Thursday was a ho-hum day in the equity markets: the Dow Jones Industrial Average up 3.14 percent and the S&P up not quite four percent. Isn’t that weird? That stock market leaps of more than three percent seem like no big deal? Before last September, you’d only get a handful of days with that big […] Read more
Opinion — page 685
Ho-hum days in the markets
Trade not venue for great idealism – WP editorial
A TRADE NEGOTIATOR’S primary responsibility is to achieve the best possible deal for his country. Seems like a no-brainer, right? Not according to Canadian critics of a trade agreement Canada signed with Colombia last year and that now requires legislation so it can be implemented. Canadian farmers stand to see millions of dollars in new […] Read more
No charges, no guilt, yet man is labelled a terrorist – Opinion
IF IT CAN happen to him, an authentic and police-declared innocent Canadian citizen, it can happen to anyone. You can leave your ranch in Acme, Alta., or your farm at Cadillac, Sask., for an overseas visit, discover you are mistakenly on some terrorist watch list and in the post-Sept. 11 world, find yourself in legal, […] Read more
Quota: privilege or commodity? – Opinion
Beskorovayny farms near Gronlid, Sask. Whether we are consumers or producers, the vastness of Canada’s arable land, along with its scant population, makes this country into one of surplus exportable commodities. Ever since the turn of the last century, history reminds us of the constant battles that farmers faced to protect their productivity from sometimes […] Read more
Stellar speechifiers speak specifically – Editorial Notebook
Would you rather run naked through your small-town co-op store or give a speech to a large group of friends, relatives and strangers? Have a root canal, pluck a flock of chickens and pick rocks for seven straight days, or address a crowd? There are those who would have to give serious thought to these […] Read more
Shovel ready plans have sudden popularity – The Moral Economy
WHEN driving into a storm, it seems like a good idea to pack a shovel. After all, one should have a shovel ready. But as of the beginning of April, I was rather hoping we could all forget about being shovel ready for a season or two. No such luck. In the face of the […] Read more
Letters to the editor
No impact; Ignatieff corrected; NFU & R-CALF; Not so warm; Not pink No impact It disturbed me greatly when I read in the March 19 Western Producer (“Study questions BSE’s impact”) of the study done by American professor Michael Broadway. … In the article it is mentioned numerous times that BSE had no impact on […] Read more
New tax policies friendly to small businesses – Money In Your Pocket
Ontario, once the financial capital of Canada, is faltering. Alberta, until now the tax friendliest environment in Canada, is being surpassed. Look out Canada, here comes Manitoba. In the latest federal budget, the small business deduction (SBD) limit for Canadian-controlled private corporations (CCPCs), which are taxed federally at the historically paltry rate of 11 percent, […] Read more
April 8
Lisa explains how to prepare the soil for planting using the special chako hoe. Beside us a team of oxen rips the soil in readiness for planting corn. Along with 23 other farmers from the Kitwe area, I am at Golden Valley Agricultural Research Trust to learn all I can about conservation farming for small-scale […] Read more
Market myths and assumptions
We all know that pork prices pick up in the spring as soon as the yanks find it warm enough to waddle outside and fire up their barbeques, right? There’s a two-part answer to that question: 1) No we don’t know that, because it probably isn’t true and therefore can’t be “known;” 2) Yes, we […] Read more
