Double Standards and The Press

[kato]

You are absolutely right.

I think they are not sure what to do, so they will sit back and let the judges decide. It's easer. American style democracy is so cumbersome that to actually GET something done is a huge accomplishment.

It's easier to do nothing, and let the judges run the country than it is for the government to actually implement change.

[intr3est]

Kato, that's a dangerous option! I wonder what the consumers will think if RCALF wins and the case is splattered all over the tube! They should nip it in the bud now, for all our sakes!

[Cathy]

CTV.CA
Has a story. Ralph Klien is saying the case will be in the courts for another 2 yrs. And by mid 2006 we will be able to handle our beef at home. Now to find someone to buy it. As R Calf is trying to ban box beef.

[Cathy]

I haven't heard any of our commodity associations echo Ralph's view, so maybe he is just MUSING !!

[grassfarmer]

I couldn't find the story you mentioned online Cathy but I got this great quote from the US side.
"Officials announced last week that a 12-year-old beef cow from Texas tested positive for mad cow disease but they don't expect to find another case."
My, they seem awfully confident of that - are they reverting to the triple S policy again?

Emrald1, I think Ralph is as likely to know what is going on as the commodity groups (I take it you mean ABP /CCA). Let's face it, based on results to date the average producer is as likely to correctly predict the outcome as ABP/CCA.

[grassfarmer]

It is unfortunate if the Premier is resigned to the border not being open for two years. Government usually relies on the commodity groups to brief them on issues affecting the various sectors of industry grassfarmer .

[cowman]

Maybe the US can continue these rules because our federal government hasn't done enough to insist the border be opened? After all, how can you concentrate on business and commerce when you are all wrapped up in getting the gays married and trying your best to cater to the NDP? I doubt the western Canadian beef farmer even registers on the NDP screen!
The federal Liberals will not go to bat on this one for us...and why should they? Practically no one here voted for them other than the a few "educated elites" in good old Redmonton!
Instead we have our eastern establishment openly scorning the American administration, calling them bastards and idiots? Now that surely makes the President want to just get right with the program?
The one good thing I can see is the Canadian food inspectors have acted in a rational way and haven't gone off half cocked? They have come across as being very professional and honest? To bad the same can't be said for the Liberal government?

[cowman]

Hit the nail on the head cowman. NDP has no agricultural policy, and it doesn't seem that the Liberal ag policy extends to the beef industry in Alberta.
Conservatives have been too busy spinning their wheels to have much of an ag policy but I do give them credit for lobbying for the opportunity to present a position paper at the court case in the US.

Until the Ontario farmers start declaring bankruptcies, due to BSE don't look for the feds to make any attempt to get the border open. I am not sure exactly what our own provincial government is doing at this time, hopefully not sitting with their hands folded resigned to the border not being open for two years !

[farmers_son]

For some time I have been of the view that the border will open when it is in the best interest of the United States to open it. From a fair trade or science standpoint there seems to be little politicians of any stripe on the North side of the 49th parallel could do to see fair trade resume.

And while we could argue partisan politics such as the border is closed because the NDP has no agriculture policy or the border will not open until BSE affects Ontario I would argue that the border will open because not to open threatens U.S. consumer’s confidence in beef, not to mention delaying the resumption of normalized trade with American foreign customers and causing job losses at home as packing plants lay off workers and reduce kill days.

I believe the expectation is that the border will open on July 13. The Appeal of the R-Calf Injunction gives the Americans a face saving way out of the whole R-Calf mess. While the border should have opened immediately, if there was any sense of fairness, to do so would have highlighted how unfair the Americans treatment of Canada has been since May 20, 2003.

It has been my impression that the less we hear in the press from government or our industry associations the more that is actually taking place behind the scenes. Certainly the Texas Brahma has leveled the playing field when it comes to BSE, that positive test will make a huge, huge difference.

We should name that cow “Open Sesame” because she opened the border. How about erecting a bronze statue of her at the Coutts border crossing. Maybe being led by an Alberta cattleman with his hand and digit finger held high where our American friends can see it.

[farmers_son]

And what possible good would that do ? If the border opens we need to get on with business, forget US bashing. We need them and they need our cattle.