More Than 5,100 Signed Petition For CWB Vote

As of June 24 more than 5,100 people had signed the Manitoba government’s online petition calling on the federal government to let farmers vote on whether or not to create an open market for wheat and barley Aug. 1, 2012. That figure doesn’t include those who have signed petitions in Manitoba Agriculture, Food and Rural

The Jacksons – for Jun. 23, 2011

I have to admit,” Grant Toews was saying as Andrew Jackson set a coffee cup on “ I the café table and sat down in the last empty chair, “that sometimes I’m not sure why I even bother to vote. I mean, why do we even have a government? Aside from wasting our hard-earned money


Letters – for Jun. 23, 2011

Bipole boondoggle continues Another week, another round of rains drowning the grains and livestock sectors, another Manitoba Co-operator in the mail, and yet another letter from Rosann Wowchuk proclaiming the economic and environmental virtues of Bipole III. The former minister of agriculture gives us the same story: west side is good; east side is bad. A

Let Farmers Vote On Cwb

The Manitoba government is putting up $180,000 to pressure the federal government into letting farmers decide the Canadian Wheat Board’s future through a vote. The provincial government hasn’t ruled out funding a legal challenge to prevent Ottawa from unilaterally removing the CWB’s monopoly on the sales of all western Canadian wheat and barley destined for

Sell Or Wind Down The CWB

Rhetoric is “language designed to have a persuasive or impressive effect on its audience, but is often regarded as lacking in sincerity or meaningful content.” There’s been lots of it in the Canadian Wheat Board (CWB) debate. But push came to shove with the election of a majority Conservative government May 2. The government says


Letters – for Jun. 9, 2011

Cargill’s stance hardly a surprise The Page 9 headline in the May 19 issue of theManitoba Co-operatorreads: “Cargill calls for orderly end to orderly marketing.” Cargill’s stance should hardly come as a surprise to farmers. After all, what wolf wouldn’t welcome easier access to the sheep. So farmers, let us beware of the big bad

Struthers Opposes Ottawa’s Open-Market Move

With many Manitoba farmers struggling to seed this year’s crop, news that the Canadian Wheat Board’s (CWB) sales monopoly will end Aug. 1, 2012 comes at a bad time, says Manitoba Agriculture Minister Stan Struthers. “The last thing they needed was to have the federal Conservative government come along and run a knife through the

Letters – for Jun. 2, 2011

Well, Stephen Harper and his Tories finally have their longed-for majority. Harper tells us in his victory speech that “we will have to govern well, govern in people’s interest” and that “even as a majority you have to, on an ongoing basis, keep the trust of the population.” Is that going to be the case


Canola Growers Shun Voluntary CWB Pilot Project

The Grandview-area farmer who first suggested exploring a voluntary marketing program for canola through the Canadian Wheat Board says he still thinks it’s a good idea. But he isn’t surprised farmers refused to support it. Larry Bohdanovich brought forward the resolution at the Manitoba Canola Growers Association’s (MCGA) annual meeting in 2006 asking it to

ICE Canada To Trade Wheat As Monopoly Ends

ICE Futures Canada will launch spring wheat and durum contracts early next year to take advantage of Ottawa’s planned dismantling of the Canadian Wheat Board’s grain monopoly, its chief operating officer said on May 19. The spring wheat contract will compete for liquidity with one offered by the Minneapolis Grain Exchange, but will also complement