Will Verboven

Reading Time: 3 minutes You have to hand it to the public relations masters at the Calgary Stampede organization. They are good at what they do. The stampede has been a lightning rod for animal rights groups trying to cash in (literally) on the stampede image. Right on schedule when the stampede starts, they begin their demonstrations, ads and […] Read more

Reading Time: 3 minutes So much has been written about the fate of the Canadian Wheat Board that one approaches the topic with trepidation. The government has made it clear that the board’s days as a monopoly are numbered and I expect the feds are well along with the enabling legislation to strip the CWB of its powers. In […] Read more

Reading Time: 3 minutes One has to admire the business and political skills of the wind turbine industry if the endless march of steel towers across prominent ridges in southern Alberta is any indication. Their powerful lobby has browbeaten any critics and has governments at every level bowing at their feet. It seems politicians can’t offer subsidies, tariff incentives, […] Read more

Reading Time: 3 minutes Perhaps it has something to do with Premier Stelmach’s resignation, but government reports on the future of Alberta seem to be coming out of the woodwork. First it was the premier’s Council for Economic Strategy report, and now it’s the Alberta Competitiveness Council report. In a previous column I noted that the premier’s council report […] Read more

Reading Time: 3 minutes It was hard to notice in Alberta, but there was a federal election. That probably had to do with the usual universal prediction that there would be no change to the political landscape in Alberta, which proved to be true. Such a prediction usually results in being ignored by federal political parties, which also proved […] Read more

Reading Time: 3 minutes Irrigation is one of the agricultural success stories in southern Alberta and one would assume that more would be better, and that would be true except for the political challenges. At this point those challenges would appear to stifle any future large-scale expansion of irrigated land in this province. I am referring to the creation […] Read more

Reading Time: 3 minutes Since the outbreak back in 2003, the concept of BSE testing as a marketing tool has been one of those exasperating “what if” scenarios. What if such BSE testing had been done from the beginning? Would export beef markets have been reopened a lot sooner? Would the billions in losses borne by cattle producers and […] Read more

Reading Time: 3 minutes Agriculture Minister Jack Hayden probably thought Bill 11, the Livestock Industry Diversification Amendment Act, would go unnoticed through the legislative process and dodge media scrutiny. That probably would have happened, but for the good old boys at the Alberta Fish and Game Association (AFGA) who quickly sounded the conspiracy alarm. That alerted city media and […] Read more