More on the Wheat Board

I find it funny the liberals scream about having choice. Most of the time. But then when it comes to marketing choice, like western farmers having the choice to market their wheat howsoever they may choose, they clam up and say "we are Borg."

I mean really, they rail and bray against the tyranny of the majority tromping on the rights of the minority when it suits them, but then scream about the majority ruling when it doesn't. So let's say for argument's sake that 95% of farmers want a single-desk system to market their wheat, leaving 5% of farmers who want to market their own. Even if one farmer wants to sell his wheat outside of the Wheat Board, what's the problem?

And the real nub of this is that, if the WB is so great, even if open to competition, the WB would still garner a majority of the wheat.

Moreover, it appears to me to be NEP--wheat style. Why is it mandatory for farmers west of the MB/ON border to go through the WB but not farmers east of said border? Strange things a-happenin'.

I suspect that, if the books were open to audit by the AG (I'm not so sure they can be open to her, because the WB isn't a fully government-run operation), there would be some rather odd things in there. The secrecy surrounding it and the pedal-to-the-metal attempts to stop any audits by liberals reminds me of another time. Something smells funny here.

Welcome to the Conservative Party

H/t: Jack's Newswatch

A young woman was about to finish her first year of college. Like so many others her age, she considered herself to be a good NDP-er, and was very much in favor of the redistribution of wealth.

She was deeply ashamed that her father was a rather staunch Conservative, a feeling she openly expressed. Based on the lectures that she had participated in, and the occasional chat with a professor, she felt that her father had for years harbored an evil, selfish desire to keep what he thought should be his.

One day she was challenging her father on his opposition to higher taxes on the rich and the addition of more government welfare programs. The self-professed objectivity proclaimed by her professors had to be the truth and she indicated so to her father.

He responded by asking her how she was doing in school.

Taken aback, she answered rather haughtily that she had a 4.0 GPA, and let him know that it was tough to maintain, insisting that she was taking a very difficult course load and was constantly studying, which left her no time to go out and party like other people she knew. She didn’t even have time for a boyfriend, and didn’t really have many college friends because she spent all her time studying.

Her father listened and then asked, “How is your friend Audrey doing?”

She replied, “Audrey is barely getting by. All she takes are easy classes, she never studies, and she barely has a 2.0 GPA . She is so popular on campus, college for her is a blast. She’s always invited to all the parties, and lots of times she doesn’t even show up for classes because she’s too hung over.”

Her wise father asked his daughter, “Why don’t you go to the Dean’s office and ask him to deduct a 1.0 off your 4.0 GPA and give it to your friend who only has a 2.0. That way you will both have a 3.0 GPA and certainly that would be a fair and equal distribution of GPA.”

The daughter, visibly shocked by her father’s suggestion, angrily fired back, “That wouldn’t be fair! I have worked really hard for my grades! I’ve invested a lot of time, and a lot of hard work! Audrey has done next to nothing toward her degree. She played while I worked my tail off!”

The father slowly smiled, winked and said gently, “Welcome to the Conservative Party”.

Notes

I know, as someone would say, blogging has been ass lately, but that's because of work and travel and stuff. But a few notes:

1. I just listened to Stéphane Dion on CJOB with Richard Cloutier. Dion is a dead-ringer (voice wise) for Roch Carrier.
   
2. What's the deal with the Wheat Board? It's an anachronism from earlier times used to fortify the marketing power of individual farmers using a collective. But in the current time of half-million dollar tractors and most farmers working 8 or 10 sections of land, as well as marketing know-how gained either in University or in the real world, how relevant is it? But fine. Keep it. But how about opening it up to choice--or even better yet, how about making it at least fair--so that farmers in western Canada have the choice to sell outside of the wheat board, as do eastern farmers. Or if you make it a law that you must sell through the wheat board (wow, even typing that made me see a hammer and a sickle), then make it so that eastern farmers must sell through them, too. Actually, I was kidding about that. Don't make Canada more communist. Open it up and if the Wheat Board is so good as they say it is, then it'll be able to run all by itself. There has been plenty of heated debate over at SDA about this one.
   
3. A private clinic in Winnipeg is selling MRI time to the public health care system. Good for them. And no, you Henny Pennys out there, the sky isn't falling. The only result is that everyone is getting MRIs more expiditiously.
   
4. The Senate is, by and large, not happy with plans to make it representative. Nor are liberals and Liberals. As a Simpsons character would say, the ironing is delicious.
   
5. Give the Green Party leader time in the debates. I think there should be a mechanism to allow party leaders if either the polling numbers or the numbers in the previous election are over a certain threshold--let's say, 4%.
   
6. Give it up, people. Kyoto is nothing but a wealth-distribution scheme. Essentially, if I want to pollute more, I pay another country to buy their "credits" so that my pollution is within "targets". I'm all for pollution reduction, but let's go about it smartly, rather than just giving money to other countries so that we can pollute. Say, for example, financial incentives to industry within the country to cut emissions.
   
7. Finally, kudos to Kate over at Small Dead Animals. She won Canadian blog of the year, and rightly so. I read her blog daily, even when I'm out of the country. Keep up the good work, Kate!
   

Wow.

I've been really busy with work. But I had to note this:

Bill Graham invokes Godwin's Law.

Classy. Very classy.