The Western Producer takes a weekly look at some of the stories that made headlines in issues of the paper from 75, 50, 25 and 10 years ago.
75 years ago: Aug. 15, 1940
Manitoba premier John Bracken said it was “wholly illogical, unfair and discriminatory” for Ottawa to operate the Farmers’ Creditor Arrangement Act in Alberta and Saskatchewan but not in his province. Bracken sent the accusation to Ottawa in the form of a telegram.
Alberta agriculture minister D.B. Mullen had advice for farmers facing grain storage difficulties in the fall: allow their grain to properly ripen and have it threshed in a condition fit for storage.
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50 years ago: Aug. 12, 1965
Elevator companies and the grain handlers’ union were studying proposals to settle a labour dispute that was delaying grain shipments at the port of Vancouver. The B.C. Federation of Labour weighed into the issue by insisting that the union was not responsible for the strike.
Alexander Laidlaw, national secretary of the Co-operative Union of Canada, said modern-day co-op members were becoming overly concerned with respectability, and he predicted the movement might not last another generation unless it recaptured its daring and adventuresome spirit of youth.
25 years ago: Aug. 16, 1990
The federal government banned all Canadian commercial links with Iraq, which effectively ordered the Canadian Wheat Board out of a potential $250 million grain market. The move was in response to Iraq’s invasion of Kuwait.
A group of First Nations people calling themselves the Peigan Lonefighters Society attempted to divert water from the Lethbridge Northern Irrigation District in southern Alberta. The activists vowed to continue until the provincial government stopped construction of the Oldman River dam near Pincher Creek.
10 years ago: Aug. 11, 2005
The Canadian Federation of Agriculture fought back against chemical company claims that it was unsafe for farmers to use own-use import provisions to buy a generic glyphosate product from the United States. CFA president Bob Friesen said the criticisms were unfounded and the imports saved Canadian producers lots of money.
Margaret Green of Alberta was “turning cow turds into tacky treasures to beat the crappy market for cattle.” A photo featured Green holding a cow patty clock. She called her business Ding Dung Productions.
