NationStates Jolt Archive

The helicopter thread left me cold, but this is an issue that gets my panties in a bundle: the border remaining closed to cattle.

http://www.mytelus.com/news/article.do?pageID=world_home&articleID=1861799

Prior to the incidence of finding a cow with BSE, Canada sold most of its beef to the United States, who would slaughter and package it to sell all over the world. Alberta had need of only 3 meat packing firms to service the entire province, and they handled mostly other types of meat. Since the "mad-cow crisis" (one stickin' cow!) Alberta's meat packers cannot handle the demand for slaughter, so prices on beef have plunged (but not at the supermarkets) causing many Alberta ranches to go out of business. Many Alberta ranchers are slaughtering their own and selling it at farmer's markets and on road side kiosks.

In the United States, the situation is reversed: because they have a surplus of meat packers and few cattle, the cattle prices have soared and the meat packing firms are going out of business. And now the US Ranchers are lobbying (successfully, it seems) to keep the border closed so they can continue to rake in the profits at the expense of their own meat packers and Alberta farmers.

What enrages me is that after the fishing industry in BC was destroyed by American fisheries lack of environmental and resource sustainability laws, we were hit again by the softwood lumber fiasco. Alberta and BC were struck by a blow from the mad cow crisis (though Alberta suffered more than BC in this instance, obviously)... in all cases the federal government stepped in far too late to stop the American politicians and businesses from screwing us in the ass. Then SARS, Hurricane Isabel (a moderate gale by most standards), and the blackout come along, and the feds are scrambling to help out the devastated Ontarians...

This problem has as many roots right here in Canada due to our own governments inaction as it has roots stateside due to their actions.

This problem has as many roots right here in Canada due to our own governments inaction as it has roots stateside due to their actions.
Agreed. To make matters worse, the Alberta government's distribution of the federal aid for the cattle crisis, instead of going to the ranchers or to create new meat packing firms, went to existing meat packers to line their pockets.

Needs less The West and more jihad.

http://www.sw-asia.com/People/images/Bio929a.jpg

So we Canucks say no to missile defense, then get surprised when the Yanks retaliate with this? As my niece likes to say...

...puh-leaze!

So we Canucks say no to missile defense, then get surprised when the Yanks retaliate with this? As my niece likes to say...

...puh-leaze!
How could this be a retaliation when it has been going on since May 2003? If it's retaliation for anything, it is Canada's treating its ranchers better with subsidies.

So we Canucks say no to missile defense, then get surprised when the Yanks retaliate with this? As my niece likes to say...

...puh-leaze!
Retaliation? I'm sorry if this sounds mean Gawdly - but get a clue already. Still, Canadian politicians are just as much to blame for selling us down the river in order to keep up this 'good' relationship with our souther trading partners. After all, imagine the chaos that would ensue if Canada started producing goods with the raw materials we send south only to have good manufactured for resale here? I shudder to think. The Avro Arrow project set a pretty good precident for the present Canadian/American relationship. This is a problem on both sides of that imaginary line, and has been for one hell of a long time. One acronym pretty much sums up the entire ass raping that Canada experiences thanks to just such a 'trade off' (pun intended - so shoot me), and that acronym is: NAFTA.

Hrmf. They were about to open up exports of beef within the next few weeks. We say NO to the Star Wars, and suddenly the gate closes and we're stuck with millions of dollars worth of fattened moo??

Tit for tat is a reality, even in government.

When they're already getting kickbacks for the system as it is - you really think they'd change it? If anything involved a conspiracy here that is a plausible one, they were dangling that as the proverbial carrot that never would have been given anyway.