Alberta MLA Pat Stier Speech: God Made A Farmer.

[AgrivilleAdmin]

[perfecho]

Thinking about Bill 6 this am...believe some was good, some not relevant. Can not understand why such things as BSE, the disallowing law action against fracking when water supplies were ruined...and a few more, hardly made a blip on Alberta farmers screen...then I recalled the taped message from the Wild Rose encouraging me to get out and have my voice heard at the rally and put Rachel in her place...then I got it!

[Hamloc]

It seems the Premier refuses to back down, to try and understand why look at her closest advisor her chief of staff Brian Topp. He has been involved with the NDP for 30 years. He was deputy chief of staff to Roy Romanow. Senior advisor to Jack Layton. Ran for the leadership of the federal NDP after the passing of Jack Layton, losing to a more moderate Tom Mulcair. Her recently appointed Deputy Chief of staff Anne McGrath is a former Albertan who has served as National Director as well as President of the federal NDP. she also served as chief of staff to late leader Jack Layton. I thought it was interesting that she ran in Edmonton-strathcona for the communist party in 1984. So her closest advisors have strong socialist backgrounds. Her refusal to back down on bill 6 is just the beginning. Look at her energy minister yesterday suggesting unemployed oil workers should try and find work in BC. A comment she tried to back away from today. My guess is that they are going to all they can now hoping we will forget by 2019.

[grassfarmer]

Exactly my thoughts perfecho. The same guys that wouldn't sign a petition if you took it to their door to protest a law that totally removed their property rights are now organising rallies and petitions against bill6 when they don't even employ people and won't be affected.

[tubs]

why in the world are our hutterite freinds exempted to bill 6 they have more fatalities than anyone else and why the double standard?

[Hamloc]

Grassfarmer you are making assumptions that in my case are quite wrong. I hire 2 seasonal employees and I have a son and daughter employed on the farm as well. But you did insult thousands of hard working farm families in Alberta that object to the way this legislation has been handled.

Now I have a question for you. You are obviously a strong supporter of progressively minded politicians why when I posted about the recently released Ontario auditor generals report did you not come on here and defend their record and policies or do you prefer not to debate and just take cheap shots?

[grassfarmer]

tubs - simple because they don't employ. Same as the majority of family farms - so they will be exempt.

Sorry Hamloc, didn't realize you had to respond to every post on here to qualify to reply to one. Didn't click on the Ontario one because it didn't look very interesting.

[BFW]

its pretty clear that their is a strong outside NDP influence behind a lot of this. You know something is amiss when you can rally farmers in Alberta in a protest such as this. way different than things like BSE though. the Alberta government stepped up very quickly with a lot of cash then. wasn't the perfect response but was a big enough reaction to settle most people. This is a hugely emotional response to a suddenly hostile government shoving ideology down peoples throats. If this was purely about safety for ag employees there would be no problem. I don't blame people for the emotional response but clearer heads must prevail. its just ags bull getting gored right now by the gov't something nobody has a lot of experience with here in Alberta. we will survive. maybe needs to get worse here for awhile because like the saying goes, " when money talks, ideology walks."

[RTK]

So the MLA got up and read that speech - what was the purpose of it... Or what was accomplished with him reading it?

[perfecho]

Well BFW, I remember the BSE situation well...made a semi-wealthy x-oilindustry quite poor...;-)
Shirley came out and said "Had coffee with the packers and they assured me they weren't making too much money" or at least that is how I heard it...then Ralph came out and said" don't worry, we will take care of our farmers..." the 30K I got...was clawed back on future benefits....but I still have tax losses to apply from those days...

[perfecho]

RTK...too show how compassionate the WR is too farmers...politics..I do understand why some people stay away from it and don't vote.

[BFW]

I understand that perfecho and like I said it was far from perfect but a world of difference in leadership style and action from today>

[grassfarmer]

I don't think BSE was a great example perfecho as there were some genuine attempts by the Klein administration to right things as best they could, albeit they didn't get it all right.

More relevant were the land bills Bills 19, 36 and 50 as they were pieces of legislation like Bill 6. They were rushed through parliament and passed without consultation with farmers, indeed the content was only exposed later by Joe Anglin and Keith Wilson who took it upon themselves to go around the province and demonstrate what was in them. In doing so it was discovered that the MLAs who had passed it had never even read it.

These bills were the greatest assault on property rights ever attempted in a western democracy, set up to circumvent the expropriation laws, to grant the power to the cabinet to remove any of your property rights without giving you any compensation and specifically barring you from taking legal action to fight these injustices. This made the cabinet the law of the land and also put them above the law.

To me this was obviously a far greater attack on farmers and land owners yet you could hardly interest most in the subject never mind getting them to a rally. It did however give rise to the Wildrose. Without the land bills they would never have been a position to challenge for power.

[perfecho]

I will admit this bill has been handled much differently than the other actions Notely has taken...and do wonder why?
Agree, we do need some of the bill, not all of it...what I detest is the rally to do away with all of it and start from the beginning...and the Wild Rose influence to do so, which is a waste of money...start from the ends and work towards the middle..IMHO

[Hamloc]

I stand to be corrected on this but as far as I can tell these land bills 19,36 and 50 are still on the books. Which means the NDP can now expropriate land at will. During the 2012 election they promised to repeals these bills I wonder what they think now? As for Albertans different reaction the only defence I can offer is that bill 6 affects every farm, the land bill would only affect a percentage. I would also say it is a matter of trust at the time the land bills were introduced people trusted the PC's, I don't believe farmers trust the NDP, I certainly don't. I do agree the land bills are more draconian and the NDP can use them if someone objects to windmills construction on their farm,just an example.