Now is the time at SDA when we juxtapose!
Western Producer, March 1996 – Farmers arrested last week were trucking grain from McMechan’s Canadian farm to his American farm. Some had carried their own grain to U.S. elevators.
Reuters, March 2014 – Truckloads of Canadian canola and wheat are flowing briskly into U.S. crushing plants and elevators, as Canada’s farmers seek to get round an unprecedented backlog of crops destined for ports. A record-smashing Canadian harvest and brutal winter have overwhelmed Canadian National Railway Co and Canadian Pacific Limited, the key links in moving western crops to ports on the Pacific Ocean, the Great Lakes and St. Lawrence Seaway.
h/t Free Northerner
1. “The federal government is taking new steps to clear the grain backlog in Western Canada, requiring railways to move a minimum amount of the crop each week and warning it will fine those that fall short.
“Canadian Pacific Railway Ltd. and Canadian National Railway Co. face penalties of $100,000 a day for failing to move a combined one million tonnes of grain every week, more than double the volume being currently shipped by rail, Transport Minister Lisa Raitt said in Winnipeg on Friday.
…
“Groups representing grain farmers and traders that have been pushing Ottawa to take action welcomed the news.”
http://www.theglobeandmail.com/report-on-business/ottawa-takes-aim-at-grain-backlog-with-tough-new-transport-rules/article17367492/
2. laissez-faire, (French: “allow to do”), policy of minimum governmental interference in the economic affairs of individuals and society. The origin of the term is uncertain, but folklore suggests that it is derived from the answer Jean-Baptiste Colbert, controller general of finance under King Louis XIV of France, received when he asked industrialists what the government could do to help business: “Leave us alone.” (britannica.com)
This is a temporary problem. AGW will keep the St. Lawrence Seaway free of ice year-round. Any day now.
So basically farmers/producers are taking control over what they produce – shocking?
While sitting at a railway crossing on Saturday, listening to 50s on 5, I observed the following: a dozen oil tanks, 2 grain cars, a dozen oil tanks, 2 grain cars, 6 scrap metal cars, a dozen oil tanks and 2 grain cars etc. Not that long ago that train would have been almost totally grain cars. No wonder there’s a backlog.
Lets not forget that the vast majority of Saskatchewan farmers are abject commies and are the ones who created the CWB to begin with.
While sitting at a railroad crossing the other day just outside Vancover I counted almost 100 grain cars on an exclusive grain CN train going east, obviously empty going back to the praries to be refilled.
Bullshit!
How come no one is asking why the grain is going to the US for crushing?
Why aren’t we crushing it here?
The sound a pinko-commie, union card carrying Canada-hater makes when skewered with the truth.
Wake up to the 21st century.
Normally I would prefer that Government stay out, but in this case, a rail company ,that enjoys huge government endowments of land, should be forced to haul the traditional grain,.
While oil is important too, shipping by rail is limited due to weight and the potential dangers of kinetic energy released in derailment.
It is becoming vital to energy security that we over ride the eco totalitarian groups and build the pipelines as needed. Maybe rail right-of-ways are the best place. Gentle grades are established and there is existing access.
Beef up the river crossings and start regular anti progressive security patrols. Make Pipeline sabotage and hindrance a major crime and strictly enforce non-interference rules against ALL groups including the increasingly tiresome Indians.
Build the Keystone Xl and there’ll be more space on rail for the grain cars.
2014…1996….1986….1976…. freeloading farmers have been the biggest swine in the trough. We don’t need no stinking rural conservative welfare bums, poodle ranchers included.
The only thing that overwhelmed cn and cp this winter was containers and oil tankers..
Yes there was a large crop came off, but these jokers didn’t even move a normal crop… matter of fact they hardly moved any crop.
What would realy be nice to know is, did an order came down not to move grain?
there are no doubt some upset folks, that famers no longer have to deal trough the cwb.
In either case, cn and cp definately screwed western canada.
Bloody national disgraces, both of them.
Duh! We’re also the ones who dumped it, who pushed the government for years to get rid of it and who went to jail for selling a bag of grain across the border. Doesn’t sound too cowardly commie to me.
nick;
Oil shipment is still not a major revenue source for CN or CP, roughly 5% of revenue. The weather can be blamed for significant delays.
I suspect the real culprit is the freedom producers are enjoying by marketing their grain outside the CWB. Have people forgotten how the CWB used to market?
Today’s growers can store and wait for pricing they like or alternatively ship by rail or truck. Rail does have volume limits on how much they can move and how quickly they can move it.
I do not necessarily believe all I hear from producers either. There is still a desire by many to re-establish the CWB if the CPC was turfed from power. I am disappointed in the CPC reaction to over rule free markets. Not unlike their attitude towards cell phones.
Abolishing the CWB is the end of any pro-free market actions we’ll see from this government. The cell phone and rail policies embody what will be typical: more statism by decree. More pandering. Less and less freedom. More Conservative hypocrisy.
There is a lot of similar problems on this side of the border according to our “news.” The rail lines are messed up due to the snow, and for a few days, the Northstar commuter line from Minneapolis to Big Lake was blocked by rail cars stacked up on the rail route.
That has been taken care of, but the latest is the DFL is running scare stories about the “explosive” and “highly flammable” oil trains running across Minnesota. They want to give local communities veto power over shipping oil through their communities. And of course give local communities millions of dollars for training the fire departments and buying them new equipment.
If only their was some way to ship oil using pipes or something.
KPD, does the “P” stand for “Phil”?
I must confess that I don’t know the history of the CWB that well. My understanding was that it was created during WWII to manage grain production as part of the war effort. Of course, after that, the jack-booted gauleiters of the lieberal party probably enjoyed the control they could exert over others.
From the 1950s on, it is obvious that it was maintained to primarily enrich Canada Steamship Lines and other Desmarais interests.
Certainly there were lots of Saskatchewan farmers that supported the board, as there were Alberta and Manitoba farmers as well. However, I would like to believe that finally ending the monopoly of this monstrosity was due to the hard work, sacrifice and forward thinking of many farmers across the prairies. The kind of people that don’t look to others to wipe their bums for them.
“…poodle ranchers…”
Now there’s an insult.
@NICK I agree I don’t like gov melding but unionized rail thugs and unionized seaport thugs may want to exact a little revenge on the capitalist farmers.
The wheat board still exists people. It’s monopoly was abolished. In other words it is no longer a crime to sell your grains to whom ever you like. That includes the wheat board. The wheat board is a lot smaller as well.
So the Legislature said: “it is no longer a crime to sell your grains to whomever you like”.
And the established bureaucracy responded: “but you’ll never get it to your customer”.
The agitating forces for this CWB co-op ( communist pseudo governmental agency) were the founding forces of socialism in Canada, SASKATCHEWAN FARMERS. These are the same farmers that sowed the original seeds for the NDP and other pinko-commie political parties. These are also the same destructive and greedy pinko-commies that ran Saskatchewan forever until just recently.
And by the way, there are no bigger hogs at the government money trough than farmers and fisherman. Just these two groups make all other welfare beneficiaries look like amateurs, except for maybe the whiny loser First Nations.
If we’re such “hogs at the government trough” how come we need off-farm jobs to support our enterprise? Looks to me like the government is subsidizing cheaper food for you.
What about the miners of the Drumheller and Crowsnest coal pits? What about the Liberal-Progressives of Manitoba? And finally, what about the peasant Protestant extraterrestrials of the United Farmers of Ontario?
All those three were before 1925.
A good solution to transport costs for food stuffs any way. Would be by Dirigible. Slow but cheap transport. Safe today as well.
The farm population didn’t have any more advocates for socialism than the general population. Prior to and after WWII it was widely thought that socialism would sweep the world and it was when big government took root all over the free world. Calvin Coolidge of the twenties was the last US president to let the economy more or less operate on its own without the heavy hand of government direction.
the cwb can never survive now that it does not have its hand in the open marketers pocket. socialism can only works with a capitalist money to fund it