Ed Fahlman stood in front of his Weyburn home on the holiday Monday, speaking in the code that voters use when they want to be polite to a politician they do not support. His issue was the Liberal gun registration law. As an owner of a dozen guns, and a worker in the Weyburn Co-op […] Read more
Stories by Barry Wilson
Hovering politicians descend on Manitoba
In Portage La Prairie, central to the hotly contested Portage-Lisgar riding, national political leaders last week seemed to be a dime a dozen. If this is Wednesday, that must be Tory leader Jean Charest. If it is Friday, it must be Reform leader Preston Manning. As Manitoba’s Red Sea stabilized and the flood threat began […] Read more
Who says what: the parties and their ag policies
Midway through the election campaign, Ontario Federation of Agriculture president Tony Morris issued a stinging indictment of politicians running for the federal government June 2. None are spending much time talking about agriculture, he charged. Farmers and their supporters should demand more attention to their issues. In fact the 1997 election is offering farmers some […] Read more
Liberal candidate hears party is on right track
SASKATOON – Liberal candidate MP Morris Bodnar, seeking re-election, has one central message as he goes door-to-door in his Saskatoon-Blackstrap riding. It also is the message he says he is hearing from voters. “People are not asking me a question. They are telling me what to do,” he said in an interview after a day […] Read more
Senate reform sleeping through election, not dead
CALGARY – Whatever happened to Canadian senate reform as an election issue? Whatever happened to the Reform party passion to change the Senate as a way to give the West more power in Ottawa? In 1993, in the aftermath of a raft of Conservative senate appointments to get the Goods and Services Tax through Parliament, […] Read more
Charest defends Ag Canada amalgamation, higher user fees, ability to tap niche markets
BRANDON, Man. – Progressive Conservative leader Jean Charest paid his one election visit to Manitoba last week, pleading with voters to send a few PCs to Ottawa. He singled out three ridings: Brandon-Souris, Portage-Lisgar and Daup-hin-Swan River. “This country needs the leadership and candidates that I have on the stage with me today,” he told […] Read more
Speaker retires: Lethbridge candidates vie to fill shoes
LETHBRIDGE, Alta. – The retirement of a political legend like local Reform MP Ray Speaker inevitably leads to some opposition dreams. After more than 30 years in the provincial legislature and the last four in Parliament, Speaker is bowing out. Last time, he drew more than 50 percent of the vote, winning by more than […] Read more
Nail biter shaping up in Manitoba
DAUPHIN, Man. – An imminent rail-line abandonment in the sprawling western Manitoba riding of Dauphin-Swan River provides a snapshot of politics in a close election race. Liberal candidate and incumbent MP Marlene Cowling, selling a good-news agenda, sees it as an opportunity. “I can understand that people affected are uneasy about change,” she said in […] Read more
Optimism in agriculture abounds in 1996 census
Canadian agriculture is in a period of robust growth, diversification, investment and strong revenues, Statistics Canada reports. While fewer Canadians are growing and selling food, the proportion grossing at least $100,000 increased sharply to more than 30 percent of the total, according to the first results from the 1996 census of agriculture, published May 14. […] Read more
West teeming with livestock
Although expansion of the hog industry is the buzz in Western Canada these days, the dramatic rise in the Prairies’s meat sector has been under way for more than a decade. Beef, hog and hen populations are growing in the West. Statistics Canada reported last week that since 1986, Canada’s beef herd has grown 44 […] Read more
