Winnipeg Free Press

Winnipeg Free Press (Newspaper) - April 13, 1984, Winnipeg, Manitoba Winnipeg free april 1984 7 Chretien style wows liberals honest approach makes a big Impressio by Frances Russell Energy minister Jean Chretien demonstrated again in Winnipeg wednesday evening Why he is Captur ing the if not the of delegates to the june Liberal Leader ship and if his chief John continues his Uncertain Chretien could end up with the what you see with Chretien is what i you except for one he has created problems for himself in his Home province of Quebec because he plays the Uncle Tom role portraying himself to englis Canadian audiences As the stereotype pea he is an unassuming a Man of few pretensions who shows himself to the Media and the Public alike As your neighbor next just an Ordinary yet he has held nearly every major Cabinet portfolio in the Federal gov from finance and the trea sury Board to Justice and Trade and so Chretien self deprecating description of himself As Lepetit Gar de int quite but it wows audiences every and the crowd of Over 900 who showed up to hear him in Winnipeg interrupted his speech frequently with applause and gave him a standing ovation at the Chretien is an powerful politician who knows the value of the common touch and the straight an even when he is being he manages to sound so genuine he silences his he alone among the major leadership Contes Tants has not fouled and that is perhaps because he is running on who and what he rather than on staking out some specific new direction for the party and it is at once his biggest asset and greatest it allows him to avoid the Pitfalls of Treasury Board president Don promising to franchise pet Ocanada Gas stations and thereby running afoul of Cabinet Solidarity and sounding suspiciously like a it also keeps him out of the morass of contradictions on language which has ensnared John Turner through an apparent pitch for Western but it leaves Chretien looking As though his government would be just More of the and not the fact he is a French Canadian trying to succeed a French is Chretien biggest problem with Liberal delegates who see their party trailing in the polls and want a Bright image to pull it Chretien is an impressive plat form the Winnipeg event was billed As a town Hall meeting and the Energy minister invited questions from the floor at the in both his speech and Chretien demonstrated his ability to work a More often than its the open Ness he shows to his audience and the Way he says things rather than what he says that make the biggest in at the end of the question a who said he had driven 250 Miles to get to see you before you become prime minister and wont be available any asked Chretien Why the Federal government gave so much Money to the Freshwater fish marketing Corpora Tion and so Little to the fishermen Chretien admitted he didst know much about the its one of the few Cabinet jobs i Haven then he asked the Man to give him his name and he would arrange a meeting in Ottawa for him with fisheries minister Pierre de you give me your come Down to Ottawa and ill Tell de Bane to come to my office and wont let him know youre already one of his staff members took the mans name while the audience a he deftly turned aside another questioner who wanted his support for the idea of apportioning parliamentary seats equally among in French and other i dont agree with Chretien that a quota system and i dont believe in in in fighting one myself i want to be a but some people say that because i come from the same prov Ince As the previous i cant do Chretien even appeared to win Over Winnipeg businessman John who is battling to bring White farm equipment to Manitoba from and sought the Energy ministers Chretien told him that when he was president of the Treasury he began the Federal governments program of de centralizing departments out of Otta i believe in decentralization and i have done if you have a Good let me know about it and i will help at the Buhler enthusiastically pumped Chretien hand and said the minister would have his Chretien was unspecific about what he would do for unemployed except to say he want doctrinaire on the deficit and because of his experience in could Promise stability and encourage More private the you have some Confidence in i even managed to get along with Al Berta and there not noted As a Strong Liberal crowd the government cant give everyone a a n y Many people think we have enough bureaucrats Chretien got his warmest response for his frequent and unabashed appeals to patriotism and his fervently expressed love of after three weeks of this Cam my love of Canada is even greater than it was the Cana Dian people have a new maturity Western Canada represents Chretien biggest Handicap is the liberals desire to give their party a new image before the election is the kind of society i the mix of people Here demonstrates that it is possible to be different and equal at the Canada is a different kind of it is possible for canadians to participate in All of but keep their own cultures and you can be what you Are and still be a the Energy minister got a laugh from the audience when he pledged to sweep you think that funny i have 250 cousins living in Alberta in called a but my father was born in new Hampshire and my Mother in Alber my Grandfather used to come and visit us every year after Harvest and we had a big we always knew when the crops were especially in the because those Grandfather come and there want a this kind of Homespun both Otomie masks an astute political his comments on the Manitoba language Issue were shrewd and i was very disappointed that the democratic process resolve Bells Are for calling members to not shipping them As a last weve sent it to the supreme you that what the people of Winnipeg voted for in that but now you hear from some of them that its not the right supreme in any civilized you must respect the Deci Sions of courts or else you have rights Are i dont like a society based on Manitoba was made a province with two official when you give rights to a you dont take them away from a majority you i have about 200 Anglo phones in my when Bill 101 came they even put up signs in their its that i told them i would stand by even if Only one and Many have which is a problem for me because they All vote for i have never supported Bill when rationality emotion appears and so does it happened Here and it was emotional in people wanted to fight the Battle you i wish Montcalm had but he he fell if id been id have wakened him up whats wrong with a few rights Here be comfortable with it cant Hurt Chretien likes to portray himself As an outsider to the Liberal Stab despite his 21 years in parliament he arrived in Ottawa unable to speak a word of and 17 years in he says he is a doer and and claims this will make a govern ment he Heads different from that of Pierre Elliott if Chretien were a fresh the outcome of the leadership race would probably not be in As it his political skill and straightforward style contrasted to the fumbles and contortions of his opponents May make him the party safest bet in the brazilians want direct elections by Peter Smith special to the free press april 25 is looming As one of the most significant dates in the recent history of brazilian on that Day the National Congress in Brasilia will vote on a Bill amending the Constitution so As to permit direct elections for presi Dent late this such a move would end definitively the 20year military control of the impending vote in Congress is the most significant brazilian As far As its citizens Are it occupies Public attention to a much greater degree than the enormous National debt or the grinding it has provoked Well organized demonstrations in several major monopolized political divided political parties and and Wor the on the current voting mechanism for president of Brazil is identical to that used in the United states it is also very much in the brazilian Trade voters elect an electoral whose members in turn elect the presi prior to the latter election was As symbolic As in the elec tors voted by and the result was never in after the military imposed a and Nei ther the popular nor electoral vote meant in recent the armed forces have been steadily returning government to the civilian Al lowing direct elections for political offices to which the military president previously had appointed in no less than six Levels of govern ment from municipal Assembly to Federal Senate were opened to direct the presidential election slated for november be in direct with a there will be no popular the electoral col whose membership was set in the 1982 will vote for the chief executive if party lines the candidate of the ruling social democratic party ads will emerge the ads convention thus becomes Crit whereas in the delegates will pick the party Standard the has decided according to polls that it wants to vote for the president in not wait until 1990 As the military and ads have the latter has been very Blunt one of the party senators said we won the 1982 picking the pres ident in 1984 was one of the spoils of that and we mean to keep that sort of remark does not sit Well with most who Are clamor ing so far peacefully for a direct say in the the ads has three candidates run Ning hard for the the front runner is the a governor of Sao Paulo Paulo Salim he has concentrated on sowing up party elec and now seems sure of a majority at the his platform can Best be described As Middle the he would probably not win in a direct military leaders do not like his pop Listic but have pledged not to interfere with the selection the second ads candidate is trans port minister Mario a for Mer army president Joao Baptista Figueiredo probably prefers him because he represents but he is Well behind Maluf in delegates despite manipulating the equivalent of Transfer payments to Sway state Dele like he would not win if the vote were the third candidate is the Vic Epresi Aureliano although he governed effectively while Figueiredo had a heart operation a few years the president does not like clearly behind Maluf in Dele has broken with his chief and come out in favor of a direct he enjoys wide and could Well win a National the four opposition parties have All come out strongly for direct their leaders Are awaiting the result of this months vote before thinking about but much behind the scenes jockeying is going if the amendment As it probably will in its present Chaves might switch to the opposition he would bring some ads votes with perhaps enough to carry the electoral although this is the military is divided Over the but would rather put off a direct vote for a few officers Are very concerned about the trials of their Argentine and fear that Candi dates in a direct contest might Call for reprisals of a similar sort As a vote getting brazils still illegal communist parties have been very prominent in direct vote Demontra which worries Many Chaves has actively wooed the armed and boosted his chances As a president Figueiredo is at last trying to have some say in the Choice of his having done nothing about it until he even dithered briefly Over the direct elections but has come out strongly for the status quo in recent so the Battle lines Are and the Campaign Over direct elections is growing More intense every the military and most of the ads and executive Are opposed to the Amend ment the opposition a Rump of the ads and the overwhelming majority of the populace Are for in All likelihood there will be a for that is brazils it will take the form of a shortened term for the new president from two to four years instead of six and a direct vote for his the brazilian people have and forced the government to heed them an impressive step toward responsible government in turbulent latin Figueiredo opposes direct elections at this ski saving speech lacks new programs and people in the news generally pay much More attention than they should to the traditional speech from the throne than the and the information it con the speech produced by the Pawley government to open the third session of the 32nd legislature of the province of Manitoba makes this traditional treatment of the traditional speech a lot More difficult than Seldom in the matter of throne was so much work required by so Many to produce so in order to be Able to write about the speech without having to work late into the i availed myself of what is in the news As an embargoed the practice is to distribute the speech ahead of the time of its delivery in return for a Promise not to show it to anyone before it is it is a practice that has grown up in recognition of the difficulties of meeting news before i read i signed a Promise not to publish or otherwise divulge the contents of the speech before Fred Cleverley Justice Hall began Reading it in the after i read it i came to the conclusion that i could have promised never to divulge the contents and i would not have diminished the aggregate knowledge and Wisdom of Manito bans by one Jot or it is a ski saving designed to preserve whatever is left of the dignity of the unlike All past there is a Complete absence of figures and specific the last such speech prepared by Premier Pawley was read in More than 16 months it warned legislators they would be asked to provide certain sums of Money for specific they were for that million would be needed for the Home insulation and repair program and that which everyone knew would require an initial would be the legislators were told they would be asked to establish new departments in to allow a topic to sell life insurance and to pass a Law requiring every Motorist to use a Seatbelt and every motorcycle rider to Wear a they were not told they would be asked to entrench French language but they were warned of quite a bit of planned Legisla including the Seatbelt this according to the they will not be asked to do to talk about throughout this years speech Are peppered references to the Manitoba jobs and the part it will continue to play in longer term priorities for ensuring stability and growth in our this should give the Mem Bers a Chance to dust off their old particularly the argument Over whether the jobs fund has new Money or simply recycled departmental but the debate is not Likely to prolong the whoever wrote this years speech was so strapped for material that he even included a Promise to bring in a budget sometime during the and took up a few lines urging Farmers to buy crop insurance because of the Lack of Early moisture this How a Promise to bring in a which is surely a requirement of any govern ment that Calls a session of the Legisla Ture after its funds have run can be classified under the heading protect ing Public services for escapes the problem is Clear to anyone who has read a few throne speeches in the the government has run out of both Money and most probably in that in spite of having run out of and in spite of facing a Hal billion Dollar budget the government insists that control of the deficit must not be the single minded preoccupation of a government whose mandate is based on human on compassion and on caring about the condition and the future of fellow no matter what other troubles Are on its the Paw Ley government has not allowed its ideology to be threatened by the one reason the government is out of Money is that recent deficits have been too and that it takes so much of the Money it collects to pay interest that there is not As much left Over for other it is a problem the pre Mier shares with the Federal govern and one of the reasons and is not coming out of the recession As quickly As the United on a per capita we owe much More than the average Ameri we pay higher taxes and the taxes we paid Are already new programs need new and there is no new Money a situation where there is no Money and no ideas makes a lot of work for the perhaps this is on the last the writer has slipped into the style used for All the premiers it is a style that appears As if there is a comma missing from the writers making it Neces sary to use three dots to punctuate the Sharp it is a style which goes Down Well for a politician who has Little to say but who can make it sound like a it was not suited to the measured delivery which usually Marks a speech from the perhaps the writer should have added some notes such As Pound table or raise voice for Emp a to make up for the Lack of sub it is pretty hard to get excited about hearing while governments can provide leadership and encourage ment ultimately it is the people of Manitoba the working the Small business the and so Many others whose Dedica cooperation and Mutual support will determine our Success in expand ing our Economy and building a stronger and Sterling Lyon thought the last one was full of wind and Rabbit ;