From a western Canadian cow family, "Don't blame us, we didn't vote for Chretien."
Posted on 08/05/2003 9:12:12 AM PDT by conniew
From a western Canadian cow family, "Don't blame us, we didn't vote for Chretien."
Why are Americans mad at Canadians?
After eight weeks of testing, it was only one cow after all.
by J. L. Jackson and Craig Pichach
Border Rally for western Canadian farmers
July 29, 2003
Quote: 100% support of our Premier and our caucus... the borders will open.. science says it should.. common sense says it should have and I am confident they will.
-Hon. Shirley McClellan, Deputy Premier and Minister of Agriculture, Food and Rural Development
Neighbours helping neighbours was the theme of Saturday's, July 26th Coutts Border Rally. Over 5,000 western Canadians attended, where organisers served up over 25,000 burgers. A giant convoy of semi-trucks as well as cars extending over three miles long started from Alberta's capital city of Edmonton, headed into Alberta's deep south, the border town of Coutts (pop. approx. 300) making close to a seven hour drive by convoy.
Neighbours helping neighbours is what the west is all about. And it is also what many politicians have a difficult time understanding.
Some politicians however did decide to stand up and be counted. Hon. Shirley McClellan, Deputy Premier and Minister of Agriculture, a Liberal Senator, MP's Monte Solberg, Diane Ablonzky, David Anderson, Deepak Oberhai and Rick Casson to name a few of the Canadian politicians. Perhaps more important, the emergence of a Montana municipality mayor who had scheduled a meeting with a US Senator within the week.
The momentum is building. Free trade between Canada and the United States makes sense. Common sense and science are on our side.
After eight weeks of extensive laboratory testing, only one fluke mad cow has been discovered in Canada, yet the US border, where 40 per cent of Alberta beef is exported, remains closed.
Speculation intensifies regarding the political motivation behind the border remaining closed, after the science has not found more than one single mad cow after eight weeks. Included in the speculation, western Canadians wonder why they are getting the blame for a blundering Prime Minister's arrogance in the Iraq crisis, when they never voted for him anyway.
American and Canadian western cultures are intertwined just as the west's cattle industry has always been integrated. In reality, like our southern counterparts, western Canadians have always been binational North Americans. From the beginning of time trade routes have always been north and south along the eastern slope of the Rockies. From the original trade that occurred between Native tribes to the original cattle drive north, memorialised in the movie Lonesome Dove, bringing cattle north to replenish the prairies after the buffalo's near extinction. The border between Canada and the U.S. -- in the west has always been an imaginary divide, only created by men.
Westerners on either side of the border are the same type of people. When you leave the east behind you embrace a new culture -- a western culture. We are enterprising, independent with plenty of perseverance. These are the qualities the pioneers brought west, and these are the qualities westerners still possess today.
Historically, the cattle industry has always had its hard knocks:
*In the late 1800's there were outbreaks of anthrax and black leg
*Drought and grasshoppers in the dirty thirties and before (as well as today)
*1950's the cattle industry battled Hoof and Mouth disease
*And there are always spring storms and hard winters where the western Canadian cattle heard have been hit and almost entirely wiped out again and again
But the pioneers survived. And although bleak, Canadian farmers and ranchers today will survive the American border closing too.
Westerners will survive because of the character traits their ancestors brought west with them. Independence, enterprising spirit and especially western perseverance will see farmers and ranchers through this time too.
After three years of devastating drought and now a single mad cow closing the border for over eight weeks, now is the time we need to support our farmers and ranchers.
If you're Canadian, chow down on a hamburger and steak today.
If you're American, call your congressman and senator and ask them why the border is still closed after eight weeks of testing when only one single mad cow has been found.
Policy Recommendations
1. Free and fair trade is benefical to Canadians. The Canadian economy depends on our ability to export our talents, goods and services. The crisis resulting in the beef industry from a border shut down could easily be replicated in other industries from aerospace to grain export sectors. The government of Canada should press for expanded free trade not only with the US but our natural trading partners and democratic allies.
2. Maintaining a good relationship with our natural allies in the United States and around the world should be a priority for any Canadian government.
3. Unfair trade restrictions such as this may discourage nations from admitting Mad Cow outbreaks in the future. Canada should push for a better deal on the international stage.
On a humorous note:
5 THINGS A CITY BOY LEARNED AT THE COUTTS BORDER RALLY
1) Beer is a lot cheaper in Milk River than Calgary
2) The beauty of small city multitasking with Coutts having a airport which also serves as a ploughed field (summer allow), rodeo ground, BBQ site and parking lot. Not that bad an Engineering accomplishment for a small border town population of approximately 300. Note: we saw one horse (literally a one horse town?)
3) Always charge the video batteries before you leave the city as there is no place to plug in at the Coutts rodeo grounds
4) 4H is not a cult, it is a agriculture youth organisation
5) Beer is a lot cheaper in Milk River than Calgary
5 THINGS A COUNTRY GIRL LEARNED AT THE COUTTS BORDER RALLY
1) Always bring extra film in case convenient stores are closed in order to help volunteer at the rally
2) There is no Esso convenience store in Coutts with film, but Zestos is an excellent air conditioned pizza joint (similar to Mystic Pizza, the movie) that sells cold ice cream
3) Country singer Adam Gregory is as popular as the Beatles with many young ladies (he's a good singer too)
4) When you get grit in your teeth and sand in your eye at events that draw in more people than the local fair or rodeo, and you have 20 politicians/dignitaries vying for mike time in 30 + temperature range, it cannot be denied, political change is in the air
5) Beer is a lot cheaper in the Milk River pub than Calgary
Click > here for access to recorded speeches and more pictures from the Coutts Border Rally July 26, 2003
Speeches include:
*Havre Montana Mayor
*Shirley McClellan, Provincial Ag Minister and Deputy Premier
*David Anderson, Federal Ag Critic
*Monte Solberg, Federal Finance Critic
Well , I never said he was. The article doesn't say otherwise so I 'd say Bowen is an American working as a party researcher for the NDP. The memo had nothing to do with Ottawa.
Manitoba just went NDP again . Why would Regina change it's colours ? Saskatchewan. Birth place Tommy Douglas's socialized medicine in Canada and one of the favoured provinces Americans , on FR anyway, constantly point to as a future state.
NDP Manitoba, NDP Saskatchewan and Liberal B.C. All recipients of support payments from Ottawa.
It's creepy how most Canadians live so close to our border.
The US can't "risk" importing that one other cow while Japan is playing that game.
Chretien, through all the childish insults and slights in disagreeing with US policy to pander to the big guys in the EU
and the familial French oil interests, made sure that Bush isn't going to be exigent about returning calls AND going out
of his way to attempt pressure Japan.
Besides, as the Western Canadians pointed out, they didn't vote for Chretien, and if the West suffers, TS for them (or would that be TM?).
Those that are anti-American know where the Canadian border is.
I don't have to look for it, you can't swing a dead cat without anti-Americanism popping up to cock a snook at you.
If I look around there... does that make me a "Lurker"? I've been trying to figure out what a lurker is and that's the only thing I can come up with (Need FR Viagra to understand)
Say what? I understand the dead cat and anti-Americanism bits, but you had better translate the rest of that statement, it didn't compute.
We've known for a very long time that the French are insufferable pr**ks, that one has to keep the Germans under one's heel in order to keep them away from one's throat, and that the Belgians are a small minded people whose only claims to fame are beer, chocolate, and excellent tank and cavalry terrain. Most of us are also aware that our only truly steadfast friends are all English speaking nations or those whose liberation we have accomplished within the living memory of most of their people. It was the English speaking part which had us fooled for so long about the Canadians.
In the life of a person or a nation, it is a rare and valuable thing to discover who one's true friends are. Unfortunately, it's normally only when bad and dangerous times arrive that this discovery is made.
Before this last two years, we never really thought much about Canada. Now that they've managed to attract our attention, we do not think much of them. They are dead to us now, neither enemies nor friends.
If the Arctic Sea should open up and make Alaska an island, damn few of us would shed a single tear. That is not "hate" since hatred is reserved for the relevant. It is more a faintly sad feeling of having been betrayed by people we thought we knew.
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