Bernier wants to scrap it, but poll suggests majority of Conservative voters back supply management
Libertarians, despair: a new poll shows support for Canada’s supply management system, even if Canadians are told it takes a toll on their pocket-books. Three of every four Canadians polled said they approved when asked to evaluate the agricultural system, described as follows: “Canada protects its dairy and poultry industries from foreign imports with tariffs […]
Trade rules for food security: a Canadian contribution
When it comes to food security, international trade matters. An estimated 15 per cent of the world’s population depends on traded staple foods; in 2014, the value of the world food trade was over US$1.4-trillion. The supply, access and stability of food systems, and the quality of the nutrition people eat, are deeply integrated with […]
Got milk? Wisconsin has too much, but that’s not Canada’s problem
U.S. President Donald Trump recently denounced Canada’s dairy system. His animus resulted from a long-advertised change to Canadian dairy import regulations that affected ultra-filtered milk. The public face of the dispute is the about 75 dairy farmers in and around Wisconsin who were told that their milk was no longer needed by their processor, Grassland […]
MPs from all parties defend supply management against Trump, Bernier
Rural MPs from across multiple parties have been hearing concern from their constituents after American President Donald Trump threatened to come after Canada’s dairy industry. Mr. Trump turned his sights, and his tweets, towards Canadian dairy farmers last month, claiming that because of Canada’s trade regulations on dairy products, which block much of the United States’ dairy […]
Trump for dummies: there’s no scapegoat like a foreign scapegoat
OTTAWA—The CNN anchors kept looking at each other, half-laughing. “Canada?” they kept saying, as in United States President Donald Trump is picking a fight with Canada? This was a few weeks ago, when Trump was calling Canada’s dairy policies a “disgrace” that damaged the interests of U.S. farmers. With the 100-day mark bearing down on him, […]
Trudeau: don’t back down on Canada’s supply management system
TORONTO—Canada’s supply management system is now the target of the Trump administration, but this U.S. whining is not new. Successive U.S. administrations have railed against the system because it prevents a U.S. dairy industry, notorious for overproduction, from dumping its surplus into the Canadian market. Yet the system works well for Canada, providing stability for […]
Trudeau smart to hold his tongue after tough Trump trade talk
MONTREAL—In the big picture, the world is probably having a decent week when Donald Trump turns his rhetorical guns on Canada rather than on North Korea or Russia. On the scale of a nuclear showdown, the stakes involved in a Canada/United States milk war are—to put it mildly—in a different league. But even in the […]
Tory leadership candidates courting supply management group for support
Multiple candidates in the Conservative leadership race have reached out for support from the organizers of a politically active Facebook group in Quebec created to defend supply management. Staff on the campaigns for Andrew Scheer (Regina-Qu’Appelle, Sask.), Michael Chong (Wellington-Halton Hills, Ont.), and Steven Blaney (Bellechasse-Les Etchemins-Lévis, Que.) have contacted the administrator or one of […]
U.S. dairy industry better off adopting Canada’s supply management system
SAANICHTON, B.C.—It is because the United States dairy industry does not have a supply management system like Canada’s excellent one that their dairy farmers suffer at the mercy of their unregulated system and regularly go through boom and bust cycles. Canada is one of the few countries in the world that had the foresight to regulate the production […]
Verbatim: Canada, trade and Trump in a changing world
Former prime minister Brian Mulroney addressed the FarmTech conference in Edmonton on Feb. 2, telling Canada’s agricultural producers that he’s sanguine about the Trump administration on trade and calling for an end to the country’s supply management system. EDMONTON—I am not here today as an expert in farm technologies. If I were, that would make […]
