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. 29, 1940
The Canadian Wheat Board announced that farmers’ creditors wouldn’t be allowed to accept wheat from producers in payment of debt and then sell it to the board.
Manitoba premier John Bracken wasn’t happy that Ottawa hadn’t yet announced plans to act on recommendations made by a provincial-dominion relations commission report. In two letters to prime minister Mackenzie King, Bracken also appealed for federal consideration of the plight of western farmers, who faced a wheat glut and low prices.
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50 years ago: Aug. 25, 1965
An outbreak of encephalitis affected hundreds of horses on the Prairies. Dr. G.R. Whenman, assistant director of Alberta’s veterinary services branch, said the disease, also known as sleeping sickness, may have affected 500 to 1,000 horses, but he wasn’t overly concerned. “It happens every year. This year is more widespread than usual, but this is to be expected.” A two-month-old baby was believed to have died from the disease, and 13 other suspected cases were in isolation.
A lack of diesel engines was expected to replace boxcar shortages as the main obstacle in railway efforts to move the prairie crop to export position. The railways had been forced to lease locomotives from the United States in 1963-64, but increased traffic south of the border was raising fears that that wouldn’t be an option this year.
25 years ago: Aug. 30, 1990
National Farmers Union president Wayne Easter was denying reports that he planned to resign. He said the reports might have stemmed from a recent speech he had made to a Saskatchewan regional NFU meeting, in which he expressed frustration with farmers who believed the federal Progressive Conservative government was consulting with them. Easter was elected as a Liberal MP three years later and has held the job ever since.
Don Wallis, a farmer from D’Arcy, Sask., was planning to sell swathers to the Soviet Union. Wallis, who had been building swathers since 1984, was working to sign an agreement with the Kazakhstan government that would see his swathers built in a war factory in Tselinograd.
10 years ago: Aug. 25, 2005
Plans for a consortium of five farmer-owned elevators to buy a west coast grain terminal ran aground after the federal Competition Bureau refused to give the two sides more time to reach a deal. The bureau had ordered Agricore United to sell one of its terminals following the takeover of Agricore by United Grain Growers, which resulted in the new company. The consortium, called Terminal One, had wanted to buy the terminal but couldn’t attract other partners to ensure it would be able to handle enough grain to make it profitable.
A panel reviewing the Canadian Wheat Board’s election system held public meetings in Edmonton, September and Winnipeg as harvest was getting underway. To no one’s surprise, few farmers showed up. The NFU called the timing ridiculous.
