Within hours of the Conservative election victory Oct. 14, opponents of the Canadian Wheat Board monopoly were calling for quick action on the issue when Parliament reconvenes. “This is a promise the Conservatives made and we fully expect them to keep that promise and soon,” Western Canadian Wheat Growers Association chair Mike Bast said from […] Read more
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Wheat board on chopping block?
Sask. announces rebate program for gopher infested farms
Saskatchewan producers who have spent millions of dollars trying to control gophers are now able to get half their money back. The provincial government last week announced a rebate program for poison purchased between Aug. 1, 2007, and Oct. 1, 2008. Agriculture minister Bob Bjornerud said individual producers, First Nations and rural municipalities are eligible […] Read more
Federal agriculture department likely to have lengthy agenda
When the new agriculture minister arrives for the first day on the job, he or she will find a backlog of work that has accumulated over the past two months. Negotiations with provinces over agreements to implement last summer’s Growing Forward agreement must be restarted and completed. Worries about the health of the country’s farm […] Read more
Canola protein isolates approved for use in U.S.
A Vancouver company and its business partner are poised to open up a new market for Canada’s top oilseed. Burcon NutraScience has received the U.S. Food and Drug Administration’s generally recognized as safe (GRAS) designation for its canola protein isolates. “Achieving GRAS status is a major advancement in the commercialization of Puratein and Supertein, the […] Read more
Dion to step down
Stéphane Dion’s troubled and unsuccessful two-year tenure as leader of the federal Liberal party will end with a leadership convention next spring in Vancouver. Dion, the Montreal professor, 12-year MP and surprise winner of the leadership in 2006 as a convention compromise candidate, led the party to a 26 percent popular support level in the […] Read more
Rural voters abandon Liberals
Rural voters across Canada continued to turn the porch lights out on the Liberal party in the Oct. 14 election. As it has in elections over the past decade, the Liberal rural caucus contracted last week as rural incumbents in almost a dozen ridings fell to Conservative or New Democratic Party opponents. The party forfeited […] Read more
Goodale keeps Liberal name alive on Prairies
Ralph Goodale is often referred to as Saskatchewan’s lone Liberal. The phrase could just as easily be lonely Liberal after prairie voters rejected the party’s platform and sent only him and a Manitoba representative, Anita Neville in Winnipeg South Centre, to Ottawa. British Columbians elected five Liberals while Albertans elected none. Canadians as a whole […] Read more
Conservative failure in Quebec squelches hope for majority
For Stephen Harper’s Conservatives, election night returns were the tale of two distinct political battlegrounds with differing results. Outside of Quebec, the Conservatives captured 57 percent of the seats, becoming the dominant party in all provinces but Prince Edward Island, Nova Scotia and Newfoundland. In Quebec, the mirror image emerged despite extensive efforts by Harper […] Read more
Ag minister’s post may be up for grabs
Will the harsh publicity spotlight that shone on Gerry Ritz during the election campaign over jokes he made in the midst of the listeria crisis cost him his job in cabinet? Dawson Creek, B.C., producer Ross Ravelli said he hopes not. The president of Grain Growers of Canada said Ritz has done a good job […] Read more
APAS continues war of words
Saskatchewan’s general farm organization has reacted to the recent resignation of its president with a news release that highlights its internal turmoil. The Agricultural Producers Association of Saskatchewan directed allegations at Glenn Blakley’s personal life and leadership skills in an Oct. 16 release. Blakley had earlier issued a memo to APAS representatives that criticized certain […] Read more
