Winnipeg Free Press

Winnipeg Free Press (Newspaper) - May 16, 1985, Winnipeg, Manitoba Winnipeg free press May Page 7 Ocus economists set out Case for free Trade fears of domination Are exaggerated the time 1984 that 1 contemplated the present says Richard Lipsey in the preface to his important Examina Tion of Canadas Trade i Felt although t would be a voice crying in the 1 had a duty As a Canadian to do what 1 could to sound the alarm that status quo policies would subject our country to and economic perhaps Canadas most respected academic wrote the study in collaboration with the Howe institutes senior policy analyst Murray the two were in for a huge sur which to All appear ances was shared by Canadas Trade minister Jim Kelleher As he has consulted people across the country about Canadas Trade of instead of being two and futile voices crying in the says we soon found ourselves members of a Large chorus calling for a significant liberalization of our trading relations with the United critical messages his Book has two but critical messages for our Politi Cal move or the remarkable Opportunity open to Canada today to achieve a Trade agreement will have fur go for a full free Trade pact and negotiate exemptions at the bar gaining there is a serious danger in starting negotiations with Lessith incomplete free Trade on the if the negotiators Start with something the decision on what to include will be subject to political decisions before the bargaining table is Ever and the bar gaining will very probably Back off the Lipsey should be to obtain Freedom of Access for each country output to the others Market but on a timetable that allows ample time for the Neces sary Kelleher is scheduled to put his Trade proposals before Cabinet Joan Cohen Ottawa editor in if there is uncertainty Felt by Ottawa observers about the out it centres not on Kelleher so much As on the visibly timid and whether he will have the gumption to go after a full open trading much of the value of Lipsys at this Point in the is that it confronts the questions of our vulnerability to the in a situation of heightened Trade testing the assorted issues on the basis of historical hard and other analytical Lipsey shows that these concerns can be put to thoughtful and if the findings Are not always unassailable they Are at least per current concern yet before getting to that Analy Lipsey deals with a question that underlies much of the current what is in this for the he cites five including the suggestion that the 25mil lion Strong addition to the Market should not in itself be in and the suggestion that treat protected Trade and invest ment would give additional Security to the massive foreign investment More interesting is the fact that a free Trade agreement would demonstrate the continuing capacity to obtain further Trade Liber the he further would be viewed in eyes As a Model for Trade liberalization the fact that Washington truly regards it As a Model would be one Canadas greatest protections against being exploited at the bar gaining it would help protect against the Power of special interest groups who would want the pact to protect or enhance their special Lipsey suggests that Many canadians have withheld their sup port for a free Trade area because they fear it will Lead to this coun try being devoured by the giant next yet he argues that Many of the worries expressed turn out instead to be worries not about future changes but about the pres ent he invites his read ers to examine the base Case the situation which currently exists then the Likely would close economic association result in a political Union Lipsey it is hard to under stand the rationale of a process whereby a reduction of tariffs from an average rate of somewhere be tween five and 10 per cent to plus the elimination of some significant no Tariff barriers Tbs would Lead to political when we compare Trade barriers with those that have existed in the past Between Canada and the our two countries Are seen to be close to free Trade yet no one has identified a loss of political this argument is food for though the analogy is not the proposed new arrangement would have a bonding aspect not contained in the Gatt pacts which brought Down tariffs in the and would encompass 80 per cent of Canadian never achieved Lipsey further Points out that there is nothing in International experience to suggest that a High de Gree of Trade liberalization Between two countries leads to political Inte he suggests that such Inte Gration had been the goal of some of the fathers of the european comm but it had never been on the other Canadas political Independence would be because it would be less vulnerable to policy Lipsey goes on to argue that Richard Lipsey says free Trade with the can Only Benefit Canada in the canadians have not Given them selves the credit they deserve for their political arguing that it had participated in an Al most unparalleled test of its nationhood when it allowed Quebec to conduct a plebiscite on separa the resilience of Canadas institutions was never would Canada be Able to take an Independent line in foreign affairs in fact a free Trade agreement would prevent the from using commercial policy to express its disapproval of Canadian Initia Tives As it has been known to do what about Canadas image in the eyes of other nations a More Subtle Lipsey he adds after an initial pos treaty our perceived Independence from foreign policy would depend on How we conduct our foreign there is an Independence that has nothing to do with politics or economics the Independence of the the separateness of our those who fear a free Trade agree ment fear that the commercial bonding would ultimately make us Carbon copies of the quotes sociologist Seymour Lipsett As Demon Strating that canadians and Ameri cans Are divided by profound differences in attitudes on a Host of matters global defence the welfare Trust in the police and so two facts in our the differ ent ways in which our two countries achieved political and the timing of the main movement of foreign immigration 4 Are both reflected in different social he notes that the regions of the have retained their separate that the Irish retained their separate identities despite British they Are Strong we Lipsey sums up in dealing with this that Canadian Cul Ture is unique that the roots of its uniqueness Are set deep in the Canadian experience that this uniqueness will not be threatened by doing a bit More Trade with the United any More than it would be threatened by a Little More exposure to Ontario election shows problems with system by Anthony Westell special to the free press Ottawa democracy Means the Rule of the majority right the people choose their own govern ment of but not in or not for that anywhere else in the Ontario election proves once again that although we like to think we Are a our sys tem works in fact to subvert the wishes of the but we have become so accustomed to the system that we dont see How badly it there is the absurd Way in which our representatives Are elected in the by my Only 48 of the 125 members elected to the provincial legislature were actually the choices of the people that is to received More than 50 per cent of the vote in their the remaining 77 each got less than half the vote and were elected Only because the other two or three candidates in the constituency each got an even smaller proportion of the in other 77 maps were elected by 30 or 40 per cent of the electorate in the constituency 60 or 70 per cent of the voters would have preferred some other in metro Only six out of 36 maps have majority to put it in party Only 23 15 conservatives and 10 new democrats can be said to be the first Choice of the another View look at it another about 38 per cent of the people of Ontario voted 37 per cent conserva 24 per cent and one per cent for if that were trans lated into shares of seats in the the liberals would have 47 or the conservatives the nip and others one or we have the conservatives with the liberals with the nip with and others with in no Way can the legislature be said to be representative of the peo ple of it does not represent their wishes at the level of the constituency or say the while the system May not be wholly it the answer is of course that it does not work if by that we mean that it carries into action the will of the the nip was the least successful of the three major parties running in the yet now it holds the balance of Power in the legislature and is in a position to sell its support to whichever of the major parties will Promise to implement at least some nip one cannot blame nip Leader Bob Rae for insisting although the voters showed Little interest in nip poli those policies must now be at the top of the governments but one can and should blame the absurd system that permits such a travesty of Clear right contrary to much of what has been said and the voters of Ontario have not elected a government they have elected a and it is now the business of the Legisla in to choose a govern As the Premier in office and the head of the largest party in the Frank Miller clearly has a right to meet the new Legisla Ture and ask for its but if the legislature does not want to give that support that is to if the liberals and the new democrats vote together to deny Confidence in Premier Millers administration there is no reason on Earth Why there should be another the people have done their task by electing their represent and it is up to those representatives to get on with the business of if the conservatives cannot com Mand perhaps the liberals can ref maybe there should be a formal coalition Between one of the major parties and the nip to form a the parties might not like but it would be arrogant for them to Tell the people they have failed to elect a workable Legisla Ture and must try again in another election it is not the people who have failed to elect a but the parties who do not seem to want to accept the legislature Cho sen by the history that minority governments dont last and the people Are almost certain within a year or two to be put to the trouble of another in there have been five in the past 15 which is further evidence that the system simply int working in Reform of the electoral and Politi Cal system to make it More demo cratic should be at the top of the Agenda in it is not an Aca Demic or abstract Issue if we be Lieve in we must believe that without nothing else works very because the government does not understand the people and the people do not have Confidence in the we do not now have a real democracy in Toronto Star nip Bicker Over antinuclear Resolution it is sad that even when politicians have a common they Are incapable of agreeing about How to achieve that the concept of a nuclear War is even if one Side has More the process is so sophisticated that regardless of who fires the first sufficient warning would be provided for a counterattack and virtually no one would Twenty years films about such a disaster showed Beautiful people Drifting off into the Sunset to far away from the devastation or learning to survive and thrive in the new recent have portrayed the horrors of what May occur to those who Are not immediately killed a life worse than with increased efforts have accelerated to prevent that one symbolic measure was Howard Hawleys Resolution calling for the legislative Assen Bly to declare Manitoba As a nuclear reap on free zone As a signal of Manitoban desire for while the Premier acknowledged that the province could not single hand edly Stop the he believed through this Resolution we Are Able to state unequivocally that we believe it is time to that the people of Manitoba cannot and will not participate in any Way in the arms race or to the instability to world peace which the arms race has the Resolution May be a very Small but he believed unanimous support would provide a signal of concern and a desire for unfortunately there was no Way to eliminate political former new Democrat Henry Carroll opposed the trivia using of an important the minute politicians get the Issue becomes a matter of partisan he i rather hear the sincere voices i our Young people than the tiresome tirades of the under the dome Arlene Billinkoff on the other Gary speaking on the 40th anniversary of be said it was important that each one of us pledge our support to the goal of Ever lasting world declare strongly and forcefully our Abhorrence for nuclear War and our opposition to the continuing nuclear arms this did Little to accomplish that we should not be so said symbolism can never replace hard work and there fore he moved that All but the first paragraph of the premiers Resolution be deleted and the substitution of a motion calling for the Assembly to request the and in the name of All humanity to intensify their efforts to achieve Mutual and verifiable nuclear arms reduction through the Geneva did the tories not understand the purpose of the original Resolution responded new the notion that such a Declara Tion was a hollow gesture and a Mere Symbol missed the insisted Roland while the Call for total abandonment was he believed this declaration was one of the Steps required to achieve that recognizing the different he urged that debate not become lets find out if we can meld the two i think we can do that i think we must do Filmon should reconsider his amendment and bring it Back in a form which would not delete the intent of the original added Steve we have to support it the did not believe the nip approach was the Only peace can be secured through unilateral disarmament or noted Brian while the nip Resolution held out false Hopes that the declaration would somehow make people More the tory version acknowledged the Abhorrence of nuclear War and proposed something that might have some meaning without trivializing the its put Forward with the greatest of Phil Eyler insisted the amendment changed the emphasis and urged the tories to come Down from their parti san differences and support the future of rather than their own narrow on a More conciliatory Jerry Storie said he would support the tory motion if it were introduced but urged unanimous support for the nip Resolution although unanimity was nowhere to be Muriel Smith tried once pleading with All Las to set an example and Start working both resolutions were but she would vote against the tory one in its present if reintroduced As an Independent she was Likely to sup port would the tories take that action or were they determined to have their Way would the new democrats Bend was it possible to Combine the two messages with education minister Maureen Hemphill already talking about introducing a course on peace and disarmament issues into the and others stressing the need for a Strong Mili tary there appeared to be Little Middle some View the government Resolution As pointless since Canada in already a and have suggested that the province has no right to butt into something which is not within its the More cynical regard the Resolution As merely another vote getting Mea the Resolution May be All of but it is an Opportunity for those who Are concerned to express their Hopes for the that should be justification As Penner lets not abandon that Hope by looking for Little political i games to play on something As Central to the future of Man unfortunately the politicians were having difficulty achieving that doonesbury by Garry Trudeau Hoffy Levant pay for it wiooj515uii4 on pay carry Nice 2r ;