Unified Grassroots Association Inc.

Alberta Sovereignty is akin to the abolishing of the Canadian Wheat Board

It seems to me the fight of Albertans for self-determination is very much like the struggle by many farmers to be free of the tyranny of the Canadian Wheat Board. There are many parallels in the history of both arrangements.

Being a Province within Canada may have been of some benefit at one time. In 1905 Canada was working to build a modern country, with the Federal Government creating the Provinces of Saskatchewan and Alberta to give the illusion of local autonomy while ensuring the structure of confederation benefited Central Canada. When the Canadian Wheat Board was created in it’s modern format in 1935 to be a single desk marketing authority the majority of wheat and barley farmers in these four areas thought it was good idea. Farmers in the rest of the country must have been judged as being more capable, better business operators, or just smarter as they were not included in the Legislation which applied only to Manitoba, Saskatchewan, Alberta, and the Peace River area of British Columbia. The farmers in these areas became dependent on it and comfortable with it, and when any of their fellow farmers complained about the Wheat Board they were labeled as a minority of troublemakers who did not understand the benefits of belonging. Sound familiar?

Conservative Governments (not Liberal ones) considered reforming / removing the Wheat Board on occasion but Wheat Board supporters in Western Canada were very vocal and well organized, with their arguments being that the Wheat Board while not perfect was necessary, essential even, that members of the Wheat Board did not know how good they had it, and certain doom awaited anyone who would be free to sell their own wheat and barley. How farmers in the rest of the Country managed to survive was not clear, but detractors were told not to dwell on facts such as those.

In 2011 the Conservative Government introduced Legislation to terminate the Wheat Board and a Federal Court Judge ruled that the Conservative Government was breaking the law by doing so. The Judge was saying that to introduce Legislation to negate / remove previously approved Legislation was against the Law. This ridiculous ruling was soon overturned by the Federal Court of Appeal. This is strikingly similar to the bizarre finding of the Judge in Alberta regarding the Referendum on Sovereignty. Hopefully that ruling will also be overturned.

Wheat Board supporters predicted the collapse of western Canadian Agriculture if the Wheat Board should ever be removed. They had grown very comfortable letting a bureaucrat sell their grain, the fruits of their labour, and three times a year sending them a cheque. These same supporters had no time or patience for anyone who argued to the contrary, anyone who wanted the freedom to do it themselves. The satisfied comfortable majority did not tolerate any discussion of change. Does this sound familiar? A lot of Albertans are saying they want the opportunity to do it themselves, to be free of Federal oversight and overreach and determine their own future. The Liberal Federal Government and many Albertans who are comfortable and complacent with the status quo, even one as obviously flawed as it is, do not want to give their fellow citizens the chance to be free. Just as the termination of the Wheat Board unleashed prosperity for western Canadian wheat and barley farmers, the termination of the existing arrangement between Alberta and the Federal Government will unleash prosperity for Albertans. All Albertans.

Do not be afraid of change.