Former federal Agriculture Minister Charlie Mayer has died. He was 89.
He first entered cabinet as minister responsible for the Canadian Wheat Board and the Canadian Grain Commission and he and former Agriculture Minister John Wise quickly ended the feuding between the two bureaucracies which had been a feature of the Liberal regime under former Agriculture Minister Eugene Whelan and former Wheat Board Minister Otto Lang.
Mayer tried to reform the Wheat Board by removing oats from its monopoly export power, but the courts gave oat exports back to the Wheat Board.
That was important to Ontario wheat growers and Quaker Oats’ plant in Peterborough because the Wheat Board was restored as the centralized competitor.
Quaker Oats was keen to foster production in Ontario as an alternative to buying from the Wheat Board.
