Verna Thompson

Make no mistake, there’s a federal election coming. Just watch your television, read your daily newspaper or listen to the news on your favorite radio station. Canadian Alliance and Progressive Conservative leaders Stockwell Day and Joe Clark are both running in byelections, but methinks they should save their money and rhetoric for the real thing. […] Read more

I HAVE been lucky this summer. In the space of a couple of weeks, I have: seen eagles soar heard the cry of a loon been rocked to sleep by the sound of the waves beating against the shore of a northern lake walked in the footsteps of pioneers at Cannington Manor watched deer graze […] Read more

I was in Gravelbourg in the 1974 federal election campaign with Pierre Trudeau, the first French Canadian prime minister to visit that French Canadian town on the southern Prairies. The gym at College Mathieu was full and after Trudeau’s speech, the crowd surged to the edge of the stage. Trudeau bent down to shake hands […] Read more

A few years ago, two young ladies from Calgary visited our farm. They wanted a drink of water and ran the tap and ran it, waiting for the water to get cold. I asked them to please get their water and shut off the tap, as we have to haul every drop. They were flabbergasted. […] Read more

Summer is usually a down time for politics, but thanks to the Alliance Party and Stockwell Day, this has not been the case in 2000. Day has dominated the thoughts of political cartoonists, with hapless Conservative leader Joe Clark a clear second, judging from the number of Day and/or Clark and Day cartoons appearing in […] Read more

Anyone driving into a particular west-central Saskatchewan town about an hour west of Saskatoon will know instantly that, while New York may be big, this is Biggar. They will know that because there are road signs at every entrance to town telling them so. The town has many claims to fame. It is the home […] Read more

When this column is published, I will be – God and Air Canada pilots willing – just back from the eastern townships of Quebec and the national convention of the Canadian Community Newspapers Association. Before I go on a trip like this I always like to clear my desk – partly to prove to myself […] Read more

A couple of weeks ago, I wrote about a report issued by The University of Saskatchewan’s Centre for Agricultural Medicine. The report detailed facts and figures about farm injuries in the province. The first of its kind using Saskatch-ewan statistics, the report was based on 147 deaths from farm injuries and 2,293 farm injuries requiring […] Read more

Our town had its 2000 Homecoming celebrations this past weekend. The three days were full of things to do. Friday was our annual Gopher Days celebration put on by the Board of Trade. There were loonie burgers at the co-op, hot dogs at the catering shop, lemonade and popcorn at the credit union and ice […] Read more

I got myself in a bit of hot water last week. In the weekly newspaper that I publish, I carried an article on our most recent town council meeting with a headline that the council had rejected amalgamation suggestions. Some members of council have kindly suggested that the reporter was at a different meeting. We […] Read more