1
00:00:01,868 --> 00:00:04,170
(woman) 
Manitoba was built

2
00:00:04,170 --> 00:00:06,673
on agriculture 
and the family farm.

3
00:00:06,673 --> 00:00:09,776
[fiddle plays in bright rhythm]

4
00:00:09,776 --> 00:00:13,246
At the turn of the century, 
agriculture was the reason

5
00:00:13,246 --> 00:00:15,815
that the Manitoba 
legislative building

6
00:00:15,815 --> 00:00:19,019
is this huge beautiful building, 
because it was booming,

7
00:00:19,019 --> 00:00:22,922
we were going to be 
the Chicago of the North.

8
00:00:22,922 --> 00:01:13,106
[drums, guitar, & melodica 
play in bright rhythm]

9
00:01:13,106 --> 00:01:33,893
[woman voices 
the following credits]

10
00:01:33,893 --> 00:01:39,966
And the members of...

11
00:01:39,966 --> 00:01:43,970
(male narrator) 
200 years ago, Lord Selkirk 
had a dream

12
00:01:43,970 --> 00:01:46,039
of building 
an agricultural community

13
00:01:46,039 --> 00:01:48,641
on the cold prairies 
of Manitoba.

14
00:01:48,641 --> 00:01:50,543
Agriculture did become 
established

15
00:01:50,543 --> 00:01:53,346
and his dream was realized.

16
00:01:53,346 --> 00:01:57,183
But over those 200 years, 
this prairie region

17
00:01:57,183 --> 00:02:00,286
would witness massive changes 
in farming, business,

18
00:02:00,286 --> 00:02:03,756
the makeup of society 
and the role of women.

19
00:02:03,756 --> 00:02:07,160
Various institutions, regulatory 
agencies and exchanges

20
00:02:07,160 --> 00:02:11,965
would emerge along with a series 
of farmer-run organizations.

21
00:02:11,965 --> 00:02:15,535
(Laura Rance) Around the turn 
of the 20th century,

22
00:02:15,535 --> 00:02:18,605
there was just a huge measure 
of discontent

23
00:02:18,605 --> 00:02:21,007
with how the grain handling 
system

24
00:02:21,007 --> 00:02:23,443
and the marketing system was 
treating farmers.

25
00:02:23,443 --> 00:02:26,179
They felt that they were 
being wronged

26
00:02:26,179 --> 00:02:28,715
not only on the driveway 
of the elevators

27
00:02:28,715 --> 00:02:30,483
that they were delivering to,

28
00:02:30,483 --> 00:02:32,752
but by the Winnipeg 
Grain Exchange,

29
00:02:32,752 --> 00:02:35,455
which was where, in farmers' 
eyes, the speculators

30
00:02:35,455 --> 00:02:38,258
were being used to drive down 
prices artificially.

31
00:02:38,258 --> 00:02:42,529
In the late 1800s, early 1900s, 
agriculture was becoming

32
00:02:42,529 --> 00:02:47,233
very significant in Western 
Canada, and the issue was that

33
00:02:47,233 --> 00:02:50,837
producers felt that they were 
bound by a couple of things.

34
00:02:50,837 --> 00:02:53,940
One was they couldn't get 
railcars from the railway

35
00:02:53,940 --> 00:02:57,410
and that forced them to go 
through the grain companies.

36
00:02:57,410 --> 00:03:01,080
They would have to deliver their 
grain to the grain companies

37
00:03:01,080 --> 00:03:04,450
and they really felt that 
on both quality and quantity,

38
00:03:04,450 --> 00:03:11,457
they were not necessarily 
being treated fairly.

39
00:03:11,457 --> 00:03:14,928
Essentially what we had happen 
was the agrarian movement

40
00:03:14,928 --> 00:03:17,130
coalesced around 
the common enemy

41
00:03:17,130 --> 00:03:20,833
and they began to build 
a structure,

42
00:03:20,833 --> 00:03:23,069
they began to lobby very heavily 
with the government

43
00:03:23,069 --> 00:03:24,837
to get legislation in place.

44
00:03:24,837 --> 00:03:26,739
There was 
the Manitoba Grain Act,

45
00:03:26,739 --> 00:03:29,309
which was followed 
by the Canada Grain Act.

46
00:03:29,309 --> 00:03:32,445
And from there you had these 
farmer-owned grain companies

47
00:03:32,445 --> 00:03:35,648
start to build a system 
where they felt

48
00:03:35,648 --> 00:03:38,418
that they should take back 
grain-handling marketing

49
00:03:38,418 --> 00:03:40,687
from the speculators 
in Winnipeg.

50
00:03:40,687 --> 00:03:43,456
And one way to do that was 
by establishing cooperatives.

51
00:03:43,456 --> 00:03:46,359
(Brian Hayward) 
And really, it was a vehicle

52
00:03:46,359 --> 00:03:49,429
for farmers at the time to take 
control of their marketing

53
00:03:49,429 --> 00:03:51,998
by virtue of having 
their own people trading.

54
00:03:51,998 --> 00:03:54,567
There was a lot of suspicion 
that the markets were rigged,

55
00:03:54,567 --> 00:03:56,302
that there was speculation that

56
00:03:56,302 --> 00:03:59,606
was not in the interest 
of farmers.

57
00:03:59,606 --> 00:04:03,042
There were co-ops, the pool 
organizations in particular

58
00:04:03,042 --> 00:04:06,379
in Western Canada 
that espoused more of

59
00:04:06,379 --> 00:04:09,349
a left-of-center controlled 
marketing environment.

60
00:04:09,349 --> 00:04:13,019
United Grain Growers 
on the other side

61
00:04:13,019 --> 00:04:16,556
tended to espouse and promote 
out laissez-faire

62
00:04:16,556 --> 00:04:19,225
free enterprise environment 
for marketing grain.

63
00:04:19,225 --> 00:04:23,229
The pooling organizations were 
set up in the 1920s

64
00:04:23,229 --> 00:04:27,700
and they had a much more 
radical, if you like,

65
00:04:27,700 --> 00:04:30,536
pure and idealistic version 
of co-opertism,

66
00:04:30,536 --> 00:04:33,840
and they also wanted to get 
around the machinations

67
00:04:33,840 --> 00:04:36,276
of the grain exchange, 
which they considered

68
00:04:36,276 --> 00:04:38,945
to be an evil gambling game.

69
00:04:38,945 --> 00:04:42,015
(Mike McAndless) Manitoba, 
Saskatchewan, and Alberta,

70
00:04:42,015 --> 00:04:44,784
the 3 largest food-grain 
producing provinces,

71
00:04:44,784 --> 00:04:46,986
actually established their own 
cooperatives,

72
00:04:46,986 --> 00:04:49,222
Manitoba Pool, Saskatchewan 
Wheat Pool

73
00:04:49,222 --> 00:04:52,558
and Alberta Wheat Pool 
as a balance

74
00:04:52,558 --> 00:04:54,994
against the privately-held 
companies at that time.

75
00:04:54,994 --> 00:04:58,231
It's like any competition, 
the way it would have

76
00:04:58,231 --> 00:05:00,767
provided leverage is by 
giving farmers an option.

77
00:05:00,767 --> 00:05:02,969
Certainly the cooperative 
members

78
00:05:02,969 --> 00:05:05,838
would likely deal with their own 
cooperatives to offer pricing

79
00:05:05,838 --> 00:05:08,775
and service alternatives 
to what they had up until

80
00:05:08,775 --> 00:05:12,612
that point or what they felt 
they had up until that point.

81
00:05:12,612 --> 00:05:16,182
They became 
larger than the privately-held 
companies ultimately.

82
00:05:16,182 --> 00:05:20,720
(Peter Cox) It resulted 
in a lot of farmers

83
00:05:20,720 --> 00:05:25,325
who saw cooperation not as much 
of a political movement

84
00:05:25,325 --> 00:05:28,995
as just a pragmatic way 
of cooperating.

85
00:05:28,995 --> 00:05:33,566
(narrator) 
Few individuals have had 
as significant an impact

86
00:05:33,566 --> 00:05:37,370
on prairie history as 
Edward Alexander Partridge.

87
00:05:37,370 --> 00:05:41,074
He was 6 foot tall with blue 
eyes that flashed when he talked

88
00:05:41,074 --> 00:05:43,042
and hands that were 
constantly in motion.

89
00:05:43,042 --> 00:05:46,145
He was a dreamer, an idea man.

90
00:05:46,145 --> 00:05:48,815
When he talked, people listened.

91
00:05:48,815 --> 00:05:52,385
He believed that farmers should 
and could have more control

92
00:05:52,385 --> 00:05:54,687
over their destiny 
if they united.

93
00:05:54,687 --> 00:05:57,623
(Dr. Paul Earl) It was a child

94
00:05:57,623 --> 00:05:59,692
of the Territorial Grain Growers 
Association

95
00:05:59,692 --> 00:06:02,662
and more specifically, 
a child of Ed Partridge,

96
00:06:02,662 --> 00:06:06,165
who was very much a moving 
spirit behind both the formation

97
00:06:06,165 --> 00:06:08,401
of the Territorial Grain Growers 
Association

98
00:06:08,401 --> 00:06:11,337
and then subsequently a moving 
spirit behind the creation

99
00:06:11,337 --> 00:06:13,606
of the Grain Growers 
Grain Company.

100
00:06:13,606 --> 00:06:17,610
He and a small group 
in Sintaluta started

101
00:06:17,610 --> 00:06:21,080
the Territorial Association, 
but Partridge had bigger plans

102
00:06:21,080 --> 00:06:25,952
and a larger vision, 
and he wanted to set up

103
00:06:25,952 --> 00:06:30,590
a cooperative grain-handling 
and marketing company as well.

104
00:06:30,590 --> 00:06:34,494
(narrator) 
In 1906 Partridge saw part 
of his dream come alive,

105
00:06:34,494 --> 00:06:37,764
but his continued butting of 
heads with the Grain Exchange

106
00:06:37,764 --> 00:06:40,433
led to the Grain Growers 
Grain Company

107
00:06:40,433 --> 00:06:42,702
losing trading privileges 
at the Grain Exchange.

108
00:06:42,702 --> 00:06:44,871
Obviously a matter of 
belligerence

109
00:06:44,871 --> 00:06:49,075
on both the part of Ed Partridge 
who hated the Exchange

110
00:06:49,075 --> 00:06:53,913
and on the part of the Exchange, 
who wasn't that happy with him.

111
00:06:53,913 --> 00:06:57,950
(narrator) 
Partridge was fond of calling 
the Winnipeg Grain Exchange

112
00:06:57,950 --> 00:07:01,287
"A combine 
with gambling hell thrown in."

113
00:07:01,287 --> 00:07:04,991
The Exchange also wanted 
Partridge out, no question,

114
00:07:04,991 --> 00:07:08,995
and so the company replaced 
Partridge as the official member

115
00:07:08,995 --> 00:07:11,731
with another person 
in the company.

116
00:07:11,731 --> 00:07:14,300
(narrator) 
Ed Partridge did not disappear.

117
00:07:14,300 --> 00:07:17,170
He became editor of the 
company's monthly journal,

118
00:07:17,170 --> 00:07:19,138
"The Grain Growers Guide,"

119
00:07:19,138 --> 00:07:21,841
often contributing 
fiery articles of his own.

120
00:07:21,841 --> 00:07:24,243
He authored 
"The Partridge Plan,"

121
00:07:24,243 --> 00:07:27,847
that called for public ownership 
of grain elevators

122
00:07:27,847 --> 00:07:31,417
and advocated a nationwide 
overhaul of the grain business.

123
00:07:31,417 --> 00:07:34,320
Because Ed Partridge was 
a moving spirit

124
00:07:34,320 --> 00:07:37,356
behind the Territorial 
Grain Growers and was

125
00:07:37,356 --> 00:07:40,893
a moving spirit behind the 
Grain Growers Grain Company,

126
00:07:40,893 --> 00:07:43,029
his history after that is 
rather interesting,

127
00:07:43,029 --> 00:07:45,898
because he stayed 
on the board of directors

128
00:07:45,898 --> 00:07:48,134
of the Grain Growers 
Grain Company until 1912,

129
00:07:48,134 --> 00:07:50,570
and then he had a falling out.

130
00:07:50,570 --> 00:07:52,872
(narrator) 
Tragedy was part 
of Partridge's life.

131
00:07:52,872 --> 00:07:56,476
He lost a leg 
in a farming accident,

132
00:07:56,476 --> 00:08:00,379
one of his daughters drowned, 
his wife died of a heart attack,

133
00:08:00,379 --> 00:08:03,483
and he lost 2 sons 
in the First World War.

134
00:08:03,483 --> 00:08:07,153
When Partridge left, he tried to 
start up another grain company

135
00:08:07,153 --> 00:08:10,389
and it failed, and then he 
became an activist

136
00:08:10,389 --> 00:08:13,526
and then he wrote a book called, 
"Poverty"

137
00:08:13,526 --> 00:08:16,762
and was active in some very 
left-wing organizations, and

138
00:08:16,762 --> 00:08:20,466
then sort of just disappeared 
out to the West Coast,

139
00:08:20,466 --> 00:08:23,436
lived with his daughter, 
and then he just disappeared.

140
00:08:23,436 --> 00:08:25,671
That's what happens 
with radicals.

141
00:08:25,671 --> 00:08:29,275
(narrator) 
Farmer, teacher, businessman, 
agrarian radical,

142
00:08:29,275 --> 00:08:33,079
Ed Partridge died 
of asphyxiation in 1931

143
00:08:33,079 --> 00:08:35,715
at the age of 69,

144
00:08:35,715 --> 00:08:39,318
alone in a boarding house in 
Victoria, British Colombia.

145
00:08:39,318 --> 00:08:42,922
His only income for a number 
of years

146
00:08:42,922 --> 00:08:48,761
was a monthly stipend of $75 
from the United Grain Growers.

147
00:08:48,761 --> 00:08:52,064
The structure of the co-ops 
was always changing,

148
00:08:52,064 --> 00:08:55,668
and in the 21st century, 
they began to disappear.

149
00:08:55,668 --> 00:08:58,471
Co-ops needed money 
for capital expansion,

150
00:08:58,471 --> 00:09:02,808
and as co-ops, being able to 
raise that money from members

151
00:09:02,808 --> 00:09:05,511
was becoming more and more 
difficult.

152
00:09:05,511 --> 00:09:09,215
(Dr. Paul Earl) 
They had invested so long ago

153
00:09:09,215 --> 00:09:12,118
and the facilities 
were so far written off,

154
00:09:12,118 --> 00:09:14,320
to actually build modern 
facilities

155
00:09:14,320 --> 00:09:17,456
was going to require a massive 
injection of capital.

156
00:09:17,456 --> 00:09:20,560
Throughout most 
of the 20th century,

157
00:09:20,560 --> 00:09:23,195
there's been a consolidation 
of cooperatives,

158
00:09:23,195 --> 00:09:25,731
of companies generally.

159
00:09:25,731 --> 00:09:29,101
In the 1990s there was probably 
the last phase of it

160
00:09:29,101 --> 00:09:31,103
where the big co-ops 
amalgamated,

161
00:09:31,103 --> 00:09:33,940
at the time they had become 
public companies even,

162
00:09:33,940 --> 00:09:36,676
so they really weren't 
member farmers

163
00:09:36,676 --> 00:09:39,445
and operated by member farmers, 
they'd become member-owned

164
00:09:39,445 --> 00:09:41,247
or completely publicly traded 
companies.

165
00:09:41,247 --> 00:09:44,750
To a certain extent, it was 
a bit of a surprise

166
00:09:44,750 --> 00:09:47,420
that they all disappeared just 
in terms of an approach.

167
00:09:47,420 --> 00:09:49,555
They just weren't generating

168
00:09:49,555 --> 00:09:53,559
enough profits in the first 
place to be able to reinvest

169
00:09:53,559 --> 00:09:56,262
in the capital required 
to build new facilities.

170
00:09:56,262 --> 00:10:00,366
And by 1919, all the co-ops

171
00:10:00,366 --> 00:10:03,703
were facing severe financial 
challenges.

172
00:10:03,703 --> 00:10:16,582
The pools were and UGG was, 
and what do we do about this?

173
00:10:16,582 --> 00:10:20,152
It's ultimately the producer 
that decided in the end

174
00:10:20,152 --> 00:10:22,989
that there wasn't a requirement

175
00:10:22,989 --> 00:10:26,325
for the sort of cooperative 
style of business.

176
00:10:26,325 --> 00:10:28,928
And today, 
all that's really remaining

177
00:10:28,928 --> 00:10:31,864
are private grain companies 
and no cooperatives.

178
00:10:31,864 --> 00:10:35,201
So the producer himself has 
changed his requirement,

179
00:10:35,201 --> 00:10:38,137
and I think that the grain 
business, the agrigrain business

180
00:10:38,137 --> 00:10:40,339
in Canada has changed 
to meet that demand.

181
00:10:40,339 --> 00:10:43,776
[banjo plays softly]

182
00:10:43,776 --> 00:10:47,413
(Bob Roehle) 
Well, the Wheat Board 
came into being,

183
00:10:47,413 --> 00:10:50,783
I guess, largely because 
the 4 pools failed.

184
00:10:50,783 --> 00:10:55,054
There was a Wheat Board back 
in 1919 for one year

185
00:10:55,054 --> 00:10:57,690
and so when the government

186
00:10:57,690 --> 00:11:00,493
disbanded the original Wheat 
Board, farmers weren't happy.

187
00:11:00,493 --> 00:11:03,062
In their mind at least,

188
00:11:03,062 --> 00:11:06,265
the Wheat Board had to do 
with getting higher prices.

189
00:11:06,265 --> 00:11:08,401
When they first established 
the Wheat Board,

190
00:11:08,401 --> 00:11:11,504
one of the reasons they needed 
it or wanted it

191
00:11:11,504 --> 00:11:14,073
was that Canada was a major 
supplier to Britain

192
00:11:14,073 --> 00:11:16,942
during the war years 
and this was a way

193
00:11:16,942 --> 00:11:18,844
of securing supply for that.

194
00:11:18,844 --> 00:11:20,780
But the first Wheat Board 
was established

195
00:11:20,780 --> 00:11:22,982
after the First World War.

196
00:11:22,982 --> 00:11:26,218
Governments of the day wanted 
to return to the open market

197
00:11:26,218 --> 00:11:29,321
and they tried to return 
to the open market,

198
00:11:29,321 --> 00:11:32,425
but farmers again lobbied very 
heavily to have that returned,

199
00:11:32,425 --> 00:11:34,593
and ultimately, the Wheat Board

200
00:11:34,593 --> 00:11:37,029
did become mandatory 
in the 1930s.

201
00:11:37,029 --> 00:11:39,932
The government stepped in 
and formed the Wheat Board

202
00:11:39,932 --> 00:11:42,768
in order to handle the grain 
for the farmers

203
00:11:42,768 --> 00:11:45,204
and sell it on the world market.

204
00:11:45,204 --> 00:11:47,306
It was felt 
that because Canada was

205
00:11:47,306 --> 00:11:49,241
such a large supplier 
of the world markets,

206
00:11:49,241 --> 00:11:51,277
we could get better prices

207
00:11:51,277 --> 00:11:53,846
with a "single desk seller," 
as it was described.

208
00:11:53,846 --> 00:11:56,082
(Bob Roehle) 
That experiment 
in their experience

209
00:11:56,082 --> 00:11:58,651
made them want a Wheat Board, 
and of course,

210
00:11:58,651 --> 00:12:00,352
there was this underlying 
egalitarian notion

211
00:12:00,352 --> 00:12:02,688
that all farmers should be 
treated equally

212
00:12:02,688 --> 00:12:05,725
and they should get the same 
price for the same quality.

213
00:12:05,725 --> 00:12:08,494
And so they lobbied long and 
hard, and eventually,

214
00:12:08,494 --> 00:12:11,097
they got a Wheat Board in 1935.

215
00:12:11,097 --> 00:12:13,432
And so that was part 
of the agrarian movement,

216
00:12:13,432 --> 00:12:15,901
it was an extension 
of the whole notion

217
00:12:15,901 --> 00:12:18,637
that we're in this together, 
and we should help each other.

218
00:12:18,637 --> 00:12:21,874
After the war, and as new crops 
came along,

219
00:12:21,874 --> 00:12:24,677
farmers began to take 
a much broader interest

220
00:12:24,677 --> 00:12:27,880
in what they were doing, 
in the whole process

221
00:12:27,880 --> 00:12:29,749
of not only production, 
but also marketing,

222
00:12:29,749 --> 00:12:31,617
and they discovered they could

223
00:12:31,617 --> 00:12:33,519
quite readily market 
their canola.

224
00:12:33,519 --> 00:12:37,089
And I think as the age 
of the farmer has changed,

225
00:12:37,089 --> 00:12:40,392
the ones who had grown up 
in the 1930s and '40s

226
00:12:40,392 --> 00:12:42,895
were no longer around, the 
importance of the Wheat Board

227
00:12:42,895 --> 00:12:45,097
historically tended to diminish.

228
00:12:45,097 --> 00:12:48,868
Then over time, over the last I 
would say probably 15, 20 years

229
00:12:48,868 --> 00:12:51,837
that one could see 
the Wheat Board starting to lose

230
00:12:51,837 --> 00:12:54,607
some of its power 
for a variety of reasons.

231
00:12:54,607 --> 00:12:57,243
There wasn't the same public 
support for it,

232
00:12:57,243 --> 00:12:59,245
farmers were better marketers.

233
00:12:59,245 --> 00:13:02,148
One might also say there were 
ideological issues.

234
00:13:02,148 --> 00:13:04,850
(narrator) 
The Canadian Wheat Board 
disbanded

235
00:13:04,850 --> 00:13:08,554
the single desk marketing power 
on August 1, 2012.

236
00:13:08,554 --> 00:13:12,124
Irrespective 
of the economics, the idea

237
00:13:12,124 --> 00:13:16,362
that the farmer cannot sell 
his own property [laugh]

238
00:13:16,362 --> 00:13:20,833
at whatever price he wants, 
I find it abhorrent!

239
00:13:20,833 --> 00:13:24,170
In my personal opinion, the 
Wheat Board was a perfect tool.

240
00:13:24,170 --> 00:13:27,206
It allowed me to market 
my grain without worrying

241
00:13:27,206 --> 00:13:30,242
about whether I was getting a 
better price than my neighbor.

242
00:13:30,242 --> 00:13:32,278
I had come 
to a mental conclusion

243
00:13:32,278 --> 00:13:34,446
that I would accept the average 
of the year, the pool,

244
00:13:34,446 --> 00:13:36,282
that was the principle 
behind the pool.

245
00:13:36,282 --> 00:13:38,450
I wouldn't get the high, 
I wouldn't get the low,

246
00:13:38,450 --> 00:13:40,886
I didn't have to worry it was 
Thursday or Monday

247
00:13:40,886 --> 00:13:43,589
or if my neighbor went before me 
or I was ahead of my neighbor,

248
00:13:43,589 --> 00:13:45,724
who got there first, 
who got there last.

249
00:13:45,724 --> 00:13:48,661
We got the pool price; that was 
the whole term of pool meant,

250
00:13:48,661 --> 00:13:50,496
it meant average, 
right across the board.

251
00:13:50,496 --> 00:13:52,798
I didn't have to wake up 
in the morning saying,

252
00:13:52,798 --> 00:13:54,633
oh, where's the market today?

253
00:13:54,633 --> 00:13:57,469
[piano plays softly]

254
00:13:57,469 --> 00:14:01,640
(narrator) 
In the early 20th century, grain 
elevators dotted the prairies

255
00:14:01,640 --> 00:14:06,045
every 6 to 10 miles 
or 10 to 15 kilometers apart,

256
00:14:06,045 --> 00:14:09,048
a distance that was 
a good day's journey

257
00:14:09,048 --> 00:14:12,351
for farmer and horse 
with a full load.

258
00:14:12,351 --> 00:14:15,487
Probably every 10 miles there 
was a grain elevator.

259
00:14:15,487 --> 00:14:20,025
Nowadays, you might 
go 50, 60 miles

260
00:14:20,025 --> 00:14:22,595
without seeing grain-handling 
facility.

261
00:14:22,595 --> 00:14:27,766
Branch line network strung like 
spiderwebs across the west.

262
00:14:27,766 --> 00:14:30,836
In the '70s and '80s there was

263
00:14:30,836 --> 00:14:33,873
a great deal 
of branch line abandonment.

264
00:14:33,873 --> 00:14:40,412
(narrator) 
By 1930, there were 5,733 grain 
elevators in Western Canada

265
00:14:40,412 --> 00:14:45,551
and now, only 346 
grain elevators stand.

266
00:14:45,551 --> 00:14:48,420
Particularly in the grain 
handling business

267
00:14:48,420 --> 00:14:52,157
where you have now far fewer,

268
00:14:52,157 --> 00:14:55,361
a fraction of the number 
of elevators

269
00:14:55,361 --> 00:14:59,164
spread across the prairies, 
the farmers have to haul

270
00:14:59,164 --> 00:15:03,002
long distances anyway, and if 
one company gets control

271
00:15:03,002 --> 00:15:07,139
over too many grain elevators 
in one area, the farmer

272
00:15:07,139 --> 00:15:10,442
really, for all practical 
purposes, has not choice,

273
00:15:10,442 --> 00:15:14,280
because he'd have to truck his 
grain hundreds of kilometers.

274
00:15:14,280 --> 00:15:16,982
So much is becoming not 
capitalism but corporatism.

275
00:15:16,982 --> 00:15:20,686
And I think that is 
where the danger lies.

276
00:15:20,686 --> 00:15:25,157
(narrator) 
Over the past 150 years, the 
role of private grain companies

277
00:15:25,157 --> 00:15:28,594
has been important to the 
development of Western Canada.

278
00:15:28,594 --> 00:15:31,997
Winnipeg was the hub of all 
of that at that time,

279
00:15:31,997 --> 00:15:34,900
it was the gateway to Western 
Canada,

280
00:15:34,900 --> 00:15:37,536
it was a transportation center, 
a distribution center,

281
00:15:37,536 --> 00:15:40,272
and it was a headquarters 
of the agricultural business

282
00:15:40,272 --> 00:15:42,408
in Western Canada, 
particularly the grain trade,

283
00:15:42,408 --> 00:15:44,777
because there was thousands 
of participants

284
00:15:44,777 --> 00:15:47,713
in the grain trade in Canada 
and hundreds of companies

285
00:15:47,713 --> 00:15:50,115
involved in the grain industry 
back then.

286
00:15:50,115 --> 00:15:55,921
We could probably count them on 
1 or 2 hands today.

287
00:15:55,921 --> 00:15:59,391
We were started in 1909,

288
00:15:59,391 --> 00:16:03,762
started by a 50-year-old Parrish 
and a 30-year-old Heimbecker,

289
00:16:03,762 --> 00:16:06,231
so I'm the 4th-generation 
Parrish.

290
00:16:06,231 --> 00:16:09,234
It was a bit more 
of a cowboy era then.

291
00:16:09,234 --> 00:16:11,370
(John Heimbecker) 
The Heimbeckers were

292
00:16:11,370 --> 00:16:14,506
flour millers in Ontario 
around the turn of the century.

293
00:16:14,506 --> 00:16:17,543
They decided that they needed to 
take a much larger interest

294
00:16:17,543 --> 00:16:19,611
in procuring wheat for their 
flour business

295
00:16:19,611 --> 00:16:22,214
and they dispatched their son, 
Norman,

296
00:16:22,214 --> 00:16:25,818
who was the oldest of 10 
children out to Western Canada

297
00:16:25,818 --> 00:16:28,620
to learn more about 
the procurement of wheat.

298
00:16:28,620 --> 00:16:32,191
He ran into and made friends 
with W.L. Parrish, who was

299
00:16:32,191 --> 00:16:34,927
already trading grain under the 
name of Parrish and Lindsay.

300
00:16:34,927 --> 00:16:36,929
They struck up a friendship 
that obviously morphed

301
00:16:36,929 --> 00:16:38,664
into something that was greater,

302
00:16:38,664 --> 00:16:41,400
which became Parrish 
and Heimbecker.

303
00:16:41,400 --> 00:16:45,704
The founder of the business was 
actually by training a tailor,

304
00:16:45,704 --> 00:16:49,708
and as part of his business 
back in 1857

305
00:16:49,708 --> 00:16:53,278
of creating clothing for people 
in that community

306
00:16:53,278 --> 00:16:55,881
around Kingston, Ontario, it was 
not uncommon to take payment

307
00:16:55,881 --> 00:16:58,951
in the form of barter, and one 
of the elements of barter

308
00:16:58,951 --> 00:17:01,186
the farmers in the Kingston area 
had of course,

309
00:17:01,186 --> 00:17:03,122
was their production, 
their grain.

310
00:17:03,122 --> 00:17:05,190
So he became an owner 
of grain, inadvertently,

311
00:17:05,190 --> 00:17:07,893
in return for the clothing 
that he was making

312
00:17:07,893 --> 00:17:10,963
and he started to merchandise 
that grain to be able to create

313
00:17:10,963 --> 00:17:13,932
cash flow to be able to continue 
doing what he was doing.

314
00:17:13,932 --> 00:17:16,235
Well, he thought he was actually 
pretty good

315
00:17:16,235 --> 00:17:18,203
at merchandising grain 
and decided

316
00:17:18,203 --> 00:17:21,006
that might be a better pursuit 
to him than tailoring

317
00:17:21,006 --> 00:17:23,642
and that was the beginning, 
the genesis of the company

318
00:17:23,642 --> 00:17:27,746
and it's carried 
through 5 generations to today.

319
00:17:27,746 --> 00:17:30,949
(Andrew Paterson) There's been 4 
generations of Patersons

320
00:17:30,949 --> 00:17:33,986
involved in the grain business 
in Western Canada.

321
00:17:33,986 --> 00:17:36,555
Our company has marketed grain 
before the Wheat Board,

322
00:17:36,555 --> 00:17:38,724
with the Wheat Board, 
and now again

323
00:17:38,724 --> 00:17:41,126
after the Wheat Board is gone.

324
00:17:41,126 --> 00:17:43,996
The company was formed 
by my grandfather,

325
00:17:43,996 --> 00:17:46,865
but actually my great 
grandfather, H.S. Paterson,

326
00:17:46,865 --> 00:17:49,134
merchandised 
the first cargo of wheat

327
00:17:49,134 --> 00:17:52,237
out of the Province of Manitoba.

328
00:17:52,237 --> 00:17:54,073
It's surprising how many 
multigenerational relationships

329
00:17:54,073 --> 00:17:56,175
exist between the Richardson 
family

330
00:17:56,175 --> 00:17:59,211
and a number of farm families 
in Western Canada

331
00:17:59,211 --> 00:18:01,280
where we were doing business

332
00:18:01,280 --> 00:18:04,283
built on service and trust 
over the years.

333
00:18:04,283 --> 00:18:06,919
The management of Parrish 
and Heimbecker

334
00:18:06,919 --> 00:18:10,122
are actively involved out 
in the country with producers

335
00:18:10,122 --> 00:18:12,925
and we still think that matters.

336
00:18:12,925 --> 00:18:16,161
And the feedback that we get is 
they find it amazing that

337
00:18:16,161 --> 00:18:18,730
the owners of the businesses 
would actually take the time

338
00:18:18,730 --> 00:18:20,999
to come out to the individual 
country locations,

339
00:18:20,999 --> 00:18:23,202
meet with them, actually hear 
their concerns, versus

340
00:18:23,202 --> 00:18:25,170
having them sort of filtered 
through the grain elevator

341
00:18:25,170 --> 00:18:27,406
and the merchants, etc.

342
00:18:27,406 --> 00:18:30,843
So we spend a lot of time to 
build that communication link

343
00:18:30,843 --> 00:18:34,613
and foster the growth 
of the relationship.

344
00:18:34,613 --> 00:18:36,715
(Laura Rance) It's been said

345
00:18:36,715 --> 00:18:39,618
that if men were the pioneers, 
women were the settlers.

346
00:18:39,618 --> 00:18:42,821
They were the ones that created 
a home out of some very,

347
00:18:42,821 --> 00:18:44,957
very sparse resources they had 
to work with

348
00:18:44,957 --> 00:18:46,692
when people first arrived here.

349
00:18:46,692 --> 00:18:49,228
And they were doing this 
all the time

350
00:18:49,228 --> 00:18:51,497
while they were caring for 
and producing children,

351
00:18:51,497 --> 00:18:54,533
which were a major source 
of labor on the farm.

352
00:18:54,533 --> 00:18:57,870
(Loyd Kitchig) 
On the day I was born, 
the thrashing crew

353
00:18:57,870 --> 00:19:00,105
pulled in that morning 
to start thrashing.

354
00:19:00,105 --> 00:19:03,475
And Mother not only had to look 
after me,

355
00:19:03,475 --> 00:19:06,745
she had to feed the thrashing 
gang, about a dozen men.

356
00:19:06,745 --> 00:19:09,681
And one of the neighbors came 
over to help her

357
00:19:09,681 --> 00:19:11,650
look after feeding 
the thrashing crew

358
00:19:11,650 --> 00:19:17,556
and a week later she had 
a baby of her own.

359
00:19:17,556 --> 00:19:22,427
We had to make a living in the 
'30s and mother had to help

360
00:19:22,427 --> 00:19:26,331
with the milking at night 
and I guess we all learned

361
00:19:26,331 --> 00:19:29,968
because the men were busy 
with using horses to farm

362
00:19:29,968 --> 00:19:38,310
and so it was 
a whole different era.

363
00:19:38,310 --> 00:19:41,680
(Laura Rance) 
We've seen the farm women's jobs 
change over time

364
00:19:41,680 --> 00:19:44,383
as all jobs 
on the farm have changed,

365
00:19:44,383 --> 00:19:46,485
but they're still 
the home builders

366
00:19:46,485 --> 00:19:48,887
and they're still feeding 
the family.

367
00:19:48,887 --> 00:19:51,757
In many cases today, it's the 
farm wife

368
00:19:51,757 --> 00:19:54,960
that leaves the farm to work 
and it's her salary

369
00:19:54,960 --> 00:19:57,062
that helps to support 
the family.

370
00:19:57,062 --> 00:20:01,567
I think it's electricity was 
the bonus

371
00:20:01,567 --> 00:20:06,004
that came to all rural 
communities in 1947,

372
00:20:06,004 --> 00:20:08,207
because we had no electricity 
on the farm.

373
00:20:08,207 --> 00:20:10,742
So it was the roles 
would be homemaker,

374
00:20:10,742 --> 00:20:14,279
and you had to make the bread 
and if you did the milking,

375
00:20:14,279 --> 00:20:16,815
then you had to put it through 
the cream separator,

376
00:20:16,815 --> 00:20:19,184
which is a horrible thing 
to wash.

377
00:20:19,184 --> 00:20:24,256
But Mother would print up 15 
pounds of butter at a time and

378
00:20:24,256 --> 00:20:28,293
send them to Deloraine and that 
was the money for groceries.

379
00:20:28,293 --> 00:20:30,662
(Laura Rance) As these farms 
became established,

380
00:20:30,662 --> 00:20:33,065
the attention very quickly 
turned

381
00:20:33,065 --> 00:20:34,866
towards community structures 
that provided

382
00:20:34,866 --> 00:20:36,735
some civilization 
and social support

383
00:20:36,735 --> 00:20:39,838
to what they were doing 
on the land.

384
00:20:39,838 --> 00:20:42,641
The women's movement 
becoming very powerful

385
00:20:42,641 --> 00:20:44,910
through organizations like the 
Women's Institute Organization,

386
00:20:44,910 --> 00:20:48,614
and many of the women who were 
key players in that

387
00:20:48,614 --> 00:20:51,350
were people who came 
from pioneer stock.

388
00:20:51,350 --> 00:20:55,053
(Gwen Parker) I met one lady 
when I was working with W.I.

389
00:20:55,053 --> 00:20:56,955
telling me that when she was

390
00:20:56,955 --> 00:20:58,924
farming there, she would go

391
00:20:58,924 --> 00:21:01,360
to a W.I. meeting 6 miles away

392
00:21:01,360 --> 00:21:04,896
and she would walk with a baby 
in her arms,

393
00:21:04,896 --> 00:21:07,499
another one over her shoulder 
and the little ones walking

394
00:21:07,499 --> 00:21:10,502
for 6 miles to cross a stream 
and go to that meeting

395
00:21:10,502 --> 00:21:12,904
and then come home 
and do the chores.

396
00:21:12,904 --> 00:21:15,907
The Women's Institute 
Organization, which fought,

397
00:21:15,907 --> 00:21:20,379
of all things, for public 
restrooms, because in that time,

398
00:21:20,379 --> 00:21:23,015
women would come to town 
with the family,

399
00:21:23,015 --> 00:21:26,218
the men could go to the pubs, 
but women weren't allowed there.

400
00:21:26,218 --> 00:21:29,054
There was no place for women 
and children to be,

401
00:21:29,054 --> 00:21:32,124
and that was the foundation 
of the restrooms.

402
00:21:32,124 --> 00:21:36,161
For a lot of women, Women's 
Institute was

403
00:21:36,161 --> 00:21:39,898
their only contact as a group 
together.

404
00:21:39,898 --> 00:21:43,835
An older lady said that one 
of their members came in

405
00:21:43,835 --> 00:21:47,739
and she was pregnant and she had 
9 children already at home.

406
00:21:47,739 --> 00:21:50,609
The group gathered around her 
and just cried

407
00:21:50,609 --> 00:21:53,245
because family planning wasn't 
legal at that time.

408
00:21:53,245 --> 00:21:55,881
Cases like that, 
you feel that you've been

409
00:21:55,881 --> 00:22:02,087
right inside a person's heart.

410
00:22:02,087 --> 00:22:05,424
Though farmers for the most part 
were exempt

411
00:22:05,424 --> 00:22:09,127
from military service and that 
doesn't mean they didn't go,

412
00:22:09,127 --> 00:22:12,998
but I think that's where one 
found the women taking

413
00:22:12,998 --> 00:22:16,435
a much bigger role in the 
management of agriculture.

414
00:22:16,435 --> 00:22:20,405
And I think when the fellas 
came back after the war,

415
00:22:20,405 --> 00:22:23,842
the ladies had taken over 
a certain amount of doing

416
00:22:23,842 --> 00:22:28,347
some of these things and I think 
we find a lot of farms now

417
00:22:28,347 --> 00:22:30,882
that the role played by women, 
particularly women

418
00:22:30,882 --> 00:22:33,018
who graduate with degrees 
in agriculture,

419
00:22:33,018 --> 00:22:35,587
more than half of the students 
taking agriculture

420
00:22:35,587 --> 00:22:38,123
at the University of Manitoba 
are women.

421
00:22:38,123 --> 00:22:41,860
The first woman, Dorothy Clark, 
graduated in 1922.

422
00:22:41,860 --> 00:22:46,031
It wasn't until 13 years later 
that the second woman graduated.

423
00:22:46,031 --> 00:22:50,068
And looking at the statistics, 
up until the mid '60s,

424
00:22:50,068 --> 00:22:53,705
from the time the college 
started until the mid '60s,

425
00:22:53,705 --> 00:22:56,541
there had been only 21 women 
students graduate.

426
00:22:56,541 --> 00:22:59,344
From the mid '90s, 
two of the years

427
00:22:59,344 --> 00:23:01,980
there was actually 75% 
of the student body were women.

428
00:23:01,980 --> 00:23:04,950
Now it's about 50/50.

429
00:23:04,950 --> 00:23:07,986
(narrator) 
The University of Manitoba, 
from its earliest days,

430
00:23:07,986 --> 00:23:11,690
had a unique way of providing 
education to its citizens.

431
00:23:11,690 --> 00:23:15,327
(Dawn Harris) The college at 
that time had a very close 
association

432
00:23:15,327 --> 00:23:17,462
with the Ministry of 
Agriculture,

433
00:23:17,462 --> 00:23:21,066
and one of the things that it 
did, starting in 1907, and it

434
00:23:21,066 --> 00:23:23,869
carried on to the mid '20s, 
was put out extension trains.

435
00:23:23,869 --> 00:23:26,304
And these were actual trains 
that went out,

436
00:23:26,304 --> 00:23:29,241
there would be 2 or 3 cars 
and they went out

437
00:23:29,241 --> 00:23:31,143
to various communities, 
and there was one

438
00:23:31,143 --> 00:23:33,845
that was the Dairy Special 
and it would have

439
00:23:33,845 --> 00:23:36,148
the newest milking equipment, 
the newest kind of technology

440
00:23:36,148 --> 00:23:38,650
that was available, how you 
would feed your dairy cow.

441
00:23:38,650 --> 00:23:40,685
And this would be contained 
in these cars,

442
00:23:40,685 --> 00:23:42,687
they would attract 
the local farmers,

443
00:23:42,687 --> 00:23:44,423
they would come out 
and gather information

444
00:23:44,423 --> 00:23:46,491
or there would be a lecture 
given.

445
00:23:46,491 --> 00:23:49,394
There were a number 
of these different trains.

446
00:23:49,394 --> 00:23:52,264
They lasted into the '20s 
and they stopped

447
00:23:52,264 --> 00:23:54,499
at 150 different points 
in Manitoba

448
00:23:54,499 --> 00:23:57,068
and reached 
more than 35,000 people.

449
00:23:57,068 --> 00:23:59,371
So that was 
the degree

450
00:23:59,371 --> 00:24:01,139
of importance that was placed

451
00:24:01,139 --> 00:24:03,442
on this information that was

452
00:24:03,442 --> 00:24:06,278
being taken from the college 
out into the countryside.

453
00:24:06,278 --> 00:24:10,682
Cora Hind was a woman who came

454
00:24:10,682 --> 00:24:15,153
to Western Canada 
in the early 1800s.

455
00:24:15,153 --> 00:24:19,458
She had come out here to work 
as a school teacher

456
00:24:19,458 --> 00:24:22,594
and wanted to become 
a newspaper reporter.

457
00:24:22,594 --> 00:24:25,564
She was originally turned down, 
it was considered newspapers

458
00:24:25,564 --> 00:24:29,301
were no place for women to be, 
but she ultimately became

459
00:24:29,301 --> 00:24:32,070
the agricultural editor 
of the "Winnipeg Free Press."

460
00:24:32,070 --> 00:24:36,107
And she took that job and 
created a persona around herself

461
00:24:36,107 --> 00:24:39,144
because of her very intuitive 
ability to judge

462
00:24:39,144 --> 00:24:42,280
how much the crops were 
going to produce.

463
00:24:42,280 --> 00:24:44,616
Every year, she traveled 
across Western Canada

464
00:24:44,616 --> 00:24:47,519
and looked at the crops 
and wrote what she thought

465
00:24:47,519 --> 00:24:49,788
that crop was going to produce

466
00:24:49,788 --> 00:24:53,225
and she was remarkably 
accurate in her projections.

467
00:24:53,225 --> 00:24:55,794
And she was widely followed 
by anyone in the world

468
00:24:55,794 --> 00:24:58,129
that had an interest 
in what Western Canada

469
00:24:58,129 --> 00:25:00,599
was going to contribute 
to the world grain trade.

470
00:25:00,599 --> 00:25:04,402
She was also very active 
in the Suffragette Movement

471
00:25:04,402 --> 00:25:08,173
and very active in securing 
social supports for women.

472
00:25:08,173 --> 00:25:12,644
After fighting so hard to get 
a job working in the press,

473
00:25:12,644 --> 00:25:15,280
she was ultimately paid 
the best compliment

474
00:25:15,280 --> 00:25:18,250
she could have received 
at the time.

475
00:25:18,250 --> 00:25:21,953
Her colleagues reported 
that the best newspaperman

476
00:25:21,953 --> 00:25:28,960
in Western Canada was a woman, 
and that was E. Cora Hind.

477
00:25:28,960 --> 00:26:13,104
[drums & melodica 
play in bright rhythm]

478
00:26:13,104 --> 00:26:34,292
[woman voices 
the following credits]

479
00:26:34,292 --> 00:26:38,363
And the members of...

480
00:26:38,363 --> 00:26:41,600
To order a copy of the 4-part 
series "Built on Agriculture,"

481
00:26:41,600 --> 00:26:45,600
call, or visit 
our on-line store...