Well done Canada - no such luck for we Australian Wheat Growers were sold out by urban elites in one of the worst decisions ever made in this nation. Tony Burke will go down as the Nation's worst Agriculture Minister but the Liberals can also hang their heads in shame. What makes the decision all the more treacherous is that we are now left to sell wheat without any market power or equity into a world which is under going financial collapse.

The Conservative government still has the policy to achieve marketing choice for all wheat and barley producers in western Canada. We as producers will continue to see that our government upholds this pledge. In CWB district 2, producers have since 1998 voted for a choice candidate, I look forward to, if elected carrying this on. And with hopefully a new slate of directors (elections are being held in districts 2,4,6,8 and 10) we can provide farmers what they have been asking in plebiscites and CWB producer surveys, and that is choice.

A new direction at the board table will go a long way to ensure the proper changes are made to the CWB Act in Parliament. The honourable opposition parties who do not have any influence in the CWB designated area will have little to say about the future of the CWB and how western producers manage their farm businesses.

Prairie producers want choice, the producers in District two want choice and if elected I will work to ensure they get choice. Jeff Nielsen www.jeff4cwb.ca

At least one country has some brains. Without the National Pool this year Australia is in for a hard time marketing crop with sales having to be spread over a lengthy time or taking fire sale price at harvest. Welcome to the new world of deregulation.

The direction of Canada's Conservative government was and still is to give marketing choice to Western Canadian farmers. Eastern Canadian farmers already enjoy the option to market their own grain. For example, Ontario farmers sell through the Ontario marketing Board if they CHOOSE, or sell their own grain if they choose. Either way, the CWB provides them with free export permits. No jailings. Surely reasonable readers would encourage the Canadian government to provide WESTERN farmers the choice to sell their own grain, too, rather than regurgitate the ex-Liberal government's vision. Liberals actually jailed many many Western farmers for even taking a bag of wheat across the border, whilst in the same breath, sending those Western farmers a bill for the licensing costs of handing out export permits to the Eastern farmers. No more. Enough is enough. Parsley

Jeff and Parsley, we will gladly give you KRudd and Tony Bourke to sort out your problems. Perhaps you may like a few of our Liberals to help as well. Watch closly the problems we are facing with selling our grain this harvest before you run down the road we have been forced to go by Government installed policy. The majority of Australian growers were ignored by the know nothing Government we were given.

Parley, Jeff Nielson: No-one believes your nonsense. Yes, this is the perfect time to let the grain companies into our pocket books, with the world's economy on the brink of collapse and all. Brilliant Strategy.

Nonsense? Ontario has had a functioning producer board for many years. First it was compulsory, and then it came under the control of growers.

Ontario producers do not shout for change.

What you obviously do not seem to realise is that the Canadian Wheat Board, as is, has been AN ACT OF PARLIAMENT SINCE 1947.

We are dealing with Government. Not farmers. Hence the problem.

It is forced monopoly marketing and Minister Ralph Goodale made sure every farmer that could possibly be jailed...was jailed. You endorse jailing, I presume?

Interesting comments, Mark and Bill. For those Down Under, you have to be here to fully know how inadequate our system is.

Mark, our Liberals here got us into this mess and that is what we are trying to change.

Producers here believe our CWB can remain a strong marketing option without it's monopoly.

We are land locked here and have to pay significant freight to move our grain to port - and the CWB is export driven, not value-added drivin.

We are forced, therefore, to sell our other commodities, such as canola, pulses, oats, first to get cash flow, as the CWB sales are not conducive to getting adequate cash flow into farmers pockets after harvest.

Bill, as an ex farmer elected director to two of Canada's big grain companies, I note your view on the idea that, without the CWB, the grain companies would rob from producers.

The CWB has no facilities, nor does it need any facilities. Grain companies will bid for any handle the CWB has for them, there for bidding for the grain from producers to fulfill any sales the CWB has.

That then means more money back to producers. It's called competition. We have it already in our canola, peas, lentils, oats.

Producers want that option now for wheat and barley.

Our malting industry needs to be free of the shackles of the CWB. Producers want this and the CWB's own producer surveys called for the end of the monopoly for barley.

It's time for change, and choice.

I, as a candidate, will strive for a strong CWB without the monopoly and to allow our Western Canadian producers the same right to choice that our eastern and American cousins have.

Mark, I should have been more informative. Canada has CWB legislation. The licensing part of it is national and applies to all of Canada.

The marketing part of it is regional and applies to Western Canada only.

Eastern Canada has its own marketing acts. Quebec markets its own grain, Ontario has a Markekting Board for wheat that allows a producer to market through the board or sell on his own.

That's what the West is heading for.

Well we are faced with selling our own sugar, what a farce. Our CEO from Qld Sugar went over to Canada to head up the wheat single desk selling. How fortunate for them, how disastrous for us. All those comments are absolutely true - we are now living the horror to the point where all the responsiblility falls on the farmer while the multinational corporation sits back and reaps the rewards without any of the resposibilities even down to "force majeure" over which farmers have no control but will be made responsible for if they cannot supply the goods.