Mike Spratt

Husband, proud father of three! Farmer and rancher raising grain, Maine-Anjou and Angus Melfort Sk. Canada

[Sama Hoole @SamaHoole]

Activist: "American cattle ranching is destroying the Great Plains."

Rancher: "How many bison were here in 1800?"

Activist: "A lot."

Rancher: "Sixty million. Same biomass as every cow in America today. Standing on the same grass."

Activist: "That was different."

Rancher: "How?"

Activist: "It was natural."

Rancher: "It was ruminants. Eating grass. Trampling it. Dunging it. The grassland built six feet of topsoil underneath them."

Activist: "Then we shouldn't have killed them."

Rancher: "Correct. We killed them, ploughed the prairie, and got the Dust Bowl in thirty years. Largest ecological collapse in American history."

Activist: "..."

Rancher: "The fix wasn't fewer animals. The fix was putting them back. The grass evolved to be eaten."

Activist: "So reintroduce bison."

Rancher: "Or use the 1,200-pound ruminant that's already here, in the same numbers, doing the same job, on the same grass."

Activist: "It's not the same."

Rancher: "It's the same animal with a different accent."

Activist: "It still feels wrong."

Rancher: "The thing that felt wrong was killing the bison. The cattle are how we're paying it back. Take them off and you finish the job we started in 1870."

[Dean H. @loopholefarms]

Crane coming tomorrow to tear down old dryer. Smoking hot deal if you come with a trailer tomorrow.

https://t.co/Vssc0YZDDI

[Josh Ryan 🍁 @joshryanjames]

Marilyn Gladu: A lot of people keep asking me what I think about Mark Carney.

[Canada Proud @WeAreCanProud]

Just happened to be her second last house sitting before crossing the floor. Zero integrity.

[Mike Spratt @Donarofarms]

@DarylFransoo @gmjochum The trouble is that the politicians see agriculture as an environmental problem instead of a solution! Agriculture has never been more efficient and will continue to improve with advances in plant and livestock breeding and technology. Our law makers are very short sighted!

[Josh Ryan 🍁 @joshryanjames]

Mark Carney said Michael Ma has apologized for dismissing forced labour in China. So, that's the end of that. Mr. Rousseau, Air Canada CEO apologized for not knowing how to speak french and Carney forced him out of his job. Funny, how that works.

[Mike Spratt @Donarofarms]

@loopholefarms It’s only $5/acre

[Mike Spratt @Donarofarms]

@KenSchaus What implants do you recommend?

[Nyles Desrochers @BaldurBarons]

I enjoy nearly everything about the 12 inch spacing. Except the grain carting lol

[Daryl Fransoo @DarylFransoo]

It’s very refreshing seeing so many taking on the messaging of fixing the problem instead of just asking for a blatant handout.

It isn’t BRMs or subsidies that are holding the agriculture industry back it’s foreign trade policy, mediocre trade infrastructure and crippling regulations. All things that have been taken for granted because many have lost focus and revert back to the free money policies all too often.

[The Food Professor @FoodProfessor]

In case you’re keeping score...

Mark Carney has been prime minister for over 100 days, and since then, tariffs with the U.S. have gone up—not down.

Just saying.

[Daryl Fransoo @DarylFransoo]

I am deeply frustrated with the Canadian government’s reckless trade policies, which are putting our farmers in jeopardy. The threat sparked by tensions over supply management and the digital services tax, is a direct blow to Western Canadian grain and oilseed producers. These policies, driven by Ottawa’s focus on protecting Eastern Canadian interests, risk destabilizing the $17 billion in annual grain exports to the U.S., our largest trading partner for these crops. These trade disruptions threaten to drive down farmgate prices and erode the thin margins our farmers already face. This is not just a policy misstep; it’s a betrayal of Western Canadian agriculture, pitting one region against another.

The federal government’s refusal to prioritize stable trade with the U.S. and its insistence on policies like the digital services tax and rigid supply management systems show a blatant disregard for the livelihoods of Western Canadian farmers. The government must act swiftly to de-escalate trade tensions. Western Canadian farmers, deserve better than being collateral damage in Ottawa’s political games.

[Andrew Lawton @AndrewLawton]

BREAKING

The Liberal minister who is confiscating firearms and criminalizing farmers and sport shooters doesn't know what a firearms license is.

Even worse, he refused to get educated.

The guys taking your firearms know nothing about them.

[Rebel News @RebelNewsOnline]

Must-read: Cindy Cherry, Don Cherry’s late daughter, tells all in new book about her father and his cancellation

Cindy writes that after 38 years of compelling television, her father was cancelled simply for saying “you people love our milk and honey” and the “least you could do” is buy a poppy on Remembrance Day.

Hard to believe it’s been more than five years since the most highly viewed segment on Canadian TV was abruptly cancelled and its star maliciously thrown under the bus. All for no valid reason, well, other than cowardly corporate suits bending the knee to a tiny woke mob of leftwing zealots.

We speak of Don Cherry, the coach in Coach’s Corner.

Whether you loved or loathed Grapes, Coach’s Corner was must-see TV. Again, you either loved Don for his unvarnished honesty and frankness, which is an endangered species in the world of sports broadcasting today. Or you loved to hate Don Cherry, as you would love to hate an entertaining villain cutting promos in the bizarre biosphere that is professional wrestling.

The point is, millions of Canadians would tune into Hockey Night in Canada every Saturday night at approximately 7:50 p.m. E.S.T. Coach’s Corner was many things to many people. But it was never, ever boring.

We make mention of the cancellation of this cherished slice of Canadian culture thanks to the recent release of a new book entitled, The Don Cherry Story by His Daughter, Cindy Cherry.

Cindy Cherry doesn’t waste any time cutting to the chase. Thus, she begins the story at the end of the story. Namely, when her father’s tenure on network TV came to an abrupt and shocking end on November 9, 2019.

That first chapter is entitled “Poppygate” – which is a fitting term given that what happened to Don Cherry was indeed scandalous.

Cindy writes that after 38 years of compelling television, her father was cancelled simply for saying “you people love our milk and honey” and the “least you could do” is buy a poppy on Remembrance Day.

We have viewed that excerpt over and over and over again. We have analyzed Don’s words for any alleged racism or bigotry or xenophobia. And we come up empty every single time.

Indeed, Don Cherry was simply speaking the truth. You know it, we know it, everybody knows it. He was bemoaning that not enough people in Canada honour the war dead and our veterans come November 11. This is not conjecture; it’s the indisputable truth.

Indeed, on Remembrance Day 2019, the day Don was officially fired by the way, we visited Yonge-Dundas Square in downtown Toronto at 10 a.m. to observe how many people were wearing poppies. In other words, there we were at this busy intersection just 60 minutes before the 11th hour of the 11th day of the 11th month. And we can tell you that less than 5% — yes, less than 5% — of passersby were wearing poppies that day. It was disgraceful, disgusting, and disrespectful. Oh no… was that a little harsh? Is Team Cancel Culture going to come for us now?

Yet, the fact that Don Cherry was cancelled for speaking the truth makes for more proof in the pudding that freedom of speech is on thin ice in Canada these days.

Due to political correctness, or its new name, “wokeness”, one is forbidden to speak the truth IF the truth hurts. That’s not freedom of speech — that’s censorship.

Indeed, Don’s words somehow hurt the feelings of the uber-intolerant left. Or more accurately, these wokesters pretended to suffer from hurt feelings. Finally, these Marxists had some flimsy excuse to derail the career of a common sense patriotic Canadian that they loathed because of… oh, we don’t know… toxic masculinity?

And let’s not forget the role of one particular liberal in this saga, namely Ron “The Rat” MacLean. Indeed, if Don’s words were so repugnant, then why didn’t Ron object? Rather, as Cindy Cherry notes, Ron was “bobbing his head in agreement throughout the dialogue, gave Dad the thumbs-up and at the end said, ‘love you for it.’”

Furthermore, Cindy notes: “HNiC repeated this Coach’s Corner for their central Canadian viewers. How bad could they have felt it was if they rebroadcasted it?”

But no, the cowardly suits at Rogers — caved to the vocal minority and quickly pulled the plug on Coach’s Corner.

And when they did, Ron MacLean could’ve and should’ve taken a stand. He could’ve and should’ve said words to the effect of, “Hey, if Don goes, I go.” But then again, that would have made for a principled stand. And second banana rats aren’t all that concerned about principles, not when there’s a juicy six-figure salary on the line. It’s just business, baby.

To add insult to injury, MacLean appeared the following Saturday to make a groveling apology. And soon thereafter Hockey Night in Canada went woefully woke in terms of the content aired between periods. It was insufferable and unwatchable.

In the days that followed this cancellation, Cindy became further upset about the spin Poppygate was receiving. She writes: “The narrative that Rogers/Sportsnet and Ron put out to the rest of the media was that all Don had to do to keep his job was apologize and he wouldn’t. This is what a lot of the corporate media shills and people on social media jumped on—why didn’t Don just say he’s sorry and then he would have gotten back his job?”

But Cindy says that narrative was completely bogus; that the fix was always in. She further writes: “To me, there was no doubt Rogers wanted Dad gone, so they backed him into a corner knowing he wouldn’t kneel to their demands. I believe many people knew there was more to the story about Dad’s firing but didn’t bother looking into it and just went with the corporate narrative.”

In fact, it should be noted that it was never Cindy’s intention to write a book even though she always had a ringside seat when it came to being near her famous father. But there came a point during this raging controversy when she simply couldn’t take the B.S. any longer. She had to set the record straight. And for that, we owe her a debt of gratitude.

Alas, it’s too bad the Cindy Cherry never got to see the fruits of her labour. Cindy passed away last July at the age of 67 after a brief illness. This was very hard on Don.

Regardless, her legacy is a book that dispels the lies and myths that the left and the cowards at Rogers concocted when it comes to the Don Cherry saga. We owe her a debt of gratitude for setting the record straight about this great Canadian.

Of note, Don Cherry is 91 years old. At this point, we must wonder how long this national treasure will remain with us. We can tell you this much: when Don passes, millions of Canadians will mourn that day. Some speculate Ron will be remembered as a backstabber and a betrayer, whereas Don spoke his mind, told the truth, and stood by his principles even when threatened with career cancellation — which did indeed come to fruition.

One final thought: Don Cherry was and remains immensely popular. And once upon a time, he was responsible for the single most watched segment of TV in the nation. He was a cash cow when it came to attracting advertisers and sponsors. Thus, in the final analysis, the really disturbing thing about his unceremonious cancellation is this: if the powers-that-be can cancel Don Cherry, they can cancel anyone.

[Mike Spratt @Donarofarms]

@BaldurBarons Big fat goose egg here!

[Mike Spratt @Donarofarms]

@damsmokedamgood A lot of so called experts thought they wouldn’t make the playoffs. They are an exciting young team!

[Mike Spratt @Donarofarms]

@loopholefarms Ya it will be a while here

[Mike Spratt @Donarofarms]

@4FAngusBoy This was mine yesterday

[Jake Leguee @JakeLeguee]

Canada, it's time to wake up. The US isn't the friend we thought it was.

How have we found ourselves in this situation?

3 Canadian elections brought in a government that has prevented resource development, substantially increased taxes for all, engaged in extreme deficit spending, and countless failed policy decisions in all sectors.

Trump's tariffs are unnecessary, destructive, and contravene the CUSMA agreement. They will cost all of Canada and the US billions and devastate countless small businesses, including agriculture, on both sides of the border. They will not help anyone, anywhere.

We also must accept responsibility as a country for preventing needed value added and export projects that have made us more, not less, dependent on the US for trade.

Canada, this must change - right now. We must get infrastructure built, fastrack resource development, fix our ridiculous inter-provincial trade barriers, and return to being a country others want to work with.

The best time for all this was 10 years ago. The second best time is right now. But we need a functioning government, not in March, but now.