Winnipeg Free Press

Winnipeg Free Press (Newspaper) - December 7, 1979, Winnipeg, Manitoba Winnipeg free december Good jaw but too soon by Claude Adams Washington Ted Kennedy and his Wel Laid plans for the White House Are fraying at the and it Hast even started snowing in new Hamp what happened its far too Early yet for political of but there Are signs that the attractive senator from Massachusetts is in the excitement of last when Jimmy Carters popularity hit Rock Bottom and Kennedy was allowing himself to be seduced into the has All but the iranian crisis is Only one of several dream ticket As a potential candidate waiting in the Kennedy was the dream never mind the scepticism about what he stood his questionable Appeal to 1960s and his Check ered he had the a Good jaw and 17 years in the Senate to draw and Carter was in a Politi Cal first when he announced in Early was the towering expectation people had of the mechanics of presidential poli tics in the today forces candidates to pay heed to the underdog because of the length of the Campaign season a circus of Cau conventions and Straw polls a candidate must Pace himself or Early leaders get undue attention and often get the As Jimmy Carter demonstrated in is to avoid being seen As the front runner for As Long As Small victories and even near victories thus take on greater in the jargon of the Carter had a Low identification when he started Only two per cent of americans recognized thus when he won a state caucus in Heads began gaping Hole Kennedy started out on the top and became the immediate All it took was a single hour of television the no famous lbs interview with Roger Mudd to punch a gaping Hole in his carefully crafted to everyone the sen Ator was unable to handle the most Basic questions about and he had an awful time explaining Why he even wanted to be the polls just As the Kennedy Campaign was climbing Back on the the nation was seized with the iranian nobody was in a mood to listen to policy statements on National even inflation and Energy be come Kennedy on the stump whether among Farmers in Iowa or women leaders in suddenly sounded in the his attacks on Carters Lack of leadership sounded empty and even for a the Way the two men announced their Kennedy picked Boston for a Zahrah rally that included Many of the relics of the Juk a photo on the other a reluctant moments out of his crisis schedule to make his candidacy for reelection i apologize Adf having to engage in politics at sombre he seemed to but you know these silly election with a grimaced president went Back into seclusion to Deal with the real world was up to his ears in a controversy Over his remarks about the Shah a hideous he called who should not be granted Asylum in the the next the Washington Post a graciously carried an old photo of the senator shaking hands with the Shah when he was still occupying the Peacock the critics said he was giving Solace to the Teddy the Toast of Tehran hollered the front Page of a new York despite All his and the skill of his image makers and policy and Kennedy Hast even been to hold the press with once his they have become dogs yapping at his some of the stuff they Are writing about him is downright bleeding Bull item the cover Story in this months harpers Magazine is entitled Edward Kennedy and the Romance of writes Lewis the magazines respected editor every every shopping Centre and hotel every banquet Hall through which sen Ator Kennedy passes on his perilous journey will be suffused in the Flat and lurid Light of a prospective killing the cover depicts Kennedy As a bleeding but that was just an d item All of Washington is talking about a Magazine piece called Ken Nedys woman deliberately so As not to be dismissed As this study of the Sena tors private based on a wide Range of is a damning piece of Kennedy is depicted As a Man whose dates Are carefully selected by staff after a Brief the woman is sent packing so that Kennedy can turn his full attention Back on the presidential d item a key part of the Kennedy strategy was to meet the question of Chappaquiddick Headon the lbs get it out of the Way and move on to substantive but the incident remains an Ever present phantom after More than a cartoonists persist in wicked portrayals of dripping wet and trying to talk to a House wife about no one is seriously suggesting at this stage that the Kennedy Campaign is new issues will new strategies will and the polls will probably run up and Down the Scales several times before next sum but for the the senator is on the defensive and it shows in every one of his Campaign Ted Kennedy is in for a fearsome Claude Adams is Washington correspondent for up news it Nhok to move i Public car insurance chief will review the review of Public Auto insurance with the release of the aut Opac report this we have proof once again that if you look Long enough and hard you can always find someone to say what you want to it also goes to show once again that anything is possible in even something As bizarre As the government deciding the Burns committee having had its go at Auto aut Opac now should have a go at the Burns incredible As it May that exactly what the minister Harry has asked aut Opac Gener Al manager Dutton to Manitoba is will recall during the 1977 provincial election Sterling Lyon and his conservatives promised if they would open aut Opac to Competition from private insurance but after they took there were statements that aut Opac was Here to All in our minds most Manitoban probably thought that meant the conservatives were backing away from their original elec Tion Promise to dismantle the Public Auto insurance How could anyone dismantle the program at the same have aut Opac Here to if it sounded like a contradiction in it was apparently All in our it took the collective imagination of the review Trio headed by Burns to clarify the apparent Contra diction if you read their 556page there is no contradiction at they have cleverly come up with a scheme that appears to satisfy both convert the Manitoba pub Lic insurance corporation into a Pri Mutual company owned by its policyholders and competing with other private but still Call it aut Opac is Here to the Burns committee appears to say what the government wanted to hear All strangely one suspects it has gone further than even the Lyon government would the committee seems to say every thing the government wanted to and then How else do you explain the curious decision by aut Opac minister Enns to order three separate reviews of the Burns one of which will be undertaken by none other than the very Alice Krueger Agency that at the Centre of All the fuss you get the distinct feeling were going to see a lot of fancy backpedal Ling in months to and the three reviews of the review May be just the the aut Opac review of the Burns review was revealed wednesday by Dutton in a conversation just hours after official release of the Burns re it was later confirmed by the Dutton said he had been asked by Enns to review the Burns study and report Back to he was Given no time limit for completion of his study but the Pic official said he assumed there was no big hurry because the government Doest plan to take any action until late next Dutton said the aut Opac review of the Burns review of aut Opac will be con ducted by himself and some research As Well As members of the Board of the Manitoba Public insurance Cor after the kind of bashing aut Opac took at the hands of the Burns you can imagine the Delight of aut Opac executives to be Given the Opportunity to state officially what Treyve no doubt been saying under their breath about Burns and company for the past five that ought to be Juicy if its Ever made that the other two reviews ordered by Enns Are to be conducted by the registrar of motor vehicles Peter and by the provincial workers compensation Enns reasons Enns had separate reasons for each of the three on the one by Enns said in 1 have asked to Arm us with information on a number of matters that i would want to see incorporated into the corporations present i want his judgment As to which of the recommendations he would want to see us for he Pic officials in order to hear All there is to hear on Harry Enns has commissioned three More reviews of the for some expressed concern about the level of Accident injury Bene fits and have urged it be As the minister said Dutton had privately questioned the compulsory aspect of collision Enns said he wants Dutton to put his suggestions about those matters and any others that could improve the he said he wants to hear from Dutton about those areas of the report to which Pic officials take Strong exception areas in which the report allegedly makes errors in there Are a number of areas where he Dutton feels it is in the minister for he one Section of the Burns report tears a strip off Pic for not providing coverage for third party it is my information that we the minister his request for a review by the motor vehicle he was prompted by his concern about the recommendation for the establishment of a motor vehicle authority to handle All compensation for injuries and and to be responsible for registration and i i want to know from Peter does this mean Hes going to have to hire 300 More or the workers compensation Board has been asked to Tell the government How it would be affected by the recommendation that the Board be the Agency that would pay out bodily injury asked How soon he expected the three reports to be on his the minister said he hoped to have them within the next month so the government can make a decision Early in the new the time Frame is that we have 800 employees at aut Opac who Are obviously he indecision in an area like this i think the government can be accused of creating a morale problem at aut Opac if it goes 1 would like to have it cleared before we go into the perhaps the biggest hint of All of How the government feels about the major recommendation that aut Opac become a private body was the ministers More general comments about the the he gives the administration the very widest of on the one he the government could do nothing and leave aut Opac in its present or it could go to the other extreme and introduce some form of Competition with private in there will be a lot of other in the aut Opac is going m get studied half to death before the politicians resolve the All of which might be easier to comprehend if there were something seriously wrong with Manitoba Public automobile insurance or if it we rent so popular with the Energy must govern Kennedy plan to capture the White House frays at the i i by Wilson Ottawa Given both Public and government attitudes during the six years since the world discovered How unstable its Petroleum supplies really it is hardly surprising this country May face shortages this in a grim sort of that May be no bad thing it May Lead us first to recognize reality and then to face up to As Pogo used to we have met the enemy and the enemy is we have allowed our demand for Oil to Rise year after year with few serious efforts at Conser apart More Home insulation and a limited shift toward smaller the Trudeau government did remarkably Little about conservation and its record on the provision of new sources of Supply was far worse than opposition liberals claim it actually encouraged the use of which accounts for a bit Over a third of All of our Oil by maintain ing prices at an artificially Low the present government has left us in the we know nothing at All about negotiations with Mexico and Oil supplies arranged on a government government and under the liberals we knew Little it was never Clear whether a government government Deal with Venezuela would actually Lead to a net increase in supplies from that source or merely involve taking Over Oil that already comes Here through Normal commercial the last reliable word on mexican supplies was even with an agree ment fully negotiated and it would still be a substantial time before that country production would in crease enough to permit significant volumes to flow there were re ports the disastrous Gulf of Mexico Blowout which preoccupied Lemex for months would slow Down other Oil Field the Alberta government has Contri buted its share to this unsatisfactory National not by seeking higher prices but by dragging its feet on the development of additional facilities for synthetic fear that the Alberta Economy would become Over heated through developments conducted with a sense of urgency has been obsessive economies can adjust to new demands and it is unlikely the Alberta concern would have been As exaggerated if the Prospect had been for rapid development of secondary manufacturing recent opinion polls show the new government already is suffering Seri Ous its members might ask themselves Why we All know so much More about tory dislike of Petrovan than we do about the prospects of being Able to get a Supply of Oil from it May As the govern ment that it actually has been pursuing the mexican and venezuelan negotiations since it withdrew Petrovan from the scene but no outsider could say what sense of seriousness and or if has underlain such this is one of the things that creates the impression the members of the new government have not really got firm ground under their feet it is among the things damaging the Clark Cabinet in Public there Are parts of the country where it is easy to convert from Oil to natural Gas As a heating fuel and there is a 15 per cent Cost advantage is doing on a Btu equivalent basis that heating value for heating value Gas Sells at 85 per cent of the Price of that incentive has led to a steady but slow rate of conversion but neither the liberals in their later Days nor the tories since they have been in Power have taken action to stimulate this one reason the conversion rate is slow is Public uneasiness about the safety of Gas As a Domestic this does not exist in where Gas has been the Ordinary fuel for Many but it does in Eastern when natural Gas was introduced to the East a couple of decades it was Distri buted through pipes installed earlier to handle manufactured the two gases have different moisture contents because of the procedure was unsafe and led to the most dramatic blew an Ottawa office build ing into one of the main streets on a saturday morning n was these things Are remembered still and precious Little is being done to assure the Public of the safety of converting to the Ordinary family considering the conversion would not even know without careful checking whether their areas old manufactured Gas lines have been re it is not Only on our International deficit that this if it is to establish itself with the must Bear Down hard on great National prob lems and be seen to do with All attention to nonsense set Energy is another such and to the Ordi nary Man a More pressing the government must be seen to concentrating on the great leaving the lesser ones on the Back Burner for another up news service ;