"We appreciate the good will," said Anne Dunford, an analyst with Canfax in Calgary. Alberta has about 2 million beef cows and 60 per cent of them are in the drought area. The Alberta Government will provide $324 million in assistance along with a combined federal-provincial grant. When everything is tallied, Alberta farmers are expected to get more than $1 billion dollars.

At the same time, western cattle are coming on to Ontario farms and into sale barns in greater numbers, though not yet to the point where they are having an effect. But if the drought continues, the effect on Ontario would be humungus, says Wayne Small, owner of Ontario Stockyards.

We applaud Williard McWilliams and Ron McMillan for organizing hay help. But while we see individual effort and good will we don’t see, beyond a money donation, any organized effort on a national scale to save the western herd. No one is organizing a massive movement of cattle or feed. What we have seen from the Canadian inspection agency is a disgraceful lack of urgency that has delayed the aid.

Nowhere do we better see the two Canadas at work than in this drought. One Canada consists of hard working people like McMillan and McWilliams. The other of people who run government organizations and some of the big businesses in the country. Firms like Nortel have looted pension plans, while crown corporations like Hydro One and the post office, surviving because they‘re monopolies, push prices higher. Heritage Canada and human resources seem either hopelessly corrupt or hopelessly incompetent.

Soft rich Canada, living from the fat of the land, is stealing the fruits of the labour of people who produce. Yet soft rich Canada doesn’t seem to have any idea of how to help anyone but himself.