WAPELLA, Sask. – From the men’s Canadian Wheat Board caps to Betty’s women’s march T-shirt, the Gordons wear their politics.
Les and Betty Gordon, former dairy farmers, and their son John, are strong board supporters.
On the day a vote on barley marketing was announced, the three Gordons were clear on how they stand.
“We’re very concerned about what’s happening to the wheat board. We worked to help get the NFU (National Farmers Union) rep onto the wheat board’s advisory committee. Les always said you can tell where the farmers feel by the results of the advisory committee vote.”
Read Also
U.S. government investigates high input costs
The USDA and DOJ are investigating high input costs, but nothing is happening in Canada.
Betty is the family’s talker today. She sips tea, listens to CBC radio and outlines political and community activities while Les and John clear snow off the roof.
“We retired 10 years ago because our daughter was going to take over the dairy herd of 40 to 50 milking Holsteins,” said Betty. “But she said free trade is coming in and they’re going to sell the herd.”
That daughter and her husband, a contractor, now farm on six quarters of land south of Wapella. The Gordons’ other daughter works as a social worker in Regina. Son John operates a grain and cattle farm near the edge of town.
Betty shakes her head when discussing the aftermath of free trade on the dairy industry, noting Canadians have higher costs than their American counterparts for cattle feed and shelter.
Since retirement, the Gordons have found more time for politics. This summer Les wrote a letter to federal agriculture minister Ralph Goodale supporting the wheat board.
In September they helped gain publicity for a Guatemalan refugee who was raising awareness of issues in his country by walking across Canada. The Gordons took him to the school, the local library and for interviews at three district newspapers before helping him on to his next destination.
Last year Betty organized a school speech by an NFU member who had been to the women’s world conference in Beijing, China. The speaker was told to avoid the topics of abortion and women’s rights. Betty’s eyes twinkle as she says feminism is a touchy subject in rural areas.
Volunteer work
But she doesn’t let a little opposition stop her, whether it is becoming the first female president of the local dance club, or spending 25 years with the provincial home and school association, including four as president. She has also supported the regional library for 30 years and has worked for 10 years with Les organizing the NFU in Saskatchewan’s southeast.
While Betty credits her strength of mind and purpose to lessons handed down from her parents, she also added some of her own grit. When faced with trouble, “I didn’t break down and cry or get humble, I got mad.”
Betty, along with other women organized a Community Development Society 25 years ago. One of the group’s first projects was to start a co-operative laundromat using a grant from the provincial government. The laundromat is still running and the other half of the building houses the library. The society raises funds through bingos to keep both operations going.
“We’ve been lucky to hang onto our town,” she said. Although the senior high school grades were lost, Wapella never had a hospital to lose and there is still a medical clinic, grocery store, cafe, convenience store, garages, a rink, tennis courts and golf course.
When the Royal Bank closed its branch the Toronto Dominion Bank opened one up in the old brick building that used to be the town hall and a hardware store is reopening in the space of the old one.
In days gone by
“At one time this was quite a wealthy centre when mixed farming was so important. We shipped a lot of cattle out of here 40, 50, 60 years ago,” said Betty.
“What we have today is farmers doing two jobs. They’re not really financing their farm but the machinery companies and subsidizing the food consumers.”
Les and Betty urged their children to leave Wapella and see other places before deciding how and where they wanted to make a life.
“Too many people in our small communities don’t leave and they assume it’ll always stay the same way and government will look after us.”
The dairy farm was in Les’s family and his prairie roots are deep. His grandfather homesteaded in the area before the railway came. His dad was a NorthWest Mounted Police member, the precursor to the RCMP, and served as a guard for Almighty Voice, a Cree who escaped in 1895 and led police on a chase for 19 months.
Les served on the local municipal council for 18 years. He says little has changed, since a typical meeting back then was about roads. He also spent 16 years as a Saskatchewan Wheat Pool committee member. But then the pool closed its elevator which angered him because it was a profitable facility.
“Now Cargill can’t handle all the grain; it’s dumped beside the tracks,” he said.
His son John hauls to Cargill even though he was a pool member, because he wants to support business that stays in the community.
The senior Gordons don’t travel much but spend time at home, dancing, enjoying visits from their six grandchildren, and downhill skiing in the winter at nearby Broadview. It’s a sport that Betty tried in her sixties. Les started skiing four years ago at the age of 82.
“Les never went when I started because he said it wouldn’t do for both of us to have a broken leg on a dairy farm.”
