Quebec Agriculture Minister Pierre Paradis. (MAPAQ.gouv.qc.ca)

Quebec plans new legal status for animals

Quebec’s agriculture minister has tabled a new provincial government bill to raise the legal status of domestic and farmed animals in the province beyond that of “furniture.” Pierre Paradis on Friday introduced Bill 54 in the provincial assembly, with the stated goal of enshrining animals in Quebec’s Civil Code as sentient beings — that is, feeling and […] Read more

Oneil Carlier, shown here in an NDP video posted May 5 on YouTube, is Alberta’s new minister for agriculture, forestry and rural development. (YouTube.com)

Alberta NDP taps ex-AAFC staffer as ag minister

A former technician with Agriculture and Agri-Food Canada has been named as the Alberta New Democrats’ first minister of agriculture, forestry and rural development. Premier Rachel Notley on Sunday named Whitecourt-Ste. Anne MLA Oneil Carlier to the now-expanded portfolio, which takes over responsibility for forestry from the department of environment and sustainable resource development. Including Notley […] Read more


vintage polo photograph

History: Early polo in Southern Alberta

Reprinted from the June 1949 issue of Canadian Cattlemen

Early Polo in Southern Alberta By W.R. Cochrane, Cowley, Alta. ‘The old timer will tell you that it’s not by accident or a development of recent training that this has come about, but it is a heritage handed down from the old days when hard-riding men required good horses that could cover great distances and whose […] Read more

vintage horse saddle

Broncho busters and their saddles of 50 years ago

History pages reprinted from the March 1949 issue of Canadian Cattlemen

Bronco Busters and Their Saddles of Fifty Years Ago Bert Sheppard, Longview, Alta. ‘The day that I write about was that which preceded the coming of the automobile or “Stink Wagon” as it was often referred to. In Western Canada, East of the Rockies, it would be from about 1882 to 1907, from the time that […] Read more