Nick Parsons, hours into his latest combine trek toward Ottawa from his Farmington, B.C., farm, was shouting into his cell phone over the drone of Prairie Belle, his combine.
“My message is that governments have to give us parity with what growers in Quebec get and growers in the United States,” he said. “We have to get the message out.”
A year ago, 53-year-old Parsons began the same trip and, along the way, became a folk hero and media darling. He made it to Ottawa and parked Prairie Belle on Parliament Hill, addressed a politician-studded rally, made national television appearances and ended up visiting prime minister Jean Chrétien at 24 Sussex Drive, making the farm aid case.
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He also ran up more than $6,000 in cell phone bills.
Afterwards, he vowed never again.
“I hope I gave it my best,” he said in an April 2000 letter to The Western Producer. “It is something a fellow can only do once in his life for the cause – a more stable agricultural future for all family farms.”
A once-in-a-lifetime event now is threatening to become an annual affair.
On the morning of Jan. 12, Parsons headed east again after proclaiming himself a man nominated by farmers as their “ambassador for farming.”
This time, the travel will be more modest. He aims to get to Edmonton by Jan. 20, where he will be picked up by a trucker who will transport Parsons and Prairie Belle to Sudbury, Ont. From there, he will drive to Ottawa, arriving on Jan. 29 when the new Parliament opens.
Farmers from other parts of the country have arranged to be in Ottawa that week to demand political action on the farm income crisis.
In Saskatchewan, representatives of various groups met Jan. 11 and decided that those who could afford a $400 return trip to Ottawa will be there for the Jan. 29 opening.
“I would guess there will be at least 50 from Saskatchewan and Manitoba,” Bob Thomas of Milestone, Sask., said Jan. 12. “Many simply can’t afford it.”
They are calling it the “on to Ottawa trek”, named after the Great Depression movement of unemployed workers who were stopped by the RCMP in Regina. Without Saskatchewan government support this year, farmers say they cannot afford a proposed train trip.
East-west co-operation
This week, some representatives of the prairie organizers were in the East to attend meetings of Ontario grains and oilseed farmers who also are considering being on Parliament Hill Jan. 29.
“We want to be sure we are all on the same page,” Thomas said. “At the Regina meeting, there was a strong consensus for a cash injection. We want to talk about what that number is, what Ontario needs and what the West needs.”
He said farmers will rally on Parliament Hill and hold meetings with politicians to demand more farm aid.
“We’re asking for a real national food policy. We are the only industrialized country that seems to have forgot to design one.”
Sunderland, Ont., grain and corn producer Bruce Pearse is one of the farmers involved in meetings with western representatives this week.
He said in an interview from his farm east of Toronto that there would be Ontario farmers on Parliament Hill the day Parliament opens. More farmers could be back later. And there will be farm protest actions outside Ottawa that day as well.
“We can’t keep on the way we’re going,” Pearse said. “It takes two acres of last year’s (corn) crop to buy one tonne of fertilizer this year.”
Fertilizer prices are up more than 50 percent. Fuel costs are 87 percent higher on his farm this year.
“We just can’t keep selling food at less than it costs to produce it.”
Pearse and Thomas said they want politicians to understand the current grains and oilseeds income crisis is a national rather than regional issue.
