It fought in the supermarket aisles, it fought in the Supreme Court, but the Quebec government has finally surrendered in its battle to keep butter-coloured margarine off the province’s dinner tables. An aide to Liberal Agriculture Minister Laurent Lessard confirmed...
Agriculture
Free Trade in Food?
Quebec’s cows are a powerful bunch. Unlike the rest of us, when they go “meuh ” (that’s French for “moo”), they get noticed. It’s easy to understand why Quebeckers like supply management. They’ve milked the most out of it.
How Bad Government Caused The Food Crisis
Instead of banning exports or providing subsidies, governments should be removing barriers to production and distribution, and letting the market respond effectively to changes in supply and demand.
New Rural Innovators are Future of Rural Canada
By relying on the Prairie pioneering ethic of self-sufficiency and independence, these farmers are breaking new ground. Instead of relying on a capital intensive model of farming, these producers are employing a variety of paths to making a living off of a limited land base.
Featured News
Fostering a Constructive, Business-Friendly Regime Sustains Innovation, Not Government Money
For standards of living to grow, productivity growth must be strong and continually renewed. That is one notion that nearly all economists can agree on. So, it is not surprising that politicians scramble to discover new or not-so-new ways to boost productivity growth....
Big Tech Influence Can Tip Elections
Behavioural psychologist Robert Epstein believes Google can and does influence voters and that research teams in Canada and elsewhere need to monitor how users are being swayed. Epstein, the former editor-in-chief of Psychology Today and founder of the American...
BSE and Devil’s Lake
North Dakota politicians link resolution of BSE import ban to Canada’s stand on water issues
Dairy Farmers Out of Touch
More often than not, the Canadian Dairy Commission, created in 1966, has been happy to give the farmers what they want. In fact, the commission has allowed prices to rise in each of the past eight years. The effect is a net transfer of wealth from the consumer to the farmer.
Pesticides on Prairies a Plus
Junk scientists and their media allies can rail all they like about the alleged dangers of chemicals that protect crops, but without them the farm belt would collapse.
Rural Regions and the Federal Election
Canada’s new minority government will have little representation from rural areas and will focus on cities.
You Keep Yonge Street
Rural subsidies are dwarfed in number and magnitude by the subsidization of urban life and the urban economy. Nor are rural areas singular repositories of social pathologies. Rural people may be chubby and downbeat, but they are far less likely to die of AIDS or be raped in a parkade.
WTO Cotton Ruling Victory
A new ruling by the World Trade Organization has declared U.S. cotton subsidies illegal.
Tiny Titans
But consider what the last 25 years have brought to small towns: cheap overnight delivery service, cable television, USA Today, national retail chains, Internet access, cell phone coverage and broadband. New Yorker or New Paltzer, we sip from the same information hose now. Yes, broadband is hard to get in many small towns. Wireless will soon solve that problem.
Beware the City State?
Unless we’re careful, the new “cities agenda” will be at the expense of rural Canada.
Board-Boosting Blues
A new study suggests the Canadian Wheat Board unnecessarily suppresses the barley market.