“I think I’ll have pancakes and maple syrup this morning,” Dave Winston  said as he placed his order for breakfast at Mabel’s Grill the other morning.
    “That’s nice and spring-like,” Molly Whiteside said as she took the guys’ orders. “You know of course that Mabel buys her maple syrup locally. I guess she’ll likely be getting fresh syrup now that spring is here.”
    “Too expensive for me,” George Mackenzie grumbled as he ordered toast and coffee. “And probably the price will be going up with the new crop of maple syrup.”
    “And don’t you want more for steers you ship to market than you did last year?” Cliff Murray wondered after he ordered bacon and eggs and Molly headed back to the kitchen to deliver the orders to Mabel.
    “Well costs keep going up,” George grumbled. “Have you had a bill for furnace oil lately?”
    “I hear the provincial government has new subsidies to get people to improve the environmental efficiency of their homes,” Dave weighed back in. “Quite a change from when they took over from the previous government and killed off subsidies for big windmills, etc.”
    George shook his head sadly. “We just get a government in the U.S. that thinks all this climate change talk is bunk, and we’re likely going to get a Canadian government that’s going to get rid of the climate tax but we have a provincial government that’s going the other way!”
    “Here we go,” sighed Cliff. “You’re going to claim the climate isn’t changing even when the scientists claim they have proof it is.”
    “Or they’re worried they might lose their jobs so they come up with figures to guarantee they should keep them,” George said.
    “I remember winters when I was a kid when we had a week off school because the winter weather was so bad,” Dave put in.
    “But they’ve improved roads and road-clearing equipment since then,” George argued back.
    “Well I’m glad things are changing,” Cliff said. “My father used to tell me when his father used to cut up wood from our bush to feed into stoves to heat the house. My father got a furnace and my wife and I have been renovating and closing in the old stove-pipe holes in walls and the ceiling. That definitely feels like we’re improving things.”
    “Hmmm.” George started. “So you replaced wood grown in your own bush with oil from plants that grew millions of years ago and you think that’s an improvement. I wonder what an environmentalist would say about that?”
    “Well when the environmentalists want to come and cut trees in our bush and deliver wood for us to burn, I might listen to them – even get a wood furnace,” Cliff said.
    Seeing his friends arguing, Dave tried to change the subject. “Maybe I’ll spend some time working in the shed to get equipment ready for spring planting,” he suggested.
    “You’ve got a loader to feed big bales of hay to your cattle don’t you?” Cliff asked George, ignoring Dave’s attempt. “I  doubt you want to go back to pulling lose hay out of a hay mow like your grandfather did.”
    “Hey, I’m not arguing against improvements,” George shot back. “I’m happy to use modern equipment ­ even if it’s supposed to be bad for the environment.”
    “Okay guys,” Molly said. “Tone it down. We could hear you all the way back in the kitchen. Here’s your pancakes and maple syrup, and your bacon and eggs, and your toast and coffee.”
    “You got some jam, at least, for George’s toast?” Cliff wondered. “He could use a little sugar to sweeten him up  this morning.”
    “Hey, mister environmentalist, you realize that the sugar you think I need has to be imported from warmer places,” George growled.
    “Maybe I should talk to the guy we get maple syrup from,” Molly said. “Maybe he has maple sugar that we could sweeten George up with.”◊