An advocate for improved rural postal service left a Parliament Hill meeting last week saying she has indications the Liberal government will fulfil a promise to strengthen rural post offices. However, Cynthia Patterson, co-ordinator of Rural Dignity, said her first meeting with Diane Marleau, minister responsible for Canada Post, was strained and unpleasant. And it […] Read more
Stories by Barry Wilson
Ottawa is too timid to strengthen medicare system
It would be comforting to think the recent report of the National Forum on Health would lead somewhere. It would be comforting – but naive. This is an election year. It is a document filled with wishful thinking about a highly political issue. The chances of the Forum’s ideas being debated seriously and adopted are […] Read more
Agriculture Notes
Dixon scholars named The Canadian Simmental Association has presented three $1,000 education scholarships, contributed through the Dr. Allan Dixon Scholarship Fund. Tanya Beech of Pilot Mound, Man., Jason Charles of Stoughton, Sask., and Maureen Mappin of Byemoor, Alta. each received awards at the association’s annual meeting. The recipients grew up on cattle farms, were active […] Read more
The good, the bad and the ugly of CWB barley
Albertan John McKee and Saskatchewan’s Ray Ryland are farmers who stand on opposite sides of the great political divide as prairie producers vote this month on whether the Canadian Wheat Board should have its powers trimmed. They are entrepreneurial farmers with contrary views on whether the board should continue to control all barley exports and […] Read more
Appeal court overturns pasta decision
Canada’s pasta manufacturers have won a legal victory in their fight for protection from dumped Italian product. The Federal Court of Appeal has overturned a controversial government tribunal decision last year which accepted that millions of pounds of dumped Italian pasta are coming into Canada but denied it was having an impact on domestic prices. […] Read more
Dairy advised to mimic wheat board
SAINT JOHN, N.B. – The beleaguered Canadian Wheat Board might be a marketing model for the dairy industry as it gets accustomed to a freer trade world, says agriculture minister Ralph Goodale. Dairy officials often seem uneasy about the export market because they see it as a low-price trap that will force farmers to produce […] Read more
Loss of Canada Post admail income worries rural organizations
Two rural organizations have emerged as part of a coalition of unions and social action groups campaigning to derail government plans to take Canada Post out of the admail business. National Farmers Union and Rural Dignity representatives told an Ottawa news conference Jan. 13 the loss of admail revenues would take money away from Canada […] Read more
Dubious espionage tale hurts group’s credibility
In the battle for public opinion over the pros and cons of the Canadian Wheat Board, the anti-Board side would be well advised to rein in its fringe. It does nothing for their credibility to have a prominent self-proclaimed spokesperson crossing the line from conviction, to obsession, to ridiculous. The issue is Ken Diller’s Jan. […] Read more
Dairy farmers do battle with subsidy cuts
The dairy farmer lobby flexed its political muscle last week and appears to have won a skirmish in the battle to insulate milk producers from looming federal subsidy cuts. Along the way, federal agriculture minister Ralph Goodale agreed to try to postpone by six months the planned Aug. 1 start of the dairy subsidy phase-out. […] Read more
U.S. loses dairy tariff dispute but won’t give up the war
SAINT JOHN, N.B. – For Canada’s dairy farmers, trade challenges are like a tiresome brother-in-law who never realizes he has worn out his welcome. They never get out of your life. “Trade is going to be all-consuming in the next year,” Can-adian Federation of Agriculture president Jack Wilkinson told the Dairy Farmers of Canada annual […] Read more
