“Is there a doctor in the House?” It was an urgent question passed onto the floor of the House of Commons in the early afternoon of May 18, 1966, as MPs settled in for another day in a bitter political season. And it gave Alberta doctor and Tory MP Hugh Horner a bit part in […] Read more
Stories by Barry Wilson
Changes to CWB bill aimed to satisfy critics
The government plans significant changes to its proposed Canadian Wheat Board reform bill in a bid to speed it through before an expected June election, according to Parliament Hill sources. Many of the amendments, likely to be unveiled later this week by Liberal MPs at the Commons agriculture committee, will be aimed at reducing the […] Read more
U.S. golfers take swing at expanding pork industry
RALEIGH, N.C – It might be called the case of pigs versus putters. In North Carolina, where the hog industry has been the darling of the business and political elites through a decade of incredible growth, the golfing lobby is finding its voice. State legislators are considering new restrictions on how far hog barns must […] Read more
Importer’s alpacas finally released
After almost a year of forced confinement in Quebec, Leon Barnett’s Chilean alpacas are free. Now, the Bella Coola, B.C. tool-and-die maker who saw his alpaca import plan turn into a costly bureaucratic quagmire is considering suing Ottawa for costs. “It feels pretty good to get it over but there still are problems in trying […] Read more
Lose money to make money, chicken producer told
It was a chicken morsel best savored at the theatre of the absurd. At the front of a room full of chicken farmers feeling the heat over low prices, the president of Kentucky Fried Chicken in Canada, Colin Moore, was intoning the corporate mantra that if farmers cut their prices, the business would grow and […] Read more
Egg marketing agency turns deficit into $7.8 million surplus
What a difference a year has made in the financial fortunes of the Canadian Egg Marketing Agency. A combination of two levy increases for farmers in late 1995, an increase in table egg sales last year, some agency cost-cutting and a higher-than-expected price for eggs sold to food processors turned last year’s large deficit into […] Read more
Egg industry cooks up new promotions
How about making Jan. 10 National Egg Day? No? Then how about cooking a giant omelette on Canada Day as a sort of “egg producers crack up for their country” event with all the accompanying publicity? Maybe they could call it the “egging on our politicians to keep the country together” event. Yoke, yoke, yoke. […] Read more
Heart operation a revelation for Whelan
As former federal agriculture minister Eugene Whelan lay on his sick bed in late February, the victim of a tired heart, he witnessed what he thinks might have been an other-worldly debate over his fate. “I had a lot of dreams and it was so real,” he said two weeks ago from his Windsor-area home […] Read more
Chicken producers still tuning marketing system
Canada’s chicken industry, worth more than $900 million in farm income, scrambled last week to patch together a temporary deal aimed at keeping together its frayed national orderly marketing system. The staying power of the deal will become clear only after a special April 15 meeting to vote on last week’s tentative agreement. The deal […] Read more
New chicken farmer head aware of tensions
John Kolk sees his involvement in the politics of Canada’s evolving chicken industry as a chance to help out an industry that has been good to, and for, him. Last week, the 37 year old from Picture Butte, Alta., was elected chair of the Chicken Farmers of Canada. He helps operate a family chicken and […] Read more
