Visiting Manitoba to perform at a benefit event for farmers will hold
special meaning for Sean Smith.
He and his band ,The Poverty Plainsmen, will headline a cabaret March 8
at Brandon’s Keystone Centre.
Proceeds will support the Ottawa Trek Committee, a group of farmers
lobbying for a farm safety net that will cover producers’ costs of
production.
The event will bring Smith back to the area where he grew up and where
his desire to farm easily resurfaces.
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He and his brother Mark, also a band member, grew up on a mixed farm
near Tilston, Man.
They were the youngest of seven children and decided to leave the farm
because of the limited opportunities they saw there.
Sean lives in Edmonton, but still thinks about a return to farming.
That desire is tempered by his understanding of the challenges that
family farms face.
“It’s a crazy gamble they’re dealing with every year, putting every
cent they have in the ground, borrowing every cent they can, and then
praying they get it back.”
The March 8 event begins at 8 p.m. at the UCT Pavilion in the Keystone
Centre. More information is available from Murray Downing (204-877-3748
or 204-748-7821), Andrew Dennis (204-354-2226 or 204-476-6498) or Daryl
Knight (204-568-4565 or 204-729-7643).
