Conservatives to Bureaucrats: Get In Line or Else!

Like we couldn't see this coming.

Essentially, Chuck Strahl has just fired Adrian Measner. Why? Largely because Mr. Measner continued to run the Wheat Board based on the directives from the Farmer-Elected Board of Directors. The message to other senior government bureaucrats and agency officials is clear enough - get in line, or prepare to walk the plank.

"The minister never talked to me — and still hasn't talked to me — [but] his staff were fairly open in the press that I would be terminated if I didn't support marketing choice and I'd still continue to follow the direction given to me by the farmer-elected board of directors, which isn't marketing choice," he said.

Of interest here are two key aspects:

1) The Conservative government's disrespect for the desires and opinions of the duly elected board of directors. The Wheat Board's directors are duly elected by the farmers who are directly affected by this board. Last I checked, there were a number of members of the board who want to pursue "market choice", but not enough claim a majority position on the board. This is a clear sign of utter disrespect for a specialized form of democracy on the part of Chuck Strahl and his leader.

2) The fact that Minister Strahl has not talked to Measner face to face (or, even over the phone) further underscores that this is a part of some political ideology, not a real management issue. In other words, the Conservatives are all too happy to roll over top of anyone who stands in the way of their particular (and peculiar) ideology.

The Wheat Board has been in place over 70 years, and has been an important and effective part of this nation's presence on world markets for wheat and other grains. Now we have a government bound and determined to dismantle it - whether or not the farmers want it, and regardless of its track record.

If the Conservatives are truly a party of "grass roots" democracy, then I challenge them to stow their ego-inflating rhetoric, and hold a referendum with all of the grain farmers. The question is simple - "Do you want the Wheat Board to continue to act on your behalf for grain sales?". Let the farmers decide, not ideology bound politicians.