Food - Local Food, Hot Topics

Note to Carney: the TRUTH about SUPPLY MANAGEMENT

Wendy Holm

If Canadian’s understood supply management better, Canada’s former Agriculture Minister Eugene Whelan would be right up there with Tommy Douglas for having created a brilliant public policy vehicle to sustain the economic health and food security of communities now and into the future. Trump – seeking the support of Michigan and Wisconsin’s dairy farmers – will undoubtedly again call for SM’s head in upcoming tariff negotiations. Why? Cause US farmers are price-takers – at the mercy of large, vertically integrated dairy processors.   Losing money, they need to milk more cows to pay the bills.   If – under the guise … Continue reading Note to Carney: the TRUTH about SUPPLY MANAGEMENT

Cuba - Tour Information, Uncategorized

When is your next tour to Cuba?

Wendy Holm

After 20 years of Cuba farm tours – organized in cooperation with ANAP –  I stopped offering these post Covidl    But still bringing groups to Cuba to enjoy the culture, cuisine and community of this amazing island, most recently a group of 13 Canadians in January 2025.   Watch this site or imaginecubatravel.com for another in 2026 or contact me to arrange a custom group. Continue reading When is your next tour to Cuba?

Hot Topics

NDP should demand proportional voting next election in return for support

Wendy Holm

A solid minority – but a few seats shy of control.  Who will the Liberals naturally turn to for support?  NDP and Greens obviously.  And what should be the price of that support?  Liberal commitment to enact, before the next federal election, an electoral system based on a proportional ballot; joining the democracies around the world who rank far above Canada in the 2024 Democracy Index. According to Sweden’s V-Dem Institute (University of Gothenburg) Democracy Report 2025: The top five democracies in the world use proportional representation.  Of the top 20 democracies, 18 use proportional representation. (And of the two … Continue reading NDP should demand proportional voting next election in return for support

Cooperation, Hot Topics

Economic bullies have captured the flag. How do communities take it back?

Wendy Holm

In this age of globalism — where rivers of capital move silently through borderless economies, sourcing at the lowest cost and charging back to society its costly externalities – we are adrift on a raft of our own making. Firms today excel at what neo-classical economists and governments have been cheering them on to do since the mid 30’s: make investors richer and the economy will be better for it. But somewhere along the way, communities got left behind. Economic bullies have captured the flag. The question now is: how do communities take it back? As the theory and examples … Continue reading Economic bullies have captured the flag. How do communities take it back?

Cuba - Current Issues

Mavis our heart is proudly broken. You will remain our hero forever…

Wendy Holm

Mavis was truly my Cuban sister. She was my hero. She was brave and strong and principled and funny and kind and when she walked into a room the room was better for it. When I was not with a group, I was with Mavis. And Mavis became my teacher. Sitting on the stool in her kitchen, she shared her stories of the Cuban countryside and fed me the dishes she learned from her mother in Palma Soriano. As ANAP’s Head of International relations, Mavis took my groups of visiting Canadian farmers under her protective wing in 2002 and ANAP … Continue reading Mavis our heart is proudly broken. You will remain our hero forever…

Hot Topics, Uncategorized, Water - Site C, Water and Trade

Want a selfie of you with Trump’s tap?

Wendy Holm

Canada’s discussion  of Trump’s designs on our water has been focused – in the West – on the Columbia. But it is the Peace River that connects the dots to fulfill the long term dream of USACE engineers to bring northern water south to American communities east of the Rockies. Want a selfie of you with THE TAP? Go to Dunvegan, Alberta, just on the border of BC. Future site of the Amisk Dam, designed as the “elbow” that will siphon off water from the north-flowing Peace River and send it flowing south. Conveniently, all the upstream storage capacity is … Continue reading Want a selfie of you with Trump’s tap?

Hot Topics, Water and Trade

Columbia Treaty – 60 Years On

Wendy Holm

A decade ago, I was asked by Columbia Basin residents to weigh in on Canada’s interest in the future of the Columbia Treaty, ratified in 1964.    As negotiations are on pause in the face of Trump’s attack on Canada, I pulled it out to look at some of the implications of terminating the agreement.  Click the link below for 60 Years On…  Options for the Columbia and the Community at the end of the Treaty Period   https://www.theholmteam.ca/60.Years.On.NAKUSP.Apr.2013.pdf Continue reading Columbia Treaty – 60 Years On

Cuba - Current Issues, Hot Topics

Captured by Magic

Wendy Holm

March 2025 Magic sneaks up on you, and all of a sudden you are immersed in it. Like a child in a bubble bath, you find yourself surrounded in and delighted by the magic that happens when good people do good things.   Such was my experience taking 13 Canadians to Cuba in January 2025.   One traveller brought with them the book Infectious Generosity, which they shared with the rest of us.  It quickly began to feel like our theme… Even before we left, there was the spontaneous donation of $1,000 CAD from a dairy farmer couple in Ontario who had … Continue reading Captured by Magic