Voting rights
Re: The letter submitted by Brian Waldie of Fort Macleod, Alta. (Open Forum, Feb. 2.)
I don’t appreciate Mr. Waldie’s blatant suggestion that all Regina residents are brainless because some chose to vote for the Liberal party and succeeded in re-electing Ralph Goodale.
The last I checked, Goodale received only 52 percent of the vote, meaning 48 percent of Reginans living in his constituency didn’t vote for him. In fact, Mr. Waldie should be reminded that the votes of many Reginans helped to elect three Conservative MPs in the ridings of Regina-Lumsden-Lake Centre, Regina-Qu’Appelle and Palliser.
Read Also
Agriculture needs to prepare for government spending cuts
As government makes necessary cuts to spending, what can be reduced or restructured in the budgets for agriculture?
Mr. Waldie should realize that, as Canadians, we still have a right to make our own decisions on who we vote for. The “if you’re not with us, you’re against us” mentality may be effective in other areas, but it is not tolerated here. And, while I did not vote Liberal, I respect the right of others to do so and expect to be given the same consideration in return….
– Trilby Knutson,
Regina, Sask.
Glass houses
I am writing in response to Brian Waldie of Fort Macleod, Alta. (Open Forum, Feb. 2) who made some very hurtful comments about the City of Regina and the re-election of Ralph Goodale.
There is a saying, he who lives in glass houses should not throw rocks. I feel the same intelligence level could be thrown back in your direction as I assume you helped elect this current Tory government we have in Ottawa and the provincial one you have in Alberta. My, how media spin doctoring can brainwash people into believing anything.
Yes, I agree some of the Liberal tactics while in power and during the election campaign were downright rotten, but you have it wrong to heap scorn on Ralph Goodale. Although he is not in my riding, I feel there is probably not a more honest man in politics than Ralph.
As far as insinuations go, during the election campaign your Tories did enough of them as well. If you really were compassionate about your fellow Canadians, you would have pulled your head out of a body cavity I can’t name and voted for the only party that had a decent plan to get corruption out of government and better quality of life for all Canadians and help for farmers and loggers, etc., and that was Jack Layton and the NDP.
Brian, you worry about the people you vote in in your ridings and we in Saskatchewan will worry about who we vote in.
– Craig Sorensen,
Ogema, Sask.
Corn countervail
There is no question that Canadian agriculture has known crisis. The beef industry crisis was precipitated by … the diagnosis of BSE in a native-born animal and resulting loss of export markets.
The grain sector is struggling to reverse long-term erosion of commodity prices while production costs continue to rise.
The beef industry and grain growers are interdependent. Unprofitability for Canadian grain corn growers is clearly not in the best interests of cattle producers. However, the imposition of duties on imports of U.S. corn will not solve low corn prices in Canada and harms the Canadian beef industry as it tries to recover from the BSE crisis. Canadian corn growers need a fair return, but there are better ways to go about it that won’t hurt beef producers and other Canadians.
Applying duties to the small percentage of U.S. corn that is imported into Canada will cause other unintended problems. The duties will upset feed cost parity between feeding cattle in Canada versus the U.S. This means that U.S. cattle feeders can afford to pay more than Canadian cattle feeders for Canadian cattle.
Feeder cattle exports to the U.S. will rise, potentially resulting in future trade challenges against the Canadian cattle industry. Cattle fed in the U.S. will neither eat Canadian corn nor be slaughtered in Canada. …
Of course, we certainly agree that U.S. subsidies need to be reformed, but it is na•ve to expect that this can be accomplished via import duties. It must be addressed in the context of international trade negotiations.
The CCA encourages the government of Canada to give its negotiators a strong mandate to achieve significant global reductions in domestic support and improvements in market access as these two subjects are intractably linked. …
– Stan Eby,
President, Canadian
Cattlemen’s Association,
Calgary, Alta.
Success talks
I would like to bring out a couple of points that relate to Craig Docksteader’s comment in the Feb. 2 Western Producer.
First, if the wheat market hadn’t been in disarray during the 1930s, the Canadian Wheat Board would not have been brought back in.
Second, either the dual marketers have forgotten or they don’t want to admit it, but the barley price dropped 60 cents per bushel during the six weeks that the Conservative government took barley out of the CWB and then barley received these same 60 cents per bushel over the next six months after it was put back under the CWB.
If the CWB wasn’t working, the multinational grain companies wouldn’t be pushing the European Union and U.S. governments to get rid of it.
– B. von Tettenborn,
Round Hill, Alta.
Flawed reasoning
Your guest columnist, Mr. Docksteader (WP, Feb. 2), uses the same flawed method of argument as most of the private sector’s right wing crusaders. He sets up and tried to answer objections that are only tangentially related to the main issue.
Manageable problems like no terminals or the need for long-term contracts pale in comparison to the fact that the Canadian Wheat “Corporation” would no longer be the only seller of Canadian wheat.
Mr. Docksteader asserts that he has proved that the dual market has worked before but he has not. He has only pointed out that it existed. Since the two events he mentioned happened nearly a lifetime apart, we can safely assume it didn’t work very well.
Logical thought leads us to the same conclusion. A dual system requires a partial free market and a “partial monopoly,” a laughable oxymoron. Learned economists from three prairie universities with access to 14 years of sales records and the auditor general herself have determined that the Canadian Wheat Board is worth about an extra $10 per tonne on all the wheat we export because it is a real monopoly.
Arguments for a dual market are rhetorical and philosophical, not economical.
Let’s leave the decisions about how we market wheat solely in the hands of those who grow it and tell our new government to keep their noses out of it.
Call your MP and implore him/her not to throw away $200-$300 million a year for prairie farmers because of philosophy.
– Glenn Tait,
Meota, Sask.
Resistant canola
I am a dryland farmer in southern Alberta and use glyphosates to control weeds in my chemfallow. There is an oil and gas site on my neighbour’s land and the road leading to the site is adjacent to my land.
I don’t know of any herbicide resistant canola grown within miles but this summer this road was polluted with volunteer canola. Oil companies generally use a high rate of glyphosate to control weeds along their right of way but there was no effect on these plants. They eventually had to mow them.
If other seeds of this type invade my fields, the glyphosate I use will be useless.
While companies promoting these herbicide resistant crops are making millions of dollars from farmers growing these crops, are they willing to pay my extra herbicide cost to control these invasive plants or will they provide someone to rogue my fields?
Should I decide to plant a common type of canola, what happens if the crop is contaminated with these resistant varieties and is mixed with a lot for export?
As we know, a number of countries refuse to accept these resistant varieties. Can you image the consequences if resistant wheat and barley varieties are allowed?
– Howard Dunn,
Turin, Alta.
Tax levels
Recently there has been a lot of discussion via TV, radio and newspapers about the Saskatchewan rural municipalities withholding tax money from the school units, causing them financial difficulties.
I am a retired farmer living in town. I turned the farm over to our son and now a grandson is part of the operation. For 32 years I have paid school taxes on both town and land properties, basically paying double what my neighbours in town are.
Everyone seems to think that farmers don’t want to pay any school taxes. That’s not what I hear from the farmers I know and talk to.
They are opposed to paying the lion’s share. They would be willing to pay school taxes on their residential buildings (house, garage, garden, etc.) The shops and out buildings are working areas and would be subject to RM taxes along with the land they own.
There are business people in town who pay school taxes on their working areas too. They can and do use that as an expense, but have the option of passing it on to the consumer. They might like to have their options reviewed too.
My wife and I have a gross income which I think is less than the average retired person with pension. Nobody seems to think it is wrong for us to pay extra school taxes.
Schools have to have money. We all should contribute. I expect it would be politically unpopular to suggest that my neighbours should pay at the same level we do. Something to think about.
– H. Vernon Hammond,
Biggar, Sask.
Debt free?
Are Albertans truly debt free?
This writer receives a monthly pension from a fully funded pension plan. Through the pension fund’s management team, employees and the corporation itself co-ordinate to ensure that the pension plan stays in a fully funded position.
Through this process, employees and retirees have their future pensions protected and the corporation itself maintains financial integrity.
The Alberta Teachers’ Retirement Fund is operated by a body of government and teacher representatives. Employees (teachers) and employer (government of Alberta) pension contributions have long been insufficient to allow the teachers’ pension fund to become fully funded. Monthly pension contributions and earnings from investments are insufficient to pay the pensions of retired teachers.
The government transfers cash from general revenue through the education budget to make up the shortfall. This monthly shortfall is destined to continue, and increase, for decades and is likened by actuary assessors to a mortgage payment on a debt.
The debt, the unfunded pension liability, now stands at $6 billion. That is the amount of money that needs to be invested today so the fund will become self-sustaining.
Furthermore, if the government of today and future governments don’t act to place the teachers’ pension plan into a fully funded position, the debt (the unfunded liability) will continue to grow to about $43 billion over 40 years. There is just no way that Albertans can consider themselves debt-free.
So, teachers continue to do their jobs in an atmosphere of confrontation and concern, re: their pensions. Can we expect that in a globally competitive, knowledge based society, that teachers will continue to see Alberta as the place to practice their vocation?
Surely, leaving this issue unaddressed would move us away from the concept of the ‘Alberta Advantage’ whereby the education of our children is fundamental to the foundation of our province.
I encourage all readers to examine the implications of this issue and question the government of the day about its plan for addressing this provincial debt.
– Alex Bauer,
Whitecourt, Alta.
Just desserts
Rural Canada was being destroyed ever since the Liberal party came into power in the early 1990s.
This federal election, we rural Canadians finally got justice and booted the Liberals from power. The Liberal party slashed rural funding and support, developed farm programs to bankrupt farmers, refused to talk, meet and played numerous games to cover up and hide today’s farm crisis.
(On election day) the voters of rural Canada finally fought back and won.
Now a closer look will be taken at rural Canada’s problems and possibly dealt with, with a better open minded group of people to manage problems, not like closed minded (Ralph) Goodale and friends, to develop a better agricultural farm support program that works for all sectors.
I told numerous Conservative candidates that if the party would publicly campaign to cancel today’s much hated farm support program called CAIS (Canadian Agricultural Income Stabilization), and offer something different, that the Conservative party would clean up most of the rural votes here and those especially in Ontario and Quebec. I was right.
Look at the outskirt seats around Toronto. They went Conservative this election because of their rural vote. A lot of rural voters in Ontario/Quebec stayed with the Liberals the previous election because the Conservative party wasn’t offering anything different or better than what the Liberals had in place at that time.
As far as Goodale and his fellow Liberals, they are on their way out come next election if our present day Conservative government develops and implements better policies for all of rural Canada. …
– Lloyd Pletz,
Lebret, Sask.
Auto cutbacks
While the Liberals were drying their tears in Ottawa, Conservative fireworks were lighting the skies over Calgary and CBC’s pet politician Mr. Jack Layton was basking in glory over his 29 seats, sombre news was lurking on the laptops of business executives across North America.
All three major North American automobile builders have announced cutbacks, major changes and closures in the last while. While the plants and offices in question are located in Ontario and the United States, few people realize the dire effects this will have on our prairie economy.
Traditionally, rural folks have been faithful to the “big three.” Having written several historical accounts in local newspapers in southwestern Saskatchewan, rarely does one interview an elder who hasn’t got a story or legend surrounding a Chevy pickup, a Ford Model T or a Massey combine powered by a Chrysler engine.
Ford, Chrysler, GM and other North American auto and implement dealerships were, and still are, an integral part of our rural communities.
Here in Gravelbourg, Woodriver Ford has been forced to give up its franchise after 20 years of service. And while the garage remains open, Ford has ceased to exist in this community after over 80 years of service. Fortunately, we still enjoy the convenience of a GM dealership.
Canadians sell wheat, cattle, oil and other products to the U.S. In turn, we should be buying North American cars, trucks, tractors and other equipment.
With our exports to the U.S. hovering at 85 percent of what we sell to all other nations, I have a hard time understanding why a drive around a local parking lot reveals that at least 50 percent of all vehicles are foreign built.
Much of Ford, GM and Chrysler’s woes derive from the false belief that foreign imports are superior to ours.
One elderly legionnaire told me, “I landed in Normandy in a Chevy truck, I went from Holland and returned to France in a Ford, and I’m going to the cemetery in a Cadillac.” And five bucks says that if he has a heart attack, a fire or a robbery in the next while, it’ll be a Chevy, GM, or a Ford that will come to his rescue. That says a lot right there.
– John Hamon,
Gravelbourg, Sask.
Already done
Mr. Rob Brown talks about the need for dialogue on health care (Opinion, Jan. 26.)
We have already had this discussion. The Romanow Commission 2002 engaged thousands of Canadians as to what kind of health care system we wanted.
“Building on Values” gave us the road map. Why it was not followed is beyond my comprehension.
In the recent federal election, on the Prairies issues like gun registry and definition of marriage overshadowed health care. The rural area, forgetting that they also need affordable, universal health, education and day care, were blind-sided and voted for an Alliance/Reform cabal under a new name, an Alberta controlled party.
So (on) Jan. 24 we woke up to a minority Conservative government with an agenda of social conservatism, supporting the growth of private for-profit medicare and the erosion of our public health-care system.
Now what will happen to the Kelowna Accord, which would have improved health care, education and housing for First Nations and Métis? One powerful Alberta Conservative MP, Monte Solberg, has already said that it will not be honoured.
Previous to that, former Reform leader Preston Manning stated his party would take a narrow interpretation of treaties.
Minority governments in the past, albeit usually Liberal, have given us good social programs like medicare and pensions. However this one is different.
So, hold politicians’ feet to the fire to get a strong national public health-care system, based on need and not on the ability to pay.
– Jacquie Christenson,
Saskatoon, Sask.
Democracy needs
The 23rd of January has come and gone. Canadians have apparently voted for change, but what are the specifics of the desired changes that actually influenced our decisions?
Let us first remember that we voted in 103 Liberals. Doesn’t that translate into us being relatively happy with the general policies of the Liberal governments for some 12 years?
So what really irked our sensibilities? Isn’t it the moral depths of deprivation that our politicians have fallen to and along with that fall went the ethics and morals of our bureaucracies and the majority of our political institutions?…
To address the moral shortcomings of our democracy, the incoming Parliament needs to reduce the personal entitlement of politicians and the more senior branches of the bureaucracies … institute a system of proportional representation across the land and attach a recall process, and institute financial control procedures in all government ministries.
With regard to some specific programs:
Kyoto – Don’t dismantle but break into two components: reduction and control of greenhouse gas emissions and mitigation of the impacts of climate change. …
Day care – Provide a mix of options but redirect about 50 percent of the promised funds toward assisting families living on the lower rungs of the economic ladder to move upwards. …
Same sex marriage – Let them be. Focus instead on alleviating the disconcerting residues left from the break-up of heterosexual relationships …
– Alex Bauer,
Whitecourt, Alta.
No wet nurse
Canadians have made their voices heard once more, and the division between the East and West is clear.
With all the corruption and the ineffective campaign run by the Liberals, the Conservatives should have swept the country. Instead they went up from 30 percent in 2004 to 37 percent.
According to an article by Link Byfield, chairman for the Citizens Centre for Freedom and Democracy, 60 percent of Ontarians, 63 percent of Maritimers and 81 percent of Quebecers have clung to big-spending central government.
Instead of asking why Alberta is succeeding where they are failing, the 10 Conservative MPs from Quebec, 40 from Ontario and the nine from the Atlantic provinces, along with the Liberals, NDP and the Bloc, will demand Mr. Harper “save Canada” with more central government spending and control and more financial transfers from the West, especially Alberta.
Alberta and Saskatchewan, on the other hand, have sent a clear message. They voted overwhelmingly for more freedom and less government interference in their daily lives. Their provincial leaders better take heed to the message as well as the East.
It is time to introduce a Charter of Obligations and Responsibilities: 1) Every person has the obligation to be as productive and self-sustaining as they physically and mentally can be. 2) Every person has the responsibility for their own well being inasmuch as they are able as well as the needs of those in their community that are unable to care for themselves.
It is not up to the hard working citizens of this country to wet-nurse everybody that has lifestyle ideals that do not match their work ethic.
– E. Roth,
Edmonton, Alta.
