Winnipeg Free Press

Winnipeg Free Press (Newspaper) - November 10, 1987, Winnipeg, Manitoba Winnipeg free press november focus Roy Romanow was the uncontested Choice of Saskatchewan nip As Leader now he must build party Unity Romanow takes the reins by Fred Cleverley Regina in choosing 48year old Roy Romanow As its the Saskatchewan new democratic party turned toward the politics of style and away from the politics of substance that kept it in Power for so it was As if who was unopposed for the Leader had managed to persuade the party that the Best Way of fighting the style politics of Saskatchewan Premier Grant Devine was with some style politics of its the which currently show the nip about 24 Points ahead of the governing give Romanow the same As he takes Over from Allan that Gary Filmon enjoyed when he assumed the leadership of the Manitoba conservatives in by All the Devine government is hanging on the attempting to survive politically after tamper ing with something unthinkable in in his acceptance speech Satur Romanow made it Clear that he does not intend to simply wait for the polls to carry him into office in the fall of when the election is Romanow has too much political experience to take this in pre leadership he said that popularity in the polls does not necessarily translate into getting the leadership was not quite As easy As it appeared on the there were some behind the scenes reasons Why Romanow got his Clear kick at the Saskatchewan new democrats did not want a pitched Battle Between the left and right wings of the party waged in a Public debate which would add to the ammunition pre Mier Devine uses so Well to fight the nip at the although Romanow will bring with him a wealth of political exp a pleasing personality and an easy Access to National Leader ship circles gained during his work on the Patria Tion of the Canadian he also brings with him the image of the Blakeney government in a government that had lost touch with its had run out of and had so buried itself in the business of running its Crown corporation toys that it missed entirely the grass roots revolution that was burning in nearly every Romanowsk biggest problem will be to determine just How far Back Ward he must take the party in search of Unity before he hoists his own sails and clears the gun decks for the expected 1990 he must allow some slippage in order to get Back the farm support that along with in but which did not return to the fold in when voters returned 25 new democrats to the Saskatchewan opening gun while Devine will set the Date of the it will be the new opposition leaders responsibility to fire the opening gun of the Cam the trick will be to get that gun into action at just the right preferably some time in and Vance of the issuance of election Romanow has been around Saskatchewan politics Long enough to appreciate Devines ability As an election there May be More bad news in Saskatchewan economic but the big guns have already been fired during the first year of Devines second the Saskatchewan drug plan has been in its place is a Pha Macare system similar to that in where Consumers pay up front for their Prescript and receive Back an 80 per cent rebate after a while this May seem fair to Mani to Saskatchewan used to paying a fee for each prescription no matter what the total the change is just Short of an heretical attack on Saskatchewan largest and most visible sacred the change is producing substantial savings to the province in drug As the new democrats were the Devine government was having a showdown with its it had just announced a ceiling on payments to doctors for the the at their an Nual convention in huffed and but they also agreed to work for free during the last few weeks of the fiscal the doctors were Only being the medi Cal profession knows Only too Well the real Cost of tangling with a Saskatchewan no mat Ter what its political Over during the next few Roy Romanow intends to travel the province to listen to ideas on How to improve the Quality of life without the resource Revenue Bonanza he enjoyed when he was last in gov he to sew up the rifts in the party he now so Romanow stalking the Bootstrap socialism that kept the party in Power from the Days of Tommy he talks of made in Saskatchewan solutions to prob that is Bootstrap socialism in its purest tug hard and the boots Start to come out of the apart from a heavier Reliance on Home resources Devine has Al ways touted the open for Busi approach Romanow thinks a lot like the Man he Hopes to remove from his first at tack in his acceptance speech was on the per capita debt he said was the main legacy of the five years of Devine roman who admits to being a fiscal did not mention that the debt grew in proportion to lost natural resource neither did he invite comparison with new democratic thinking such As in where the per capita debt is nearly triple that of for the time Romanow will preach cooperation rather than Unity rather than and rewards for hard work rather than this is All part of process for his own when Romanow decides it is time to fire the open ing shot of the next election Cam the Public will discover whether he has Many ideas that were not around when he tried for the leadership and lost 17 years or whether they were All used up during his time in the govern ment run by businessman Allan Romanow is not As supremely confident As he so often he is nicknamed the Prince of the Story goes that in every election Romanow he was on the Telephone to Headquarters with the message that he was and needed More like the boy who cried Wolf too his pleas in when he did were in if Romanow needs he will have to ask super ability he has a couple of things going for his party has a super ability to not too Many parties could put together an uncontested leadership produce More than and have them endure a Daylong pro Cess without As parties tend to destroy themselves while in one of the promises that elected Grant Devine in 1982 was the removal of the tax on Devine put that tax Back on last he will argue that it is not Back on for real Saskatchewan All a Saskatchewan Motorist has to do is to keep every make sure it shows the amount in and his licence plate and sometime next year bundle them All off to an army of new student government employees will audit the and refunds will go it is a classic bureaucratic recommendation to a politician who wants the Money but not the tax that produces five years Grant Devine would not have Given the idea the time of that he does now is one indicator that Roy Romanow May indeed be the next occupant of the Saskatchewan premiers separatism will not die with Levesque Montreal mourning was genuine and almost Universal last week As Quebec for one of its most illustrious Rene Levesque was suddenly felled at 65 by a massive heart Shock and sorrow marked the faces of the thousands who filed past the former premiers coffin in the old court House in tributes from All Over Canada flowed in for the Man who did not want to be a the Quebec government ordered a state funeral and buried him with full it seemed the right thing to even though Levesque had tried to take Canada apart and set up an Independent and had come dangerously close to succeeding when he was Premier from 1976 to All had been separatists could glorify Levesque he tried to secede federalists could absolve him because he so Rene Levesque went to his grave with everybody As a messianic Little Guy who had touched the soul was the soul of quebecois and As a creative rebel who had made con federation stronger by testing its there is a fair amount of mythology in All of Levesque was certainly a Man of his a profane pastor showing them How to be How to be Quebe How to keep the English Wolf from the but he was not a either of Quebec or of Cana especially not of which was Levesques name for an inde pendent Quebec nation associated equally with the rest of is technically Defeated but it is not in Milder in the idea permeates nearly All political thinking in there is no provincial party including Robert Bourassaw governing which contemplates a stronger con federation except in terms of a stronger in Levesques Sovereign Yasso Quebec would have had exclusive Power to make its own that was rejected by the people of Quebec in the 1980 referee James Stewart in Quebec Dum As it would certainly have been rejected by the people of Canada if they had been but since then the idea of Quebec having a kind of exclusive Power to make some of its own Laws has made the constitutional Accord of for which Quebec rejected but which applies leaves it to the Quebec legislature alone to decide if and when children of English Mother Tongue will be admitted to Quebec English All prov inces Are obliged by the charter to provide minority language Educa Tion to children of citizens who have received their education in English in but Only Quebec is exempt from the Mother Tongue the Meech Lake constitutional a recognizing Quebec As a Dis Tinct society to be preserved and promoted by the Quebec government and could give the prov Ince another Little push toward exclusive any such of would have to be compatible with the Cana Dian Constitution and if by the supreme court of but the opportunities for enlarged Powers Are there in the and it is hard to imag Ine any Quebec federalist or that would not feel bound to exploit those opportunities to the it is one of to go a Little which Quebe cers seem willing to and another thing to go All the Way to sovereignty Assoria which Quebe cers refused to let separatism is at a Low ebb in though Levesque fought democratically for the most honorable for his but it did not die with the or with the defeat of the parti quebecois govern or with the death of Rene it May be a Long time before the idea finds another preacher As earthy and eloquent As but when the preacher the idea will be Rene Levesque eloquent and Only nip propaganda at Trade consultations what does the proposed free Trade agree ment Between Canada and the United states mean for Manitoban and canadians what Are we gaining or losing who will Benefit and who will suffer How Many people will lose jobs because of the pact How Many new jobs will be created based on those types of More information is required before citizens can make a rational decision about the unfortunately the provincial governments approach will not meet that instead there will be Public consultation meet where the Premier and his ministers intend to concentrate primarily on the Nega Tive ensuring Manitoban under stand Why we cannot support this agree although the Manitoba government has always been apprehensive about free following a Western premiers meeting in mid1986 Howard Pawley was willing to support the concept As Long As existing jobs were preserved and a guarantee was obtained for Access to future even a year later when the Premier was increasingly uneasy about the Federal he would not be pressured into formulating Manitoba i am not going to torpedo it if its a Good Deal for but was it a Good Deal when the tentative agreement was reached in Early prime minister Brian Mulroney said it would Benefit creating Prosperity in All regions while maintaining sovereignty and cultural identity believed the Deal was born out of desperation and went beyond enhanced Trade into Canadas sovereignty through investment and Security of natural if the prime minister did not schedule nationwide hearings on this the Manitoba government would have under the dome Arlene Billinkoff its own he that threat was reinforced by decisions reached at a strategy meeting which nip Leader de Broadbent had with his provincial they intended to launch a National Campaign in opposition to the proposed hoping to Force an election on the theres no doubt if theres substantial Public particularly by premiers reflecting major percentages of the the prime minister is obliged to obtain a Man Date from the said regardless of what the Public May his government would not shift we Are of the View that this agreement is of no Benefit to Pawley although the province had no Legal Power to Stop the there was a responsibility to explain the Impact of the he to do otherwise would be an abdication of moral therefore he announced the province wide meetings on the incredibly bad bargain for Canada and its contrary to sup porters argument that it was essential for the country economic the Premier maintained canadians could stand on their own feet without being tied to the economic apron strings of the United he was particularly concerned about the so called binding dispute settlement Mecha investment provisions and the removal of safeguards for Canadian control Over Energy because the Federal government was bargaining away things which rightfully belong to future we want to talk to Manitoban to explain our he we believe Manitoban will understand that the deep concerns being Are Well it was a on sided he but nothing wrong with Liberal Leader Sharon Carstairs did see something while she agreed there was reason for concern about the she also believed the greatest need was proper information about both sides of the thus enabling citizens to make an informed in her the provinces decision to spend taxpayers Money for one sided information meetings was it is an absolute insult to the people of charged tory Leader Gary Fil As someone who believed the agree ment would put the province in a better economic he viewed the Premier was a fool for not seeing the he also questioned Hawleys mandate to use Public Money to push and Union pro Pagan holding a travelling Road show instead of the appropriate legislative hearings indicated the premiers Lack of he knows of problems which can be created by legislative particularly when the House is in in the government was committed to amending the Constitution in order to entrench French language rights and services and would not accept instead it opted for informational hearings to Tell the Public Why such action was those hearings indicated extreme dissatisfaction with the governments approach and served As an impetus for the tories to further stall Progress in the the de laying tactics eventually led to proper legislative prolonged Bellring ing and surrender by the although a vote on free Trade in the provincial legislature would have virtually no Impact on Federal the Pawley government wants to appear to be in with few opportunities for facet face de Bate or exchanges in the As a despite legitimate concerns about the the manner in which the government is acting is weakening its own canadians deserve full and ample Opportunity to scrutinize All aspects of this Mas Sive Pawley if he really Means Why not give the Public an Opportunity to hear All sides of the Issue doonesbury by Garry Trudeau you have to ing even Earp i that Salomon Brothers 15 bail Jug propp5pup aha of picking mom says to Haven Lealu ;