Gary Doer continues to waste tax dollars to promote his tired, big-government ideology (h/t Small Dead Animals).

Manitoba's recent Canadian Wheat Board plebiscite, which was paid for by Manitoba taxpayers, was supposed to give Ottawa a feeling of how Prairie farmers feel about the CWB monopoly. Instead, the question asked was totally loaded, and gives absolutely no indication of how farmers in Manitoba actually feel about the monopoly.

Voters were asked to tick one of two boxes -- either "I wish to maintain the ability to market all wheat, with the continuing exception of feed wheat sold domestically, through the CWB single desk system," or "I wish to remove the single desk marketing system from the CWB and sell all wheat through an open market system." [emphasis mine]

The problem is, they didn't offer an option for voluntary participation in the CWB, which is what I suspect most farmers would support.

Of course, because the question posed was so poor, both sides are claiming victory.

Ken Ritter, the chair of the Canadian Wheat Board, said he was pleased but not surprised by the result. "It's a clear result and a clear win for the CWB," Mr. Ritter said. [...]

In Ottawa yesterday, Agriculture Minister Chuck Strahl said he was encouraged by Manitoba's plebiscite, even though a majority voted against the government's position.

"Close to 40 per cent of people said they wanted freedom of choice on barley, and that's with, as far as I'm concerned, a cooked-up, slanted question and a huge propaganda campaign that went with it," Mr. Strahl said.

Since the government's position is one of a voluntary CWB, I'd say it wasn't even addressed.

Of course, this doesn't address the wider question that should really be asked: should a majority be able to remove the freedoms of a minority?

Labels: CWB, Gary Doer, Manitoba