CWB election: Who is running? Who can vote?

Ian Craven of MNP is the Canadian Wheat Board election coordinator. I talked to him yesterday and he said at the time he had no official nominations on the books. The "candidate profiles" box at www.cwbelection.com is still blank today. Craven expects the first few to come trickling in this week. I've been getting quite a few notices for pro-choice candidates who "intend" to run, but until they are officially nominated, we can't really call them candidates.

This election is for districts 2, 4, 6, 8 and 10, and winners serve a four-year-term expiring December 2012. Election for the odd-numbered districts is two years from now.

To become a candidate, you must be: (1) a Canadian citizen; (2) 18 years of age or older as of the nomination filing date; and (3) be named in a permit book as an actual producer or be a shareholder in a corporation, a member of a co-operative or a partner in a partnership that is named as an actual producer. A person may become a candidate in an electoral district in which he or she is registered as an actual producer or in an adjacent electoral district.

Who can vote?

The proposal to limit the voting list to growers who produced a minimum tonnage of wheat in one of the past two years has not been approved. So it's status quo in terms of who can vote.

Here is the official notice of who can vote, taken from www.cwbelection.com: Actual producers in CWB Districts 2, 4, 6, 8 and 10 who produced any of the seven major grains in 2007-08 or 2008-09 are eligible to vote, along with those entitled to a share of that grain. The major grains are wheat, oats, barley, rye, flax, canola and rapeseed.

More details from the website: Those who delivered to the CWB this year or last are automatically on the voters’ list and have been sent a voter confirmation package. Other farmers can establish their eligibility to vote by completing and submitting an “Application to Vote” form with a statutory declaration, as per previous CWB elections. Alternatively, a new option for this year is that any of the following can accompany the form to validate eligibility, in place of a statutory declaration:

—Crop insurance contract or contract number

—Grain delivery receipt

—Grain cash ticket

To see if you are on the preliminary voters list, call the MNP toll-free election number at 1.877.500.0795.

Key dates

October 20, 2008 - Nominations close at 6 p.m. CDT

November 14, 2008 - Deadline for Application to Vote at 5 p.m. CT 

November 28, 2008 - End of election period and ballot postmark deadline

December 7, 2008 - Election results announced

December 31, 2008 - Elected directors take office