Verna Thompson

There was nothing left to talk about. That’s why he and Manitoba’s agriculture minister walked out of the federal-provincial agriculture ministers meeting last week, according to Saskatchewan agriculture minister Dwain Lingenfelter. In what he said was his last offer, federal agriculture minister Lyle Vanclief on Jan. 13 came up with $1 billion over two years […] Read more

The coalition between Saskatchewan farm groups and political parties, shaky at best, appears to be tottering on the edge of an abyss. As there is more than one way to skin a cat, as the saying goes, there is more than one way to break ranks and upset the solidarity of the farm coalition. The […] Read more

People in our town were asked to ring bells at noon Jan. 1. The church bells pealed and individuals rang chimes they had at hand. The effort was promoted by the economic development committee, the board of trade and the newspaper. It was an effort to welcome a new year and a new century, but […] Read more

This has been a Christmas of catch-up at our house. The season is always a busy one, but this year for some reason I’m working about two months behind. It’s constant catch-up at the office, cards and letters are being mailed at the last minute, shopping usually accomplished by mid-November is dragging on. I have […] Read more

This Christmas, instead of seeing pictures of small children with big eyes from foreign lands holding out their hands for aid, we’re seeing images of prairie grain farmers in the same straits. It’s not a pretty picture, people who are supposed to feed the world reduced to begging. A headline in the Saskatoon Star-Phoenix a […] Read more

My life is full of more meetings than I care to think about. While I may be tempted from time to time to play hookey from some of them, there is one set it would take a lot to make me miss: those dealing with the fate of our town’s former hospital building. Our hospital […] Read more

Ma and Pa decided to leave the Back 40 last week and venture into Regina to visit Agribition. They didn’t get away until after supper because there was work to be done and the herd of cats to feed before they left. Just before dark they were happily on their way, Pa talking to himself […] Read more

You gotta love those Saskatchewan Liberals. They keep shooting themselves in the foot, yet they keep stumbling along. They held their convention more than a week ago, but it’s still making news. They wouldn’t release the numbers on the vote for a leadership review, and they apparently bused in about 40 young people whose support […] Read more

At our town’s Remembrance Day service last week there was the usual collection of grey heads, interspersed with a smattering who retain color, and a collection of cubs and scouts. At this time of the year, the question always arises, “why remember?” The minister who gave the address had the best answer yet. The young […] Read more

Whatever your political stripe, it’s not easy or comfortable to stand by and see one’s premier humiliated, as happened recently when premiers Romanow and Doer of Saskatchewan and Manitoba respectively led a delegation to Ottawa looking for aid for embattled farmers. When the premier of the province is humiliated, by extension the province and the […] Read more