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NEWS for North Dakotans
Agriculture Communication, North Dakota State University
7 Morrill Hall, Fargo, ND 58105-5665
November 22, 1999
Tom Isern, Professor of History
North Dakota State University
Entering the airport in Fargo I felt the sting of early winter, half sleet and half fluff, hitting the back of my neck at a low angle. Exiting the airport in Regina I felt the same sting hitting my face. Inside my pack I carried a book manuscript that was stuck at the editing stage, one dealing with the history of agriculture on the Canadian prairies. I was struggling with the passages that distinguished what was distinctive about Canadian life on the plains, and what was the commonality with American experience.
This is a touchy subject, because Canadians are touchy about distinguishing a national identity distinct from the American, and much of what composes that distinction has to do with prairie history. And much of that history is pretty shaky.
For instance, there is the Canadian belief that whereas the American frontier was disorderly–a place of murders, lynchings, drunkenness, and general lack of law–the Canadian frontier was orderly, with the queen’s authority enforced by a thin red line of Mounties. There is a fair bit of truth to this, but it is a matter of degree only. I’ve been through the files of the attorney general of Alberta, and so I know that where homesteaders ran up against ranchers, violence was common. The files are filled with cases of Canadian cowboys riding their horses through the roofs of immigrant homesteaders and beating up farmers, no Mounties in sight.
My reason for flying to Regina was to address the Canadian Bison Association, which on the face of it seems to say that Canadian prairie life and American prairie life are much the same. In both nations bison represent a major new commodity, well suited to the environment, that not only appeals to consumers but also draws on its mythic past for marketing mystique. There is a clear community of interest in bison across the Forty-Ninth Parallel.
You have to listen closely, and in the right places, to learn just where and how deeply Canadian nationality still matters in what most people think is a general North American society. At the grass roots we speak a common language. Talk to the people who drove in from Ponteix, Rosetown, or Wolseley, and their everyday concerns are those of people in Hettinger, Havre, or Presho.
Observe the sessions on selection of breeding stock and you see that there are differing conceptions of what bison should look like, of how the evolution of the species should be directed, but the differences are not those of nationality, but of latitude. Tastes run north and south, or according to local conditions, irrespective of political lines.
It is when talk turns to matters of trade, policy and organization that the Canadianisms emerge. The first of these is that Canadian producers of anything, bison included, lacking the American domestic market, are more mindful of international trade and better attuned to foreign preferences than Americans. American commodity producers -- beef comes to mind as a prime example -- are inclined to do things the way they want, and then tell customers abroad they should like what we send them.
Second, Canadians have this exasperating sense of social responsibility, of pulling together for the common good. For instance, in the face of foreign demands for gate-to-plate monitoring of food safety, I listened to impassioned bison producers arguing for a national program to certify safety in every animal -- phrases like "all producers working together" and "only as strong as the weakest link" recurred.
As an American farmer, I might look at food safety as a market opportunity for myself. Perhaps I could get an edge on others by guaranteeing the quality of my own product. In Canada it is easier to assemble general agreement on a program, and then if necessary to compel dissenters to fall into line.
Now excuse me, because I smell the ginger bison the hotel chef is sauteing for the next session, and I want to get my share.
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Source: Tom Isern, (701) 799-2942
Editor: Gary Moran, (701) 231-7865
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