Winnipeg Free Press

Winnipeg Free Press (Newspaper) - November 9, 1981, Winnipeg, Manitoba Winnipeg free november 1981 7 strike hangs Over this Campaign re f 15 Anh via an Ota tinn by Fred Cleverley when the United steelworkers turned Down a Chance to end their seven we Klong strike against International Nickel last the rejection vote added to the difficulty labor min ister Ken Macmaster is experiencing in the current election not Only must Macmaster carefully avoid taking sides in the he must also find a Way of getting around to see All the a difficult task when every door he knocks on is opened with an invitation to come and talk about the and not about the the first time Macmaster attempted to go Doort door in he spent four hours and managed to cover 16 his current Cabinet that of labor is an effective deter rent to his earlier easy entry into Union Homes where his face was familiar As the Strong unionist whose efforts were largely responsible for the Success of the steelworkers organization during the Early Days of the he is now facing picket line gossip that in what is the use of having a Thompson la As minister if he cannot Settle the those Are the downsides of the con Servatia Campaign in one of the brighter Points is that the nip in Thompson did not get the candidate the party organization was counting by virtue of hard work and intensive campaigning Long before nominations were the candidacy was won by Steven Ashton is but is blessed with the Type of Youthful appearance that gives lounge waiters a Tough in times of such youth is a the nip who is an Inco has no problems of conflict in his support of that and the people who make up the picket he is and has an election machine that reflects the ability of the Union to produce both staff and Volun Teers to work in the even for the strike produces the energies of the Union of be directed primarily toward the strike and the maintenance of enthusiasm for these demands Are Felt in the Campaign but it is a Safe bet that Given the Macmaster would Trade strike problems with his nip opponent at the drop of a Alcan to Thompson Steve Ashton will have to go into the record books As the candidate with the clearest policy concerning the pro posed Manitoba Alcan smelter to be found anywhere in new democratic his literature makes a of saying that he would fight to bring Alcan to and in an inter View he brought up the necessity of having developments such As Alcan in of the smelter could be located at Thomp the nip located on the ground floor of a building that also houses a paint and Glass acts As a regional party and had in last stocks of signs destined for the More northerly constituency of Chur the conservative located in a vacant store in the 1 Thompson the original shopping Centre in the has part col used and a Side in trance that is shared by a group that organizes rummage it is quite possible to Tell which part of Thompson a visitor is in by the Lawn the lawns Are already covered by Snow that crackles underfoot in the minus Zero temperatures that characterize this time of year in the but used to the substitute heavier stakes that can be pounded More easily into the nearly Frozen conservative signs Are Are so abundant in that part of Thomp son known As executive where incas senior staff that the party is a bit the nip decorations flourish around easily identified employee neither party is touching those vacant apartment buildings that appear few real changes Likely in Maceachen budget by Anthony Westell Toronto Star Syndicate the notion that the Bud get this week will be a great shifting economic gears and solving our is Mere pipe dreaming and doomed to finance minister Allan Maceachen obviously has no Brave new ideas on what to do about unemployment and High interest if he were convinced that he knew the Solu Tion to the he would have announced them months he is bringing in a budget now Only because it is the custom and to meet political and Public the custom of an annual accounting dates from the agricultural Era when it was essential to weigh the Harvest at the end of the set aside the seed Grain for next year and ration what remained to ensure it would last through the the Industrial Era in which we live say it is already a postindustrial Era does not move to the rhythm of the seasons but to an Uncertain business Cycle spread Over several so while it is useful to add up the Public accounts once a year to see where we it does not follow that we should change economic policy every policy should change Only when circumstances and the fact of the matter at present is that economic circumstances Are More Uncertain than for Maceachen and prime minister Pierre Trudeau have been arguing that to fight inflation we must curb growth in the by tight ening the Money restraining Public spending if Rais ing taxes to narrow the budget Defi Only last Trudeau was warn ing canadians to expect a Tough Bud but now the Economy seems to be shifting under his unemployment is the indicators of future activity with the United we Are probably already into a recess Ion and an austerity budget now might tip us from recession into but we have been fooled by mislead ing fluctuations in the indicators in the and it is not yet certain that a recession has we probably ought to wait a Little before deciding How to shift the policy such uncertainty does deter the opposition parties in the commons whose interest is in politics rather than for a budget is an Opportunity to focus Public attention on the governments to mobilize the anger at High interest rising prices and a employ in the shares the oppositions enthusiasm for a budget is a major news a Story which deals with matters close to the pocketbook interests of the there is always an excited buildup to budget with the opposition de manding action this Day an the press speculating about possible changes in it is now More than a year since the last and so we Are due for regardless of whether it is an appropriate time for policy this Maceachen must put on the traditional new pair of shoes in the custom seems to be fading and do his stuff in the my bet is that there will be no major policy Maceachen natural instinct to be cautious will be reinforced by the uncertainty of the Circum but he is also a Crafty Politi and so he will make it appear that he is doing great Deal there will be numerous Small aiding a few closing a few tax Loop adjusting repeating the intention to negotiate a better fiscal Deal with the and predicting a lower with even greater 1 can forecast the reaction of the opposition too Little to late a do nothing budget a cruel blow to suffering canadians an economic after they say those things after every come the new year when the eco nomic Outlook is we May have a min budget to make some real changes in so regularly on television whenever the1 Csc decides to recall More booming Days in the few in opposition to Macmaster miss an Opportunity to remind visitors that pre Mier Lyon did not know about the decline in the towns population when he arrived earlier this year to attend the Western premiers the Premier has made no similar goofs during this election mainly because he has not visited the if he it is Likely to be a Brief with a strike in conservatives fear that the Premier would become th6 target of the anger Felt against the nip Leader Howard Pawley has made one visit to the oddly both new democrats and conservatives claim they made gains As a result of his both groups say they Hope he returns before election Liberal too although the main election Battle will be Between Macmaster and Ash Thompson has a Liberal candidate he is an employment supervisor with International by Hen it would be a fair comment to say that he is after what Northern liberals Call the identifiable it is Small enough that Thompsons City Doug can act As the Liberal Campaign manager without ruffling a single in two of the three elections held since the constituency of Thompson was Liber als polled less than 900 in 1973 the Liberal Blair John received but the total reflected More the fact that John Ston was one of the original doctors in the Community than his party Affili new democrats have taken the seat first when Joe who catapulted himself to Fame camping on the legislature Steps to protest against Cabinet Defeated conservative Tom Farrell in 1969 by 936 the nip won again in the year Johnson ran up the Liberal that year new Democrat Ken Dillen beat the conservative Candi Anna by 262 in when Ken Macmaster be came the conservative he strike settlement rejection will make Ken Macmasters reelection More won the seat from Dillen by the number of eligible voters has dropped since first because the towns population which was already declining dropped by another to its present and then dropped again when strike started seven weeks both party estimates agree that the strike has resulted in fewer voters being around than would have been the Case without the work both major parties say they have suffered potential losses from this it is the one that could easily continue beyond Christmas and even into next that is turning values upside Down in the recent announcement by Inco that it will spend millions replacing its dwindling open pit operation has been received with mixed there was general Relief at the because it indicated that the capital was available and had not been siphoned off by the company Ontario and it squelched rumours that the operation might be phased out at the same there was the feeling expressed that the company had the Money to dig a Hole in the but not the Money to reach an acceptable at the effects of the strike on an isolated rather than Normal will affect the Community selection of a representative to Send to More focus on Page 8 Australia has not dropped metric system the bureaucrats think that the fight Over metric is finished and done they have the Law on their and the Law is a powerful but the reaction to a recent column on austra Lias decision to allow other forms of measurement Legal status proved that Many canadians Are still concerned about efforts to eliminate the old in favor of the the pleasant thing about the Tele phone Calls that followed the Publica Tion of the column was that they without favourable to the australian to get things As some subsequent letters t t the editor the column did not say Australia had scrapped nor that it had switched Back to Imperial it said that Australia had allowed inches and arid pounds and to return As Legal along with centimetres and this new legality contrasts with can Adas metric conversion which is about to invade the grocery stores of this under the Cana Dian merchants Are liable to prosecution and fines if they dare to offer produce measured in any but metric one of the More interesting letters about the column came from Herb who lives on landside Street in he questioned ene part of Fred Cleverley the earlier the one that de scribed Canadas decision to measure such Large structures As houses in he that he had the notion that the Basic unit of measurement in the metric system was the a unit that was modified Down Ward by the use of Centi metres and and upward through the use of he said that to quote Large sizes in Millimetres seems he is it is in Case there Are any perhaps selected quotations from a letter from orly the chief agricultural Engineer of the Manitoba should once and for that Canadas entry into metric goes beyond metric into a world of measurements dictated and not Friesen writes it is surprising to Many people that Only one Basic unit is used in metric and that unit chosen is the millimetre a concern frequently expressed is that the numbers must be very and that it must be very difficult to visual ize actual sizes from a Blue Why dont we use Centi metres and dec metres As is common in parts of Europe one reason is that this would require the use of a Decimal Point for very Short lengths Dow thicknesses or for precise Mea a Decimal Point is easily and on working drawings could even become obliterate if both centimetres and Millimetres were used on a it would become necessary to identify each this would require the builder to remember not Only the num Ber but the unit As also it would take up a lot of space on drawings that Are in Many cases already overcrowd it would also require extra drafting time and increase drafting for the Benefit of Herb these Are the reasons Why Canadas metric madness extends to the Point where a barn designed by engineers of the metric persuasion Here is described As being by by doing the bureaucrats we overcome careless builders whose intelligence must reflect modern Educa and plans that Are inadvertently dropped into the mud on the building so that you do not confuse Friesen you should buy a tape measure that is marked in Millimetres d to d Friesen dated his letter 1981 09 which is bureaucrat Eze for this form of dating gained some popularity in the 1970s in the Manitoba when it became policy to confuse everyone except other Bureau it is no longer policy in Manito but is obviously still in modified in a free press staffer received a communication from that govern ments equivalent of Manitoba the Saskatchewan Power concerning her it is Worth in As of 1981 August your Power rates increased per your present Power Bill includes consumption at the new rate from August 01 and consumption at the old rate before that we have had to increase rates be cause of the rapidly increasing costs of providing Energy to our we Are faced with significant increases in Cost of interest on borrowed operating and maintenance Capi Tal costs for generating facilities and costs for building transmission and distribution the new Are Al most double those in effect in Manito another significant change in Saskatchewan is the dropping of discounts for More these in the form of lower kilowatt hour costs As consumption were established in As they were in Manito to encourage people to use electric now sask Power says for some time we have been moving to wards rates that better reflect the Cost to Supply now the last kilowatt hour costs the same As the will encourage you to save doonesbury Aumi my Stop for petes youre a give me ;