The Muster- Greg Erickson: Canadian Tales

Greg Erickson says Alberta wanting to become an independent state simply poses more questions than answers.

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Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:03):
Can you kill this?

Speaker 2 (00:08):
Welcome back to the Muster. We're away over to Millicon, Canada.
When we catch up with Greg Ericsson, formerly of Boy Moomy,
Good afternoon, Greg. I was explaining the rush now behind
clean deon today and of course Eric Croy requested it. Now,
Eric used to be your neighbor up at woy Moomy.
You told me a pretty cool story about him going
for a run.

Speaker 3 (00:28):
Yeah, good Andy.

Speaker 4 (00:28):
Yeah, Eric was there a neighbor and when I was
growing up, and he used to run down the road.

Speaker 3 (00:33):
With a backpack on full of.

Speaker 4 (00:34):
Twenty kilograms of cement and like nothing, just run along.

Speaker 2 (00:39):
That's just the old school mentality I suppose, isn't it.
You know what I mean? Eric's felt like a bullet
to be fit.

Speaker 3 (00:45):
Yeah, he's he was a brick back then.

Speaker 4 (00:48):
And I mentioned he's still a big guy now, but yeah,
he was just a different breed, just absolute strong man.

Speaker 2 (00:54):
You're based over there in Canada. Last time we spoke
to you, it was starting to warm up. It was
in the negatives, but you'll be right, Well, technically you're
starting summer.

Speaker 4 (01:04):
Yeah, some of the summer's just kicked off and all
the seeding was all finished up a week ago or so,
but all just in time for all the rain to come,
because we were pretty dry during seeding and well all
spring really, and then we got one hundred meals of
rain or one hundred and ten meals of rain in
about seventy hours.

Speaker 2 (01:26):
What would be your average rainfall there.

Speaker 4 (01:29):
It's about four hundred and fifty ish mills.

Speaker 2 (01:33):
There's not a lot of rain. It's very much central
a targo.

Speaker 3 (01:37):
Yeah, that doesn't include the snow melt, so the.

Speaker 4 (01:39):
Snow get Yeah, so that's all just just rainfall over summer.
If we get no, say, three feet of snow, that
works out to be another however much rain. I think
it's nine nine nine meals of snowfall equals one mill
of rain.

Speaker 2 (01:58):
So snowfall is such though, because we get we due
a good fall in south and that's just the law
layer of the land and the law of averages. But
what do you work on for snowfall over there?

Speaker 3 (02:09):
Well, it varies yet a.

Speaker 4 (02:10):
Yeah, we get most of our snowfall in the spring,
so during the winter it's will get the odd storm
and then it just sort of settles in and doesn't
go anywhere. But average snowfall can be might be two feet,
I guess, but some some springs we might get three feet,
and some bring springs it might get six.

Speaker 3 (02:29):
It's just it just varies.

Speaker 2 (02:31):
Are frosts pretty prevalent.

Speaker 4 (02:32):
Well they are, So we get we get frost, the
frost saws start coming in September the where the stations
will still put out frost warnings for the crops and whatnot,
and then once the once probably November by the time
the frost comes and then doesn't leave.

Speaker 2 (02:48):
So how's the growing conditions been? Yes, you said you
had a bit of rain recently, but it was required
all the crops in the ground. So how's the feeler
around there considering the growing conditions.

Speaker 4 (02:58):
Well, all the crops are in the ground, and most
of them were up before we got the rain, and
the ones that are up were looking quite stressed, they
were getting a bit yellow. But this rain has really
pracked things up. And now you look at the canal
that's coming out of the ground, it's looking just lovely.
So it's starting to get that there's extra big leaves
on the bottom there, so we're looking pretty So how are.

Speaker 2 (03:18):
The prices for arable holding up? Over there? Greg?

Speaker 4 (03:22):
Well, Barley's come up slightly, so it's it's sorry to
talking bushels again, but used to that. It's around it's
around the five to fifty mark Canadian but the wheats
dropped and then the canoal was sitting probably where it
was over the last ten years average around the thirteen dollars,
maybe fourteen dollars.

Speaker 2 (03:43):
How did it take you to figure out the spavaki
around bushels and imperial versus metric. We're talked about it again,
but it's still confusing when you hear it.

Speaker 3 (03:51):
It confuses me.

Speaker 4 (03:52):
Still, I just give up and I just sort of
just got beaten this submission, and now I just deal
with bushels basically.

Speaker 2 (03:59):
But you do deal in cents, dollars and kilometers.

Speaker 3 (04:02):
Yes, absolutely.

Speaker 4 (04:03):
Now, also, if you buy a contract with one of
the big companies, you are probably buying in tons or
selling in tons.

Speaker 2 (04:10):
Right, gotcha, makes no sense? What's it's as clear as maud.

Speaker 3 (04:15):
Yes, that's correct.

Speaker 2 (04:16):
So in general, though you're based in the province of Alberta,
how's the feeling around there.

Speaker 3 (04:22):
Feeling Alberta is a little bit next to the moment.

Speaker 4 (04:24):
So I think I told you last time that Alberta's
thinking about doing the separation thing.

Speaker 3 (04:29):
That's right from Yeah, and.

Speaker 4 (04:33):
Well we now have a date for so we're having
a referendum in Alberta to one option is to stay
in Canada and the other option is to if the
referendum gets over fifty percent, the Province of Alberta will
officially look into having a referendum to separate from Canada.

(04:56):
So to to clarify, we're having a referendum on a refere.

Speaker 2 (05:01):
It's as clear as a bushel.

Speaker 3 (05:03):
Yeah, exactly.

Speaker 4 (05:04):
It's confusing and it's silly, and I think all signs
lead to us, well Alberta, staying in Canada and everything
going smoothly and just status quo. But the option is
there for Alberton's to vote to have a referendum to

(05:28):
put pressure on Ottawa that we might leave, just to
threaten we might leave. I think that's a bad idea
because it's threatening business won't invest in Alberta while it's
unclear what our future is.

Speaker 2 (05:40):
Scotland had a referendum a couple of years ago about
trying to break away from the UK. What's the reason
for Alberta wanting to go alone?

Speaker 4 (05:49):
So, well, it's to do with taxes, Basically, a lot
of people on Alberta think we paid a lot of taxes,
and then it gets sent to Ottawa, and then that
gets redistributed around the country and Alberton's think we get
a unfair deal out of that.

Speaker 2 (06:08):
It's a very resourceful county dispose of province.

Speaker 4 (06:12):
Oh, yes, Alberta is the most wealthiest province, well so wealthiest,
the most resource rich of all the provinces. And we
may Alberta makes a absolute fortune off the oil and
that because of that, the oil companies pay a lot
of money to have Alberton's work for them, and so.

Speaker 3 (06:33):
They pay more taxes because of it.

Speaker 4 (06:35):
And we don't get the services that say eastern provinces
get because they don't have as much. So they the
Ottawak gives money to the have not provinces before they
give it to the have provinces.

Speaker 2 (06:49):
So in that case, would Alberta be an independent say
to such? How would it work?

Speaker 3 (06:55):
That is the great question, Andy, No one knows.

Speaker 2 (06:57):
So what does a rural community make of all this?
They want to stay is and the state is quo.

Speaker 3 (07:03):
You would think so, but no, the rural community is
the is where the bulk.

Speaker 4 (07:11):
Of the separatists are so the folk in Edmonton and
Calgary read deer. They are typically more left leaning and
so they want to stay in Canada, whereas the very
far right I'm more prone to want to leave.

Speaker 2 (07:31):
It's interesting, hey, it's coming up to springtime. This is
very much New Zealand thing to say. But is there
a concern around rentlesnakes and the lights coming out at
this time of year? I mean when you first went
over there was it a concern where you just like,
how do you just deal with them? Because they they
were scared of you than you're scared of them.

Speaker 4 (07:49):
So when I first came over here, I was down
the States. I mean I went straight down to the
States to do the harvest, and I was very ignorant.

Speaker 3 (07:56):
To them, and we were running around.

Speaker 4 (07:58):
Through cornfields and bare feet and didn't think much of it.
And yeah, up here in Canada, there's only rattlesnakes in
this in southern parts, like sort of southeast and east
of Calgary and auf where I am just towards Edmonton,
there is nothing but the odd garter snake, though harmless

(08:19):
and you don't see them. Yeah, there's they got rattlesnakes
and those those hazardous creatures aren't really here unless you're
talking bears and moose, right and the.

Speaker 2 (08:30):
Rest of you. See how that's going to pan out
as well as well as it's referendum on our birder. Hey, Greg,
thanks for your time once again, and next time we
chant we'll see if we can decipher this bushel talk
around your government.

Speaker 3 (08:41):
Sounds good mate, Thanks Eddie.

Speaker 1 (08:43):
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Speaker 2 (08:52):
What do you call a three hunt camel pregnant? Right,
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Speaker 3 (09:05):
I mean, I mua.

Speaker 2 (09:06):
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