Monday, February 08, 2010
Alberta Premier Ed Stelmach has named Drumheller-Stettler MLA Jack Hayden as his new minister of agriculture and rural development and dropped his predecessor George Groeneveld from cabinet. Hayden, a two-term MLA has been Stelmach’s minister of infrastructure since 2008. He was also named to the provincial Treasury Board. Hayden farms at Endiang, about 75 kilometres southeast of Stettler, and has previously served as a reeve and councillor for the County of Stettler. Before moving to provincial politics in 2004, Hayden served on the prime minister’s External Advisory Committee on Cities and Communities, and on the board of directors of the Federation of Canadian Municipalities, which named him to its roll of honour in 2006.
Groeneveld, the MLA for Highwood since 2004, and ag minister since 2006 is a cattle producer and grain grower from the Blackie area.
Arno Doerksen, a former chairman of Alberta Beef Producers and MLA for Strathmore-Brooks, was named deputy whip of the government caucus.
Stan Eby has been elected president of the Canadian Agri-Food Trade Alliance (CAFTA), a coalition of national and regional organizations, associations and companies that lobby in support of a more open international trading environment for agriculture products. Stan is a cattle producer from Kincardine, Ont. and former president of the Canadian Cattlemen’s Association. He replaces another cattle producer, Darcy Davis from Alberta.
Canadians won’t have Byron Dorgan to kick around anymore in coffee shop conversation. The Democratic senator from North Dakota announced last month he will not run for election this fall. Dorgan has been a vocal opponent of the Canadian Wheat Board’s single marketing desk and vocal supporter of country-of-origin labelling. He spent 30 years in the Congress, six terms in the U.S. House of Representatives starting in 1980 before moving to the Senate in 1992.
Brian Rossnagel will be inducted into the Saskatchewan Agricultural Hall of Fame for 2010. A pioneer in
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