Since first forming government in 2006, the Harper government has made no secret of its distaste for the single-desk selling power of the Canadian Wheat Board (CWB). However, despite numerous dirty tricks and patently undemocratic maneuvers, the government has been unable to dismantle the CWB, mainly due to its minority position in parliament. Now with a newly minted majority, the Conservatives have designated the destruction of the CWB as one of their first priorities. Indeed, just one day after the May 2nd federal election, Agriculture Minister Gerry Ritz made it clear the majority Conservative government will soon move to eliminate the Board's single-desk marketing function with legislation as early as this fall.
The gutting of the Winnipeg-based Wheat Board and its sister agency, the Canadian Grain Commission, would be a disaster -- and not only for prairie grain growers. It would be a giant step towards the dismantling of orderly marketing systems in other farm sectors, a further weakening of collective bargaining, a harsh blow to Canadian democracy, and a threat to workers and consumers across Canada and even beyond.
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Democracy Gone Astray
Democracy, being a human construct, needs to be thought of as directionality rather than an object. As such, to understand it requires not so much a description of existing structures and/or other related phenomena but a declaration of intentionality.
This blog aims at creating labeled lists of published infringements of such intentionality, of points in time where democracy strays from its intended directionality. In addition to outright infringements, this blog also collects important contemporary information and/or discussions that impact our socio-political landscape.
All the posts here were published in the electronic media – main-stream as well as fringe, and maintain links to the original texts.
[NOTE: Due to changes I haven't caught on time in the blogging software, all of the 'Original Article' links were nullified between September 11, 2012 and December 11, 2012. My apologies.]
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