Barry Wilson

As they fought Liberal plans for Canadian Wheat Board changes last week, Reform party members of Parliament found themselves under attack for some of their more harsh comments about the board. “It’s been a long time since I have heard that kind of extremism in the House of Commons,” veteran Saskatchewan New Democratic Party MP […] Read more

When Reform MPs last week argued that the Canadian Wheat Board should have to open its books to the auditor general of Canada, they had some high-level bureaucratic support on their side. Auditor general Denis Desautels has repeatedly made the same point to the Liberal government, although privately. “The auditor general has been in private […] Read more

Reform Party MPs used the best Gilbert and Sullivan comic opera tactics they could dream up last week to try to embarrass Liberals into senate reform and Liberal senator Andrew Thompson into coming to work. The scheme, to no one’s surprise, did not succeed on either count. But most people (aside from Thompson, prime minister […] Read more

By early March, a pilot project allowing American grain to flow into prairie grain elevators should be operating, says a senior Agriculture Canada trade official. Livestock feeders in southern Manitoba and Alberta could be the main beneficiaries as they find their expanding feed needs are greater than local supplies. Acting assistant deputy minister Mike Gifford […] Read more

Canadians continue to shift their preference in meat consumption from red to white, according to Statistics Canada. In a report Feb. 4 on family food expenditures, the federal agency said that during the past five years, the average family spending on food has remained almost stable. And Canadians are eating more meals at home and […] Read more

In the face of a sustained campaign of opposition, which stretched last week from Parliament to farm groups and two prairie premiers, the federal government this week set out to stare down the critics. It vowed to push through Parliament without amendment legislation to reform the Canadian Wheat Board. Three days of House of Commons […] Read more

For more than 110 years, the Central Experimental Farm has been a lush, green and quiet refuge from the noise, bustle, commerce and politics of Ottawa. Now, the site of the first Canadian experimental farm and the head office of Agriculture Canada also has been recognized as a national historic site. Andy Mitchell, junior federal […] Read more

The prairie farmers standing before Ottawa reporters last week demanding less secrecy at the Canadian Wheat Board insisted they had no larger agenda. “Our direct point is right to the end of secrecy of the wheat board,” George Fletcher, chair of the Prairie Centre and past-president of the Western Canadian Wheat Growers Association, told reporters. […] Read more

A group of prairie farmers lobbying for more public information about Canadian Wheat Board inner workings got a warmer reception from journalists in Toronto than politicians in Ottawa. In the capital, they were dismissed by wheat board minister Ralph Goodale as ill-informed and ideologically-motivated and denounced by NDP spokesperson Dick Proctor as “conspiracy theorists.” But […] Read more