Squandered chance
According to Regina Qu’Appelle Conservative MP Andrew Scheer, the NDP is to blame for the fact that there wasn’t more money for agriculture in the 2005-06 federal budget.
I guess he’s looking for someone else to blame for his own failures as an MP. But the fact is, Andrew Scheer was the MP for Regina Qu’Appelle while Budget 2005 was making its way through the House (of Commons). He was an MP in a minority Parliament where he and his party had almost 100 seats in the House. He had the leverage to win those kinds of changes from the Liberals.
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Worrisome drop in grain prices
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Instead, Scheer squandered the opportunity he had to win changes that would have benefited his constituents, and gave the Liberals a free ride.
When the opportunity existed to make changes to the budget to benefit farmers, Scheer did nothing. In fact, he and his party initially supported the budget.
Even later, when Scheer and the Conservatives withdrew their support from the budget, they didn’t do so based on some great principle about what the budget did or didn’t contain.
They didn’t use the leverage they had in a minority Parliament to get changes for farmers, for families struggling to balance their chequebooks or for anyone else, for that matter.
They didn’t do so out of some profound concern for the needs of the people who sent them to Ottawa.
They withdrew their support for the budget only because they thought they saw an opportunity to bring down the government, win the election that followed and then, presumably, continue the same disastrous course in agricultural policy that they and the Liberals have been following for more than 30 years.
The NDP may not be perfect but at least their MPs remembered why they had been sent to Ottawa. They used their leverage to get changes for their constituents. It wasn’t ideal, by any means. But they won improvements on issues that mattered to their constituents.
What did Andrew Scheer get for his constituents when he had the chance to do so in a minority Parliament? Nothing.
Instead, he complains that the NDP didn’t do his job for him. But it seems to me that, if Andrew Scheer can’t deliver results for the people that elected him, he has no one to blame but himself.
– Rick Pollard,
Regina, Sask.
Honest gov’t
It’s entertaining to hear Liberal supporters hunt for something positive to say about their government… and the moment they realize there isn’t much positive to say, they do what they do best. They attack, smear and fear monger. Sound familiar?
They say (Conservative leader Stephen) Harper has a hidden agenda. If ‘hidden agenda’ means he wants to clean this mind-numbing corruption mess up and restore our position of respect in the world, then count me in.
If ‘hidden agenda’ means he will keep his promises, unlike our present government (see GST and red book,) then count me in.
If it means he will hold his ministers accountable (see Jane Stewart and Human Resources Development Corp. fiasco,) then once again, I’m on board.
If it means he will not hide behind the power of a majority when there are allegations against him (see Shawinigate,) well, that’s fine by me.
When we look at the gun registry, it seems the Liberals are the ones with the ‘hidden agenda’.
How many MRIs could $2 billion buy? How many police could be put on the street, or how many legitimate programs could it fund? …
Why is everyone so scared of honest government? This present Liberal scandal, by anyone’s measurement, simply dwarfs the Saskatchewan Tory one, yet no one has gone to jail and no government has fallen. …
People’s tolerance for the politically left, and intolerance for the right, is just disturbing. This scandal makes Watergate look like amateur hour, and that brought down a Republican president and his administration. …
Say something bad about the government, you’re anti-Canadian. Criticize the Gomery Commission and you’re anti-democracy. Talk about First Nation issues, you’re racist. Same sex marriage, anti-gay. They twist more than Chubby Checker, yet no one, at least not the majority of voters, have the savvy or the will to kick their sorry butts out.
It really is a sad statement on ourselves. I guess they have been taking lessons from our (Saskatchewan) NDP government, which has been successfully using these tactics for years.
The voters here have been sold a bill of goods with no change in sight, so why not try it on a much bigger scale? It seems to be working just fine.
– Bill Garratt,
Abernethy, Sask.
NFU links
In my previous letter to the editor in June, I predicted that David Anderson, Conservative MP for Cypress Hills-Grasslands, would run away from a challenge to debate the National Farmers Union over his statements about who controls the NFU.
It is no surprise that he has refused the debate – he cannot back up his statements, so he cannot debate the issue.
In fact, in his response, Mr. Anderson reduces the charge from the NFU being an NDP organization to having links with the NDP.
His strongest piece of evidence is that Nettie Wiebe, former NFU president from Saskatchewan, ran for the NDP in a (federal) election.
Mr. Anderson may or may not know that Wayne Easter, longtime Liberal MP and former cabinet minister, is also a former NFU president.
As well, one of our former presidents, Roy Atkinson, has been named to the Order of Canada. Does this mean that the Order of Canada is controlling the NFU?
Clearly, Mr. Anderson is grasping at straws in order to maintain his fantasies, and he continues to ignore the many other NFU members that are also members of the Conservative, Liberal or Green parties.
Although it is misguided, it is legitimate for Mr. Anderson to try to destroy farmers’ marketing power or a farmers’ organization. It is not legitimate, however, for him to resort to defamation through slander and libel in order to do so.
Mr. Anderson continues to hide behind parliamentary privilege regarding the unfounded allegations he made against the wheat board, and he continues his approach of “everyone’s accountable except me.”
MPs from Saskatchewan should be raising the standard for all MPs, not hiding and running away from the truth.
– Stewart Wells
President,
National Farmers Union,
Saskatoon, Sask.
Market solution?
Diversify, diversify, something new, give it a try.
Whenever the markets are down, the government’s solution is to tell the farmer to diversify. Try a new crop, a new product or a new way to market their products; just about anything to get the farm income growing.
OK, so we did. We diversified into a fairly new product with what seemed a good future. We raise bison.
Well, guess what? The market is dead in its tracks.
The main marketing feature of bison is the value as a low cholesterol meat, as it has a lower fat content than beef. We would like to market this product to consumers, especially health conscious consumers.
The problem we are having in marketing is that the markets buying the bison want 90-day grain finished, fattened bison. Go figure.
We spent extra time and money to diversify into this new, healthy market, only to find we have no market. Grain fattened bison are too similar to beef to now gain any hedge in the marketplace or on the consumer’s plate.
With BSE issues, even the beef producer is (at) a loss with excess product on hand that can’t be stored and (animals that) still require feed and being cared for. Most producers have been forced to accept handouts from the government programs; knowing full well these programs are a Band-Aid solution that covers and never will solve the underlying problem(s).
When will we ever learn? Perhaps the solution is right under our noses.
In Kitchener, Ont., the farmers banded together and built their own packing plant – Gencor; and the best part is the producer receives the meat prices, not the slaughter or rail grade prices.
Kind of makes you think. Why not here? Right?
– Cheryl Crashley,
Big River, Sask.
