Winnipeg Free Press

Winnipeg Free Press (Newspaper) - June 1, 1995, Winnipeg, Manitoba Winnipeg free press june editorials editor John 6977044 room at the top room at the top has a Way of waking up slumbering political democratic party Leader ship convention called for october has already attracted four Good a handful of others Are weighing their the nip has been nearly invisible since its parliamentary Wing was reduced to nine members after the last fed eral without official party the new democrats have been operating on one several months of furious campaigning across the country among leadership candidates searching for grassroots support should canadians could use a revitalized the Chretien liberals Are governing much like the Mulroney tories yet the opposition re form party screams for More hacking and slash the bloc quebecois obsession with sovereignty for Quebec makes it All but irrelevant for canadians out Side there is a gaping Hole on the left and Only the nip can fill this former Nova Scotia Leader Al Exa Mcdonough added her name to a list that includes British Columbia my so end former Saskatchewan my lome Nystrom and Vancouver author Herschel two Manito my Bill Blaikie Transcona and provincial party Leader Gary doer would not be out of place in such a Manitoban have contributed richly to the history of the nip and its the both Blaikie and doer would have much to offer their Federal prospects for new democrats in this province have improved markedly within the last several unhappiness with the Chretien government has grown for a variety of reasons moving the air command out of Winnipeg controversial gun control legislation ant lib eral immigration Liberal incumbents Are starting to feel the heat around the in nip candidates Are sure to threaten maps such As David Walker in Winnipeg North Centre and Rey Pagtakhan in Winnipeg the new democrats hold nearly All the provincial seats within those Federal giving the Federal party plenty of organizational the liberals can take nothing for the key for the new democrats will be to elect a Leader who can be credible when talking about social Justice and fiscal All at the same since no body else is talking about two out of three on that the nip should be Able to hold an a revival of the new democratic party would keep the liberals it would be Good for the the cynics Are right the Filmon governments decision March 7 to launch a review of gaming was met with More than a few nudges and cynical events since then have done nothing to indicate that the cynicism was mis two Days after announcing the the tories unveiled a balanced budget that clearly indicated the so called working group under former nip lotteries minis Ter Larry Desjardins would be of Little while then lotteries minister Jim Ernst declared Desjar dins was free to recommend a Rollback of gaming in Mani the budget showed the tories were counting on sustained profits of million a year to balance the books into the foreseeable in the months Desjardins has done Little to in stil he has repeatedly made Clear that he has Little stomach for Public that he believes they will simply attract Yea and nay most of them parti in an interview with the free he also revealed he has about to examine the merits of an Industry that has sucked about billion from the pockets of Mani to bans during the Filmon he was one reason he would not be commissioning an Independent want to reinvent the finance minister Eric Stefanson was trying to make Nice about another Desjardins had cancelled three of four Public hearings for Lack of in he said he had run a single and in this newspaper 10 Days earlier and was disappointed by the meagre re he also revealed that Manitoban had Only two Days to sign up to make a submission at the one remaining to be held in Stefanson said the deadlines would be extended and the cancelled meetings would be but he did Little to restore Faith in the working group and its efforts to weigh the benefits and miseries that result from so the Filmon government and its chosen investigator Are proving the cynics were Winnipeg free press Winnipeg free press est 1872 Winnipeg Tribune est 1890 Rudy Duncan Mcmonagle executive editor John Dafoe editorial Page editor directors Verne Kalichuk human resources Stephan Majorki operations Perry Glenn 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 a Trail of broken promises Manitoban no doubt re member the the provincial tories blanketed local television with it in the dying Days of the april 25 election Premier Gary Filmon and his Are walking along the River Bank near their Charleswood As they reach a picnic Bench and sit the Premier takes Hilmons Manitoban continue to Benefit from the Best health care in the Hilmons voiceover with the help of our new balanced i will let no one take that away from my family and yours Are depending on another advertisement featured the Premier promising that Well make our health care the commercials were the tories response to the Dps primary Campaign theme that the Quality of health care was deteriorating in Manitoba and the current government could not be trusted to maintain the counterattack was emotive and played the tories Trump the pre Miers credibility with it a week into the new the governments pledge to take Noth ing away from medicare has been brought into doubt by health minister Jim Mccrae Frances Russell Mccrae is refusing to give any guarantees that any existing medical service will in he is Tele graphing clearly that some services will Likely become Are we insuring More things than we can logically and reasonably afford to insure he asked have we allowed our health system to be built into something we can no longer afford that something the Manitoba medical services Council is consider nip health critic Dave Chomiak Kildonan says he int one Hundred times out of when Ever the tories deny it Hap they promised no erosion in medicare and now its obvious their Way of preserving medicare is the Clas sic neoconservative saying we cant afford medicare so its Avail ability and scope must be the health ministers responses ver Ify Chomiak in a hallway scrum Mccrae repeatedly and explicitly rejected re porters invitations to reassure Manito bans that Eye examinations or any other health service will not be re moved from i wont reassure Manitoban be cause the proposal Hast come for he pretending that there Are no issues in medicare is a Disser there Are those who say that every Dollar we spend in health care is that is definitely not the Issue of de insuring Eye examinations arises from the governments controversial five year contract with the Manitoba medical association signed in in return for an upfront fee reduction of two per cent for the first two years of the the doctors won the unprecedented right to be co equal partners with government in set Ting health the Mma and the minister each appoint the co chairs of the 14member Manitoba medical ser vices now that the initial two years of the agreement Are the doctors Are protected from fur ther fee any savings must there fore be found within the system that through de insuring the amount of savings the Misc must find for 199596 is Chomiak says the opt apologists have already voted in favor of Dein Suring Eye a procedure usually done by optometrists that costs medicare about million this is the problem created by Mccrae agreement with the the optometrists Are Cut out of the pro it begs the question whats next will it be chiropractors Chomiak says its obvious the doctors will use their commanding position on the Council to protect their own turf and Cut Back on health ser vices provided by Mccrae insists the optometrists will be but ended up acknowledging their Only route would be Indi through the consumer representatives on the Council or the health policy they Are at the very Early stages of researching and looking at the health minister Leader Gary doer says dont look at any ill listen to the health care pro one Winnipeg optometrist has warned that a full Eye examination could Cost individual patients once doctors or optometrists Are free to charge whatever they the tories third mandate is just a month but two of their major elec Tion commitments no More than million to save the Winnipeg jets and no erosion of medicare Are either broken or in it May be a jets Arena Issue could turn City vote the conundrum that comes with the Resolution of any in tense and divisive Public Issue is that it is never possible to know what the consequences would be if the los ing Side had that with respect to the Arena and the is compounded by the fact that even when the Issue is apparently it is not apparent what has been resolved still for How it is to speak of an aftermath and there is much to suggest that this Issue will be with us yet a it would be easy to be cynical about what has but some of it transcends consider these Phenomena Ordinary people clamouring to have their taxes like tur keys clamouring for thanksgiving Chil Dren breaking open Piggy Banks to save a team whose members include millionaires Small businesses pledging a weeks profits to a jets Trust fund doctrinaire conservatives arguing for government against mar Ket to save a big business City adamantly insisting that it had no Cash to but making a huge financial without a Busi Ness plan and without knowing where the Money would come is this not a script from the Twilight zone such things go beyond reason and easy one can offer conspiratorial explain which the Media were participants or but whatever the a significant part of the Popula confined to no single class or was swept up in an emotional crusade for was of Pri Marily symbolic the Fervour May not have been de As one dissenter but it was Akin to resembling a kind of religious rapture which substitutes Faith for puts practical and rational questions at a discount and threatens heretics with in some people kill in the name of their god in hockey truest believers Only threatened but the Zeal the faithful was recognize Ken free press mayor Susan Thompson talks with jets Deal maker Asper melted with the for two years the Champion of fiscal led the in this there was a kind of asymmetrical consistency whereas in the past she advocated reducing expenditures without knowing where to find the now she advocated increasing expenditures without knowing where to find the such As Evelyn Terry Harry Sandy by Man and Jae who had counselled could not withstand the clamor beyond the the Council populists went where they thought the crowd was the Council conservatives went where they thought the smart Money was going both May have been William Neville City Hall was not unmoved by this dec As recently As Early coun cil was Adamant that it would contrib Ute no Money to an and no land without a business plan that met their in the this position melted to nothing those led by the had argued that the City had a primary obligation to be prudent and but doubt had become Unash Only three councillors had the conviction to declare themselves agnostics in the midst of this Public spasm of in a speech at the Nymha last Janu and in another to a group of plan ners in i predicted that not withstanding business plans and polls showing substantial opposition to substantial Public funding Council would ultimately approve what Ever was Laid in front of if i had known then How much the Ante would ultimately be i might have hedged my bets foolish to have doubted them for a As with Many forms of Overin dul there Are now some signs of a hangover will these translate into any thing of political consequence mayor Susan Thompson and her col leagues have but a few months in which to persuade voters that councils decision was prudent and there May be Little persuading re the after starts with the substantial advantage in incumbent mayors Are rarely the mayor and her colleagues would in any Case defend their decision As an exercise in Leader ship and perhaps most Winni Eggers truly believe that the councils commit ment of somewhere Between and million on a new Arena was the right thing to it May be easier to be Lieve that when the great financial reckoning will not occur until after the civic there will be those of indeterminate who will think councils decision is just the latest in a Long string of damned fool stretching Back to the Dawn of this will con Sider that the Arena decision is outrageous and Par for the it require much to go wrong or come unstuck for this group to feel vindicated but whether they have the savvy or the will to Orga Nize electorally is an open the to May be a while in ;