Contribution limits could be lifted for Wheat Board elections

Generally speaking, the federal Conservatives like contribution limits and the ban on third-party contributions and why shouldn't they? They are trouncing their political rivals when it comes to grassroots fundraising and the ban on corporate donations is killing the Liberals.

But spending limits and bans on corporate donations may be working against the Conservative interest when it comes to the Canadian Wheat Board and so, on Friday just before the long weekend, the Conservatives proposed to do away with those bans.

A majority of the Conservative Party's supporters in Manitoba, Saskatchewan, and Alberta think farmers ought to be able to sell their wheat and barley to anyone they want — possibly even including the Wheat Board. Right now, by law, prairie farmers (and this restriction applies only to prairie farmers, mind you, not to farmers in PEI or Ontario, for example) must sell the wheat and barley to the Canadian Wheat Board which markets it on the behalf of farmers.

Because prices for wheat have been rising, many farmers believe they'd be better off financially if they could cut out the middleman, i.e., the wheat board.

This is a big issue in the federal Conservative caucus, which has several influential members are bona fide grain farmers, including Agriculture Minister Gerry Ritz (from Sask) and parliamentary secretarys Ted Menzies (Alberta) and David Anderson (Sask).

But those folks have been battling groups like the National Farmer's Union and, in some cases, the Wheat Board itself. The CWB believes grain farmers are best served in the long run through the stability in pricing that the Wheat Board can provide. There have been plebiscites, demonstrations, and firings. There have also been some court rulings which seem to suggest that no matter how many referenda the government has, the only way to change the rule is by amending an act of Parliament. And since the Conservatives are in a minority position and the other parties would likely oppose changes, the Conservatives are fighting a ground war.

The latest salvo from the Tories came late Friday (on the eve of a summer long weekend) with a proposal to amending the federal regulations that govern the elections of directors of the Canadian Wheat Board. Though the government has placed a strict cap of $1,000 per year on political donations and banned all third-party (i.e. union or corporate) donations to political parties, the government is throwing it wide open when it comes to the politics of the wheat board. The government proposes to eliminate the $10,000 limit on corporate, union, and other third-party donations during a wheat board election and it will allow these third parties to do whatever they want in terms of advertising.

“This regulatory change would encourage broad debate and participation in the Directors' elections by removing the current $10,000 spending restriction on advertising expenses in place for third-party intervenors, and allowing third parties to freely disseminate information during the election period,” the government said in a press release.

The Wheat Board's defenders believe the changes let agri-food corporations gang up on the Wheat board. Those oppose bans on third-party advertising during elections campaigns — and Prime Minister Stephen Harper used to be one of those when he was running the National Citizens Coalition — may very well pull throw these words back at the government, arguing that third-party advertising would be “a regulatory change [that] would encourage debate and participation in … elections.”