Winnipeg Free Press

Winnipeg Free Press (Newspaper) - October 5, 1985, Winnipeg, Manitoba Winnipeg free october 1985 Winnipeg free press Freedom of Trade Liberty of religion Equality of civil rights drowning in trivia r1 Fps n published seven Days a week at 300 Carlton Winnipeg r3c 3c1 by Canadian newspapers company limited Telephone 9439331 Winnipeg free press est 1872 Winnipeg Tribune est 1890 Donald Nicol publisher John Dafoe editorial Page editor Murray Burt managing editor Rudy Redekop controller a member of the Manitoba press Council the Mulroney government is drowning in a sea of it has launched Canada into its most significant Trade initiative in a decade negotiations for a free Trade arrangement with the United it has embarked on a substantial and controversial change in social pro it is trying to preserve the reputation of Cana Das banking it is nursing along an Economy which shows some hopeful signs of and what Are they All talking about in Ottawa these Days they Are talking about what Jerry the National director of the progressive conservative told to Brian Mulron yes staff about an ramp investigation of communications minister Marcel assess election spending and which of his versions of events was the truth d what former fisheries minister John Eraser said to the prime ministers staff about Rotten tuna and which of his versions of the events is to be believed what conservative my Fred Mccain told the progressive conservative party caucus about the tuna and which of his stories was the right one what Suzanne Blai Grenier was doing in Helsinki and Leningrad last none of these issues has any serious significance for the Public apart from what they demonstrate about the competence and character of those in Power today in but there is a kind of Gresham Law of politics which decrees that political gossip will always drive out political Ottawa is not going to get serious again until his staff and his Cabinet Stop tripping Over their own the prime minister can look for places to Lay the blame for this trivialization of parliament an opposition party that seeks for scandal to conceal its own Lack of policies and principles news Media which find it easier and Nofe popular to Deal with personal Pec Dillos than great issues of Public the real lies directly at the feet of the prime his his his party and his personal the reason he and his government Are being nibbled to death by Petty scandals today is Ever since taking office More than a year they have displayed s fundamental Lack of seriousness about their the prime ministers staff appears to believe that its chief duty is to keep the image the hews managed and the Public manipulated and some of his colleagues seem to think that appointment to the Cabinet has Given them the keys to the the prime minister has encouraged this Lack of seriousness by his casual use of by his appointment of personal cronies to senior positions and by his rhetorical style which can too often produce Bravura variations on the truth without Ever settling on a simple there Are any number of ministers in the Mulroney Cabinet Ever since the have devoted themselves steadfastly and seriously to carrying out their they have every right to feel utter frustration Over the circus atmosphere which has come to surround some of their their Leader and his there Are serious actions which the government must take Over the next few there Are serious issues to be but parliament is not going to get serious until the prime minister most canadians will find themselves observing the Ottawa circus and wondering whether to laugh or still More at the top the Winnipeg City Council has shown the same Lack of by authorizing massive pay increases for its top civil As the Federal government has shown by its proposals to increase substantially the already generous salaries of Federal the City Council members obviously have no understanding of the course they have set in establishing different standards for the treatment of employees depending on whether they Are at the top or at the when the Council members treatment of their own finances is thrown into the including salary increases almost As generous As those now handed out to the senior bureaucrats plus pension benefits that Are hard to find anywhere the Only possible Public reaction is the cites top As a result of the most recent will receive increases of As much As 18 per cent Over three in some cases increases that will add a year to salaries that Are already High by any measuring the argument put Forward in support of the increases is that the top bureaucrats in Winnipeg do not have pay parity with those in other cities of similar size if the situation they will the City Council thought otherwise when its fire fighters sought parity with their counterparts in Vancou then it was argued that Winnipeg could not be compared with Vancouver because the existence of the Timber Industry on the West coast made such car Mari sons nor could comparisons be made with cities in Alberta or because Winnipeg conditions were Winnipeg police officers were Given the same argument when they wanted parity with other the argument makes the idea of establishing wages in one City simply because of Levels in other cities is difficult to because of the Many variables that would have to be worked into the parity yet this is exactly what the City Council is arguing in its decision to raise the salaries of its top it is the argument that was put Forward by the provincial government in its most recent increases awarded its top civil the City Council earlier limited wage increases for its Lowe level employees to three per cent this the councillors was All the taxpayers could be reasonably asked to then came the question of increases for the councillors somehow the taxpayers were considered Able to for this increases of per in the private workers have found their wage increases severely limited by general economic Condi in the private managers have discovered for the most they Are caught in the same economic in the unreal world of where income is determined by it has now been determined that those at the Bottom of the ladder get three per those supposedly in control get and for those at the top the sky is the it is a decision guaranteed to produce future nothing to snicker at the Canadian armed forces will have to clarify the status of the wives of their members who because of department to be living on forces in today world of constitutional these individual canadians can no longer be As the generals seem to consider As Only extensions of their wives should not be governed by the code of service discipline or deprived of the rights they would have if Only their addresses were it is not enough for government members to snicker at the or for a minister to make ill considered remarks about the legality of housewares service wives Are canadians who Are not members of the armed forces and should not be subjected to the same terms of employment As those agreed to by their what is really needed in the situation is some common what has taken place to cause the grievances appears to be a series of colonel Blimp like decisions on some pretty realistic service regulations Are designed to separate the military from the political service personnel Are allowed to but not to Campaign on it is realistic to expect the wives of servicemen to abide by this no Campaign Rule when they Are on department wives should be prohibited from taking a personal part in the political they should be Able to do so without the fear that their husbands careers will there appears to be no sensible reason Why members of a Community should be permitted a Community newsletter Only if the commanding officer reads and approves its there is no reason Why members of a Community should not have Access to the Normal process of collecting signatures on a petition in order to bring official attention to either real or what is needed is a initiated by to bring Canadas military into today neither the nor the senior military should assume that by enlisting in his country a Canadian undertakes to control the activity of his political or after the first world the Canadian army restored its cavalry ignoring the fact that the machine gun had made them throughout the 1930s Canadian militiamen drove their farm trucks during the but on Parade mounted up to train to defend their in the matter of wives the Canadian forces clinging to its cavalry once editorials gallery Phil Mallette chickens from outer space by Christopher Dafoe special to the free press As a notorious food i have never been a great fan of Kentucky Fried but some of my Best friends Tell me that it is out of this there May be More truth than poetry to that claim if certain plans now being formulated Are actually carried untold billions have been spent in recent years establishing a human foothold in outer Many of us have from time to what actual benefits might be derived from All this expensive a than transmitting Dallas across continents and shoot ing Down a few russian missiles with part of the great question was answered last week when it was revealed that the people who give us Sanders Fried Chicken Are look ing into the possibility of raising chickens in outer bold dream the celestial Chicken farm is Only a bold dream at the but sometime next year the exact Date remains top secret Ameri can astronauts will conduct experiments with eggs during one of their expensive space observers around the world have expressed astonishment Over the bold plan to produce Fried Chicken in outer the i am Are preparing a letter of protest and Mikhail according to has called in the ambassador to complain about the americans attempt to up the Ante on the very eve of Summit Star wars was bad the soviet Leader is said to have but Chicken in space is the last according to some the Sanders project is seen by the russians As an american attempt to flood the third world with Fried it is not yet known whether the russians intend to but president Ronald Reagan is expected to announce at his next news conference that the has been producing Erogies in space for several it is said that the president will Tell newsmen that the simply had to overcome what he Calls the fast food Ramsbottom of the Institute for strategic studies in Points out that recent space experiments revealed that coca cola does not lose its fizz during weightless after he we should have anticipated the Fried Chicken space spuds there have been mixed reactions to the news that the Sanders people May raise chickens in outer hundreds of orders for space Chicken with Fries have already been received from Homes across the and the Republic of Ireland is said to be looking into the feasibility of growing what the Irish president has termed space but Washington insiders claim that americans will probably have to wait a few years for Home delivery and it has been suggested that the potato Concession is More Likely to go to Idaho interests than to the protest meetings have already been called in environmentalists have warned that the project could have dire consequences for the human race and the planet we live think of the waste disposal a spokesman for friends of the told a news conference in London this we Are ing about millions of those chickens will be doing their business up there on a grand if they dump it in space we could get a serious variation on the greenhouse on the other it might make acid rain look like a bless serious threat the have charged that the plans to dump Chicken droppings Over we regard this As a very serious threat to soviet a Krem Lin spokesman said this and we warn the americans that we already have an effective Means of if one drop of Chicken shit Falls on Moscow we will not be responsible for the consequences to president Reagan this week shrugged off the soviet its just a Load of Chicken Feath he told Many of Sanders rivals have called Washington de manding a piece of the the makers of Chicken a Nugget have described the Sanders project As an example of government mayor while the manufacturer of a popular Chicke Burger has threatened to hand Over its recipe for secret sauce to the russians if their firm is not the project appeared to suffer a setback late this when it was revealed that chickens and roosters experienced difficulty in mating during recent weightlessness experiments at Nasa the according to inside kept falling newfound Landers agree the jokes on them Newfoundland is hailed As a Happy province As a casual visitor there i indeed found it to be relaxed and delightful the Captain of a boat sailing in splendid Bonne Bay had his hand bandaged As a result of a recent i might lose a he explained without a Trace of it is this characteristic of making the Best of things and an ability to laugh at themselves that makes newfound Landers a Down to Earth nothing faces the at Rocky 18 tourists dropped in suddenly at the modest Parsons not to a walk along the seashore was we returned to sparkling tables with a hot vegetable and meat soup drawn from whatever was available in the fresh crab and other the tarts were the Deli Cacy of the the prize bake Apple Clou Berry topped with Dor set newfound Landers can do things simply with they Are also famous for their humor and their capacity of being the butt of jokes is it is considered fair game across Canada to ridicule what i found surprising is that they Tell the same Cape marys seabird Sanctuary Avalon Region kind of deprecating jokes on i get the impression that they perpetuate the myth of a unsophisticated people As a tourist everyone tells jokes on a anglican minister told me about the Newfie retiring after a sojourn in the he asked a Friend at Gander do you have any pornographic literature the Friend replied i dont even have a another one is about two newbies buying a car in Toronto who told the dealer they wanted something i have just the right said the but it Doest have a reverse replied the newbies its no were not coming an official in the ministry of Cul Ture says the jokes Are always with out scorn and that they Are accepted with Good Shannie Deputy mayor of an urbane politician with integrity and a social finds the Newfie jokes insulting and they impart the impression that newfound Landers Are limited and in her extensive travels across Canada people will say you cant really be a you must be someone else Val Werier the expectation is that she cannot express that she must have false Teeth because of malnutrition and that she dressed Duff is a Bona fide gracious and without Newfoundland has fallen on hard times because of the severe decline in the Cornerstones of the econ and in the past million has been spent on welfare in a province with a population of less than that of the unemployment rate is a devastating 27 per in some communities the rate is 88 per but the newbies Are extremely they Are they have Learned to work the says one some will work on a Job Long enough to get an unemployment insurance its a form of work an intuitive Way of newfound Landers using the system for their own Bene in the hinterland where Little Cash flows into Small there is a fair amount of incomes May be but the Standard of living is on a much Many newbies Are Multi skilled and can put their hands to plumbing and electrical they also fish for the table and Cut Wood for there Are those faced by the dreadful Prospect of losing As at Corner Brook where 49 were Dis missed at the paper their jobs Are gone newfound Landers perhaps Are bet Ter equipped to face the knocks in life because of their deep Strong family and a sense of the extended family thrives and senior citizens Homes Are a they come Back like homing pigeons if theres any says one they affectionately Call the is land the Over a Century Newfoundland sailors who died at sea were salted in chests and taken Home for contrary to the common practice of casting the dead to the gregarious and newbies Are also or is it a Pride of their Long and tumultuous history people from Canada Are main Landers or from up or they May be referred to As Cofas come from still it has a cosmopolitan Heri Tage which persists today in a store in where the signs Are in japanese and strangers Are the police carry no guns in a Mea sure of the civilized character of this Johns takes its religion and grog it is reputed to have More churches and bars than any other Centre in North America for its according to a local history water diminutive com pared to Portage is said to have 120 is there a symbiotic relationship Between these two in propelling patronage to each other newbies love of fun is so infectious that it inspires main Landers to Heights of who in his craziest moment would dream of kissing a cod on the Mouth that is what we did at one Soiree when everyone was enrolled in the Royal order of screech is the local maybe it is the Newfie Way of getting even with the there is a new joke making the what is the Best definition of stunned answer a main Lander who kisses a ;