Don't text and drive

Driving safety: an accident is likely to occur 23 more times with cell phone use

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Thompsons encourages all drivers not use hand-held communication devices of any kind while driving. Even if using hands-free and voice-activated dialing, it could still be a deadly distraction.

  • Texting and driving makes an accident 23 times more likely.
  • Dialing your phone increase your chances of an accident by 2.8 times.
  • 1 in 5 drivers confess to surfing the web while driving.
  • Smartphones are the most common form of distraction for drivers.
  • Making even the most basic text takes a minimum of 5 seconds of your attention off of the road when you text and drive.
  • In addition to causing 330,000 injuries each year, it’s estimated that about 11 teens die every day as a result of texting and driving. And this is just teens – this is about 4000 total deaths per year in the United States
  • Texting is more dangerous than drunk driving – texting while driving is 6 times more likely to cause an accident than driving drunk. 

Are there any exemptions to Ontario’s distracted driving law?

  • Calling 9-1-1 in an emergency situation
  • When the driver is lawfully parked or has safely pulled off the roadway and is not impeding traffic.

Note: It is dangerous to stop on the shoulder of a 400-series highway and drivers are prohibited from pulling off a designated 400-series highway and parking for a reason other than an emergency. If the situation is not an emergency, drivers are advised to exit the freeway at an interchange or pull into the nearest service centre. 

Fines (Starting January 1, 2019)

For your first conviction:

  • a fine of up to $1,000
  • three demerit points
  • a three-day day driver’s licence suspension

For your second conviction within 5 years:

  • a fine of up to $2,000
  • six demerit points
  • a seven-day driver’s licence suspension

For your third and all subsequent convictions within 5 years:

  • a fine of up to $3,000
  • six demerit points
  • a 30-day driver’s licence suspension

No text, email or phone call is worth your life, the life of a loved one or the life of another motorist or pedestrian!

Work safe. Farm safe. Home safe.™

™ is a registered trademark of Thompsons Limited.

Woman farmer talking with supplier

Trailblazing (part 2) – the curious leader – women farmers

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When talking leadership for Country Guide, female trailblazers have repeatedly told me it was a real benefit to them that they had a curious parent in their earlier years. They also rank their own curiosity as a key contributor to their success.

The value of curiosity also came up repeatedly when I spoke to global leaders in food for my independent research. These leaders described curiosity as the foundation for continual growth in their leadership capability.

Throw the book out!

In looking at leadership in the past, Canadians have relied on American publications that saw success as a measurable thing. They defined an accomplished leader as one who meets concrete targets or who has a large following.

In my leadership studies and in my own business life, I never really fit into those definitions. You may not either. It’s why I Read more

Father daughter farming

Trailblazing

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Women farmers reveal how they have succeeded in agriculture, and how other women can too

By Brenda Schoepp, Country Guide

Country Guide asked for more on how we define a culture that is inclusive, equal and conducive for a successful female heir or independent business person from within a family unit.

In this first part of a three-part series, I went across Canada and asked trailblazers — highly successful women in farming, agriculture and agri-business — about their journeys starting from the time they were girls.

They pursued their dreams despite having very diverse back stories. Still, we need to recognize that the on-farm cultures they grew up in were extraordinarily different, and those differences helped determine the pathways they chose to get to where they are today. Read more

Girls to farmers - by D.Stobbe

Turning girls into farmers

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Should you raise daughters differently to succeed at farming? This mother, daughter and granddaughter know their answer

By

No matter how progressive we think agriculture is becoming for ourselves, for our wives and for our daughters, there’s still a prevalent attitude that farming is “men’s work.”

Now a new ethos is gaining ground, and anyone who subscribes to the men’s-work way of thinking is being asked — well, ordered really — to get over themselves.

Farming excellence, we’re told, is no longer predicated on the farmer’s muscle strength. Instead, success takes multi-tasking, management, problem solving — areas where women excel at least as often as men.

With the demands ahead, our industry’s priority should be attracting the best and brightest of the next generation, regardless of gender. How can we do that? To find out, Country Guide sent me to talk to the experts: three generations of women from one farm family, all of whom identify solidly as “farmer.” Here is what I learned. — M.B.

Bev Shewchuk can pinpoint the exact moment she realized she’d had enough of not being taken seriously as a farmer. She and husband, Brad, had gone into the local bank to talk financing. Even though she carried the majority of the farm management including all of the day-to-day operating of the farm while he worked away, she waited until he was home from the oil field to make the trip into town since they always did the major farm decision-making together.

When the financing officer handed the couple their completed paperwork, Brad’s occupation was described as “farmer.”

Shewchuk, despite the fact that the couple had clearly described the partnership of their operation, was listed as “housewife.”

“Even though I was 100 per cent engrossed in the farm,” she says, “and even though I made all the decisions with the cattle and sheep, and even though I did every bit of the work when Brad was away, I was still a farmer’s wife even in my own mind until that moment.

“That was my turning point, the moment when I really changed my attitude about my own role on the farm.” Read more

Hensall staff and local students plant a rain garden

Hensall Rain Garden at Thompsons Limited

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Amy Petherick. Photo: Deborah Deville.

The young are on board, literally

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In Ontario’s Northumberland County, young farmers make up the majority on many commodity and farm boards. Here’s how we do it

By Contributor to Country Guide

There’s nothing like an unexpected dinner invitation to get the attention of a person who is normally responsible for daily meal preparation. The invitation arrived by text, and it didn’t take long to figure out whether to accept. Accept first, I said. Ask questions later.

When I did ask the question, I was right to think there might be a reason. “Be ready to explain why our executive is so young,” was basically how the next text read in response. Read more

Ridgetown College student mentorship program

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Insight for a career in the agri-food industry

Thompsons Blenheim facility was host to four University of Guelph, Ridgetown Campus students enrolled in the new Mentorship Program. They learned about future career opportunities in the agri-food industry starting with a tour of one of our 11 Ontario facilities. They also spent some time learning about our advanced agronomy solutions technology.