For the next year, this column will mark The Western Producer’s 100th anniversary by taking a deep dive every week into a past issue of the paper.
Accusations of sabotage were levelled in the May 11,1995, issue as Canadian Federation of Agriculture president Jack Wilkinson accused the provinces of trying to undermine a farm safety net agreement that had been reached in principle in December.
Wilkinson told the House of Commons agriculture committee that the provincial governments wanted to decide which farmers were eligible for the new program, how the new plan would be supported and how much support farmers would receive.
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Worrisome drop in grain prices
Prices had been softening for most of the previous month, but heading into the Labour Day long weekend, the price drops were startling.
He said it was up to federal agriculture minister Ralph Goodale to defend the agreement of a “whole farm” system that was open to all farmers based on principles of the Net Income Stabilization Account.
“I think Goodale has a responsibility to make sure we have a national safety net program. I think he is going to have to be able to say ‘no’ to some of the provinces,” Wilkinson told MPs.
Goodale was also in the news that week as the federal government laid out some of the terms of its sale of Canadian National Railway.
The agriculture minister was telling farmers and their companies that it was in their best interest to buy a piece of the railway.
“The opportunity is there,” he said.
To those who accused the government of selling off the national dream, federal transport minister Doug Young replied:
“CN is no longer part of our national dream. Freight cars filled with wheat rolling across the Prairies are no longer the stuff of national myth.”
On a lighter note, the Producer ran a front page story about country music legend and Alberta cowboy Ian Tyson being inducted into the Order of Canada.
This story brought back memories for me. My father had a collection of 45 r.p.m. records when I was a kid, and one of them was Four Strong Winds by Ian and Sylvia, which I listened to constantly.
Back then, you got your entertainment where you could find it.
