Mr. Speaker, yes, I absolutely believe the member has every right to come to this place and debate an issue. This has been an issue that the member has been involved with for a long time, but that does not make him right. That does not make the individual correct in his assessment of this.
He is questioning the questions that were asked. He asks why they could not have been made a little clearer. In all the calls to my constituents and all the rehashed NFU letters that kept coming through to my constituency, 90% of them from Saskatchewan, very few talked about the questions that were being asked. The majority of farmers thanked me for the opportunity to decide which best would represent what they would like to see for the Wheat Board.
The member reminds me of Chicken Little, who runs around saying, “The sky is falling, the sky is falling”. The member does not believe in the Canadian Wheat Board. He said that if it were opened up, it would collapse and fall apart, that there would be no Canadian Wheat Board. I encourage him to have more confidence in its directors, to have more confidence in the ones that are in control of the board.
Competition in a free market society is good. Competition makes one better. Competition gives us the ability to improve on the way we do business.
I want to read into the record the three questions that were put on the ballot. Farmers were asked to select one of the following three options on the ballot.
The first option was:
The Canadian Wheat Board should retain the single desk for the marketing of barley into domestic human consumption and export markets.
If I wanted to see the demise of the Canadian Wheat Board, and I do not, I would have posed a much different question. I would have said, “Considering the fact that a large majority of farmers do not like the Canadian Wheat Board, should they retain the monopoly that it has had for far too long?” A question could be drawn up that would be remarkable, but this question asked whether it should retain the single desk. It does not talk about a monopoly for the marketing of barley into domestic human consumption. It spells out clearly where the grain is sold: through the Canadian Wheat Board.
The second option was:
I would like the option to market my barley to the Canadian Wheat Board or any other domestic or foreign buyer.
That is choice.