Winnipeg Free Press

Winnipeg Free Press (Newspaper) - May 10, 1985, Winnipeg, Manitoba Winnipeg free press May Page 7 focus Norrie says that the mayor should appoint the chairmen of standing committees in a revamped Loose fish run City by William Neville special to the free press with the City of Winnipeg re View act committee having now retired to consider what it has heard and what recommendations it wishes to some might argue that the issues before it Are now out court like Man and the committee will propose and the legislature will since neither proposing nor disposing is Likely to be concluded it is surely not amiss to try and encourage continuing Public discussion Over some of the issues that have been raised by the committee or by the various persons and groups who have appeared before to this the editorial de signing City government free May 3 represents an important contribution and May even be said to reflect some evolution in the free press View of at least one of the important questions before the editorial notes in a recent submission to the mayor Bill Norrie argues that the mayor should be empowered to appoint the chairmen of standing committees along with giving the mayor the Job of chairing the executive similar Reform the editorial also notes that councillor Bill Neville has pro posed approximately the same re form and that both the mayor and i would Transfer that appointive Power to the mayor alone they would not even give the Council a role in confirming the mayors with respect to my this is somewhat my sub Mission to the committee was silent on whether or not the mayors appointees should require the confirmation of though i did suggest that after some say six they might be subject to removal by in a Good Case could be made for Mak ing the mayors nominees subject to Council but an equally Good Case can be none the for giving to the mayor the sole Power to nominate so that if some or All of Nomi nees failed to get Council approval he would be required to attempt the task to As the editorial that Power to nominate would pass to Council once the mayors nominees had been would be to institutionalize a powerful incentive to reject the mayors nominees and would vitiate the whole Point of attempting to strengthen the executive on strengthening the executive authority on Council would be the primary Benefit of a change of this that it might incidentally remove the annual ritual in which councillors revert to the childhood practices of the Sandbox would also be a but a stronger executive would be the essential objective because it offers the Best Chance Chance no guarantees of a More coherent approach to policy and of greater and clearer accountability for the policy decisions taken by it is in this area that i am in disagreement with the mayors to and puzzled by what appears to be that taken by the free the editorial says Norrie stoutly opposes the formation of parties in civic the system he proposes would form a personal political machine in the hands of the the councillors who Are now responsible to shifting coalitions and to their electors would become responsible to one political that is not consistent with the kind of municipal democracy to which Winni Eggers Are accustomed my although this last statement is wonderfully ambiguous it is hard to believe that it can have been written with a straight a longstanding and recurrent theme in most criticisms of coun including free press is that under the existing system councillors Are not really bound by or responsible to shifting coalitions largely because they Are shifting and in consequence Are Able to shirk or avoid a Good measure of accountability to their it May be Worth considering closely Why and How that is on Many measures that come before councillors will have at least three opportunities to vote Community standing Council More on All but the simplest of recommendations May be broken into their component parts and voted on separately All mat ters Are subject to motions to Amend and All matters May be referred Back to some earlier stage in the in on a Given it is possible for any one councillor to vote yes at one stage and no at another to vote yes on some parts and no on others to vote for and against amendments depend ing on the to vote for or against a main motion and to do All of these things Over again when a matter is referred Back Down the Loose fish in a Council of Loose and Independent it is in to have covered every base and taken every conceivable position on every conceivable such random inconsistency and rampant opportunism Are but such flexibility is one of the benefits of Independence and few councillors Are immune to its nor is this councillors Are highly accessible and their conduct of Public Busi Ness the most visible of any level of they cannot take re Fuge in the principle of Cabinet Solidarity nor with fewer and fewer exceptions in an undertaking to be bound by a caucus this process is not with out its Virtues amongst other one has to do a lot of thinking for ones self in terms of consistency and account ability it leaves much to be de this municipal democracy to which Winni Eggers Are accuse it is for this reason though the mayor and i May agree on some desirable initial we apparently part company on what might reasonably be expected to flow from this limited by strengthening the mayor you create a stronger executive author Ity on then one has to accept the possibility As in numerous other legislative parties or groups will evolve in support of or in opposition to the policies that the executive pro in my cannot be legislated but unlike the i do not believe it either realistic or desirable to strengthen the office of the mayor without at last acknowledging in the Healthiest of might flow from that change and some kind of Munici pal party system might Well be the As i argued in my Brief to the changes of the kind Dis cussed Here presuppose that we will move to some real clarification of the desired role of the municipal government in the 1990s and beyond and in my beyond a review some thing Akin to a constitutional con Ference or conferences Between the City and the province May be the most sensible Way of address ing that question in an Environ ment which is constantly certainly if the municipal role is to be traditional and we will have far fewer policy issues to contend with and far less need for a Council equipped to play a major policy but in asking for substantially More Money from the As the mayor one infers that he sees a continuing growth in the policymaking role of if he is and i believe he we have to ask whether a Council composed largely of political Loose fish will discharge that policy nothing guarantees that the future will be like the but the past provides Good grounds for the if the City is to have an increased Respo Sibil is to make sure that we have a functioning political system Capa ble of discharging that responsibility William Neville is associate professor of political studies at the University of Manitoba and councillor for Tuxedo Heights Hatfield facing Strong opposition from his own party Fredericton after months of controversy and a devastating loss in a recent new Brunswick Premier Richard hat Field is fighting for his political this time he May cracks Are surfacing again in his caucus and local Riding associations Are calling for a leadership after the conservatives suffered a disastrous defeat last month in i new a tory stronghold for More than 30 Cabinet ministers Are afraid they Are going to lose their own seats in the next provincial which has to be called within two hat Fields voter support is at a dangerous while campaigning during the Riverview despite his Best candidates smile and hand was often snubbed by Stone faced this Hatfield sat Stone faced in the audience As the Vic Tori Atoique Riding association called for a leadership when Jean Maurice a senior Cabinet minister known As hat Fields French Rose to speak he was never before in his 15 years As Premier has Hatfield taken so much never before have conserva Tives been so concerned about their party Cabinet ministers receive stacks of mail every calling for the premiers lifelong tories have torn up their party membership party insiders say the party in More trouble than during the pre Miers marijuana trial and the sub sequent controversy created by charges that he provided and used cocaine with two University students in his Home in although new Brunswick conservatives have their backs up against the there May be nothing they can because their Constitution has no guidelines for leadership Catherine Clark in the maritime they can Only Hope that Hatfield will resign under the current but this a smiling Hatfield told reporters outside the House that he has no intention of stepping besides the internal the party biggest threat is new Liberal Leader Frank the 37yearold Chatham a Rookie la elected in is the dynamic politician that hat Field once 1 All eyes focused on the new opposition Leader As he took his seat in the House this while newspaper editorials documented tory although Mckenna is a newcomer to he has breathed new life into a party that has been criticized for its the leadership convention last weekend was also a successful pub Lic relations plus for the political problems pictures of Mckenna and former interim Leader Ray who lost his bid for the Liberal Leader made the front Page of Provin Cial newspapers beside stories of hat Fields political the tories had hoped the River View by election the week before the Liberal leadership convention would cripple the liberals with a Liberal Hubert 000vote Victory Over tory Scott Mac Gregor bolstered liberals As they went into one of their most important leadership conventions in with a provincial election loom the tories have a lot of work to do to pull their party Back As tory la Eric Kipping says solving the party leadership problems will take major it wont be smoothed Over by a or Richard Hatfield is fighting for his political Hawleys nuclear Resolution appears pointless it was such a typically Canadian that Resolution introduced by Premier Howard Pawley calling for the declaration from now Manitoba would like to be considered a nuclear weapons free it certainly fit the premiers own specifications for actions permissible Between now and the morning he is wakened by the lets have an to begin it did not Cost a As a there will be no fight with Vic it cannot be called the tories agreed to support with some reservations about whether it in the premiers new world of do More harm than it will certainly get All the peace Niks on thereby fitting the specification that any government action should take place Only if it is attractive to an identifiable Section of it does not really matter to the Premier whether these examples of naivety know what goes on in the it matters Only that they put their is in the right spot when the next election Day it has become possible for the Premier to talk about something that is noncontroversial and vote getting All at the same the big question is whether the Premier realizes that what he has done Means absolutely or whether he realizes that he is Only to begin with Manitoba is already a Uncle in Canada has been a zone Ever since we switched to the new f18 fighter and shipped the few nuclear warheads that did not fit its rockets Back to the from what we have been left with is an air plane that works so badly that we will have to rely on the to patrol As Well As defend our airspace until we get the kinks Fred Cleversey worked out a year or two but no nuclear then there is the Small matter of the administrative competence of the govern As speaker Jim Walding May put he uses the phrase whenever the govern ment is asked about anything that with delicate be separated from its direct the Premier should realize that putting nuclear weapons on Manitoba soil is some thing that will be if it Ever by the individuals we Send to not those we Send to even this Situa Tion makes the premiers Resolution some what less the people we sent to Ottawa have already decided that the whole of not Only will be a the Premier May consider his Resolution to be a bit of icing on a cake that has already been but since the decision is not one to be made provincially in any Why bother it May Appeal to some people because it is such a Canadian thing to from the very beginning of the nuclear age canadians have considered it quite proper to mine the uranium necessary to provide the nuclear fuel making quite a bit of Money in the they have always considered while it May be proper to provide the essential ingredient for the production of any Type of nuclear it is highly improper for a sworn to defend his to get his trigger Finger anywhere near something As dirty As a nuclear we have friends South of the Border who will do those dirty things for and wont mind a bit if we give them the Odd kick in the shins while they Are working on our remember How outraged we were by the involvement of our friends in Vietnam remember How we did our Best to help any among them who As we the Basic injustice of attempting to preserve the popu lation of a Small country which did not have our squeak clean morality of government from being overrun by those persuaded to improve that country lot by mass exec to be we were promised Only the the executions came in any remember How we fought to show our friends the error of their ways do we also remember just How much Money canadians individually and As Cor by building the helicopters that were used to fight that unholy War this is particularly Good to remember if we happen to notice that our peace Loving who wants Manitoba to remain a sees nothing wrong in Bristol aerospace employing Mani to bans to work on parts for the my possibly the Premier has heard president Ronald Reagan refer to this weapon As the it is also All right for to continue to employ Manitoban to work on the same it is accept Able for Manitoba Hydro to take dirty de Fence Money to study the effect of nuclear War on electrical it is the Canadian Resolution or there is no Way for Canada to opt out of a third world War should one geography has taken care of that and our sensible Choice to be a full partner in nato has Given us As much Protection As is perhaps not quite As much As we could have if we had not been so darned Canadian when the was determined to put the biggest nuclear targets in their highline bases at grand Forks and we could have agreed to spot them some where North of where we would not have become targets for what artillerymen have called shorts Ever since the first Boulder was loaded into the first since we did it May be comforting to some that we have agreed to accept no nuclear weapons be they delivered by friends or doonesbury by Garry Trudeau leu we you know ;