gopher poison

[cowman]

In my municipality the only gopher poison you could get this year( fresh strychnine) was through the municipality. It was not very good stuff. I'd bought some the year before and it seemed to really work quite well.
When I phoned to complain the fieldman at the county explained that prior to this year, the county had always mixed their own but they lost this right and had to buy it from a Toronto contractor, who had been given the "rights" to supply all of western Canada with poison. The price almost doubled and the product was not fresh by the time it got out here!
So I asked him what was the problem with the system we had in place before? He said nothing was wrong with it. It worked very well and their were no incidents of abuse or anything. He suggested, in a round about way, that it was probably a patronage deal by the Liberal government!
Anyway yesterday he showed me a survey he is sending out, asking what the farmers think of the gopher situation! He intends to send the results off to various politicians and hopefully we can get a decent product for 2005.
In places the gophers were really bad and I do believe we need an effective product to control them.

[pmckenna]

This was an interesting alternative I'd run across in my travels. Don't know if it worked or not, certainly seems feasible with some patience and effort. Link:
http://www1.agric.gov.ab.ca/$department/newslett.nsf/all/acc3772?OpenDocument

[pmckenna]

Municipalities have discussed the gopher ( or Richardson Ground Squirrel )poison issue in detail at both the Agricltural Service Board and Council level for a number of years. Some municipalities DO NOT dispense any poison. In some areas councils and ASB's have been lobbied by the public on both sides of this issue.

[ivbinconned]

"He suggested, in a round about way, that it was probably a patronage deal by the Liberal government!"

Nawww...ya think??

[cowman]

Yes ivebiconned, he did! And it is a pretty scary thing if our country has sunk down to this level of corruption on something as simple as gopher poison?
Do you ever wonder how come this huge country with all these resources is basically broke? And a good portion of our population is living a fairly poor life? How can this be?
I suspect corruption in our federal government is rampant and the sponsorship scandals are just the tip of the iceberg?...a very small tip?
Perhaps someday western Canadians will do the right thing and escape this madness?

[ivbinconned]

From the big isssues to the small ones it seems our eastern masters always always ask but one question. What is good for Ontario...and what is good for Quebec???
Conspiracy...sure looks like it...other wise once in a while they would make a mistake and make a decision in our favor.