A Crisis in National Unity?: The Chicken and Egg War, 1970–1971

Abstract

This article examines the now largely forgotten, but then important, “Chicken and Egg War” of 1970–71. The chicken and egg war began when the Quebec government established the Fédération des producteurs d’œufs de consommation du Québec (FPOCQ) in 1970, a marketing board that began to restrict the price, grading, and sale of all eggs in Quebec, including egg imports from other provinces. The new board disrupted egg sales in Manitoba and Ontario, and it was not long before a series of legislative retaliations among the provinces took place, including strict import controls on broiler chickens and eggs and the seizure of out-of-province produce. Although predominantly contained to the neighbouring provinces of Manitoba, Ontario, and Quebec, this event was significant because it resulted in appeals to the Supreme Court of Canada, claims made concerning the rights of provinces vis-à-vis the federal government, and the restriction of agricultural goods, in this case, poultry and eggs, across provincial boundaries. This episode also had serious political ramifications, including fractured relationships among farmers, consumers, other industry stakeholders, and politicians and heightened tensions surrounding the legality and authority of provincial agricultural marketing boards. Ultimately, this “war” provided a significant impetus for the federal government to establish a national system of supply management in the egg and poultry sectors, a system that remains today.