The Hamilton Spectator wrote in "CanGro’s shock waves" (Jun.28, 2008):
“Kate Steifelmeyer, a research associate at the George Morris Centre, an independent think tank, conducted a comparative study of the U.S. and Canadian agri-food processing sector and found the Canadian sector needs an overhaul.
She said the Canadian tender fruit processing sector is suffering from regulatory, and to some extent, taxation issues. They’re also just not keeping up in terms of capital investment and automation.”
Sounds like she got that one down pat.
Interesting to see what Greenbelt Liberals such as Kim Craitor and Jim Bradley will do about lowering tax rates and regulatory burdens on the industry… probably nothing. (see: Good things USED to grow, in On - ta - ri - o!) Who cares about the mounting impact of Liberal greenbelt, taxation, and agricultural policies upon the farmer? They’re not designed for farmers…they’re designed to capture the Liberal urban vote! (see: Stealth MPP Jim Bradley's cloaking device - it's not science fiction anymore!) To Liberals, the farmer is secondary to the greenbelt, in the very same way that the patient is secondary to their health-care system. (see: Greenbelt vassals pay tithe to Liberal Lord Bradley)
As Craitor said in the Legislature (Mar.3, 2005): “Last week, this assembly passed the important greenbelt legislation to preserve the farmlands of Ontario. In my riding, the farmlands are primarily the finest grape and tender fruit lands in North America. With the greenbelt legislation, our government made an important first step to preserve the land, but now we have to take another step to preserve the farmer; for what good is one without the other?”
Of course, the Liberals didn’t think that far ahead when they enacted the greenbelt in the first place – so there are now more steps for busy little Liberal central-planners and social-engineers to ‘save the farmer’. Priceless … this flicking Liberal government’s interventions just don’t end. Just take their farms away and make them wards of the state, already – isn’t that McGuinty’s plan, anyway? This is all collectivization in slow motion.
The fallout from the closure of Cangro should have been anticipated a long time ago; one of the main problems was that it was a monopoly in that industry, there was no competition. Why was that? Shouldn’t the Liberal Jims and the Kims have been working diligently to create an Ontario economy which encourages competition, in all sectors?? (see: Trouble ahead for Niagara's fruit industry? )
Leaving the tender fruit sector to put all their peaches in one basket, to rely on only one processor, the only game in town, was an obvious hint of the potential problems to come should this one player close down. Whether it’s a health-care monopoly run by government, or a private-sector monopoly in a niche agricultural sector, the challenge is to create competition (not corporate welfare).
I wonder how the farmers are going to sell their crops largely as fresh market … one can only eat so much summer fruit. The whole point is to preserve this abundance of summer, canned or frozen, so it can be stored and shipped as a commodity during the rest of the year until the next year’s crop comes in. Fresh market can only take you so far.
This “buy local” fad is a crock, as well – you want to buy local, fine, but to what extent - will you then also give up your right to sell your product in other areas??? Come on!! ‘Buy local’ is quite meaningless. Will you whine when others deny you the privilege of exporting your produce to their market - - - across the street; across the ocean??? You’ll have to limit all your exports (have NONE to spare) and live in some utopian commune, each with its own vehicle assembly plants, and canning plants and tractor factories…why, it’s socialist’s dream come true! OOPS – you had a good year, with an abundance of nice peaches, way too many for your closed village to eat, well, you'll just have to bury them! Exporting is forbidden!! And in the next village, which had a poor harvest, well, they'll just have to starve, because importing peaches from another village would be illegal! Sudbury would just have to grow its own peaches, and St. Catharines would have to mine and smelt its own nickel. This is the bizzarro protectionist world of the Greensheviks. (see: Liberal Jim "Aw, shucks" Bradley: Greenshevik Idol)
The Spectator story also wrote about Donald Ziraldo, (a member of the Greenbelt-creation task force, and co-founder of Inniskillin Wines):
“Ziraldo said the challenge before the fruit growers is much like that experienced by the grape growers in 1989, just after Ottawa signed the North America Free Trade Agreement.
“We were wiped out. We were told we were going to keep the beer industry and throw away the wine industry and give it to Ernst and Gallo. In 1990, we were given a grant to tear out old vineyards,” he said. “There are now about 120 wineries.””
But nowhere in this story is it mentioned who was making all these dire predictions about the wine industry, as much as there was of it in 1989.
Ziraldo doesn’t mention who was saying these things!
But we all know, don’t we, that it was MPP Jim Bradley’s Ontario Liberals, under David Peterson [along with their 'accord'-buddies, Bob Rae's NDP] who were whining about free trade!
We know it was federal Liberals under John Turner who were whining about free trade! To them this was the end of the world! Protectionist Liberals everywhere whined and whined about the wine industry being somehow ‘sold-out’. (see: Free trade a "bust"? Not for Niagara wines)
Now, as Ziraldo says, there are some 120 wineries – and that is with no thanks to Liberal rhetoric, Liberal fear-mongering, Liberal protectionism, and Liberal jingoism. Free trade wasn't the enemy, it was Liberal protectionism. (see: Obama blames Canada and NAFTA for Ohio job losses )
To mark the upcoming twentieth anniversary of their political-pandering against the wine industry, Liberals such as Jim Bradley should be awarded a token bottle of 1989 Niagara Chagrin - this ruddy vintage, from a bitter harvest of sour grapes, has subtle hints of hypocrisy, with overtones of duplicity, hints of lies, and a touch of irony, all with a bouquet reminiscent of an overwhelming stench of bad gas.
It nicely complements the eating of crow.
*
[update: it's interesting to now hear (on Steve Paikin's TVO show, Apr.8, 2011) Robin Sears (former Ontario NDP'er Bob Rae's chief of staff in the late 1980's) actually admit that he personally believed in free trade, yet, nevertheless, Sears actively helped the socialists continue with their anti-free-trade idiocy - all of course, geared to smear conservatives, at any cost, no matter how wrong the socialists' own dogma was!!]
*
Also interesting to see how writers in the future (in 2018, in Trump's era) create deceptive narratives about free trade, as the Toronto Red Star's Rick Salutin did in Aug. 2018, writing about how Mulroney was not a supporter of free trade. What Salutin fails to mention, is the nuance that Mulroney's position in 1983 - when he was still fighting for the Conservative leadership - was against unfettered free trade... a big difference to having a formalized trade agreement! Guess it's inconvenient for Salutn to point that out!! Salutin purposefully - deceptively - also FAILS to mention how a campaigning Chretien LIED about tearing up Canada's free trade agreement if he was elected - - -and, when he was elected, Chretien the Liberal liar, DIDN'T DO IT!!
Now in 2018 under Trump's Presidency, we note the irony that Trump is doing what the leftists in Canada always wanted: to destroy our trade agreements! Yep: Trump's dong what Chretien, Peterson, David Suzuki, Salutin, Pierre Berton, Maude Barlow, Bob Rae, wanted - getting rid of NAFTA. Irony of ironies for the drooling Trump haters, that Trump is carrying out their wet dream.
“Kate Steifelmeyer, a research associate at the George Morris Centre, an independent think tank, conducted a comparative study of the U.S. and Canadian agri-food processing sector and found the Canadian sector needs an overhaul.
She said the Canadian tender fruit processing sector is suffering from regulatory, and to some extent, taxation issues. They’re also just not keeping up in terms of capital investment and automation.”
Sounds like she got that one down pat.
Interesting to see what Greenbelt Liberals such as Kim Craitor and Jim Bradley will do about lowering tax rates and regulatory burdens on the industry… probably nothing. (see: Good things USED to grow, in On - ta - ri - o!) Who cares about the mounting impact of Liberal greenbelt, taxation, and agricultural policies upon the farmer? They’re not designed for farmers…they’re designed to capture the Liberal urban vote! (see: Stealth MPP Jim Bradley's cloaking device - it's not science fiction anymore!) To Liberals, the farmer is secondary to the greenbelt, in the very same way that the patient is secondary to their health-care system. (see: Greenbelt vassals pay tithe to Liberal Lord Bradley)
As Craitor said in the Legislature (Mar.3, 2005): “Last week, this assembly passed the important greenbelt legislation to preserve the farmlands of Ontario. In my riding, the farmlands are primarily the finest grape and tender fruit lands in North America. With the greenbelt legislation, our government made an important first step to preserve the land, but now we have to take another step to preserve the farmer; for what good is one without the other?”
Of course, the Liberals didn’t think that far ahead when they enacted the greenbelt in the first place – so there are now more steps for busy little Liberal central-planners and social-engineers to ‘save the farmer’. Priceless … this flicking Liberal government’s interventions just don’t end. Just take their farms away and make them wards of the state, already – isn’t that McGuinty’s plan, anyway? This is all collectivization in slow motion.
The fallout from the closure of Cangro should have been anticipated a long time ago; one of the main problems was that it was a monopoly in that industry, there was no competition. Why was that? Shouldn’t the Liberal Jims and the Kims have been working diligently to create an Ontario economy which encourages competition, in all sectors?? (see: Trouble ahead for Niagara's fruit industry? )
Leaving the tender fruit sector to put all their peaches in one basket, to rely on only one processor, the only game in town, was an obvious hint of the potential problems to come should this one player close down. Whether it’s a health-care monopoly run by government, or a private-sector monopoly in a niche agricultural sector, the challenge is to create competition (not corporate welfare).
I wonder how the farmers are going to sell their crops largely as fresh market … one can only eat so much summer fruit. The whole point is to preserve this abundance of summer, canned or frozen, so it can be stored and shipped as a commodity during the rest of the year until the next year’s crop comes in. Fresh market can only take you so far.
This “buy local” fad is a crock, as well – you want to buy local, fine, but to what extent - will you then also give up your right to sell your product in other areas??? Come on!! ‘Buy local’ is quite meaningless. Will you whine when others deny you the privilege of exporting your produce to their market - - - across the street; across the ocean??? You’ll have to limit all your exports (have NONE to spare) and live in some utopian commune, each with its own vehicle assembly plants, and canning plants and tractor factories…why, it’s socialist’s dream come true! OOPS – you had a good year, with an abundance of nice peaches, way too many for your closed village to eat, well, you'll just have to bury them! Exporting is forbidden!! And in the next village, which had a poor harvest, well, they'll just have to starve, because importing peaches from another village would be illegal! Sudbury would just have to grow its own peaches, and St. Catharines would have to mine and smelt its own nickel. This is the bizzarro protectionist world of the Greensheviks. (see: Liberal Jim "Aw, shucks" Bradley: Greenshevik Idol)
The Spectator story also wrote about Donald Ziraldo, (a member of the Greenbelt-creation task force, and co-founder of Inniskillin Wines):
“Ziraldo said the challenge before the fruit growers is much like that experienced by the grape growers in 1989, just after Ottawa signed the North America Free Trade Agreement.
“We were wiped out. We were told we were going to keep the beer industry and throw away the wine industry and give it to Ernst and Gallo. In 1990, we were given a grant to tear out old vineyards,” he said. “There are now about 120 wineries.””
But nowhere in this story is it mentioned who was making all these dire predictions about the wine industry, as much as there was of it in 1989.
Ziraldo doesn’t mention who was saying these things!
But we all know, don’t we, that it was MPP Jim Bradley’s Ontario Liberals, under David Peterson [along with their 'accord'-buddies, Bob Rae's NDP] who were whining about free trade!
We know it was federal Liberals under John Turner who were whining about free trade! To them this was the end of the world! Protectionist Liberals everywhere whined and whined about the wine industry being somehow ‘sold-out’. (see: Free trade a "bust"? Not for Niagara wines)
Now, as Ziraldo says, there are some 120 wineries – and that is with no thanks to Liberal rhetoric, Liberal fear-mongering, Liberal protectionism, and Liberal jingoism. Free trade wasn't the enemy, it was Liberal protectionism. (see: Obama blames Canada and NAFTA for Ohio job losses )
To mark the upcoming twentieth anniversary of their political-pandering against the wine industry, Liberals such as Jim Bradley should be awarded a token bottle of 1989 Niagara Chagrin - this ruddy vintage, from a bitter harvest of sour grapes, has subtle hints of hypocrisy, with overtones of duplicity, hints of lies, and a touch of irony, all with a bouquet reminiscent of an overwhelming stench of bad gas.
It nicely complements the eating of crow.
*
[update: it's interesting to now hear (on Steve Paikin's TVO show, Apr.8, 2011) Robin Sears (former Ontario NDP'er Bob Rae's chief of staff in the late 1980's) actually admit that he personally believed in free trade, yet, nevertheless, Sears actively helped the socialists continue with their anti-free-trade idiocy - all of course, geared to smear conservatives, at any cost, no matter how wrong the socialists' own dogma was!!]
*
Also interesting to see how writers in the future (in 2018, in Trump's era) create deceptive narratives about free trade, as the Toronto Red Star's Rick Salutin did in Aug. 2018, writing about how Mulroney was not a supporter of free trade. What Salutin fails to mention, is the nuance that Mulroney's position in 1983 - when he was still fighting for the Conservative leadership - was against unfettered free trade... a big difference to having a formalized trade agreement! Guess it's inconvenient for Salutn to point that out!! Salutin purposefully - deceptively - also FAILS to mention how a campaigning Chretien LIED about tearing up Canada's free trade agreement if he was elected - - -and, when he was elected, Chretien the Liberal liar, DIDN'T DO IT!!
Now in 2018 under Trump's Presidency, we note the irony that Trump is doing what the leftists in Canada always wanted: to destroy our trade agreements! Yep: Trump's dong what Chretien, Peterson, David Suzuki, Salutin, Pierre Berton, Maude Barlow, Bob Rae, wanted - getting rid of NAFTA. Irony of ironies for the drooling Trump haters, that Trump is carrying out their wet dream.
Compare what the Toronto Star's Salutin wrote in 2018, to what the Toronto Star's Brett Popplewell wrote back in 2009, in NAFTA the nasty no more, Feb, 7, 2009 :
"...It was 21 years ago that the issue divided Canadians along party lines. The 1988 general election was fought over free trade, a policy championed by then-prime minister Brian Mulroney. He said Canadians would profit from lowering tariffs on exports to the U.S. Liberal leader John Turner charged that by enacting the Free Trade Agreement between Canada and the U.S., Mulroney had with one stroke of a pen signed away Canada's sovereignty.
But the forecasts of impending doom for Canada have not come true. In fact, many of the industries that some predicted would die (most notably Canadian wine production) have actually benefited from open access to the U.S. market.
While there have been problems, as when the U.S. imposed tariffs on our softwood lumber and we imposed tariffs on their dairy products, most agree the Free Trade Agreement of 1988, which later incorporated Mexico and morphed into the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA), has benefited Canadians..."
It was Liberal pieces of sh!t such as Turner and Peterson who were fear mongering against free trade.
Here's what Fred Lum wrote about "Mulroney's Lasting Legacy" in the Globe and Mail (Oct.23, 2012):
"...Mr. Mulroney deserves a great deal of personal credit. Free trade was not an agenda he originated. It emerged from a Royal Commission appointed by the Liberals and headed by a Liberal, Donald Macdonald. But when his government decided to make freer trade with the U.S. a priority, Mr. Mulroney threw himself into it, at great political risk. His willingness then to roll the dice made all the difference.
Mr. Mulroney was a great campaigner and a tough negotiator, surrounded by a team of tough negotiators. The success achieved on Oct. 3, 1987 has shaped Canada's economic development and its place in the global economy for the better. As he points out, trade volumes have tripled, and while there were casualties of the FTA, it did not result in the end of industries many had feared, such as the vintners in Niagara and the Okanagan, who emerged stronger. In a speech in Toronto Wednesday night, Mr. Mulroney said the FTA had erased old doubts and fears about Canada in the world, in favour of confidence and ambition. He's right..."
Funny how in 2018 the Toronto Star hagiographer/revisionist Rick Salutin just kinda swept aside Mulroney's pivotal role!! Let's look back to when Mordecai Richler schooled the fear-mongering Salutin on BarbaraFrum's CBC show. Classic!
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