Kelsey Johnson

Canada’s agriculture ministers are in Charlottetown July 15-17 for their annual federal, provincial and territorial meeting, one of several high profile meetings for Canada’s agriculture sector scheduled for the coming weeks. There certainly isn’t a shortage of issues to talk about. Top of mind for farmers in Western Canada is the ongoing near-drought conditions across […] Read more

The Calgary Stampede is a staple on the summer rodeo circuit, a premier outdoor show that attracts visitors from around the world. It’s an arena revered among the world’s top cowboys and cowgirls, whose prominence in the rodeo ring, be it in bull riding, barrel racing, or calf roping, are recognized via breakneck speed performances […] Read more

The future of Canada’s supply management system is back in the headlines after the U.S. Congress voted to keep president Barack Obama’s trade agenda alive June 24. In a stunning turn of events, U.S. politicians have approved Trade Promotion Authority legislation for the pending, multibillion-dollar Trans-Pacific Partnership agreement. Commonly known as fast-track authority, TPA turns […] Read more

MPs packed it in June 19, heading home for the summer for some pre-election campaigning and time spent with family before the upcoming federal election, which is expected to be called sometime in the late summer or early fall. For agriculture, the rise of the House means the end of C-48, a grain bill designed […] Read more

ST. ALBERT, Alta. — Barry Wilson, the Western Producer’s long-time but now retired Ottawa reporter, used to tell me that throughout his career he insisted he was a political reporter who covered agriculture. Put him on a farm, Wilson joked while we once covered an agriculture committee meeting, and he’d starve. His words stuck with […] Read more

The 2015 federal election might not be officially under way, but any doubt that it isn’t in full swing was squashed like a bug in a summer-kitchen, during the Federation of Canadian Municipalities conference in Edmonton. Mayors, councillors and municipal workers from rural and urban communities across Canada were there to hear what federal politicians […] Read more

Folks involved in Canadian agriculture will likely tell you that one of the biggest challenges facing the industry today is being able to generate public and political support for the sector. The growing divide between the farm and the consumer, combined with the internet, bloggers and myths about where food comes from, has made for […] Read more

Tensions between Canada’s health minister and the head of the federal government’s national agriculture union have mounted again, after union president Bob Kingston accused Rona Ambrose of misleading a parliamentary committee earlier this month. In a May 15 letter to House health committee chair and Conservative Member of Parliament Ben Lobb, Kingston urged the committee […] Read more

Bees are back in the news, just as anticipation mounts in Ottawa for the release of a major Senate report that looked at the state of apiary health in Canada. The Senate’s agriculture and forestry committee expects to table its two-year investigation and subsequent recommendations by May 31. No details have been made public about […] Read more

If federal health minister Rona Ambrose had one message she wanted to make clear in her recent testimony at the House of Commons’ health committee, it was this: there have been no cuts to the Canadian Food Inspection Agency. None. Nada. Zip. “There are absolutely no cuts. I understand the president of the union says […] Read more