Short and sweet – that’s one sign of a significant slogan. One needn’t look far for effective Canadian examples.
The West Wants In.
Vive le Quebec Libre.
Elected, Equal and Effective.
I Am Canadian.
Further afield there are international political slogans and short quotes with places in history.
Land, Bread, Peace.
Blood, sweat, toil and tears.
As sayings go, “shoot, shovel and shut-up” has some of the qualities, sibilance and alliteration among them, that mark a slogan with staying power.
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And although Alberta premier Ralph Klein recently found himself in hot water for uttering it in the company of western U.S. governors, he wasn’t the first to either say it or think it.
“Shoot, shovel and shut-up” got its start as part of American debate on endangered species. Landowners worried about onerous restrictions attached to the discovery of rare species on their property threatened to kill and bury such flora or fauna and not report the sightings.
The slogan got an airing in the same context here when the Canadian government drafted endangered species legislation that met with opposition from landowners.
Now, of course, the so-called Triple S theory is being used in relation to the discovery of bovine spongiform encephalopathy in one Canadian cow.
Why didn’t that farmer shoot his sick cow at home and go about his business, instead of taking it to a slaughter plant where its condition was discovered – to the detriment of a national industry?
Hundreds of people have asked that question in private conversation since May 20. But Klein aired it publicly last week. It wasn’t politically correct, but that hasn’t stopped Klein in the past and isn’t likely to stop him in the future. Such plain speaking and familiarity with common thought is part of Klein’s political appeal for Albertans.
Other politicians have talked Triple S in relation to BSE, but in different context. Last month, Saskatchewan Liberal MP Ralph Goodale warned that Triple S could become the preferred option for cattle producers, unless science-based reasoning and proven animal health are used to resolve issues like the ones surrounding BSE.
Few, if any, would seriously suggest the Triple S approach as a long-term solution to animal health issues. Yet we can’t blame anyone affected by the BSE crisis for pondering “if – then” scenarios.
Some advice for Klein, albeit a bit late – stick to the best slogan of all to see Alberta cattle producers through these dark times: I Love Alberta Beef.
Pretty horns
As a breeder (with pride) of Texas Longhorn cattle, it made me smile to see the Canadian cattle industry select a horned profile of a bovine in the “I Love Canadian Beef” campaign.
Despite the controversy about horned animals in feedlots, during shipping and at slaughter plants, and for the outrageous dockage we are charged when we sell horned animals, isn’t it interesting that those are the ones featured as the recognized symbol for a world wide campaign to help the struggling industry?
Perhaps someday horned cattle and their producers will be treated equally and no longer penalized for those beautiful horns.
Here’s hoping the border opens soon to live exports of Canadian beef.
– Deb Lesyk,
Outlook, Sask.
Anything helps
For most of my life I felt helpless when I learned of someone being burned out of their home. What could I possibly give them of sufficient value to express my concern and make a difference to their plight?
Then in 1992 an arsonist reduced our property to a lot surrounded by a charred wooden fence. I soon learned anything and everything helped, and made me feel better: a kind word, a willing hand, new or used items of any sort.
The gift that stands out in my mind was a ballpoint pen tossed into a box of kitchen supplies. At that moment, a ballpoint filled my need better than anything.
From a functional two filing cabinet office I went to a plastic shopping bag. This I carried everywhere like a security blanket. It stabilized our existence.
The bag contained a steno notebook. In the notebook I kept track of each day’s progress, addresses, and phone numbers of carpenters, electricians and plumbers.
The first week following the fire was a jumble, answering questions asked by police and insurance adjusters, picking through ashes for recognizable bits such as pottery cookie presses that resisted burning, and driving back and forth to our daughter’s home for meals, showers and rest. …
A customer loaned us his 17-foot travel trailer and Telus and hydro bent the rules to hook us up with phone and power. We leaned on overworked tradespeople at a time when our neighbourhood’s building boom had them working overtime routinely.
Following any major disruption – fire, flood or tornado – you face enormous expenses, drained energy and no time for comparison shopping.
All replacement goods, whether inexpensive or as unique as a hand-made quilt, chink a niche and comfort the beleaguered spirit.
We received ready-to-heat canned moose and borscht, tinned soups and salmon, fresh potatoes and corn on the cob, and a box filled with small amounts of a variety of spices, salt, vegetable oil and other cooking ingredients …
Plastic food savers, frying pans, teapot, toaster, cutlery, saucepans, tea kettle, garbage bags, mixing bowls, mugs and plates. All were put to use immediately. … I still wear regularly a pair of polyester slacks given to me by a firefighter’s wife.
A radio, a portable TV, a manual typewriter. A corner bookshelf for the TV. An oval rug. A Formica table and two chairs that graced our kitchen until we moved into our newly built house.
Labour is a rare gift. A carpenter skirted the mobile home we moved into for three months while building. A logger hoisted plywood to the roof.
“People going through a crisis may not reach out, so you have to make the moves,” wrote Susan Baxter in her BC Woman article, How to Help a Friend Through a Loss. Any move shows you care.
– Claudette Sandecki,
Terrace, B.C.
Weathering storm
I would like to comment regarding your stories lately about the feedlots, and particularly the large feedlots receiving the lion’s share of the government BSE (bovine spongiform encephalopathy) compensation package. Like most of the media stories this summer, this one has a twist that most people in the industry already know.
The week that the government, in all their wisdom, announced the compensation program, the packer offering price dropped about 40 cents per pound. Retail prices remained virtually the same with the exception of cheaper hamburger throughout the summer.
I am not saying that the packing plants are at fault, nor is it fair to say that the feedlots took all the government money as your article read.
This summer has been a twisted mess in the industry, and we don’t need any more stories that have potential to pit one segment of the industry against the other. Grassroots cow-calf people need to be on good terms with feedlot people, packers and retailers to climb out of this mess.
The whole issue of BSE getting the publicity it has is a farce, and our own Canadian public is backing this statement.
… I run a cattle ranch in partnership with Wayne Ludwig at Crossfield, Alta. We have been marketing our finished steers throughout the summer to Galloway By Choice, a private beef company supplying premium quality natural beef to restaurants and small markets in Calgary.
We are involved in every aspect of the cattle industry with 200 plus brood cows producing two breeds of purebred cattle, as well as commercial cattle for the program I have mentioned.
We will be here when this storm has passed, with help from live cattle customers and public beef consumers. When that storm passes will hinge more around government and media than anything else.
You folks have an opportunity to help. One suggestion might be an end to the phrase “mad cow.” BSE is the real term.
Enough too of the stories like the feedlot windfall. Without the rest of the facts, it can only seed resentment or jealousy.
– Randy Kaiser,
Crossfield, Alta.
Apples and oats
In my next life, I want to work at Statistics Canada; that way I won’t have to be accountable and efficient. I take exception to Statscan’s Oliver Code’s comments about the manner in which his department is releasing data in a “timely matter” (WP, Aug. 28.)
Mr. Code or the article implied that there were only four commodities released in the USDA’s production estimate released in August: corn, cotton, soybeans and wheat. On that same day, the USDA released production estimates for apples, barley, dry edible beans, coffee, ginger root, grapes, hay, hops, oats, olives, papayas, peaches, peanuts, pears, prunes, sorghum, sugar beets, sugarcane, tobacco and durum wheat.
That equates to 24 commodities compared to Statscan’s 11 that were released on Aug. 22. If one is to equal or beat your competition, it is best to know what your competition is doing.
Mr. Code also implied that “(we) have no idea what’s involved in compiling and analyzing 17,000 replies. “That’s a lot of people to talk to. You don’t get that done in a couple of minutes.”
Obviously the USDA does. Objective yield and farm operator surveys were conducted between July 25 and Aug. 6 to gather information on expected yield as of Aug. 1. The farm operator survey was conducted primarily by telephone with some use of mail and personal interviewers. Approximately 25,000 producers were interviewed … and asked questions about probable yield.
The article also alluded that the USDA’s Aug. 1 production estimate for corn, cotton, soybeans and wheat comes from surveys conducted only in the major grain producing states. The objective yield surveys for corn, cotton, soybeans and wheat were conducted in the major producing states that usually account for about 75 percent of the U.S. production.
With the case of corn, soybeans and wheat, the major producing regions will be equal to or bigger than our major producing provinces in number.
Here is a hint if it will help speed up the field crop reporting series: stop phoning the Northwest Territories and the Yukon.
Let us recap: Statscan phones 17,000 farmers; the USDA 25,000. Statscan issues data on 11 commodities; the USDA on 25 commodities; Statscan’s survey was between July 25 and Aug. 3; the USDA’s survey was between July 25 and Aug. 6. Statscan releases the final data on Aug. 22; the USDA on Aug. 12.
I really do not care what the numbers are but to say that we can’t get them out in a more timely matter is hypocrisy. This is the information age. To say that you cannot become better, faster or more efficient is indecorous to farmers and the people for this report is intended.
Thank goodness farmers did not and do not have the same attitude – we might be still plowing with oxen if they did and Statscan would be using the telex.
– Larry Weber,
Saskatoon, Sask.
