The Rural Voice, 1989-04, Page 53_ I NEWS
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CATTLEMEN URGED
TO ATTEND MEETINGS
BEFORE BEEF VOTE
The heated election -style campaign
over the issue of the beef -marketing
vote in Ontario this month is creating
worries about putting a divided industry
back together when the vote is over.
The Ontario Beef Producers for
Change (OBPFC) issued a press release
in mid-March stating that the "Ontario
Cattlemen's Association in its zeal to
defeat us has strained ... truth to the
breaking point."
The "campaign of confusion," says
Kevin Paton, public relations chairman
of the OBPFC, "is causing the wound to
open wider." He adds that while the vote
to decide the future of the beef industry
was intended to be "an expression of
opinion on a referendum," the political
intensity and heavily funded campaign
of the OCA are obscuring the facts.
But Glenn Coultes of Brussels, vice-
president of the OCA, says the referen-
dum is in fact a political campaign being
fought by groups holding opposed ide-
ologies. The OCA hasn't strained the
truth any more than the OBPFC has, he
says, and, "in a campaign where you are
trying to win you will certainly try to
explain your side fully."
"Our mandate is to maintain free-
dom of choice in marketing and produc-
tion," Coultes says.
Paton doesn't agree that producers
are being well served by the OCA's
explanations, but he does agree about
the bottom line of the debate: "Basically
it's a crossroads that the industry has
reached based on philosophies." But the
OCA, he says, in its refusal to address
the marketing issue in the name of"free-
dom of choice" and "survival of the
fittest," is hurting beef producers more
than it is helping them. A yes vote, says
Paton, would give producers more bar-
gaining power in the marketplace.
Both Coultes and Paton offer the
same advice to beef producers, how-
ever: get out to the information meet-
ings, be fully informed, and vote.
For information about the informa-
tion meetings or the vote contact the
Beef Information Line at 1-800-668-
7386 or your local office of the Ontario
Ministry of Agriculture and Food.O
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APRIL 1989 51