The regular columnist in this space, Bruce Dyck, recently wrote about the value of a good proofreader. He’s right. But mistakes do happen, and I’ve made some doozies over the years. The thing about a journalist’s mistakes, especially in the digital world, is that everyone can see them. In the “old” days, a reader sent […] Read more
Opinion
Tariff threat requires major changes
Few political figures have shaken global markets like U.S. president-elect Donald Trump. His recent threats to impose sweeping tariffs — 25 per cent on Canadian and Mexican agricultural products and 10 per cent on Chinese goods — sent shockwaves through currency markets, sinking the Canadian dollar by a cent within seconds. These tariffs, framed as […] Read more
Ag sector must be ready to answer foreign worker questions
Canadian farmers have a long history of employing temporary foreign workers. In 1966, the Seasonal Agricultural Workers Program was formed and brought 264 Jamaican workers to Canada to pick apples. That program has functioned well over the years for its intended purpose of filling short-term seasonal positions that weren’t attractive to Canadians. It has grown […] Read more
Team Canada approach vital in U.S. relations
Donald Trump will be moving back into the White House in a little less than two months but he has already kicked over a hornet’s nest. The president-elect announced last week that one of his first orders of business will be to impose 25 per cent tariffs on everything imported to the United States from […] Read more
Letters to the editor – December 5, 2024
Food not just agricultural byproduct A very interesting editorial in the Nov. 21 edition of the WP. I find it irritating that farmers are always mentioned as having to lower their greenhouse gas emission when we know that 70 per cent of them come from cities. I hardly ever hear mention of making ice in […] Read more
Estate plan tips to recognize farming, non-farming kids
Rural communities all have stories about farmland deals gone bad, land sold through divorces, and non-farming siblings inheriting land and selling it out from under the farming sibling. That’s likely why many parents want to give most, if not all, the farmland to the farming child(ren), so the farm remains in the family. This typical […] Read more
Check out your geopolitical crystal ball
Over the next few months, a host of international actions could have unpleasant repercussions for Canadian agriculture. Seldom, if ever, have so many different threats come from outside our borders. China is investigating Canadian canola for dumping, a response to the 100 per cent duty the U.S. and Canada placed on Chinese electric vehicles. Perhaps […] Read more
Outdoor farm show documentary launches
I’ve done many interviews since I was hired at the Western Producer 12 years ago but this summer I experienced an interview in a new way, in which I was asked the questions. It was for a documentary series called Welcome to the Farm Show for which the Western Producer hired a documentary team to […] Read more
We’ll get sick if the elephant sneezes
Former prime minister Pierre Elliott Trudeau once noted that living next to the United States is “like sleeping with an elephant. No matter how friendly and even-tempered is the beast, one is affected by every twitch and grunt.” On Nov. 5, the elephant did more than twitch; it sneezed, and Canada is likely to catch […] Read more
Just how expensive is U.S. food compared to other categories?
Nearly every autopsy of Vice-President Kamala Harris’s stinging White House defeat begins with some variation of the phrase, “voters pointed to the rising price of food as their chief concern…” True or not — and more on that later — the Trump campaign tied that tin can so tightly to Harris that everywhere she went […] Read more
