Loss of a friend

[TSIPP]

Tom fought the good fight, RIP.

[crusher]

There was a nice send off for Tom on Friday. It was great to see old friends from near and far and it was fitting his church was in a remote rural setting. He was a generous man and fought the good fight. As Larry mentioned, I hope all farmer appreciate the work he did to gain us the marketing freedom. His wife Lucy was instrumental in allowing Tom the time to go off to battle while she attended to the family and farm, kudos to her.

[LWeber]

There was a nice send off for Tom on Friday. It was great to see old friends from near and far and it was fitting his church was in a remote rural setting. He was a generous man and fought the good fight. As Larry mentioned, I hope all farmer appreciate the work he did to gain us the marketing freedom. His wife Lucy was instrumental in allowing Tom the time to go off to battle while she attended to the family and farm, kudos to her.

Here are some pictures Vicki shared with me and one newspaper clipping that was on a table after the service. Tom will be able to look at crops for an eternity as there is a field right next to the highway where he was buried and he'll also get to listen to the odd Mack truck as it rolls by. I'm sure he has already filled in Ken Beswick on what it took to get from 1996, when Ken resigned to August 01, 2012...I'm so glad I went; it was a fitting tribute to Tom and his family.

This was in my Aug 16 update...

Tom Jackson, Killam, AB. RIP… Some of you may know this already, but Tom Jackson died on August 10, 2024. I’ll print a morning email but then I’m headed to Lougheed, AB tomorrow to pay my respects to Tom Jackson and his family and wouldn’t have time in the morning to dig up quotes like I had this afternoon with no GSW. For all of you who started farming after 2012, take 5 minutes to read about one man’s conviction to change the way wheat and barley were marketed and how his and others fight (and yes, it was a fight) gave farmers the opportunity you have today to sell and price wheat and barley when you want and how much you want to sell… You may or may not have agreed with Tom’s antics or his mannerisms; however, you could never doubt his resolve to make the farming community an improved place and that he dedicated his time, resources and well-being to making it happen. I know Hubert Esquirol and others will chuckle while reading the “socialist agenda” quote below. That was Tom in all his glory. Godspeed Tom and thank you … ?

TOM JACKSON – MARKETING FREEDOM FIGHTER EXTRAORDINAIRE - RIP

This is lifted from his obituary and does not do his tireless work in our industry justice.

Tom immersed himself in work with crop commissions and policy groups and worked tirelessly to advocate for marketing freedom during the heated CWB plebiscite years.

Below, I have picked some of his best clips as he worked for the betterment for all farmers. For some of you reading this, you may not know how long and arduous a fight it was to change the way wheat and barley were marketed in western Canada. This will give you some idea. These are but a few posts I dug up this afternoon.

Hunger strike continues over CWB buy-back permits - Tom Jackson wasn’t feeling very good Monday morning. “I’m pretty grumpy,” he said in an interview April 8 from his farm. “My stomach hurts.” A lot of people probably came out of the Easter long weekend feeling as though they ate too much ham or turkey, but not the Ardrossan, Alta., farmer. Monday marked the 11th day of Jackson’s hunger strike, a protest designed to force changes in Canada’s grain marketing policies. The burly farmer said he has subsisted on nothing but juice since announcing his action at a hearing of the Western Grain Marketing Panel March 28, (1996). While it may be legally possible for the board to meet Jackson’s demands, to do so would represent a fundamental change in CWB policy that would anger the 60 or 70 percent of farmers who support the board’s export monopoly, said Roehle. But Jackson said his discussion with Roehle did nothing to change his position or assuage his anger at the wheat board, which he accused of corruption and slander. Farmers are slaves to a sick bureaucracy, he said, and he had no choice but to launch his hunger strike. (PRODUCER – APRIL 11, 1996)

House of Commons – Evidence – March 20, 1997: Thank you very much, Mr. Chairman. I farm in the Sherwood Park-Ardrossan area, just east of Edmonton. I understand the clerk will be getting translated the packages I put together for you to read at your leisure. What I'll do then is go straight to the point and target a couple of areas that are of concern to me and my legal counsel in regard to Bill C-72. The Wheat Board, when it in the future can buy grain from any entity anywhere, is no longer a western Canadian marketing agency but really in fact has the ability to be the wheat board of the world, and they will back this financial activity with a contingency fund that's taken from western Canadian farmers. As far as I'm concerned, the pooling accounts, if they are not set for a specified time, make no sense. They do not help in reducing the volatility over that time. If they can be ended, they become virtually useless. This brings me to the point where my legal counsel and I have been very concerned with some of the legal aspects of the Canadian Wheat Board Act and its accountability to the judiciary.

Wheat Board Candidates Divided Over Dual Marketing - The question of dual marketing became a contentious issue when an all-candidates meeting for the district one seat in the Canadian Wheat Board (CWB) board of directors elections was held at Farmington Hall on Wednesday. When asked by Allen Watson to define the concept, Art Macklin said dual marketing, in which farmers would be able to opt out of price pooling in favour of cash pricing, is impossible because it would destroy the CWB monopoly. “If the wheat board doesn’t have a monopoly, it’s just another grain trading company, but it’s one that doesn’t have any facilities,” Macklin said. “It would have to count on its competitors and I don’t know of anybody in business who say they can compete against people who have the trucks and have the handling the system and think they’re going to be able to succeed. “Quite frankly, without the monopoly, the wheat board is nothing. There is no such thing as dual marketing that can work.” But Tom Jackson pointed to the Alberta Bean Pool as an example of a dual marketing system that works. “True dual marketing is working in Southern Alberta as we speak,” he said. Albert Wagner also favoured dual marketing. “It gives you the knowledge that the price you are achieving is what the market will deliver,” he said. Wagner later said that farmers should be given only so much freedom when it comes to opting in and out of price pooling. “Once you’ve made that commitment, by signing a contract, you are committed to that,” he said. But Macklin said not everyone will benefit from dual marketing. “The cash pricing option is not going to add any revenue to the total pie,” he said. “It’s just a redistribution of that meaning that some people will just take more than others.” Macklin proposed earlier final payments and allowing at-cost loan against the final payment. Jackson, meanwhile, says tools like deferred delivery and cash pricing will discipline the CWB. “Give away sales will instantly be obvious to all that monitor the CWB prices,” he says in his campaign literature. Macklin, who sat on the CWB advisory council for 12 years, said he found the staff at the board to be competent. “The staff knows we’re paying their wages,” he said. Some 19 area grain producers attended the meeting. Voting packages have been mailed out to CWB members who must have them postmarked no later than November 20. (CALVERLEY.CA – OCT 20, 1998)

Farmers divided over barley plebiscite - "I think the loss of the wheat board would be the biggest loss that Canadian farmers have ever had. It would be a setback back to the '30s." Tom Jackson, who farms near Sherwood Park east of Edmonton, disagreed. He said he thinks he could get a higher price for his barley without the board. "This has been a socialist agenda that has been pounded into people's heads since the '30s. The wheat board has spent millions of dollars brainwashing growers." (CBC NEWS, JAN 23, 2007)

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