Poor Sidney Crosby’s jaw-breaking accident last weekend reminded me of a COOL comment ag minister Gerry Ritz made recently after a speech in Saskatoon.
I turned my tape recorder off before I caught it, which I’m now sorry about, but I will try to capture the gist.
I asked him in a reporters’ scrum what he thought of Tom Vilsack, his American counterpart.
Ritz and Vilsack have each other on speed dial, he said.
I said I thought Vilsack was pretty good on some files and not so much on others. For instance, his stand on country-of-origin labelling leaves much to be desired.
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Ritz responded by noting that Vilsack is a big Pittsburgh Penguins fan.
Ritz once asked him how he would like it if Sidney Crosby, Penguin captain of Canuck origin, had his jersey emblazoned with “Product of Canada.” (That could now apply to Jarome Iginla, too.)
I thought that was a pretty diplomatic and funny way to illustrate the issues with COOL.
Get well soon, Sidney.
The Bank of Montreal emailed last week to point out that Canadian agriculture accounts for 8.1 percent of total GDP and $63.5 billion in global trade.
OK, it actually emailed to encourage Canadians to buy Canadian food on the Easter weekend, but it was too late for last week’s paper.
Anyway, a recent survey done by BMO indicated that Canadians try to buy poultry (84 percent), vegetables (91 percent), beef (78 percent), fruit (86 percent) and cheese (81 percent) from Canadian producers, either all the time or frequently. Those are pretty good numbers. Then again, that’s really good food.
Things are looking up on the pasture use file.
If the federal government really must stop operating community pastures, at least it is passing the assets on to Saskatchewan at no cost.
Last week, the provincial government said patrons will also be able to use the fixed assets on the land, such as fences, dugouts and cattle handling facilities, at no cost.
Funding has also been provided to help groups get legally organized.
It looks like reasonable accommodations are being made to keep the pastures viable without outrageous costs.
