Rural Dignity
To the Editor:
Your April 25 report of my “spirited and partisan” presentation on the so-called “reforms” to unemployment insurance gave a pretty fair summary of Rural Dignity’s position.
As it has done for the past decade, our organization continues to fight hard on behalf of rural committees across Canada. Your coverage heightens the visibility of work which too often goes unnoticed.
One point, however, I must correct: I am not “an avowed NDP supporter.”
What I actually said (possibly unwisely, given the many and diverse meanings that people assign to the word) was “Can’t you see, I’m a socialist!” Fortunately or unfortunately, the two do not necessarily equate.
Read Also
Late season rainfall creates concern about Prairie crop quality
Praying for rain is being replaced with the hope that rain can stop for harvest. Rainfall in July and early August has been much greater than normal.
Whatever my personal political affiliations might be (and like my father, Eugene Forsey, I tend to have difficulty toeing any party line), I should stress that they in no way represent Rural Dignity as an organization.
Rural Dignity is firmly non-partisan; we embrace people of many differing political persuasions. What we all share is our commitment to “preserving rural communities and promoting understanding of rural concerns.”
I hope that my lapse into an apparent partisanship will be understood and forgiven.
– Helen Forsey,
Ompah, Ont.
Country home
To the Editor:
At the risk of being scoffed at and scorned, this poem sums up my feelings about the drastic increase of oil activity in what was once a peaceful rural area.
Perhaps other readers may identify with it.
I came to his farm to be his wife
To live a quiet peaceful life
We built a house of logs our dream
But progress has changed things, so it seems.
What happened to our quiet way
Of lovely walks down a shady lane?
Ask the roaring oil trucks that go night and day
And leave us in their dusty haze!
Our quiet nights of starry skies
Are pierced by the thump of a well close by
Strange smells make us wonder why
We don’t feel as good as in days gone by.
We warn our children so small and dear
Stay close to home don’t get too near
An enticing road with garbage and empty bottles of beer
Draws them too close, they’ll be run over I fear.
Oh how I long for those quiet days
Walks down that pretty shady lane
They’ve cut down the trees (another well), it’s not the same
I can’t help wondering who’s to blame?
Alas I must be resigned
To the ever changing times
The 6:00 AM siren at the steam plant screams
And wakes me from my peaceful dreams.
– Marla Rauser,
Paradise Hill, Sask.
Why Canada?
To the Editor:
While I was flipping through a back issue of The Western Producer (March 21, 1996), the column, The Fringe, caught my attention. Under the title “Why a Canada?” Keith Dryden focuses attention on our lack of purpose in existing as a nation.
He summarizes his catalogue of questions and comments clearly by stating: “There must be some reason for Canada to be. When we find out what that is, only then will we be in position to decide how to get organized to make all the right things happen.”
Right on! If there is no consensus on where we are headed as a nation, is it any wonder we have so much pushing and shoving in every direction?
If governments have no clear goal in mind as to what they want to achieve (other than to be re-elected) need we be surprised if their programs and policies constantly contradict each other?
Dryden writes: “So far the clearest message I get is that whatever Canada is, it isn’t the United States.” A sad commentary on our nation indeed if the only message it conveys is a negative one.
Despite whatever other ideals or objectives birthed our nation one underlying motive rang clear in the minds of at least some of the founding fathers and played an important part in the original policies and laws that cemented Canada’s foundation.
Now almost forgotten, but etched permanently into the rafters of our parliament buildings are the words quoted from Psalm 72:8 “He shall have dominion also from sea to sea, and from the river unto the ends of the earth.”
In the same issue, Rev. J. A. Davidson in his Meditation column entitled “All is Empty” says: “By faith in God, and in worship of God, we can be rescued from the shattering sense of emptiness that makes for despair and depression.”
There is the key for the nation as well as for the individual. The Psalmist said it long ago: “Blessed is the nation whose God is the Lord.”
– Martha Toews Anderson, Edmonton, Alta.
More rhetoric
To the Editor:
It amazes me the amount of rhetoric that still exists with regards to the Canadian Wheat Board, and that coming from the Wheat Board itself.
The rhetoric itself about the importance of a monopoly is severely flawed.
Anyone knows that a monopoly only benefits those who have established it, and with regards to the Canadian Wheat Board the farmer never established this institution and in no way has control over it.
The agency of the Canadian Wheat Board itself calls the shots and dictates the terms and conditions, the farmer is left out of it; control is top down rather than grassroots.
The Wheat Board pays out any premium they wish, as it is the only legal buyer and seller within Western Canada.
And the oratory at present is that if the Americans are upset with the Wheat Board, well then it must be doing something great. But the Americans are upset because the Canadian Wheat Board has flooded their markets with lower-priced grain and has been stealing the U.S. markets overseas through unfair pricing practices.
The reality behind this is that the Canadian farmer never benefits with lower prices. How does lower-priced grain mean more money for the farmer?
And yet the Canadian Wheat Board clamors with how they have provided more money for farmers. So then why is it that the free/private market (U.S.A.) will pay more than what the Wheat Board will give out? …
How can an agency claim to be a positive influence when a double standard also exists whereby the Board can, at any time, cancel contracts with farmers at no cost while any farmer wanting to cancel their contract now faces an increased non-compliance penalty?
So it would seem to be in vast opposition to real benefit for the western farmers.
– Kyle Lickiss,
Taber, Alta.
