Mr Strahl ... help me understand this, please??

Dear Mr Strahl:

Have you been in Ottawa lately??
Have you been reading the newspapers??
Have you been watching the news on tv??

In case you missed it, the other day your boss, our Prime Minister, just announced plans for a revamped Senate. His proposal is to populate the Upper House in Ottawa thorugh demoratic elections, rather than patronage appointments.

The concept of democracy and elections are fundamental planks in the ongoing platforms of the Conservative Party, and the Government that you and your colleagues have formed. Yet, for some inexplicable reason, you seem to be persisting with the idea that the monopoly of the Canadian Wheat Board needs to be removed.

Mr Strahl, do you really have the best interests of the farmers at heart in this?? Or are you pursuing the agenda of American owned companies who have long wanted the Wheat Board eradicated??

Mr Strahl, if marketing boards with production quotas and controlled sales work in other areas of rural production, why would you, as the agriculture minister even consider changing the Wheat Board?

Mr Strahl, in my family we grew up with the old adage - "if it ain't broke, don't fix it". I don't know if your grandma ever told you that, but mine said it lots. Today you're trying to "fix" something that isn't broken.

Listen to the voices of the farmers on this one Mr Strahl, and stop listening to the voices of business people who say the revamping of the Wheat Board is a good idea. I bet if we really looked into it, they would be the same people who 20 years ago said that Free Trade with the US was a good idea too.

Mr Strahl, before you rush back out to the West Coast, take a day or two and drive around communities in Southern Ontario. As you're driving take time to look at the vacant car part and furniture factories that were busy and occupied before Mr Mulroney foisted Free Trade upon us ... look at those vacant factories and stop at the coffee shops and cafes and talk with the laid off workers you find there, and listen to them tell you how their jobs moved to the US, then to Mexico with the Free Trade agreements we've entered into. Listen to those men and women, and look at what's left of the furniture and auto industries in Southern Ontario, then tell me why opening the marketing of wheat and barley to the free market is a good idea ???

I dare you ... take time to listen for a change Mr Strahl ... it's the very least you can do !!