By Joel van der Veen

DAVIDSON — They may have looked a little different on the surface, but underneath the grey hair and wrinkles, it was the same old class of 1965.

Shirley Blenkin, one of the organizers for the group’s 50-year reunion on Saturday, May 16, said that when the former classmates met up at Davidson School, they had some trouble recognizing each other.

“We didn’t have name tags on” yet, she said. “People just didn’t know who was who.”

“It was fun to try and figure people out,” said Marilyn Resler (nee Sarich). “There was just so many you couldn’t recognize . . . and then there was that big ‘ah-ha.’”

After the ice was broken, the group enjoyed an afternoon of reminiscing and getting reacquainted for their first reunion in three decades. Blenkin and Irene Frier organized the gathering over the course of a year.

Out of the class of 55 students who graduated from Davidson High School in the spring of 1965, 27 returned to town for the reunion. Including spouses and guests, about 40 were in attendance for supper.

The group met on Saturday afternoon at the school for a tour, guided by current principal Jason Low. They then migrated to the Davidson Golf and Country Club for dinner, enjoying a meal at the clubhouse.

Though they had the option of playing golf, Blenkin said, “they just all got busy visiting and never even thought about it anymore.”

Copies of the group’s black-and-white graduation photo were on display, while some had also brought their yearbooks, leaving them on the tables to solicit signatures.

Their Grade 5 teacher, Yvonne Doell, joined the class for supper. Blenkin said they also learned Saturday that their former principal, Ray Allison, died Friday night in Saskatoon.

Allison, a native of Aylesbury, served for 14 years as principal in Evasham, Creelman, Lucky Lake and Davidson, before joining the Biggar School Unit as superintendent of schools in 1965, according to his obituary in the StarPhoenix.

After half a century, Blenkin said most of her former classmates are scattered across Canada and the United States, while eight still reside in the district.

Some came from Edmonton, Saskatoon, Regina, Prince Albert and Melfort, but others further away had to send their regrets.

“It gets difficult to come that distance for supper and a little visit,” she said, adding that others were out seeding and couldn’t get away. “It’s hard to plan a time that suits everyone.”

Marilyn Resler and her husband Fred came the furthest, travelling 1,300 kilometres one way from Peachland, B.C., south of Kelowna.

“Things have changed since I’ve been here,” she said of the town, adding that they made the trip out to visit family in Saskatoon and Humboldt and were able to attend the reunion as a bonus.

Resler said she was having fun and enjoyed coming back to Davidson, adding, “It’s sort of like ‘once a friend, always a friend.’”

In recognition of the class of 2015 — which had its graduation exercises the same night as the reunion — the former classmates bought and signed cards of congratulation for each graduate.

John B. McJannet, one of the ’65 graduates, is the grandfather of ’15 grad Elise McJannet, while Jim Stone is the great-uncle of Liana Farrell.

Seven members of the class of 1965 have since died: Maureen Brown (nee Cammer), Ian Findlay, Dale Frier, Julius LePoudre, Laurie Lockwood, Wayne Low and Gerald Zdunich.

The class also met for reunions in 1975 and 1985; Blenkin recalled that the 10-year reunion drew the largest crowd.

By Joel van der Veen

DAVIDSON — As he spoke last week, Gerrid Gust was behind the wheel of a four-wheel-drive tractor valued at upwards of half a million dollars.

With the stakes involved in modern farming, Gust and farmers like him depend on experienced workers from other countries to make it through the season.

But changes to Canada’s labour exchange programs have made those workers increasingly hard to come by, forcing some farmers to make do with a short staff.

“I don’t want to put just anybody up the street on it,” he said Wednesday. “They seem to want to force us to use unskilled workers that have never been on a farm before, never seen a tractor before.”

Gust, who farms east of Davidson with his family, said they’ve been bringing in summer workers from Australia for almost 20 years through International Experience Canada (IEC), under the “Working Holiday” category.

Due to the recent drama over Canada’s situation with temporary foreign workers (TFWs), some of the timelines for the IEC programs have changed, leaving the Gusts to cope with a reduced number of workers.

Ordinarily, the program would allow applications beginning Jan. 1, but this year that date was bumped to somewhere in mid-February.

In reality, Gust said, it was closer to March 10 before applications were accepted, and with a six-week processing time, the situation has made it difficult to get paperwork completed in a timely manner.

Gust said his family currently has five labourers here with their paperwork in order, while one additional labourer is in the country but still holidaying since his paperwork is incomplete.

“He can’t get the proper entry visa,” explained Gust. “He can travel around Canada but he can’t work.”

He also mentioned a friend in southern Saskatchewan who needed to bring in a worker for calving, but because of the altered timeline, “they just couldn’t do it.” Gust said the situation is similar for farmers across western Canada.

Gust said the family has contacted both the federal and provincial ministries of agriculture, as well as local MLAs, and while they were “sympathetic and helpful,” little has been accomplished.

He said the problem appears to lie with Citizenship and Immigration Canada (CIC); he hasn’t been able to reach them by phone, and emails have met with no reply.

Gust said he’s tried every organization he could think of, from the Grain Growers of Canada to the Canadian Federation of Independent Business, but to no avail, leaving them to deal with the reality of a smaller crew.

“We’re just making do,” he said. “I wouldn’t say we’re working longer hours, we’re just getting less done than we’d optimally like to do.”

For now, Gust said he is continually trying to make his voice heard, to express the urgency of the situation for farmers and to reach out to groups like the Canadian Agricultural Human Resource Council.

Remi Lariviere, a media relations official for CIC, explained in an email to the Leader that the IEC is a bilateral exchange program, reciprocal in nature, that facilitates work experience opportunities for Canadians in 32 countries around the world.

“Putting more emphasis on jobs for Canadians first and addressing youth unemployment was the guiding principle for the creation of the International Mobility Program in the summer of 2014,” he wrote.

He also explained that the Seasonal Agricultural Worker Program (SAWP) allows employers to hire TFWs when Canadian citizens or permanent residents are not available to fill jobs.

For the full story, please pick up a copy of The Davidson Leader’s May 18 edition.