Challenges and Successes
Since 2006 when the Conservative Party came to power, Chuck Strahl, the minister of Agriculture has worked towards the end the Wheat Board's monopsony, including the replacement of government appointees to the board of directors in favor of individuals who oppose the board's monopsony, a gag order on wheat board staff, the firing of the pro-board President of the Board, and intervention in the election of farmer elected members of the board of directors.
- December 2006 CWB board of directors election. Only one of five farmer elected seats goes to opponents of the Canadian Wheat Board's monopsony on the selling of Canadian wheat and barley internationally. Since there is only one incumbent farmer elected board member opposed to the monopsony, only two out of ten farmer elected directors are opposed to the monopsony. Nonetheless, the government appoints five members to the board so supporters of the board's monopsony have only an eight to seven majority. Doubts have also been cast on the results because Strahl, the minister of Agriculture, removed upwards of 20,000 farmers from the voters list in the midst of the election. These farmers were disqualified for such reasons as not having delivered any grain to the Wheat Board in the past two years or having produced enough wheat or malt barley to have generated significant enough income from which to live off.
- December 19, 2006: Chuck Strahl dismisses CWB president Adrian Measner, an outspoken supporter of the monopsony. This was done by Strahl with the statement "It's a position that serves at pleasure . And that position was no longer his." It was suggested that Measner had gone too far for refusing to remove pro-CWB documents from the Board website and also appearing at press conferences with opposition leader Stéphane Dion. The majority of the CWB's board of directors opposed the firing of Measner.
- March 28, 2007: Barley Plebiscite. 62% of farmers vote to end the wheat board's barley monopoly. Legislation to amend the act dies on order paper when the September 2008 election is called.
- February 26, 2008: Conservative government loses court battle over unilaterally dismantling the CWB because it was contrary to the Canadian Wheat Board Act.
- December 7, 2008: Board of Directors elections. Four of five candidates elected support the single-desk marketing agency.
- January 21, 2010: Supreme Court of Canada sided with the federal government in its 2006 order barring the board from spending its money on lobbying.
- December 7, 2011: Federal Court judge Douglas Campbell rules the Conservative government broke the law in introducing legislation to end the Wheat Board.
- December 15, 2011: Conservative legislation Bill C-18, ending the CWB monopsony, receives royal assent.
- June 18, 2012: Federal Court of Appeal upholds Bill C-18
- August 1, 2012: end of monopsony takes effect
Read more about this topic: Canadian Wheat Board
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“The approval of the public is to be avoided like the plague. It is absolutely essential to keep the public from entering if one wishes to avoid confusion. I must add that the public must be kept panting in expectation at the gate by a system of challenges and provocations.”
—André Breton (1896–1966)
“Small successes are still successes; great failures are still failures.”
—Mason Cooley (b. 1927)