The First Harvard Trained Agriculture Minister In Waiting

Much academic writing in the liberal arts avoids taking a clear and concrete stance on anything, but rather involves asking questions that we all know can never be adequately answered.

This gives the proper appearance of scholarly detachment and objectivity, without polluting the waters with an actual opinion.

Come on, the federal government has been "Helping" farmers in western Canada for years now with the Canadian wheat board.

I suppose being away so long he doesnt realize that his Lieberal riding in Etobicoke isnt rural like when he left.

In fact he is pretty much shutout of rural Canada.

Under what rock does he live??? "Canada the Breadbasket of the World" Please that is So 1960s.. Kansas produces more wheat then all of Canada..
I'm not sure if he means, that he will respect my choice to sell outside the CWB or if he is just going to stay status quo on that little issue..

It is refreshing to have a Liberal at least trying to blow hot air up Western Canada's arse first before telling us to bend over and grab our ankles.

Under what rock does he live??? "Canada the Breadbasket of the World" Please that is So 1960s.. Kansas produces more wheat then all of Canada..
I'm not sure if he means, that he will respect my choice to sell outside the CWB or if he is just going to stay status quo on that little issue..

It is refreshing to have a Liberal at least trying to blow hot air up Western Canada's arse first before telling us to bend over and grab our ankles.

IMO (as someone who has never been near a farm) if the government wants to help farmers, stay the F out of the way!

I sure hope the Conservatives are successful at parrying Iggy's stab at trying to gain some western votes. Whether its the gun registry or the CWB, it should be easy to show that Iggy's words are empty platitudes. After all, actions speak louder than words.

Does anyone actually think Iggy will put some meat on the "I love western Canada" bone?

I can't see how supporting the Conservatives on the CWB issue can hurt the Liberals, save for the fact that any time the Liberals support the Conservatives it reduces the importance of the Liberals.

"Seven questions. Zero answers. "
Kate. Make that 700,000 questions,and one answer....slavery.That's all socialists/lefties know.They follow that old line,you know, if you can't convince them with brains,baffle them with BS.

The question behind all of the rhetoric is: "How do we achieve our agenda while keeping the simple rural folk in the dark".

Everything about Ignatieff seems too damn calculated. I don't think the man utters a word without first doing a calculation as to how it might benefit him politically.

Liberals can be so incredibly shallow. Their eagerness to sell their souls in order to get a vote gives me the shivers.

It must be weird having such shallow people as friends, knowing that everything they say and do is carefully designed in some way to ensure that they receive a benefit.

They are non-human in some sense, robots if you will, where their actions are determined entirely by elementary cost-benefit type algorithms.

The ultimate question of course is how do you take advantage of such simpleton behaviour in order to defeat them at the polling booth. It seems harder than it looks, but it must be possible.

Michael Ignatieff as a minister of agriculture? Not a bad idea if you're growing pot and/or shroons! Otherwise, forget it!

People, people, people......he came home to lead the family compact back to it's deserved place.

So, if the jerk off ever becomes PM, prepare thyselves for one good old fashioned librano reaming!

One only has to look at what chimpy mcidiot is doing to Ontario to see what iggypop would do to this country.

Damn libranos, may they all rot in hell !

Everytime he speaks all I hear is social engineering and government intervention. He should retire to some university to head up the department of pondering.

This sort of perplexity shows why the closest Ignatieff may ever come to power is having his tongue frozen to the gates of 24 Sussex.

Academics don't answer questions. They only ask them thinking they will answer themselves.

With Ignatieff and company it seems it's all hot air and it's spewing out of both side of their mushes. It's obfuscation gone amok. With lust for power foremost in their minds, they're all over the map trying to land on something they think will get them there.

"A real concern of mine is how could a Liberal government build on these bridges to bring urban and rural Canada closer together?"

A believe the answer is called "SUBURBS".

"What are the tools that need to be put in place to enable Canada’s farmers to be successful and profitable in the 21st-century economy?"

Killing the Canadian Wheat Board would be a good start.

You need smart voters who are not conflicted. That eliminates at least 60% of those eligible. By conflicted I mean receiving government benefits (i.e. they're unlikely to vote to reduce them).

Seven questions. Voting Conservative answers some of them.

Well that apple sure fell far from the tree:

"After the liberation of the peasants in 1861, when more than half the arable land was given to then, the policy of the Russian Government was to democratize the ownership of the land, taking from big land owners and giving to the peasants. Two State Land Banks were instituted-one for land owners for mortgage purposes, and one for the peasants-to buy land and resell to the peasant on a liberal installment plan. By 1914 only 25°0 of land was in possession of the land owners, the rest being in the hands of the peasants, the small holders. The parcels of land were adjusted among the peasants through the land organization started in 1908.

A vast program of help to the farmers was worked out. Russia was covered with a net of nearly six thousand agronoms (agriculturists), and co-operative use of machinery gradually spread over the productive areas; credits on cooperative principles were fostered and helped by the State Banks, but the tiller of the soil retained ownership of his land and the benefits of his toil. Naturally, he wished to make his farm self-supporting for himself and family. The type of farming was mostly mixed. Few cereals were marketed from the peasants, and the export capacity was based on the produce from large estates. After the revolution of 1917 the big estates were divided among the peasants. The figures for cereal exports fell very low. How could it be otherwise when, at the time of the revolution, wheat had been put under the plough? There were vast reserves of land far away in Siberia, but it was too far East to be put under wheat, as economical transportation by railway was prohibitive. There are also reserves of good land in southeast European Russia, but they are mostly in the region of heavy droughts, and without irrigation cannot be economically used for cereals.

This land is mostly a plateau high above the water line of the rivers. Russia renewed its export of cereals when the land was taken away from about 40% -of the peasants, and the cereals for export were cultivated in State farms and so-called collective farms, virtually depriving the nation of wheat bread."

-Iggy's grandad Pavel, Empire Club, 1903.

speeches.empireclub.org/details.asp?SpeechID=2815&FT=yes

Count Igor: Full of fluff, puff, and platitudes.

Not a leader; not worth the risk.

I guess someone snorted too much horse poo in his uncle's [IIRC] barn back when he was a kid.

I can tell you first hand how Librano's want to help agriculture. They don't.
When the worst crisis to ever strike Canadian agriculture...BSE... hit in May 2003 the Librano's under Croutons rule did NOTHING for 9 months. Not one damn thing.
Count Iggy and Co. need NEVER show up here looking for support from this Ontario cattle producer. Ever.

"I'll take a stand that's firm, yet flexable", this was WKRP's Arthur Carlsons motto, and it is Count Iggies> This Unidoofus could't pack a pail of chop to my cattle. Get rid of the Wheat Board, there is a start to save the family farm, then axe the marketing boards to take away the Hutterites advantage. But that would cut some porkulus to the CSL the stinking liberals will never be happy until Canadian farmers are the toothless rurals that you see in other countries herding some goats and chickens to the market. Liberals make me puke.

"I can't see how supporting the Conservatives on the CWB issue can hurt the Liberals, save for the fact that any time the Liberals support the Conservatives it reduces the importance of the Liberals.

Posted by: Indiana Homez at March 4, 2009 1:34 PM "

That's the money quote.All lieberals care about is power,and how they can get and abuse it.They will sell their own mother's soul to have power.

TJ
"The ultimate question of course is how do you take advantage of such simpleton behaviour in order to defeat them at the polling booth."

You can't and here is why. The people voting for the Liberals have been corrupted. They do not have anyone’s interests in mind but their own; therefore, no amount of truth will help. Actually, IMO the aforementioned people are knowingly sabotaging our country. With friends like them, who needs friends?

Western separation is inevitable.

Question 8: What more BS lines can we come up with from Quebec and PEI (you know, where they produce all the wheat) to keep Canada Steamship Lines hauling all the wheat out of Western Canada and keep Dithers and Papa Mo in the green

Indiana, it may be inevitable, but it ain't happening fast enough

IIRC, Tsar Mikhail was offered numerous opportunities to provide input (along with Taliban Jack) on the formation of the 'stimulus' package and from what I remember, he did the same thing, posed a bunch of questions, threated to bring the PMSH's party down, but has he offered one constructive piece of input? I think not.

Even the libs have got to be asking themselves when he is going to forward something, anything other than take his condescending look at people and give another round of questions that he never provides any answers for. At least BHO stayed in his own country, that we know of (thank god) and didn't come here to rescue us ignorant beer drinking, maple syrup slurping rubes from the clutches of the evil cons.

Yep, it's one of Ignatieff's seminars. It's supposed to work by the 'students' raising their hands and supplying fact-based answers.

With the exception of this one: "Sir, just to let you know, we've all finished school. We're glad we're through."

Now where have we heard this before? Oh, I know, Mr. Paul Martin, Mr. John Chretian, Mr. Pierre Trudeau, Mr. Joseph Clark, Mr. Louis St. Laurent, and perhaps last but certainly not least, Mr. William Lyon Mackenzie King. All these Easteners posing as leaders of Canada have consistently stifled Western Canadian agriculture with the communist styled CWB. Same old, same old.

I got as far as 'we are the tools'.

Yes Iggy...you are the tools.

Didn't/couldn't read anymore.

OK...I went back to finish reading.
My interest in politics peaked when I hung around common sense hardworking farmers who wanted the government out of their faces and stop 'handing out' to people who didn't work.
They know purple piffle when they hear it. They would laugh at this condesding mish mash.

Ignatieff's Report Card

never offers answers, changes his mind on major, issues, can't play well with others, shows no leadership qualities, needs to brush up on his own homework, not borrow from Harper or his puppetmasters.

Grade: "D-"

As long as Iggy is just asking questions about things, we're ok. Because he's harmless.

It's when Iggy starts the lecture with "You must understand......" because you know its your point of view that has to change to match his Harvard POV.
And its your wallet that he will be reaching into to pay for his POV.

Frankly at this stage, I seriously doubt that Western Canada would ever put up with a Liberal/NDP govt in Ottawa again.

Northernfarmer: I wonder if you could check the stats re Kansas produces more wheat than Can.
On the face of it seems incorrect.

World production figures for 2007 list Can 8th overall with 20.6 M metric tonnes. US produced 53.6 M tonnes.
For a better crop year, 2004-05 Can was ranked 6th w 25.9 M tonnes to 58.7 M tonnes for US.

In both years total US is about 2.0 to 2.5 times Can.
production. This seems correct.
But that is total US. I can not find production figures for Kansas, but one site mentions they account for about 1/5 of US total.
Kansas is usually the biggest producer, but surely it does not grow more wheat than Can.
Is it possible you are not counting Ont. production? These figures are for all wheat, including Durum.

Each "question" contains an implied answer to the underlying assumption.

Look at those underlying assumptions and you will see that they are ALL false.

Look at the implied answers and they are ALL LIberal talking points.

The MSM are, as I have said repeatedly as a group the most dishonest and stupid people in the world.

Liberal speak to farmers:

How do we seize those opportunities?

Farmer translation:

How do we seize your land and profits?

Martin: when the Bread Basket moniker was used to describe Sask. it was only Hard Red Spring wheat.. Yes if you include all classes of wheat Canada does produce more wheat then Kansas.. but a lot of it wouldn't be used for making bread... where as Kansas wheat production is almost 100% bread wheat.

Durum for the most part is used in making noodles..

There is one thing we should take note of:

Michael Ignatieff stood up in public , in front of a microphone and stated that the Alberta and Saskachewan Oil Sands are vital , necessary, and must be continued. We must give him credit for that stance.

In one stroke he killed any remnant of Dion's Liberal green dreams , severed Elizabeth May from any attachment to him , and put all Liberals on notice that The Western Oil patch is not the enemy of Canada.

I am about as far away from being a Liberal as you can get , but I do recognize a strong and proper statement when I read it , even if it is Liberal. If it stops the leftist Alberta bashing , it will be good for all of Canada.

Here's hoping Ignatieff can correct even more Liberal errors. We should at least give him credit when he does.

Question posted by Posted by: Martin at March 4, 2009 6:15 PM

Martin , you asked about Canada wheat production compared to lets say Kansas.

I sat at a dinner with Charlie Mayor our former agricultural minister. He casually mentioned france was one of the largest wheat producers in the world. At first I thought he was joking.

He wasn't. Canada is a drop in the bucket in world grain production. Here is a link to an excellent CIA based statistics site. Covers just about everything produced and consumed worldwide. Plus a lot more.

There is a huge amount of information there , in a minute of searching you should be able to find world wheat production figures.

Here is the link:.. http://www.nationmaster.com/index.php

Hope that helps

Many thanks.

I was using stats from the International Grain Council. Canada usually ranks about 6th in the world around 24M metric tonnes, slightly behind France. However in terms of quality, the hard red wheat norternfarmer alluded to, Canada's product rates much higher. The french production is highly subsidized under the EU CAP system. Thanks for the links.

I’m convinced that it’s functionally impossible for Iggy not to be condescending. Everything coming out of his mouth betrays a belief that his wise leadership government shall move the earth and direct its inhabitants. When he says something like “We must address the issue of young farmers…” for example, he’s doing that thing Liberals do, which is to create/define an “issue” that will supposedly be solved by the Liberals, now that they’ve identified what it is. The viability of farming may be an “issue”, if you’re fond of the term, but, in the same way that, although we have broken ankles in Canada, no one is standing up to promise to "address the issue of broken ankles,” there’s something vaguely disquieting about the Liberals’ promise to solve “the issue of young farmers.” Is “the issue of young farmers” to be addressed separately from all other considerations? Will young farmers be paid to stay on the farm? Will there be a Department of Young Farmers?

His statement “We believe in smart, compassionate government for all Canadians” is just “we rule” with coloured sprinkles on top, and when he deigns to address the toothless proles, his level of condescension is unknowing and therefore even more embarrassing. On farming: “There is a certain emotional attachment to it” -- a certain esoteric attachment that he's happy to measure out and display the form of with a hand gesture.

Iggy, teaching us where food comes from: “Farmers feed cities.” Really, Ignatieff? How can we be sure? “Many farmers have told me.”

And notice how he has an unshakable belief that no matter how prosaic the utterance about to pass through his lips, it will be a welcome revelation to those lucky enough to receive it:

“Make no mistake – the agricultural industry in Canada today is complex, diverse…”

Folks, please be more welcoming to Iggy. After all, he's an immigrant.

Thanks for the link, Arnie Madsen. That is very interesting! According to those charts, France doesn't even enter the top 15 for wheat production.
Also interesting stats for life expectancy, poverty, etc.

Hi Pandora

You are correct , for some reason France is not showing up now. My conversation with Charlie Mayor was around 1995 and after checking I found France was producing much more than Canada.(At that time)

Martin found International Grain Council figures showing France ahead of Canada. I do not know why these numbers no longer show up in Nationmaster. Maybe it is an European union thing now ????

Anyway , glad you like the Nationmaster site. Lots of good info. Canada actually looks pretty good on all counts compared to everyone else.

Many thanks
Arnie

EBD -good sense. You capture the situation exactly. Knowlegible, intelligent, wanna be your saviour people like Iggy scare me big time! He sure has all the questions, but worse he thinks he has all the answers, if he threw out those thoughts we would really see who has the"hidden agenda".

I should have said portraying themselves as knowlegible intelligent people. OOpps.