Reading Time: 9 minutes he first thing you do is give your head a shake. What could those lions possibly be doing here? Even if, like me, you don’t know anything about their background — for instance that they’re lions of Buddha, also known as guardian lions, and that they started appearing at the entrances to homes, businesses and […] Read more
Chinese entrepreneurs are teaching the world some lessons in how to do business, even in our own backyard
CanAustralia
Reading Time: < 1 minute While all eyes are on Brazil and the U. S., our best friends may be our long lost down-under cousins like Ross Johns. Here s why Ross Johns remembers when the idea first occurred to him. It was in the heart of China about eight years ago. He was there on a trade mission, representing […] Read more
You can call the farmers at Saskatchewan’s Farmers Direct co-op anything you want, like successful, ambitious and profitable. Just don’t try telling them they aren’t really a business
Reading Time: 2 minutes Keith Neu needs only a couple words to explain why he signed himself up for the latest incarnation of Prairie farm co-ops. The same words, he later tells me, explain why the move makes solid business sense for his farm. I could do everything, says the Hudson Bay, Sask. farmer. But not well. Today, Neu […] Read more
Citizen-Farmer
Reading Time: 15 minutes Our conversation has turned a bit philosophical. But only for a moment. For this special issue of Country Guide on farm leadership, Dan Mazier had agreed to talk about his experience as an elected trustee on a local school board as well as his work heading up a local energy co-operative. They strike me as […] Read more
Principal with Interest If you farm in Canada, the odds are that you owe this man’s organization big money. “Big” as in enough to keep you awake some nights. But keep reading. Here’s where Greg Stewart is taking FCC next
Reading Time: 8 minutes At first, he doesn’t seem like the kind of person you owe $17 billion to. Sure, Farm Credit Canada’s national headquarters in Regina is a stunning, shimmering monument. And yes, Greg Stewart’s office here is pristine and elegant in a way you see only in the offices of top echelon executives. Stewart is also obviously […] Read more
Action Heroes
Reading Time: 16 minutes You say you would never ever dream of jumping off a bridge with only an elastic bungee cord between you and the great hereafter? Nor can you figure out why anyone would ever jump out of a perfectly good airplane. And as for hang gliding, kite surfing and ice-climbing, well, there’s a lot to be […] Read more
Editor’s pick: Manitoba Tory MLA calls for Manitoba TB strategy
Reading Time: < 1 minute The Winnipeg Free Press newspaper is reporting that opposition MLA Len Derkach is calling on the province to increase its support to cattle ranchers battling to prevent infected deer and elk from transmitting the disease to their herds. Derkach says ranchers in the area surrounding Riding Mountain National Park have been battling this problem for […] Read more
Market Signals
Reading Time: < 1 minute In a modest house in an older neighbourhood in Winnipeg s south end, there s a simple dining room table. Surrounded by four chairs, it s a traditional table as dining tables go. In most ways, in fact, it s an absolutely ordinary table, exactly like millions of similar tables in similar homes all across […] Read more
While farmers, economists and politicians debate agriculture’s future, Ian Smith and John Toone are building their own little piece of it
Reading Time: 11 minutes In a modest house in an older neighbourhood in Winnipeg’s south end, there’s a simple dining room table. Surrounded by four chairs, it’s a traditional table as dining tables go. In most ways, in fact, it’s an absolutely ordinary table, exactly like millions of similar tables in similar homes all across Canada. But to John […] Read more
Push When You Can’t Pull
Reading Time: 4 minutes If anybody is skeptical about direct marketing, it should be Sylvain Charlebois. After all, he’s built his career on the marketing of ag commodities. Not only that, but as associate dean of the Johnson-Shoyama Graduate School of Public Policy, a joint venture of the universities of Saskatchewan and Regina, Charlebois is also situated right in […] Read more
A message from April Stewart, Country Guide's Associate Editor
