Mr. Speaker, I have a question for the member. She said the result of the plebiscite is not the will of the farmers. As I read it, the question is actually quite clear. The middle question is: “I would like the option to market my barley to the Canadian Wheat Board or any other domestic or foreign buyer”.
It seems rather obvious that farmers have expressed their will in the broadest form, saying they want to have the freedom to market their product. It is a product grown on their own land, a product they have produced. Why would the member have anything against a farmer being able to have options?
We know that a private member's bill was presented in the House to allow a farmer to sell produce grown on his own land through a processing firm without having to go through the Canadian Wheat Board, and without having to pay the costs, exchanges and application fees, to sell it direct to a customer he can see. Somehow that member and other members of the Liberal Party voted against that. They voted to prevent a farmer from being able to sell his own product, which he produces by the sweat of his brow on his own land, to a customer he can see. They want to prevent that. What would be the logic of that?
Finally, the Leader of the Opposition says it does not matter what farmers might say in a plebiscite, he is going to revert to the old system whereby farmers cannot sell to anyone but one party, and a party that will deal with customers they cannot see.
What is the logic of not accepting a plebiscite whereby the Canadian Wheat Board is preserved and farmers can sell to the Wheat Board if they want to but also can sell their produce somewhere else? It is obvious that 13.8% do not want to have anything at all to do with the Wheat Board and that 48.4% say they want to have the option to sell their produce. When we add those two together, in my mind that is 62% and a bit who want to have the option to sell their own product without the interference of big brother, the government.
What does the member have against that kind of freedom? Why would she want to bind up a farmer from having that ability?