Cheap goods
letters
To the Editor:
After chastising Prime Minister ChrŽtien for his elaborate junkets into warmer climes, in his letter to the editor Feb. 1, Ernest J. Weser writes, “The best answer to this type of junket is a boycott of cheap, imported foreign goods.”
I couldn’t agree more heartily. For several years now, my wife and I have made a deliberate effort to buy Canadian where possible.
This might mean paying a little more for a can of tomatoes or beans, but along with knowing that this product was not only grown in Canada, it was also processed and packed by Canadian workers who spend their incomes in Canada.
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Farmer ownership cannot be seen as a guarantee for success
It’s a powerful movement when people band together to form co-ops and credit unions, but member ownership is no guarantee of success.
It also means that up to now, at least, we don’t have to consume certain additives in the canned foods we buy such as calcium chloride.We were very surprised to find this preservative in several imported food items. Upon enquiry into the necessity for this, I was informed by a Health Canada person that it served to ensure firmness of the fruit or vegetable for a longer period of time, as if that had been a serious problem in the past. Until recently, we did not find this additive in foods processed in Canada.
Buying Canadian is becoming more and more difficult however, because we are finding that new rules allow importers not to put “country of origin” on the products they bring into the country.
We don’t have to be told imported items were manufactured by child labor. That is all part of the new order of things. There is more to come as so-called trade barriers are broken down by international agreements.
I’m not sure many of the readers of this publication are aware that all of our paints and paint products are now bought and sold in American measure.
We changed from imperial to metric, with considerable outcry from some people. Why, oh why, did we not hear even the slightest whimper about this latest change? Because we are not to be aware of it.
It is obvious that standards in just about every aspect of our lives are being eroded. The bottom line is rapidly becoming something called greed. It now doesn’t seem to be enough to make a reasonable profit at any endeavor.
Downsizing no longer means becoming smaller, rather it has come to mean, “doing it with fewer people.” We are just now beginning to witness the results of this phenomenon in our society.
Mr. Weser, you just keep on boycotting cheap goods produced by low wages and terrible working conditions, and so will I. It’s the only way we still have of fighting back against what is so terribly wrong. Who knows, maybe others will join us and when there are enough of us, we just might win.
– Edwin Schindler,
Regina, Sask.
SWP Growth
To the Editor:
Make the SWP a western Canadian company. I was reluctant to see a great co-operative become a shareholder company, but now that it is I hope that the SWP Board of Directors will take time and effort to make it a company that is owned by western Canadians.
The Alberta and Manitoba Pools could become shareholders and remain co-operatives.
The labor unions could make an effort to have laws changed so as to have their pension funds as shares in corporations instead of having other concerns making profits on their pension funds. A share will maintain a realistic value because property increases in dollar value due to inflation whereas a dollar loses value due to inflation. Today’s dollar won’t buy a tenth of what it would do 30 years ago. Instead of a monthly pension when a person is ready to retire they can sell their shares as required.
Labor should invest their RRSPs in shares instead of having other concerns invest for them.
The SWP should encourage employees to invest a portion of their wages in shares and obtain part of their income from dividends. The SWP should maintain their own brokerage firm to buy and sell shares (may take an effort to have the law changed).
The SWP should make a concerted effort to encourage western people to invest in the SWP. People would be proud of Robin’s Donuts if they were part owners. The Dairy Producers should be interested in shares if they supplied the dairy products.
If the profits stay in western Canada, everybody benefits.
-Alex Olson,
Spy Hill, Sask.
4-H Fraud
To the Editor:
I am writing in regards to the article in the Jan. 11, 1996 issue about Ohio 4-H champs charged with fraud.
I’ve written to a couple of magazines defending 4-H and how much it teaches a person and now Ohio 4-Hers have put that theory down the toilet.
I think it is a disgrace that people have the nerve to put an animal through that torture and expect to get away with it. Maybe what they’ve done to animals should be done to them.
Tell me what the advantage is to put an animal through hell to get a ribbon or a banner. To win a prize and get caught doesn’t only give 4-H a bad name but expecting their farm name to be at the top of the list is a big mistake.
Do they seriously think that once exposed, that their business is going to be booming? Not. I’m hoping that breed associations will also take action against cheaters and discontinue their membership. These people are giving popular beef breeds of cattle a bad name, because of artificially enhancing breed genetics.
In the lines of professional litters, groomers, parents and judges, I think they should be charged with animal cruelty and physical abuse, not just a slap on the hand and a cheap fine. Maybe a few years in jail and a hefty fine would get the message across.
– Nicole Krill,
Redwater, Alta.
No choice
To the Editor:
Re John S. Fenrich letter Need Choice (Jan. 25) brings back memories when there was no choice.You had to hitch horses to a bob sleigh to haul grain because roads were snowed in. I spent many miles running behind the bob sleigh trying to keep warm. Maybe Mr. Fenrich is still doing it.
Only choice you had in those days was, let’s say if you lived between Vonda and Aberdeen, when making a permit book you had to choose one place or the other. You could not haul both ways.
Those were the days when most of our feeder livestock went to eastern feed lots and feed grains followed and feed barley prices were good.
Talking about dual marketing, that has been around for many years. … Most of the time farm fuel is 12 cents a gallon cheaper in Edmonton than southern Alberta. Montana farmers buy our farm fuel from Alberta even cheaper so in a way it may have some benefits living further north of the border.
Loads of feed grain are coming here to feedlots all the time, from Manitoba, Saskatchewan and from around North Battleford. And now the U.S. farmers are going to arbitration. They want to sell barley into Canada. It should bring them better money than in the U.S.
– John Pokorney,
Tilley, Alta.
Bait debate
To the Editor:
It’s sad that we as a modern society can’t mature past our self-serving attitudes. For once could we think about the deer rather than our petty animosity? Would you like to be suffering through 40-below temperatures as a skinny and hungry wild animal or a fat, well-fed one? All this heartfelt crap about ethics should be recognized for what it is not, that being realistic.
The feeding of wildlife debate is obviously an anti-outfitter thing stemming from jealousy. Let’s try to grow up a little, control our anger, and envision how our actions will affect wildlife.
Many thousands of private-sector dollars go into supplemental feeding of wildlife. That is good for deer.
Government-paid wildlife biologists will tell you that, for whatever reason feed is put out, it is very beneficial to sustain their good health and continued existence through harsh winters.
The deer make their own choice out there in the forest when offered one. If we discourage concerned residents from feeding wildlife, there will be no choice for deer during harsh winters, except to starve.
What is so kind about natural starvation or having a predator biting pieces from your butt as you drag yourself along in a weakened state from hunger?
Government manages outfitters rather than deer in Saskat-chewan because of the animosity problem. That is very stupid, but this is the reality of politics.
If we pay biologists to do a job, we should listen to their biological findings. Recent surveys show our forest deer population is thriving under current management. Why fix what is not broken?
Unknowledgable mouthpieces should stick to topics they know something about, or research the facts first.
– Carl Frohaug,
Candle Lake, Sask.
Save elevators
To the Editor:
We have been getting The
Western Producer now for the last about 30 years and we thoroughly enjoy reading it, as your paper covers worldwide farm news which greatly interests us. Now that’s not my reason for writing this letter. Why are Manitoba, Saskat-chewan and Alberta allowing their grand old landmarks, the elevators, to be destroyed? Why?
Each town and farmer should get together and restore those grand old landmarks, for that is what attracts tourists to the area.
Why couldn’t they restore them as grand projects and all pitch in to help do so? It could be a blessing for all, as they could turn them into bakeries or museums or restaurants, hotels or even barns. But why destroy them? They are what we enjoy seeing when going back for visits.
You never see the Europeans destroy their beautiful old landmarks, except maybe Holland, and again that is foolish on their part if they do.
Canada on the whole, especially Vancouver and a little of Victoria as well, have destroyed some of their beautiful old structures, putting up ugly old buildings in their place that have no character whatsoever. And what for? Greed seems to be the factor behind all that destruction. And up go the people’s taxes, and the cities lose their beauty that could and would attract more tourism.
As I said, they don’t practice that type in Europe except for all their senseless wars that have never ever brought peace on earth, only hatred and greed. But that’s another subject. No, they do their utmost to reconstruct their beautiful architectural buildings, also try to bring them as closely as possible to their original structures inside and out. And that’s what draws all their tourists to their cities and countries.
So why is Canada so foolish to destroy land and historical buildings? Shame on them.
– L. A. Knight,
Burton, B.C.
Rail folly
To the Editor:
Transportation delays prove costly to farmers. Let us look at management. In the past month there have been three train engine units go by my farm pulling no cars. One went by empty to return later with 16 cars. Our 40 below weather was apparently not a factor. Sixty car units have gone through in as cold a weather. They were there running and could have been hauling empty cars in or full cars out for close to the same cost. Our delivery point is generally full. We would have been happy with more room.
Empty cars were available. On a cost plus profit basis the corporations who now own the railroads were increasing costs to increase profits.
Over 70 truckloads of grain left our delivery point in the past two months. All of that grain could have been loaded on cars, went with that 16 car train at little extra cost, and the train would still be underloaded. At around $400 per trip for those 70 trips, using trucks added at least $280,000 to farmers’ freight bills. At a 20 percent guaranteed profit on the $280,000 extra cost, the shareholders who now own the CNR would take an extra $56,000.
For environmentalists’ information, all the fuel used in the trucks was a pollutant, a waste of a nonrenewable resource, and unnecessary.
The extent to which this is occurring across Western Canada we do not know. The corporate sector which controls or owns the media could remove them.
The Liberal and Reform members of Parliament turned what was a Canadian symbol over to their friends in the corporate sector with glee, they said. Do these parties get their campaign funds and media support from the corporate sector or has their preelection vision of the welfare of Canadians been obscured by a post-election trough?
-Robert Thompson,
Alticane, Sask.
