The story of Jim Chatney begins...
... with an act of defiance. He was a farmer from Alberta who was tired of being forced to sell his wheat and barley to a government monopoly and he was determined to show his fellow farmers and the world how unjust this really is in a so-called free society.13 years ago, in the spring of 1996, Jim joined a small group of farmers at the Alberta/Montana border. Some had tandems, some had semi’s, some were in pickup trucks. Jim had the family van and in the back of it he had something truly dangerous, a weapon of mass anarchy and destruction, … a bag of Wheat.
He took that bag of wheat across to the US and he donated it to a 4-h club. That was Jim’s act of defiance, that was his act of civil disobedience, and that is what ultimately got him put in a Canadian jail. What others had just talked about doing, Jim and his friends actually did.
Read the whole thing.
Martin Armstrong: The Collapse of Socialism
Imagine a not so distant future in which the USA not longer has the backing of China to finance its purchase of oil from the ME, Venezuala, etc.
In US dollar terms, oil will soar. And where will America turn for its energy sources in attempt to make up the shortfall? Look north.
And what do the Americans have to offer Canada to balance the trade?
Agricultural products, for one.
These Ag "Marketing Boards" (i.e. price fixing boards) are going to have to contend with a desperate America trying to pry open Canadian markets. All the while in a deflationary cycle, which is going to make things "interesting" for the price fixing boards.
It's great to hear the whole story in such a moving tribute. Everyone should have a great deal of respect for Jim Chatney, regardless of their opinon on the CWB issue.
The CWB is good for the farmers> I know because Jack Latyton Lorne Calvert and Nettie Wiebe and the NFU tell me. What I can't understand is why Nettie lost the rural vote in the last election. Don't the dumb farmers know what is good for them.
Why would they want their full amount for their grain when they sell it. They would just blow it and be on welfare when other Board guys get their final payment!
No question that Jim Chatney is a real Canadian hero. God bless him and his wife.
shaken has a point. Of course, the way Obama is throwing his supporters overboard, I can't imagine it will be that much longer before he decides that a good source of high paying union jobs that keeps dollars at home will be opening the Alaskan arctic for exploration.
that is, if collapsing the US economy to prevent a "global heating" (their term, not mine) crisis that nobody has any convincing proof is happening as a policy doesn't work out for him.
We all must insist that PMSH fix this. My way? Apply it across the whole damn country.ANYTHING and EVERYTHING that comes from a farm,chicken/turkey house,any dairy,any orchard,any grapevine,subject them all to the same rules as the WCB. Then we can set-up a pool to see how long it lasts.
this is truly a subject that needs to be put, and kept in the spotlight. The books need to be opened. Let the auditor general loose. This will make adscam look like chump change.
Compare this story to what we just elected to give us hope & change.
One is a man, comfortable in his skin and his beliefs. The other is a petulant child who knows that he knows what is best for the rest.
The world needs more men of the earth and less of the men of laws.
I am just trying to get my head around the fact that 1996 was thirteen years ago..........
Some folks I know just cannot understand when I start in on the nanny state. I had never heard of this gent before today (CWB does not get a lot of play on the right coast), but now I have another perfect example of government bureaucracy run amok in the name of the nanny state.
CWB may not get much play on the "right coast", AtlanticJim, but it's sure amusing to hear PEI Liberal MP, Wayne Easter yelling about it in the HOC. He really is the expert on the subject, at least in in own mind.
Jim's actual ultimate act of defiance should have been what other business people do when they can't get the price they require for their products...stop producing them!
I don't understand why farmers can't or won't adapt to changing markets. Personally I've had to reinvent by business several times over the years because of declining profits. It's not pleasant nor easy but it's necessary and it works.
Showing frustration is childish and acting on that childishness is even worse.
God Bless Jim Ness too.
Indeed this man is a true Canadian hero and not one of the empty talking heads of which we have so many. He represents true Canadian traditional values, especially freedom, for which so many of our brave people died in the past.
Kate, I hope you win the Blog Award just because of the cool Obamunist graphic on the mast head.
Dear God! I hadn't heard a word about this!
I love this guy!
not stirred enough, the biggest problem for western Canadian farmers when it comes to being able to adapt to the ever changing marketplace is the never changing status quo wheat board. It affects everything that goes on out here, you just can't get away from it.
I could never understand why 10'000 farmer's weren't at the legislature when this happened throwing politictions out window's
I just read in the latest Western Producer that Gerry Ritz is now saying that instituting freedom for barley marketing is "off the table", ostensibly because the government is bogged down with other, more pressing issues.
I've known for a long time that the Tories and the Liberals were philosophically pretty much identical, but with Ritz's statement I've now come to the conclusion that they are also identical in terms of policy. You would have to dig pretty deep to find even minor policy measures which could be used to differentiate the two main parties. In terms of fiscal policy, the Tories are now firmly in the same spend, spend, spend camp as the Liberals. In terms of the Human Rights Commission, Harper recently made it clear that his views on the CHRC are indistinguishable from those of the Liberals. On Senate reform, Harper has also capitulated. The list goes on and on.
I'm at the point now where I no longer see a reason to support any mainstream political party in this country either morally or financially.
C'mon, Dennis, don't believe everything you hear. Keep in mind the Liberals are desperate and desperate people are known to spread false rumours and outright lies.
The Conservatives are not perfect, they are trying. Playing against a stacked deck, Liberal PS, Liberal Senate, Lefty SC, is tough sledding. We don't need people in the party ready to jump ship at every lie they hear.
Lizzy May is looking for support, maybe that's a place you'd feel more comfortable. She's definitely not mainstream.
why the f**k can't these bastards be removed. with extreme, ah hell i just want all the assholes done away with. why do they always seem to be government employees.
royalist, canadians will do nothing now or ever.
Not Stirred,
The problem is, how do you adapt to changing marketS when there is only the one market?
The Conservatives are not perfect, they are trying. Playing against a stacked deck, Liberal PS, Liberal Senate, Lefty SC, is tough sledding. We don't need people in the party ready to jump ship at every lie they hear.
I call BS on that.
What is the difference between the Liberal's "Green Shift Plan" (stated by Liberals as a massive wealth transfer from the west to the center) and Harper's "Stimulous"? The same money is going to be sucked out of productive parts of the country to support the center.
As far as this western voter is concerned, the "politics" hasn't changed one iota!
Screw the "Cons" and any mainstream Party. The Cons are stacked with central Canadian MP's. Liberal-Tory same old story.
We need more Jim Chatneys.
Regarding the conservatives, they've been putting up a good fight against the CWB. So I'm happy, and I expect that they will continue the fight, even if it is off the table for now. Clearly they will need a majority for this, if they are to do it on their own.
There is also the possibility, that with Dion out of the picture, that Ignatieff might see the issue differently and be willing to concede this issue to the Cons.
AtlanticJim
This is the type of crap westerners are complaining about regarding central Canada f'ing us over. Did you know that the CWB only applies to western provinces(not Ont.)? We've got about 90% Conservative MP's in Alberta/Saskatchewan/Manitoba and the Conservative position is "choice", yet the Liberals, NDP and Bloc who have close to 0% representation in the prairies stonewall our attempts to eliminate the CWB's monopoly. Why?
This is one of the many REAL examples the west getting f'd in the 'a'.
There are no grounds to believe that the Producer article was a "lie" spread by Liberals.
I'm also not sold on the idea that Iggy might go along with marketing choice. I doubt that he has much of an idea what the CWB is, much less what it does. On this issue he will almost certainly defer to the judgment of Wayne Easter and Ralphie, and it's likely that hell would freeze over before either of them would advocate marketing freedom.
liz j @3.40 I had thought of a lot of things to say but what it really comes down to is B.S.
The CWB is like the old USSR,change can only come from within and the tit suckers at the board have it to easy.They have NO scruples.
If there where more real Men like Jim Chatney & Ezra Levant Canada would have a chance at surviving the next 40 years. The Women are not the problem, As Kate & other female conservative bloggers demonstrate daily.
RE; adjusting to new markets
Many farmers are doing just that (think) pulse crops.
Soil type, rainfall, summer and winter temperature, length of growing season(frost)all contribute to deciding what will or can be grown in any particular area/province.
eg,Rapeseed/canola will not grow in south central Sask where in Alberta half the province is yellow.
"If there where more real Men like Jim Chatney & Ezra Levant Canada would have a chance at surviving the next 40 years. The Women are not the problem, As Kate & other female conservative bloggers demonstrate daily."
WELL PUT
Hot off of the press and rabble.ca.
Just watch the vile pour from the msm and the leftard citizens against virtually
everything.
The CBC is reporting that 5 western Conservative MP's are under investigation for illegally attempting to influence the recent Canadian Wheat Board elections. It is alleged that the voters lists were illegally procured and that constituency funds were improperly used to send mailers to voters. Four of the five MPs involved are from Saskatchewan. They are David Anderson, Randy Hoback, Andrew Scheer and Ed Komarnicki. The fifth is Kevin Sorenson from Alberta.
Here's a question for the CWB huggers that hate big bad 'mericans and even local Cdn commerical grain companies who the huggers think are screwing them.
If May Schmidt and Viterra had access to 2 million tonnes of Cdn wheat this last winter, how long do you think it would taken him to decide to sell it for $600 to $700/ metric tonne?
And if Cargill had access to the other 2 millions tonnes of wheat, how long would it have taken them to sell it?
See, there's the difference when a business is commerically run properly, and a politically motivated company doing a half-a$$ job like the CWB does.
Commercial companies move the product when people want it, without regards to the politics.
Inefficient gubmint companies take into account all the butt kissing, ego stroking, politically sensitve rubbish, export subsidies to the right countries, and finally decide by committee to put it all off until the next meeting next month.
The farmer controlled CWB has had 10 years to prove itself as a competent organization, committed to 'maximizing returns to the producers".
But again it shows commerical incompetence and that despicable compulsory slavery has no place in Western Canadian life.
BTW, that is what the 'board meeting in progress' ads show the farmers talking about in the newspapers. heh.
And a big thanks to Jim Chatney for his perserverence on the CWB file.
I will never forget the spectacle of Jim Chatney and the other courageous men with him being led away in chains! It was BAZZARE and my fear of Communism kicked into high gear. My Dad was a cattleman and a farmer in SW Sask, he HATED the CWB as they represented the East who loves the presence of the CWB - it allows big Eastern outfits to sell their own grain for a fair price, then buy cheap grain from the West via the CWB to feed their cattle in the winter.
I know that Mr, Ritz will not tolerate the existence of the CWB, he has said as much to my face. Don't believe me though, e-mail him yourself and ask him!
As for those CWB charges...check out Kevin Sorenson's and David Anderson's vote margin in the last election. Hardly any one in their ridings did NOT vote for them. Squawking is coming from some other 'coup' err..coop. Could it be the Wayne Easter coop is interfering with the reps on the CWB - he squawks a lot from the his 'Green' gabbles ridding, IN THE FAR EAST...things that make me go hummm?
I have been involved with grain politics for a couple years now and Jim has been a real inspiration to all who fight to do with their own property as they wish.
If every-one had the courage of convictions as Chateney had Canada would be a better place.
If you stack the personal property rights on top of what the CWB costs the Canadian economy, you could ask yourselves why every-one does not call their MP and push the issue.
G