "sighting" for your list.

In today's Winnipeg Free Press, page B10, there is a story about a poll taken in Winnipeg regarding the wheat board. Prominent in the story is a photo and some quotes from "Starbuck area farmer Chuck Fossay", who is quoted as approving of the single desk, and whom the article describes as "...not giving up hope."

Mr. Fossay says, "There's always the possibility of a federal election in the new year too. Stephan Dion said he supports the single-desk system, he's willing to let farmers decide..."

If you don't know anything about Chuck Fossay, it seems as if the article considers it too much of a chore to help you out. However, Chuck happens to be a neighbor of mine. He's a past Vice-President of Keystone Agricultural Producers, an organization that is well-known for its vociferous support of the single desk, and who counts the Canadian Wheat Board as a "generous sponsor" of the organization. (This info can be found on the KAP website). At present, Chuck Fossay sits on KAP's grains and oilseeds committee.

The article, as well, did not ask Mr. Fossay if he had any political affiliations. While I don't think he holds any official title in the Liberal Party of Canada, I do know that in the last federal election he was seen touring with the Liberal candiate in Portage-Lisgar. The Free Press might have at least asked.