Brian MacLeod

Stories by Camrose bureau reporter Mary MacArthur about farmer protests over the Notley government’s Bill 6 in Alberta are drawing a lot of attention. The top three stories on The Western Producer’s website over the last week are headlined, “More questions than answers following first Bill 6 public meeting,” “New farm worker safety rules to […] Read more

The process of choosing art for the front page of The Western Producer is one of my favourite tasks of the week. News editor Terry Fries, art director Michelle Houlden and myself first gather mid-week to discuss possibilities, either stories that could be graphically illustrated by Michelle or events or stories with potential for good […] Read more

There is nothing like a fast-breaking development to get journalists hopping. We’ve been hopping around a fair bit at The Western Producer of late. On Oct. 5, our production and printing day, the world powers that be decided to announce that the Trans-Pacific Partnership deal had been completed. We knew the ramifications were important to […] Read more

On Jan. 11, 1996, The Western Producer introduced Ryan Taylor to our readers. Or rather, we introduced our readers to Ryan Taylor. For that is when his Cowboy Logic column began a remarkable run of almost 20 years. Ryan’s folksy approach to writing about farming life became exceedingly popular with readers. The rancher and former […] Read more

Peruse the websites of the three major Canadian political parties and try to find anything that mentions the term “supply management.” It’s also hard to find any reference to the Trans-Pacific Partnership Talks between 12 countries, including Canada. Still all three parties have, at some point, voiced their support for the supply management policies that […] Read more

Those who have lamented the lack of discussion on agricultural issues during the federal election campaign will get their chance to see first-hand how the key figures in each party see the way ahead. Glacier FarmMedia, of which The Western Producer is a division, is co-sponsoring an ag debate organized by the Canadian Federation of […] Read more

On May 1, just before the Alberta election that saw the NDP sweep to power, I posted a tweet with a graph supplied by the website iPolitics in which I said, “Saskatchewan now the most devoted Conservative voters in Canada.” Indeed, the graph showed that in Saskatchewan, the federal Conservatives enjoyed the support of 49 […] Read more