Eileen McCreary and Judy Gust are travelling across the Canso Causeway, a rock-fill road through the Straight of Canso, and onto Cape Breton Island from the Nova Scotia peninsula this week for a game of bridge.

The two Davidson card players are heading to Sydney, Nova Scotia, for the 2012 Canada 55-plus Games where they will compete with bridge players from across the country. The Aug. 29 to Sept. 1 Games are a celebration of fitness for Canadian seniors, bringing them together every two years to try their hand at one of 23 sports competitions ranging from ice hockey to bowling to swimming and all taking place at various locations across the Island.

Gust said this will be her first time in Nova Scotia and the plan is to get in a little sightseeing on their weeklong trip to the East Coast, but she’ll come up with a list of things to see with McCreary after they get there. As for the tournament play, she said it is not really that important if they come home with gold medals, it is the people they’ll meet and the good times they’ll have that matters.

“We’re there just to have fun,” said Gust. “If the cards that are given to us are good, then that’s great. If not, we’ll still have a lot of fun anyways.”

McCreary said she has been to the Canada Games once before in 2006 when it was held at Whitehorse, Yukon. She said that she and Gust have competed in quite a few tournaments over the years and won a few times, but they’re not exclusive in their partnership.

“We both belong to the bridge club here and play on Thursday nights at the Seniors’ Centre,” said McCreary. “You don’t always play as a team here as you change partners when you play locally, but as you play together you just get a good idea of how the other person bids and likewise. Then you hope you get some good cards to bid.”

She said as far as the sightseeing goes, they’ll wait until they get there to find some information on the various attractions, but the Fortress of Louisbourg National Historic Site off Gabarus Bay is something she would really like to see.

“I’ve heard quite a bit about it,” said McCreary. “It’s a British fortress. It was a hub of commercial trade back in the early days and they’ve kept it in its original state.”

It is too early to tell how yields will be this fall, but the quality appears to be good according to early reports despite an armyworm infestation among canola crops and fusarium outbreak with wheat.

Kent McLeod, manager of Viterra, said among the crops of canola, lentils, wheat, peas and barley that are seeded in this area, it is just the peas and barley that are starting to “come off.” He said the quality so far “seems to be fairly decent,” but it will still be a few more weeks before everything can be classified as successful.

“There has been some diseases in the canola and the armyworm in the canola,” McLeod said. “Spring wheat has been suffering from fusarium. It’s kind of new to us here. We’ve had some, but not to this extent. Until the guys get combined, it’s going to be hard to say just how much damage has been done to both quality and to yield.”

Grant McLean, cropping management specialist for the provincial Agricultural Knowledge Centre, said the higher humidity that Saskatchewan has experienced this summer has brought on more leaf diseases and the armyworm population is “quite high,” but for the most part crops across the province are looking quite good.

“With the humidity and moisture, we are seeing higher incidences of leaf diseases in the wheat, barley and durums,” McLean said. “Certainly we are seeing higher incidences of other diseases in the canola and the sclerotinia in particular has been a bigger risk and in some cases causing concern, but it’s too late to do anything about that now.”

A farmer’s only hope in stopping the outbreak is applying a fungicide or insecticide to the leaf surface to protect it, which is “like trying to saran wrap a three-year-old on a tricycle and keep him dry in a rain storm,” he said.

To read more please see the August 20 print edition of The Davidson Leader.

A potential federal Liberal Party leadership candidate stopped in at Lake Diefenbaker last week in an effort to gauge the problems of Western Canadians as he formulates his plan to revive the Liberal brand.

David Bertschi, a practising lawyer in the private sector for the past 28 years, said he is travelling “from coast to coast to coast” to discuss with Canadians on what they think is needed from their federal representatives to better serve their interests in Ottawa. He said that he specifically toured through Saskatchewan in order to meet with its “hard working salt of the earth people” and to hear their hopes and concerns.

“Saskatchewan has always been a land of opportunity for as far as I could remember and it’s a wonderful opportunity for the Liberal Party of Canada to have its rebirth and to rebuild,” said Bertschi. “I am very encouraged travelling across the West and travelling across Canada meeting with people regardless of political stripe that are looking for a party that is balanced and not extremist. That is common through the rest of the country and it is true in the West.”

Bertschi said he would decide whether he will be throwing his hat into the ring to become leader of the Liberal Party after his tour through the country and after the party announces the leadership contest rules. The Liberals are set to select their new leader at the party’s national convention next April.

Bob Rae is currently the interim leader of the party after Michael Ignatieff stepped down following last year’s third place finish in the federal election, which saw the NDP take over official opposition status to the ruling Conservatives.

“I’m obviously seriously considering it,” said Bertschi, who lost in the last election to Conservative Royal Galipeau in the riding of Ottawa-Orleans. “I have received a lot of support from across the country and am very pleased and humbled by that.”

Sound fiscal policy, responsible government and help for those most vulnerable provides the framework for Bertschi’s plan to transform the government from one he believes that talks a lot about fixing the problems faced by Westerners, but does nothing about it.

“We’ve got a lot of underemployed or unemployed young adults who are very bright and want to work, but don’t have the opportunity because the federal government is not paying attention to that problem,” he said. “The last month we lost 30,000 jobs in Canada.

“We have to start paying attention to what is important and that is health care, the economy and allowing Canadians to feel that their representatives in government are listening to them and acting for them in their best interest to grow the economy and to make us competitive. That is the Canadian advantage.”