Winnipeg Free Press

Winnipeg Free Press (Newspaper) - January 16, 1985, Winnipeg, Manitoba Winnipeg free press january Page i focus Ottawa is the Canadian political system currently going through a cataclysmic one that is seeing the liberals go into Lon term eclipse As a major Force in Canad an political life that is a question that even ardent liberals have to ask themselves these what with their banishment to just about rum group standing in the House of their disappearance As a significant presence in most Canadian and i with indications that the nip is pulling ahead in the Public opinion the answer is probably but Only if the rejuvenation process begins there is a feeling among Many close observers that 1985 could be the year that makes or Breaks the this in a today caucus session at nearby que Liberal parliamentarians were hoping to take one important step in that renewal after two listless months in where they managed on most Days to coast in the Liberal caucus met behind closed doors to arrive at some policy positions positions which some people Hope will have something in them that is fresh and party activists Are working on a Speede Dup timetable to bring on the ideas that can prod uce a new contemporary Liberal in two leading Reform liberals Are in the throes of launching a with a hoped for March publication to put Forward contemporary small1 lib eral seeks new ideas creditor Blair a for Mer Liberal party director and longtime critic of Pierre Elliott has teamed up with party intellectual and former my Cla Deandre Lachance on the de As it is has been planned As a popu Lar and seeks innovative ideas on which to build a Liberal party in the to Williams considerable sur those ideas articles for his planned journal exist in he agrees that such a journal conceivably could provide some what the same kind of inspiration that the legendary Kingston con Ference of Liberal thinkers did for the party Back in he suggests that discussion local Axworthy left and Lachance liberals cannot wait two years to Chart new policies and new grits need to set out new policy Joan Cohen Ottawa editor and might pick things up from he there Are Al ready groups starting to ideas starting to far out of Public View and Williams suggests that gatherings like these could Spring up across the laying a groundwork for a party Wishful thinking for per but Williams is among the liberals who Are looking for an More spontaneous Road to party renewal than the formal policy conference promised for late he is also one of the liberals who believe that the party has Only a year to begin showing signs of new life and heading eastward for the caucus Lloyd Axworthy had some strikingly similar he too was in search of ideas for a revitalized noting that Canadas assorted think tanks the Howe inst British columbian Fraser insist Ute and others represent a or at least Market oriented perspective on National he hoped to get caucus support for or thin tank that would explore issues from a Liberal per this perspective would accommodate concerns about social jus Tice that Are normally absent from the studies that emphasize marketplace he suggests the Liberal approach to unemployment insurance is fairer to people but by providing adjustment As removes some of the fearful aspects from economic so that people Are less Likely to resist like Axworthy says the policy discussions he has in mind cannot be put off for two in the Axworthy is pressing his caucus to prepare itself for such events As the first ministers economic the National economic budget and the Spring and to take a fresh hard look at an assortment of matters related to economic growth matters where the lib eral signals were blurred or inconclusive in the Trudeau Angus the Winnipeg poll Ster who is a sometimes adviser to the liberals and one of the More persuasive commentators on the political presents a critical argument on the need for some haste on the policy Reid sees the conservatives con fronting two troublesome issues sooner than might once have been and with that facing the likelihood of a 10 or 15 percentage Point drop in the from their recent 60percent the first a question of he says involves the current ruckus Over advertising and the recent patronage suddenly they Are beginning to look very much like the Liber als the Promise of the Stephen Lewis appointment As ambassador to the United that the Mulroney government would bring a clean is starting to be if voters decide it is business As usual in Ottawa the tories stand to lose 10 Points in their opinion poll the government will also lose Points on the question of sub and they Are leaving the Public with the impression that they do not know what they Are he talks about Brian Mulroney Riding North on a South bound horse refers to the confusion generated by Mulroney Over social Canada relations and the is who will pick up the Points dropped by the what concerns Reid is that the which does offer some will get the defectors and having picked up Points in the they will begin to get in creased attention from the press and with the result that the gains will be disastrous if the electorate is volatile in this which Means it is mind Lessly moving with the the effect could be disastrous for the Liberal if it is not ready with its own following this it looks like the prospective political upheaval that Many talk about and Hal expect could come without any deep examination of political values and what confronts the of Are what Reid describes As organizational impediments the Lack of a presence at the political level in much of the top heavy situation in where the presence of a Bunch of Trudeau activists in the Senate May be crowding or supplant the new blood that should be flowing into the the suggests is that the time May be More Ripe than Ever for but the party is not in a position to exploit the Opportunity that is about to open up for and still we live in intensely interesting Canada a Leader in aiding refugees by Robert Jackson special to the free press Pant Thailand As canadians celebrated the end of an old year and the beginning of a new thousands of desperate civilians streamed into Camps on the thai the renewed vietnamese offensive against cambodian rebel Headquarters has been sustained and there Are two types of those on the Border contain both military rebels and fur ther inside Thailand Are in resettlement Camps for those already being processed to both types of Camps Are already brim Ming with laotian and cambodian refugees and displaced persons who Hope to escape and build a new the plight of these people has already had its Brief moment in the consciences of the More privileged of the they Are slowly being forgotten because of compassion the As is becoming hardened by the sight of vast scale human Canada is in the forefront of those countries which provide new Home lands for these the governments policies have been both sensitive and and the people administering them de serve much every Effort must be made to prevent these poli cies from being approximately refugees and displaced persons Are already lodged in resettlement Camps in Eastern these Camps Are assisted by the United nations High commission for refugees their population is grow ing at a rate faster than their num Bers can be repatriated or reset treacherous route the Border Camps too Are grow according to United nations Border Relief operations chief David More than Khmer refugees have fled to thai land since Hanoi launched its dry season offensive against the Resis Tance forces in and about 200 a month from Vietnam continue to trickle in via the Treach Erous cambodian Overland there Are approximately khmers in various factions fighting among themselves and with the Viet Many Are in the Camps administered by the thai aided by the red while the vast majority of them want to stay and win Back control of their Many Are desperate to reach the in resettlement Camps and find a new laotians As both for political and economic find ways to reach these while some Are clearly political refugees wanting to escape from communist indoctrination or conscription Many others Hope Only to receive food and shelter and have no abiding desire to leave this part of the the thais Are caught in the Middle of this their fragile econ omy cannot absorb the costs of sup porting the displaced while generally they have been prepared to facilitate the resettlement pro they regard the new Waves of immigrants As their policy of humane deterrence is to allow no further admittance to the in Camps and encourage illegal Immi Grants to return to their own coun counting the Early resettlement almost half a million refugees and displaced indochinese have already been helped to find Homes most have gone to the United France or the Canadian record is particularly Canada the second largest number of people from this in Canada showed a 28 per cent the largest of any resettlement this approximately will make their new Homes in for Many of Canada is the last Hope because it offers a degree of open selection unlike any other virtually All other nations require candidates to have connections in the High Point while some difficulties and delays persist in the Canadian system be cause of the need for federa Provin Cial coordination Over health and immigration the pro on the is a High Point in Canadian foreign there Are Many difficult moral dilemmas for policy makers in this for on rare Occa Sions handicapped displaced persons have been refused entry for health reasons and separated from their who were Canada does take a few handicapped but some in officials and volunteers suggest that we should join the ten plus club of countries which take a minimum of ten Handi capped people compassion fatigue is a phenomenon dreaded by those who work for humanitarian unfortunate it already seems to have set in Over in the Circum Canadian government policy to keep the number of refugees constant and even increase them this year must be recognized and too Many refugees populist parties May be political anachronism when former tory Doug Edmond son boasts about his new righting populist party forming the govern ment after the next provincial elec he has Western Canadian his tory on his protest parties used to be the Rule in the four Western Mani Toba and Alberta had Farmer govern ments in the 1920s and social credit came from nowhere to government in Alberta in and is still in Power in Saskatchewan spawned the cooperative common wealth now the Edmondson Hopes he can parlay the overwhelming Public opposition to the French defectors from both major parties and the creditable showing of the quasi sep artist confederation of regions party in last septembers Federal election into a potent new Force in Manitoba but changing times May Render historical precedents according to Greg director of the University of Manitoba Institute for social and economic re the earlier protest parties All sprang from economic grievances railroads and on theother the new Mani Toba party stands for Little beyond opposition to the French although Edmondson says it also objects to building the Limestone generating station and to the tory nip Alliance to recover Manitoba loss of million in a party needs a More Complete social and economic position to at Frances Russell tract says Mason i think this new party is going to have difficulty taking positions on major issues such As the its hard to believe that the people who were the basis for grassroots the anti French coalition which sprang up last Winter have the same views in universality of social programs and medicare As Russ Doern and Herb Schulz the two former new democrats who Are helping Edmondson create the new Mason Points out that Prairie society in the 1920s and 1930s was very different from protest movements depend on personal contacts and the concerns of Small they have a hard time in the mass politics of the modern Mason that so called single Issue constituencies have become the new phenomenon of latter 20th Century political single Issue politics arises from the fact Many people dont want to Dea with the complexities of govern ment and find it easier to rationalize their political attitudes around one or two issues that concern such As abortion or but the majority of voters still choose among the parties based on image and a perception of their stands on a wide Range of the electorate May have opinions on single but most voters dont base their decision on one Mason Doest discount Edmond sons party its ran second in three constituencies and took per cent of the popular vote in Manitoba in last septembers Federal they could take eight to 10 per cent of the vote in a provincial and if their vote is concentrated they could pick up a seat or but Over the Long in either the Issue which created them or one of the main political parties moves to occupy their that already May have the provincial unlike their Federal fought the Dps proposals on the French Lan Guage to the Point of rupturing the parliamentary but Edmondson his party presence is All that is forcing the tories to maintain their oppose they be in bed with the nip on were All that keeping them Filmon admits that his party language stand is the difference be tween Cors Federal performance and the new party provincial pros i dont see a comparable Situa Tion Filmon All three parties sup ported the language but the conservatives agreed with the views of a majority of Filmon wont tip his hand about his party strategy when the supreme court rules on the language he says his party has shown in the past that we abide by court but he leaves the door ajar to disagree with the judge ment by pointing out the supreme court can now go beyond simply interpreting the Law to imposing that a new Situa Filmon accepts masons Survey results which show that 75 per cent of Cors september 4 supporters were the party did Best in the Southwest Manitoba tory the nip dismisses Edmond sons nip provincial Secretary Ron Casaluce says Cor will merely reduce the tories massive 70 to 80 per cent Victory margins in the at the very it might affect the outcome in one or two such As he held by tory House Leader Harry was a focus of anti French feeling last Edmonison that the nip has As much to fear from him As do the he claims four More nip Las and one tory la May be ready to jump on the fact of the matter there Are More right wingers in the nip than there Are in the conserva Edmondson doonesbury by Garry Trudeau stick a in6 ha5al i loft idea of tahn6 two them Philosophi Cally the morally awbyfusin6 them 70 of political whajihopb1d6bt 15 a compassionate sensibility of Penlight what if you i ill pull f ;