Conservative
Government’s Propaganda War Against the Canadian Wheat
Board
The
Conservative government’s attempts to destroy farmers’ single-desk marketing
agency have been well-documented in Modern
Communism. New information released
at the end of July illustrates how the Conservatives used millions of dollars
in advertising spending to try and gain farmer support for their attacks on the
CWB.
In
response to an Access to Information request filed in February, the
Conservatives had already reported in June that they spent $1.2 million on
advertising during a four-month period (January-March 2007) around their flawed
and deceptive barley plebiscite. During
the plebiscite, farmers were asked a leading three-part question, which one
national pollster described as “diabolical”.
Despite the manipulative process, only 14 percent of those who voted
wanted no role for the CWB in barley marketing.
Figures
on total Conservative government spending on advertising during the 2007 fiscal
year (April 1, 2006 to March 31, 2007) are also now available and they are
startling: Out of the 34 government departments
and agencies which spent advertising dollars in 2007, the fourth-largest amount
was spent by Agriculture and Agri-Food Canada on convincing farmers to give up
their single-desk - $4.6 million. This
compares to $17.6 million by the Department of National Defence, (including $13
million on a recruitment campaign for the Canadian Forces); $11.3 million from
Human Resources and Skills Development, (including almost $7 million on a
campaign about Services Canada); and $10.2 million from Health Canada
(including an $8 million campaign on healthy eating and living). The biggest portion of spending for the top
three advertisers was TV advertising, which is considerably more expensive to
buy than print and radio advertising. All
these campaigns were also national. In
contrast, government advertising around the CWB issue was on radio or in
community papers and was focused entirely on the three Prairie provinces and a
small section of the Peace River district in B.C., which means the $4.6 million
stretched roughly 50 percent more than the dollars allocated to the top three
ad campaigns.
During
this same period, the CWB was operating under a gag order, imposed by the federal
cabinet, which prevented the organization from spending any resources on
advocating retention of single-desk marketing.
Not only did this gag order ban the CWB from advertising on the issue
but basic corporate activities – letter writing, speech writing, posting materials on its web site – were also curtailed.