Winnipeg Free Press

Winnipeg Free Press (Newspaper) - May 23, 1995, Winnipeg, Manitoba Winnipeg free press May editorials editor John 6977044 interesting times next to the frenzy Over saving the the session of the Manitoba legislature that begins today will look downright there wont be much Contro Versy As the government and opposition plod through spending estimates of every but three new faces in a new speaker and a revitalized new democratic opposition should be enough to keep things interesting until the legislature takes a break at the end of Linda Mclntosh will face a barrage of questions about education the new minister will want to put her stamp on the portfolio Early satisfying and parents and students that she has her own ideas about what kinds of changes to the responsibilities of teach ers and parental involvement make finance minister Eric Stefanson can expect a grilling Over his balanced budget which was a major feature of the tory election Strat he can anticipate plenty of ridicule from new democratic party Leader Gary who will want to know How the minister can balance his budget when Mil lion were committed to building a new doer opposed any Public funding for an Arena near the Forks and is now free to Hammer the government whenever a Hospital bed is a school program is a single Parent cant afford to feed a the poverty rate goes Public servants Are Laid off or Rural highways need fix that million will be Worth billions to doer and the new the without a Leader and with Only three seats in the will have a Tough time getting any Paul Edwards will go Back to the practice of Law while maintaining the at least in the be fore Edwards will have to decide whether he is a politician or a in the the three remain ing members will need creativity and a shrill voice if their message is to be the new speaker of the Louise has big boots to her predecessor gained respect from All sides of the House for his impartial rulings and his even handed treatment of All Denis Rocan loved his Lacquay should be extremely careful not to play a partisan role or to use the office of speaker to Advance the interests of her conservative friends on the government Side of the doers suggestion that the speaker should be elected by All Las is Worth the session will no doubt produce its share of fireworks in question but the nuts and bolts of line by How the government spends our Money and is what the next six weeks Are All elusive grandeur France has always aspired to but it has never quite achieved it has always been a major player in world but it has never been the major French politicians have suffered the same when one thinks of the great statesmen of the pos second world War period in one is hard pressed to come up with Konrad Adenauer and Willy Brandt of Germany certainly left their Mark on the Marga ret Thatcher had an Impact on Britain so significant that its Ripples Are still being Felt throughout to whom do we look in France there Are two one is Charles de de Gaulle openly aspired to but it eluded he was too narrowly too particularly to have been a real Force outside of France the other is Francois who last week stepped Down after 14 years As president of although in contemporary accounts he is unlikely to be mentioned in the same breath As de Mitterrand had the potential for As he May have had More vision and achieved More than his legendary it will be for historians to but from to Days perspective greatness appears to have eluded or Mitterrand As he will be remembered As one of Frances Best a lifelong he took Power at a time when socialism was being shown to be he governed France not As a but As a in the Best tradition of French in the great tradition of French he was too profoundly French to be a great actor on the world now France has a new president in Jacques he does not appear to be the stuff of which greatness is but he has seven years to prove that apprehension the fact that his new government has created something called the ministry of Solidarity Between generations does not Bode Well for but France is at the heart of a rapidly changing Europe Europe is at the heart of the world and the world is in the midst of a revolution Chirac will certainly have his Winnipeg free press Winnipeg free press est 1b72 Winnipeg Tribune est 1890 Rudy Duncan Mcmonagle executive editor John Dafoe editorial Page editor directors Verne Kalichuk human resources Stephan Majorki operations Perry Glenn Williams finance 01995 Winnipeg free a division of newspapers division of Thomson newspapers company limited published seven Days a week at 1355 Mountain Manitoba r2x pm 6977000 a member of the Manitoba press Council woe profile Ohl out Nanaimo do vjvia1 dough to what a blow say no election scenario blues l bucking the world Bank the Good news is that the group of seven major industrialized countries will discuss the role of currency speculation in destabilizing and driving National economic policy at their upcoming Summit in the bad news is that talk is All they will thanks to the personal interest in the Issue by Summit Canadas Jean the leaders of the worlds major economies will conduct a Thor Ough review of the International Mone tary ranging from the role of the International monetary fund if and the world Bank to the in credible Power now being wielded Over National currencies by the boys in red suspenders who sit at computer terminals and shift upwards of billion around the Globe All but about 10 per cent of it purely Specula Ive known Chretien for a Long time and i think beneath this Issue is the perfectly understandable notion of what is the role of the says Sylvia a former senior bureaucrat who has represented Canada on International bodies like the organization for economic cooperation and development the question who has More Power to effect changes in govern ment policy the democratically elected parliaments or Moodys the to Ostry As Well As is the new York Bon rating Agency which recently downgraded Canadas credit for that Chretien and Ostry Are Fly ing in the face of free Market Long before the g7 scrapped the idea of an International tax on cur Rency speculation proposed by Nobel economics laureate James it is they because some countries inevitably would provide tax havens for sir Leon the european com missions warned in Ottawa recently that it would be extremely unlikely the Summit would do Frances Russell anything about currency reflecting the prevailing Raissez Faire sir Leon said that in these Days of an International trading the Only Way to Deal with currency speculation is by dealing with the economic in other All countries must Bow to the Rule of the highest instant private a recent article in Britain Manchester guardian weekly newspaper argues that such fundamentals Lead to it Points to Mexico eco nomic crisis now a billion and growing Haemorrhage for the worlds governments to staunch As proof that unfettered capital markets Are the not the every aspect of the mexican with its Shock Waves radiating out across latin America and the Indevel up photo Jean Chretien Good intentions May not move the oped is eloquent testimony to the instability of spot Market capital says the the article financed its Boom through a series of Short term spot Market what Wall Street gave one it could and did take away the the investment attraction was that mexican shares and Dollar de nominated Bonds could be bought and sold at will but that also proved mexi cos downfall the private capital inflows upon which the development of a country depends cannot be organized solely As a series of spot Market trans there have to be relations of to address its Mexico did what All countries do when pinned to the Wall by currency speculators and freewheeling capital it raised interest rates to astronomical slashed hiked taxes and threw people out of rending its social fabric and intensifying its bad economic the world financial system is increasingly vulnerable to weaknesses in any one continues the to get a different outturn the private sector has to operate along different the spot Market capitalism of which Mexico has been victim is the most extreme form of the Anglo Saxon Way of doing things what is required is the More relational capitalism of North Ern Europe and East the guardian notes that the worlds strongest proves that the institutional apparatus spot Market capitalism deplores Trade High social state plan Ning delivers High High skills and High it argues for a strengthened and More Keyne Sian if and world Bank and an eco nomic Arm for the United Chretien Battle for sanity in capital markets should be fuelled by his experience at his govern ment has just turned a Boom into a bust by following the spot Market capitalist axiom that Well All be a lot Richer once weve All been made a lot sometimes we find our Backbone Byeff Sallot Globe and mail Ottawa the Federal govern ment seems to have discovered its Backbone and Learned it can stand upright in dealing with a foreign regime on human rights issues at least As far As defending the rights of canadians of vietnamese origin to erect a obsessed by economic matters Al most to the exclusion of everything prime minister Jean Chretien and his liberals have been retreating on International human rights issues since they came to office in despite their Gutsy talk while in opposition about linking Trade and other eco nomic matters to performance on human in office they rarely utter an unpleasant word about any however autocratic or if there is a Chance of doing some Busi Ness and making a few its a Dogma dog world out there and Canada has to make deals wherever Chretien and Trade minister Roy Maclaren seem to be As foreign affairs min ister Andre Ouellet put it for a country such As Canada to try to be a boy scout on your own is absolutely counterproductive and does not Lead to any successful but after Many of us old scouts had just about Given up we find there is still a Flicker of old fashioned Canadian decency and self respect burning in a secret Corner of official this discovery results from a Diplo Matic protest by the government of the South asian country is struggling to put its loony communist economics and ideology behind re build infrastructure after a devastating War and open its markets to inter National Trade and Vietnam prospects Are it could Well become another of asias economic miracles in the next five to 10 certainly the Liberal government thinks prime minister Chretien made a special trip there with a High powered Trade delegation last year to preside at the opening of a new Cana Dian embassy in Trade minister a former Diplomat who served in Vietnam during the Speaks highly of the prospects for Ca Nadian enterprises willing to Deal with the old habits die hard in that and so the Hanoi regime took great exception to the fact that the vietnamese immigrant Community in Canada erected a statue in Ottawa to commemorate the refugees who fled from Vietnam two decades its a stunningly evocative work of Art by Toronto sculptor Pham the the Bronze statue depicts a Barefoot woman fleeing some unseen danger with her baby in her the is whether its in Rwanda or Bosnia in the or the old French colonies of Indochina 20 years most of the worlds hundreds of millions of refugees in this Century have been women and Chil Ottawa mayor Jackie Tolz Man attended the unveiling cer Emony last Chretien and Ontario Premier Bob Hue sent congratulatory messages to the Vietnam Ese Canadian Community in the vietnamese embassy threw a the Hanoi regime takes great exception to the suggestion that there was any Good reason for refugees to flee Vietnam for Canada and other countries when the communist rulers of the North captured the South 20 years vietnamese diplomats tried to halt the statues and were re buffed by the Federal officials told the embassy that things dont work that Way in Canada and that the government Stop its Citi Zens from paying for and erecting statues even if it wanted so forget the upshot of the incident is that Secretary of state for asian affairs Raymond Chan postponed a Trade trip to Vietnam that had been scheduled for this undoubtedly it will be the Hanoi regime overestimated the influence it Felt it could exert on Ottawa but the mistake was understand Able in Light of the message the Liber als have been giving other Chretien Kow towed in China last and Ottawa protestations about the russian army Slaughter of civil ians in Chechnya this past Winter were barely some of us old scouts want to believe that the vietnamese refugee statue Flap Marks a turning and that Well soon hear liberals talking once again about human rights and Trade in the same its time for Good lib eral scouts to get out some of the Merit badges earned in opposition and Wear them proudly Aiice ;