Winnipeg Free Press

Winnipeg Free Press (Newspaper) - August 18, 1981, Winnipeg, Manitoba T Ati Tiit Stoat past Taftsr Bozif ffeed6ffi 6 fade to Juanity divil rights Liberty at profoundly democratic in the words of the Liberal James yesterdays Bleie Tiem in spading Riding was a profoundly democratic event like the by election held the same Day in the Quebec Riding of it turned out to be a Good Deal More democratic than Genus and the Liberal party had in where the liberals had hoped to wipe the last Quebec tory off the conservative Roch la Salle soundly trounced the Liberal Michel considering the Money poured into the Riding by the Liberal and considering the fact that la Salle had risked unpopularity by jumping in and out of the conserva Tive party to sit As an Independent and to Lead the provincial Union the result represents a substantial rebuke to the not half so As the rebuke delivered to Trudeau chief political fixer was supposed to sail into parliament almost secure in that he ran a Campaign whose numbing complacency reflected that of the government which he assumed he would instead of giving or Coutts his anticipated free two but of three voters in the Riding East ballots against hint and gave the by a narrow to Dan Heap of the new the Spadina result should not have been As surprising As it there comes a Point when whatever their Normal party refuse to be manipulated and taken for when that Point is they lash Back and punish the party which has treated them with Coutts is Only the latest in a line of picked liberals to feel that the voters in both Ridings were expressing their judgment As Well on Federal government policies which have brought record High painfully High interest mortgage foreclosures and business it would be pleasant to think that the voters of Spadina and Joliette have sent a message to the Federal Given the density of the curtain which seals off that government from the concerns of it will probably take Many More Spadina and Many More Joliette before the message gets is this civil disobedience politicians Are playing a dangerous game when they use trigger words to generate emotional reactions Over issues which ought to be settled by rational debate and reasonable Premier Richard Hatfield of new was playing that game this week by suggesting that the eight provincial premiers who oppose the Federal governments constitutional plans Are prepared to resort to civil disobedience if they cannot Stop them by other those trigger words simply serve to raise emotions at a time when cooler Heads Are while the eight premiers were deliberately and tantalizingly vague about what they will do to oppose Ottawa on the nothing they did say indicates that they Are ready to stage siting in parliament or risk jail by defying the if the supreme court of Canada rules against they will undoubtedly seek to arouse Public opinion to support changes in Ottawa constitutional which they have every right to or to lobby the British parliament against making the changes which Ottawa their most extreme potential action would be to follow the dubious course of refusing to make legislative changes to conform to the new Bill of rights until the courts told them they had at their latest meeting in the dissenting premiers made it Clear that they were unchanged in their determination to fight the imposition of Ottawa constitutional proposals by every Means at their at the the course they have followed is the perfectly proper one of arguing against the Federal plan before the supreme court of the results of that Appeal should be known within the next few have been one being the length of time that the Federal court has had the matter under consider whatever the it will not be if they lose in the the dissenting premiers Are determined to take their Case to the British and to present it to whoever will at this the delegations Are unlikely to persuade either the British government or a majority of members of parliament to turn Down Ottawa proposed constitutional Resolution if it has been approved by the supreme court the Appeal in Britain along with the court be part of the continuing political debate which the premiers Are determined to so will Public opinion even though these can be so manipulated by the selection of questions that they Are Likely to Settle the political effectiveness of either of these tactics is open to but there is no doubt that the dissenting premiers have every right to adopt if those political efforts the provincial governments will have to Deal with the process by which existing provincial legislation will have to be changed to accommodate the new Federal provinces that object strongly to provisions of the Federal plans Are not Likely to fall into line without at least attempting further Neotia politicians trying to stir up emotions if they Label those actions As civil those who Are concerned that Canadas constitutional differences should be settled in a rational atmosphere rather than in a fever of would be Wiser to see them for what they really Are political tactics which deserve to be considered and debate Don their own pressure for arms control those costly mounties expensive As it the new agreement for sharing the costs of ramp services worked out Between eight provinces and solicitor general Robert Kaplan is less offensive than the on sided Deal the minister first tried to bully the provinces into it provides for a substantial increase in the share paid by the provinces and municipalities which use the services of the ramp but it imposes the increase at a relatively gradual the provinces share will grow by one percentage Point a year for the first five years of the agreement and by two Points in each of the last that arrangement will at least give the provinces and municipalities time to adapt equally time to reassess the usefulness of having the Federal police Force do a Job which could be done by provincial or municipal police the most offensive element in Kaplan original proposal was with virtually no it would have imposed an immense increase in costs on provinces and municipalities which in Good entered a contract which offered ramp services at a much lower once having sucked them into relying on the the Federal minister was ready to boost the rates to Force the provinces to he was prepared to in an ramp it May As Mercier that the new agreement Means that the provinces and municipalities will be subsidizing the Federal government for maintaining the is something inequitable about an arrange ment in which the governments which pay Between 70 per cent and 90 per cent of the Cost of maintaining a police Force have Little to say about the Way in which it there is a National Benefit in having ramp officers stationed across the Many of them have to be there at any rate to perform their duties for the Federal govern there is no precise Way to measure exactly How much of that Benefit flows to Ottawa and How much to toe province or the municipality in which they Are As the new agreement comes into it will provide an Opportunity for a full assessment of just How useful the ramp service is to those who Purchase will a City like for get value for the million dollars or More which it will pay to cover 90 per cent of the costs of the ramp services there would it do better to spend the Money on a municipal police Force which would be staffed with people who know the Community better and who would provide better in a broader does it make sense any More to have the ramp perform the duties of provincial and municipal police forces along with the National tasks which must be its main concern by Joseph Kraft special to the free press Washington overwhelming combination of financial and political forces is driving the United states toward arms control talks with the soviet but the Reagan administration is racked by ideological dogfights about the right approach to bleeding unless the president moves hard now to Settle those the will Limp to the bargaining bleeding from a thousand self inflicted Reagan will then be i poor position to realize his Well founded instinct for productive talks with soviet president Leonid strategic considerations currently Centre on the unremitting soviet Mili tary buildup of the past two dec the thanks chiefly to the thousands of intermediate Range mis Siles the ss20 they have deployed in Western Are far stronger than the in nuclear forces on the euro Pean they May soon be Able to take out land based intercontinental their conventional forces pose threats to the and its friends in the Middle the persian Gulf and North As Well As the Reagan administration believes that the military balance should be righted before serious arms negotiations but the most important Allied sensitive to popular fears that a military buildup might provoke soviet favor an Early opening of talks Between Washington and thus virtually every american move to beef up Mili tary strength tends to rub important europeans the wrong in causes divisions in not fantasy figure in your editorial of june the embargo you wrote of in doing you indulged in consider Able fantasy of your contrary to your Canadas commitment to limit sales to the to million tonnes extended from january to 1980 a period of seven not seven losses were calculated in Large part on the basis of documented sales by the Canadian wheat Board during that this contradicts your editor als claim that most sales had already been the auditor general of Canada will be Able to verify this information if he sees u is True that there is no Strong evidence that Canadian producers sold less Grain because of the in our no losses were claimed on that in this was a crucial difference Between the Esti mate of losses made by the government and some other higher it of necessary to engage in speculation when assessing the Long run effects of the it May be True that our position in the Market has been strengthened by the on the other it is also True that Grain prices have been de pressed to some degree because of the Large stocks of Grain accumulated in the United states to partially offset the Adverse effects of the embargoed to attempt to quantify the Lon term Impact would truly be an exercise in the fact of the matter is that the government had made what we feel is the Best possible estimate of the losses legitimately attributable to the go and is fulfilling its commitment for based on this because economics is not an exact there have been and there will probably continue to sincere fences of opinion about the actual level of 1 have not seen any serious study which suggests there were no losses and the differences of opinion which do exist among informed individuals do not in any Way support your assertion that the governments estimate is a fantasy Eugene Whelan minister of agriculture Ottawa letters the Winnipeg free press welcomes letters from writers must give their name and the authors name will be used and letters Are subject to Harvest time on fee Prairies Canadian Dollar canadians Are always sensitive when the value of the Dollar is Federal authorities cite economic tors when expressing Are our reasons for desiring a High value for the Dollar valid maintaining Dollar value is not our Only policy we could allow it to find own Market even if it Means a further it seems that the main cause of concern is is and High is a Low Dollar seems utterly it is As if we must maintain its value at great Cost in order to maintain our National there is no such thing As one particular value for the u should not be equal to the each National currency is separate the British the australian the Japa Nese and so each finds an International value in accordance with the strength of each respective econ if the Dollar Falls in value it May or May not reflect on our at present it does since the drop is mainly due to increases in interest is it Wise to want to artificially uphold the value of our currency Sim ply to maintain face internationally it would be advisable to be honest with ourselves and accept any necessary downward adj tents in the the Federal government is placing an extremely High priority on maintaining the value of the the priority is up great that Many individuals Aad businesses must accept unbearable economic burdens be defence of the Dollar is the primary reason for High interest to attract foreign in perhaps the Federal decision makers who have All the facts available to them Are on the Correct but one wonders whether sufficient consider Tion has been Given to the alternative of allowing the Dollar to float downward to its own George Slivinsky Winnipeg no thing funny 1 wish to voice my disgust at the article by Dave sup eve bomber Over leaves indelible free August in it sup eve quotes Billy Johnson trying to break the gloom by theorizing that you go beat the wife and dog and try to this crude attempt at humor by which was so patently Amus ing to should have no place in a responsible there is nothing funny about wife beat ing it is tragic for the victims a reflection of a sick that your newspaper should see fit to joke about it suggests that you endorse this sexism is sexism whether on the sports Page or not All sports fans clean up your As Tot a mpg i will leave that for others to pm mint Winnipeg last week there was an unholy Flap inside the and with the Over a relatively insignificant the Neutron intense factional fighting has also attended a decision to deploy in Western Europe modernized intermediate missiles the so called theatre nuclear a far worse internal Battle has already been provoked by the Mere Rumor that the president might change from the ground to the air the Basing Mode for a new intercontinental missile the infighting about weapons choices is bound to Secretary of de Fence Caspar Weinberger and his aides Are having an extremely difficult time holding the three services to the Gener Ous guidelines previously Laid out by the since the new tax Bill reduces revenues by Over billion Between Bow and the presidents budget officials Are certain to push for deeper reductions in military when social service cutbacks to bite next popular pressure will probably grow against huge defence at that finance and politics will All argue the Wisdom of constraining the soviet buildup by arms instinctive president Reagan seems to have an instinctive feel for Many of these con the comments he made in Santa Barbara thursday about arms reduction to remove this Nightmare of strategic nuclear weapons were clearly his own those of some the letter to which he cited in Santa was apparently written out by the president himself As a positive response to a hint dropped by Brezhnev during the 25th party con outlaw strikes who really makes the profits and Are profits of business and Industry exorbitant while we hear reverend ing criticism of business and the profits of labor Are rarely men what right has a worker to complain about his employer making a profit when the employer has provided a tools to work enabled him to pay for a place to paid Etc in Many cases yes Are neither satisfied nor they go on strike and demand Shorter working and fringe benefits they incessantly de Mand higher even though the employer May go and then they go crying to the government to bail the company out so that they will not lose their Kast years wage plus losses due to strikes and caused inflation to costs have to be pissed on to the and it is last years costs that we have to pay for this and this years added costs will be passed on to the consumer next we have a government that is doing tract Tilly nth mpg to combat either inflation or Large wage demands and is piling up it never ending if we Wist to survive As a nation we wih Josve to outlaw work Page my All wage in creases should be granted Only for increased bring Back the employers right to hire and make it birder to get welfare and unemployment insurance and Cut gown the amount of welfare paid so that there Witt be m Fegen Jve to we Bave everything we need to be come a Prosper oils but we Are slowly going Down the Drain because of Yifei a Jnetta Wineg born August Gress about a Summit but to get arms and a fruitful Reagan will have to do More than he will need to Stop cold Turkey the Battle for turf that has dominated foreign policy within the he will have to Force through Over the Heads of the Hawks a military program that does not pretend to afford total Security against every he will have to push View since some risks Are the american interest is Best served by a Russia subjected to the right kind of arms control unpleasant if he shirks those unpleasant tasks the president May never get to the while Secretary of state Alexander Haig clearly wants arms control As one component of coexistence with most of the Penta gon is against As Are not a few of the ideologues planted on general Haig in the arms control leaving mat ters to them will Only yield More of what we have already experienced constant fighting Over the most trivial subjects harsh blows to the Secretary of time after time after time differences with the allies so deep that the far from negotiating in will feel bound to concentrate on splitting the from its european in those Reagan would not go to the Summit in a posture of Able to emphasize prob lems face in Poland and Afghanistan and at he would Limp to the hoping to with the threadbare rags of Compro Mise the divisions within the Alliance that in Power to utter c los Angeles times Syndi Cate cycling path the Henderson Highway cycling path from the perimeter Highway to lock port is a disgrace to this City and besides being poorly maintained As far As resurfacing is it is poorly kept a few major problems which pose a Hazard to the serious cyclist Are Are strewn along portions of the path there Are wide cracks in the Asphalt into which bicycle tires fit nicely on Side gravel has been dragged out onto the path and could cause a cyclist to lose the bicycling Community is a Small i anticipate no efforts will be made to rectify this abysmal but there Are two recommendations to be made remove All signs indicating this obstacle course is a bicycle path make Drivers aware that the serious cyclist will be found on the four wheel vehicle portion of the Paquette Winnipeg f Iffie lets make a you Stop keeping up with me and ill Stop keeping up with 4 i ;