Saskatchewan vs. Montreal in the 2010 Grey Cup!
GOOOO RIDERS!!!!!

Time to pass the torch. Your hostess will be (briefly) on John Gormley Live in a half hour as this week’s Quizmaster. You can listen live at the link.
And no, SDA readers do not get advance clues.
Upate: looks like we’re going on a few minutes early.
The Question: What Saskatchewan “First” was “absolutely condemned” at the 1975 annual meeting of the Saskatchewan Conference of the United Church?
So far, all the callers remain stumped. I am certfiably evil.
Finally! Daren from Handel had the answer. At the time, John Clark, editor of United Grain Growers’ Grainews wrote;

“things must be different in United Church Sunday Schools today from when I was a kid. In those days, the Kamsack Sunday School teacher (an RCMP constable and hockey coatch) used to threaten benching us the next five hockey games if we didn’t ‘pay attention’ … But I’ll bet kids pay attention nowadays. The threat isn’t Hell. It’s inland terminals.”

Postscript.

A Sigma Analytics poll conducted for the Regina Leader-Post found the NDP had the support of 29.4 per cent of decided voters compared with 57.3 for the Saskatchewan Party. Lingenfelter’s popularity trailed that of his party, with 60 per cent of respondents selecting him as the leader they would least want as premier.

Related!

One of our long time SDA readers writes;

As a long time advocate and supporter of the party I believe the core Reform message on this BHP matter is not being told. Non renewable resources are of Provincial jurisdiction (see section 92A of the BNA act below).
When a duly elected Premier of a province is leading his/her province on an issue that is of the provinces sole jurisdiction Canada should respect same. Example where this has been done was bill 101 in Quebec. The Liberals when in power have trampled over provincial rights for the last 40 years. I thought from the beginning that we would have a better stronger Canada when sections 91 and 92 of the BNA act are respected.
Canada has crept into the exclusive powers of the Provinces particularly, Quebec and that simply leads to separation sentiments. Another clear example is the NEP in Alberta. Nothing good ever happens when Canada tramples on anyones rights.
The investment Act of Canada should be amended to respect the BNA act.

Relevant excerpts from the BNA are posted in the extended entry. That ought to jump start* the week.

Continue reading →

And your hostess is officially this week’s Saskatchewan’s Smartest Radio Listener!

And why won’t he deliver his durum?

The [Canadian Wheat Board] is scrambling for high quality durum right now. Partly because of the late fall and partly because of the poor quality crop. […] These struggles are showing up in Vancouver. On a vessel that the CWB shared with Cargill, the CWB loaded 10,800 tonnes of durum and Cargill loaded 14,700 tonnes of canola. Cargill loaded the canola in about two days and the CWB took another 21 days to load the durum….

The [Canadian Wheat Board’s] passive system of “inventory management” makes the whole system – for all crops – dysfunctional. Whether they are manipulated, managed or free, markets provide signals and incentives to both buyers and sellers. In western Canada, since they get the same price regardless of when they deliver, farmers have the incentive to deliver wheat early in the crop year (instead of holding it for later delivery); yet they can’t deliver any more than the CWB allows. On the other hand, the canola market gives incentives (signals) to sell for delivery later in the year; yet many can’t as they need the cash now, not later.
When the CWB states it doesn’t distort markets, it’s wrong. Among others, it distorts the markets for all the non-CWB crops grown in western Canada. And it’s not to the benefit of the farmer.

And this;

Good stuff, by John De Pape.

Business Insider suggests “12 Places To Go If The World Goes To Hell” (and you’ve miraculously managed to hold onto your private jet): Chiang Mai, Tristan da Cunha, Guam, Denver, Bern, Puncak Jaya, Capetown, Necker Island, Rio de Janeiro, Kansas City, Tierra del Fuego, Yukon.
Whew, that was close.
h/t

Will pensions hook up with a Chinese sovereign wealth fund to outbid BHP? Who knows what they’ve got cooking on this deal? And what about PE funds? The risks are high but the returns are equally attractive. Stay tuned, things are heating up in the commodity space.

I’ve been slow to this story, but here’s a round-up of commentary at Zerohedge to get you started.

We’re not running out of oil.

The August sale of oil and gas dispositions brought $95.8 million into the province’s coffers, compared to the $14.8 million the August sale raised in 2009.
“It shows the level of commitment to the province that the oil sector has,” Energy and Resources Minister Bill Boyd said. “Clearly companies are stepping up and bidding very strongly into the oil sector of our province.”
Boyd said the latest land sales report is a good indicator that the strong drilling activity experienced so far this year will continue.
A government report earlier this week showed that 1,253 oil wells have been drilled in the first seven months of 2010, a 96 per cent increase over 2009 when only 639 oil wells were drilled.
Much of the oil industry’s interest continues to be focused on the southeast part of the province, where the oil-rich Bakken formation is located.

(On a related topic, we’re calling the latest installation* “McMillan #7”.)

Bad weather?

If what I’ve seen out my windshield in the past 10 days is any indication, we’ve just plain stopped growing the stuff.

Regina Leader Post;

Saskatchewan Premier Brad Wall says his government is willing to fund clinical trials of a controversial treatment for multiple sclerosis, calling the “liberation” procedure an “avenue of hope” for patients stricken with the debilitating disease.
“We know there’s not unanimity amongst the various groups out there about this particular treatment,” he said Tuesday, “but we know anecdotally, and to some extent empirically, that there’s reason for hope here.”
Saskatchewan, with the highest rate of MS in the Canada, should be a leader in researching the possible treatment, Wall said. About 3,500 of the province’s residents have the disease.

For electile dysfunction.
So this is how they plan to finance their campaign…. (link updated with screenshot)

(Or maybe just the NDP’s reminder that “Democracy is the theory that the common people know what they want, and deserve to get it good and hard.”)

Via NDP Watch

Click to enlarge.

“Saskatchewan”.
The god of the football cosmos has a sense of humour.
Correction. Apparently, the Riders are the ones with the sense of humour. 54 – 51 in overtime.

An axe with a built in distress signal.

After being stranded for days in an area just south of Wollaston Lake, he cut down four power poles in hopes of attracting attention. According to SaskPower’s James Parker, he was spotted by a helicopter last Friday. “We fly the line to see what the issue is. So naturally our folks went down to rescue him. He was in a very distressed state when we got to him.”

Finally, this monstrosity called the Stanley Cup Playoffs are almost over.
For crying out loud, CFL training camps open in two weeks.
And because training camp means back to surfing the fan sites, shamelessly stolen from Riderfans.com:

With thousands of hard working SGEU employees out there ready to be not messed with, why would they need actors? (link updated)

… we could lose jobs “to out of province corporations.”
Mark, in the comments,

“So let’s get this straight; they’re using a Toronto-based web host, with a Vancouver ad agency, and a Toronto “technology consulting” firm. Sounds very much like the traits of an organization that ‘loves Saskatchewan’.”

That’s why the backdrops are photos of Saskatchewan.

UPDATE: Our readers report their pro-privatization messages have been deleted and their ip addresses blocked from the SGEU website – among them customers of the crown-owned Sasktel.
This sounds like a question for John Gormley Live: Why is the SGEU silencing the people of Saskatchewan? What are they afraid of?

(Better yet, “How’s that censorship thing been working for ya?”)

Indeed! – “Why would people who profess to ‘love Saskatchewan’ use a Toronto-based web host …?”
(Original post continues below…)
A Saskatchewan Government Employees Union website goes horribly wrong.

(Related)