Larry Maguire - Farming Activist

Farming Activist

Maguire is the owner and operator of Maguire Farms Limited in Elgin. He was named mid-Canada's Outstanding Young Farmer in 1986, and received a Certificate of Merit from the Manitoba Agricultural and Food Sciences Grads Association in 1990. He was twice elected as the Canadian Wheat Board Advisory Committee's Western Manitoba Representative, serving from 1987 to 1994. He was also chairman of the Agricultural Diversification Alliance (ADA) and a public governor of the Winnipeg Commodity Exchange in this period, and advocated changes to the federal Crow Equity Fund.

Maguire served as president of the Western Canadian Wheat Growers Association from 1995 to 1999. This group opposed the Canadian Wheat Board's single-desk marketing policy, and favoured market competition in wheat and barley. Maguire campaigned for re-election as a Wheat Board advisor in 1994 on an openly anti-monopoly platform, arguing that sellers could receive higher prices through an open market. Others disagreed with his assessment. He was defeated by pro-monopoly candidate Bill Nicholson, 2,728 votes to 1,544.

Maguire supported the anti-monopoly position in a 1997 CWB referendum on barley sales. Farmers rejected this position, with 67% opting to remain with single-desk marketing. Maguire was critical of the referendum question, arguing that it should have included a dual-market option.

In 1998, Maguire was appointed to a council evaluating proposals for the Agri-food Research and Development Initiative. This was a joint project from the federal and provincial governments. Later in the same year, he endorsed anti-monopoly candidates in the first ever election of the Canadian Wheat Board's directors. Pro-monopoly candidates won eight of the ten positions.