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CCCA_V5No4_Profiles-FIN_CCCA_V1No1_Profile-FIN.qxd 11/20/11 9:48 PM Page 12 Profile By Brad MacKay Jim McLandress, general counsel, Canadian Wheat Board Keeping his cool In addition to legal challenges, they have K eeping cool and stoic in the face of first minority government, and Stephen launched a vigorous PR campaign to plead adversity is a skill that all successful Harper, the country’s new Prime their case in the court of public opinion. lawyers must learn to master. Not Minister, publicly reaffirmed his election all,however,have to face an all-out Prairie farmers, which was released in government assault against the very exis- promise to strip the Wheat Board of its This included ordering a plebiscite of power and authority, a move that was sure tence of the organization they serve. to jeopardize the organization’s future. September that showed that 62 per cent of For the past 12 years,Jim McLandress has Call it a textbook case of epic adversity. farmers wanted to retain the Board’s been the general counsel at the Canadian “Politicians say a lot of things to get monopoly on wheat (a smaller number, 52 Wheat Board, the Winnipeg-based organi- elected then once they’re elected cooler per cent, voted to retain the monopoly on zation that oversees the sale of wheat and heads tend to prevail. Reality checks barley). Gerry Ritz, the agriculture minis- barley for more than 75,000 farmers in in,” the 49-year-old McLandress says. ter, quickly dismissed the results of the Manitoba,Alberta, Saskatchewan and parts “Reasonable people can agree to disagree plebiscite, saying “no expensive survey can of British Columbia. on certain things and still work out a way trump the individual right of farmers to As historic as it is byzantine, the Wheat to coexist and keep things moving and do market their grain.” Board markets and sells nearly 19 million the right thing.That was my expectation Throughout this and other flare-ups, tonnes of wheat, barley and durum to of what would happen. I was disappoint- McLandress has been at the centre of the more than 70 countries every year, last ed in that expectation.” storm.As the anchor of the legal team and year reporting revenue of $5.1-billion. In the nearly six years since,the struggle a member of the executive, he has been Given the size and scope of the opera- between the federal government and the integral to guiding the world’s largest wheat tion, there’s no shortage of interesting — Wheat Board has grown into a nasty and and barley marketer through the biggest and challenging — work, covering a increasingly public brawl. Several court fight of its life — and possibly its last. range of issues that include labour mat- battles (with wins and losses on both sides) Born and bred inWinnipeg,McLandress ters, and everything from maritime law to have been waged, and the government never planned for a life on the front lines. international trade law. As McLandress used its executive privilege to fire the Nor did he ever plan for a life in corporate puts it, his days “are fairly predictable in Board’s President.After winning a majori- law.After being called to the Bar in 1989, their unpredictability.” ty this spring, the Conservative govern- he accepted a position atWinnipeg’sTaylor A perfect example of this occurred on ment has pledged to end the Board’s sin- and McCaffrey where he worked a mixed January 25, 2006. That was the day after gle-desk authority byAugust 2012.But it’s bag of litigation; everything from criminal the Conservative Party of Canada won its not like the Board has taken it lying down. files to insolvency, tax and, of course plenty 12 CCCA Canadian Corporate Counsel Association WINTER 2011