How can East help West?

[sasse]

While conducting workshops among rural people in Eastern Ontario, several individuals asked 'What can we do to help our rural counterparts in the West?' How would you answer?

[Argyle]

Help convince the federal government that the survival of the family farm is important to Canada

[lkargard]

It is very simple solution to fix the problem we have: First: Tell those easterners to wake up and smell the coffee(Tim Hortons or a very strong coffee)and quit voting in the liberals. Second: If the easterners cannot bring themselves to the first one, then it is time for Western Canada to take action and start separation.

[monaco]

Our Federal Gov,t. has stated that the so called 'farm crisis ' in western Canada isn't as bad as the Sask. and Man. provincial ministers say it is ! Well how the hell can we possibly get the message across to the feds if they won't accept the facts from our provincial reps ? Anything you can do to help convey the real picture from out west to the eastern bureaucracy would help .

[danm]

I think you have to remind them we are an exporting NATION not REGION.The eastern economy has & still profits from the raw products the west has.(This is a good thing)Ie. companies like Kellogge,Kraft,& seaway shipping our product etc not to mention we now finally have natural gas going to them & still have the untapped resource of water for Manitoba.I want to beleive that east wants to stay Canada not a regionalized/US susidery. Some could benefit by going their own way but in my opinion more would lose. We have to educate & share what we think our role is in Canada . I think if you ask alot of poeple they are just trying to survive & to heck with their neighbors or country. Hence the backlash of seperation.I am of the strong opinion that if we tell each other what the problems are in each region together we will move forward. It may not make the most money but will generate something money can't buy CANADA,unless you split up piece by piece. This is a very good topic thanks for asking the question.You might want to get ahold of Rick Borotsik. PC canidate from Brandon he is currently the ag critic for the pc's in Ottawa & would have a very good answers for you with his background

[jwright]

As someone pointed out elsewhere, it doesn't appear to be an agriculture crisis, per se. Food exists in vast quantities. Rather it's a crisis of farmers. Thousands, perhaps tens of thousands, will be displaced if changes don't happen. But that's not as big an issue for the people in power as rising food prices would be. Given the current ideology of all of the major parties in Ottawa, including Reform, and probably Alexa's ND's too, that's just the way our free enterprise system works. They'd like us to get used to it, and I can't see any of them doing much about it. I think we would be more successful in negotiating exit strategies.

[sasse]

I received a most thoughtful letter from the southwest corner of Manitoba in response to my quarry on behalf of some farmers in eastern Ontario who want to hear the story behind the headlines about the farm crisis in Western Canada. In response to the question of what others might do to help, the writer says: 1. Pray for us. For the farmers who will lose their land ... It is like a death, because it is the death of a way of life. For families whose sons and daughters planned on returning home to farm, but no longer can see farming as a viable career choice. For our communities ... who have fewer and fewer people to do more and more of the work that makes a community the kind of place where you want to live. 2. Lobby the federal government for us. Please take the time to write to PM Jean Chretien, to Minister of Finance Paul Martin, to Minister of Agriculture Vanclief, and to your MP. A letter is much much more effective in Ottawa than signing a petition. No stamps are required. 3. Lobby the provincial government for us. Please contact Gary Doer, and tell him that famers shouldn't have to pay more than their fair share for schools. Education is a universal value; everyone should help to pay for it. 4. Think kindly of us. We have been told repeatedly by our minister of Agriculture, Lyle Vanclief, that we are poor farmers, and that it will be better if we got a life doing something else. We did not need to be kicked when we were already down. Heed the saying: 'Don't bad-mouth a farmer when your mouth is full.' 5. Support the Canadian Foodgrains Bank with donations. For every bushel of grain that is donated to the Foodgrains Bank, the Canadian government must donate 4 more bushels (up to a maximum of $16 million worth). This grain is shipped to the poorest countries who couldn't afford to buy our grain anyway. It feeds the starving, and gets rid of a lot of surplus grain. If there was no surplus grain in the world, grain prices to farmers would rise substantially. 6. Buy Candian products, especially those from Western Canada. Read the labels! Especially watch for: cooking oil - sunflower and canola, Canadian Pasta, Peak of the Market vegetables, Rogers sugar, Canadian wine, local cheeses ... Take a vacation in Canada. Cities and town in SW Manitoba and Southern Saskatchewan need your business because we farmers don'e have money to spend there at this time.

[bushed]

Amen! We can achieve nothing without help from the east because we do not have the population which equates to voting power .That is the only thing ottawa understands. If the eastern people could only grasps what is at stake here not only in the west but in Canada as a whole they would scream bloody murder until the Canadian farmer got what they need to not only survive but make a decent living. I'm 35 years old and farmed for17 years on my own I've a wife 2 kids and another on the way .We farm 1200 acres and have 36 head of cattle .My wife works in town.We live off her income of about$10000/ year .This year I had to borrow all that I could get from the bank $47000 to pay off my inputs I was still short about $10000.I still have grain in the bin but I estimate I will be 20-$25000 short when all is said and done .Others are worse off than me in my area there are estimates that if nothing serious is done by ottawa 1/2 the people will be gone in 2 yearsThose people all know how to work and they will go to the cities for work and I don't believe there are jobs for 30000 people[that is from saskatchewan] so somebody will be out of a job and I really can't see it being an ex farmer. So please if nothing else pretend that the steel mills are being shut down or the auto industry is going broke and raise some hell for your western brothers because WE ARE CANADIAN too . Thankyou