During his victory speech following a second straight Conservative minority government win, Stephen Harper promised to set aside the rancour that sometimes dominates the House of Commons. “This is a time for us to put aside partisan considerations and work for the benefit of all Canadians,” he said, indicating a willingness to work with the […] Read more
News — page 3301
Harper vows to work with opposition parties
Rural residents expect quick action
With a strengthened parliamentary mandate and the overwhelming support of Canadian farmers and rural ridings, what can Canadian farmers expect the new Conservative government to do? “We will keep our promises,” prime minister Stephen Harper said on election night in a Calgary speech. “We will do what we said we will do.” For Canadian Federation […] Read more
Why Steve missed a majority
Stephen Harper’s plan for a majority government was derailed in Quebec where voters gave the separatist Bloc Québécois two-thirds of the 75 seats available. The Conservatives had hoped to double or triple the 10 seats they won in 2006 after spending money, declaring the Québécois a nation within Canada, giving Quebec more power and spending […] Read more
Feds need to work on solving ag problems
Farmers need the federal government to get to work on agricultural problems, say the leaders of prairie farm organizations. But farm leaders from Manitoba and Alberta are split on whether they believe the new Conservative minority government will be able to get the work done. “It would be nice if we’d had a majority, one […] Read more
Goodale survives, prairie Liberals take a hit
Prairie voters cut the Liberal presence in half Oct. 14, re-electing Ralph Goodale in Saskatchewan but returning just one of three MPs in Manitoba. Anita Neville was re-elected in the safe Winnipeg South Centre seat, but Tina Keeper and Raymond Simard were defeated in Churchill and Saint Boniface, respectively. Goodale is the lone Liberal in […] Read more
NDP takes Winnipeg, mourns rural losses
NDP MP Pat Martin’s big challenge wasn’t beating his political opponents. They stood little chance in this NDP stronghold of Winnipeg Centre. The challenge he set for himself was to get 50 percent of the total votes cast, a feat he was teetering on the edge of achieving late Tuesday night. Not only did Martin […] Read more
Where’s the election coverage?
The Western Producer website, www. producer.com, will play a major role in the newspaper’s election coverage next week, for unusual reasons. Federal elections are usually held on Mondays, a fortunate fact in terms of Western Producer print coverage. In years past, the Producer was able to bring readers election reaction in the Thursday paper that […] Read more
Farm groups, RMs push rural agenda
Canadian farm and municipal leaders teamed up last week to demand that campaigning party leaders pledge to make significant investments in rural infrastructure. The Sept. 25 letter from Federation of Canadian Municipalities (FCM) president Jean Perrault of Sherbrooke, Que., and Canadian Federation of Agriculture vice-president Laurent Pellerin was unprecedented. “As the global economy grows more […] Read more
Viterra shares, commodities take beating on markets
The fundamentals of the grain handling industry didn’t change for the worse in September. If anything, they’ve improved for Viterra, Canada’s largest grain handling company. The prairie harvest made rapid progress, crop quality was preserved by warm sunny weather and striking workers returned to the job. Despite that good news, the price of Viterra shares […] Read more
Candidates not linking to wired youth
A poll last month found few candiare using on-line tools like Facebook, but voters are using the technology to have their say. The poll for the Dominion Institute, conducted by Innovative Research Group, showed only nine percent of young respondents had been engaged in the campaign through e-mail, text messaging, Facebook, MySpace or Twitter. However, […] Read more
