Winnipeg Free Press

Winnipeg Free Press (Newspaper) - December 7, 1979, Winnipeg, Manitoba Bee Effiner v Good jaw but too soon by Claude Adams Washington Ted Kennedy and his Well 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 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 Kennedy 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 ail 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 took a reluctant few moments out of his crisis schedule to make his candidacy for reelection official 1 apologize for having to engage in politics at this 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 Tor the Teddy the Toast of Tehran hollered the front Page of a new despite All his and the skill of his image makers and policy and Kennedy Hast even been Able 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 protecting Manitoban on the move Public car insurance chief will review the review 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 now deciding that the Burns committee having had its go at aut Opac now should have a go at the Burns incredible As it May that exactly what the minister responsible Harry Enns has asked aut Opac general manager Dutton to Manitoban will recall during the 1977 provincial election Sterling Lyon and his conservatives promised that if they would open aut Opac to Competition from private insurance later 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 the Public Auto insurance How could anyone dismantle the program and at the same time 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 Michael Burns to clarify the apparent Contra diction and 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 strangely one suspects it has gone further than even the Lyon government would they seem to say everything the government wanted to and then How else does one explain the curious decision by aut Opac minister Harry Enns to order three separate reviews of the Burns one of which will be undertaken by none other than the very Agency that at the Centre of All the fuss one gets the distinct feeling were going to see a lot of fancy backed doing in months to and the three reviews of the review May be just the first 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 on when his study was to be but the Pic official said he assumed there was no big hurry because the govern ment Doest plan to take any action until late next Dutton said the aut Opac review of the Burns review on aut Opac will be con ducted by some research As Well As members of the Board of Manitoba Public insurance Corpora after the kind of bashing aut Opac took at the hands of the Burns one can imagine the Delight of aut Opac executives to be Given the Opportunity to now state officially what Treyve no doubt been saying under their breath about Burns and company for the past five and on half 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 Branch Peter Dzygala and by the provincial workers compensation his opinion wanted Enns had separate reasons for each of the three on the one by Enns said in i 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 Alice Krueger in order to hear All there is to has commissioned three More have for some time expressed concern about the level of Accident injury Bene fits and have urged that it be As the minister said Dutton had privately questioned the compulsory aspect of collision Enns said he wants Dutton to put Forward his suggestions on those and other matters that could improve the present but he said he also wants to hear from Dutton about those areas of the report to which Pic officials take Strong exception areas where the re port 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 Over the recommendation calling for establishment of a motor vehicle authority to handle All compensation for injuries and and to be responsible for registration and i want to know from does this mean Hes going to have to hire 300 More or the workers compensation Board has been asked to give the government some idea of How it would be affected by the recommendation that it be the hear on Harry Enns reviews of the Burns 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 i would like have it cleared before we go into the perhaps the biggest hint of All of How the government feels about the major recommendation to privatize aut Opac was the ministers More general com ments 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 Between there will be a lot of other he in the aut Opac is going to get studied half to death before the politicians resolve the All of which might be easier to comprehend if there was something seriously wrong with Manitoba Public automobile insurance or if it want so popular with the can Joe Clark save his Bacon Kennedy plan to capture the White House frays at the Ottawa when a party is out of Power for Many As the conserva Tives the time eventually comes when Many people who have habitually supported its opponents will reluctantly vote for it simply because they believe a change is when this As it did last the swing voters will Lack enthusiasm for what they Are doing and will be its their conviction that change is necessary carries them Only so ill prepared the party Long out of Power Nevi ill prepared itself for the change because its people Lack any recent experience of even after they come to they Are Likely to talk and think As if they were still in opposition at still fighting the election and this when their Power base with the electorate is still weak and there is nothing very surprising politically about this both within the party involved and within the elec people Are just behaving and reacting in a Normal human but although it is not it May Well be politically dangerous because a party in this situation can Damn itself so thoroughly that it is never Able to build the solid support it needs with the unless a voter actually believes one party should dominate the nations political affairs for Many years at a this is not what anyone would wish to some of the developments which have dragged the Clark government Down in the opinion polls Are of its own doing but some Are of the sort that would have been beyond the control of any the fiasco Over the embassy in Israel is in the first cat ego High interest rates in the the liberals would never have involved themselves in the costly silliness of the first and they could not have escaped the Pierre Trudeau was the enthusiast for Yelling for the police when information leaked without authorization though Many disliked the it did him no discernible political harm because he was obviously in control of this time it is Clear no one higher than a Deputy minister is behind the actions and this does not convey any impression of competence on the part of the new nothing about Petrovan made it sen sible for the new government to Fly with such stubbornness in the face of obvious Public tory dedication to dismantling the company stemmed from statements made much earlier in when Petrovan was a very different affair from the tories demonstrated to the Public not merely Blind stubbornness but an inability to adjust to these Are not endear ing traits in the Public Given the governments precarious parliamentary position and the obvious fact it would be thrown out of office if an election were possible does this mean the Early end of the tories return to Power it need but that depends greatly upon How much time they can win before they have to face the voters minor plus the Freedom of information Legisla Tion will be a minor plus if the govern ment accepts some sensible and Neces sary amendments during the committee stage but refuses to let the Bill be Liberal failures to fulfil their Freedom of information promises will help a the mortgage interest deductibility move probably will also since Public reaction to it was but the effect May not be apparent until Start to decline the sort of thing that would Given enough would be a deter Multi pronged attack on this country atrocious failure to pay its Way in the that sort of attack is possible and in terms the Public would the for their behaved like Birds mesmerized by a Snake As the problem there Are things that can be done about it d rapid and effective improvement in the Grain handling system so that this country can grow and sell much More agricultural produce abroad perhaps 25 per cent d Early approval of a Large increase in natural Gas exports to the United which is clearly possible with out endangering Canadian d massive enlargement of tourist fact especially in the Rocky Moun so that we can attract and Cater to a Large increase in japanese d support for efforts to develop a Canadian merchant Fleet so that not All of our overseas imports and exports must be carried in foreign ships with a corresponding Drain on our there probably Are other important Steps the government could take in this each Large enough to be significant in getting our International financial affairs on an even to embark on them would convey that the government can recognize real prob lems and tackle them with the scale and efficiency they but Only that sort of approach to real problems will save this government in the up news service ;