Winnipeg Free Press

Winnipeg Free Press (Newspaper) - March 19, 1996, Winnipeg, Manitoba As Winnipeg free press March 1996 editorials Brian Cole 6977044 Bouchard passion it was Only after the charismatic Lucien Bouchard entered the referendum debate that the federalist forces lost until All the polls measured big majorities for imagine the Impact on Cana Das future if that passion were used to stir up Canadian As Premier Bouchard begins to govern Quebec and the Federal government continues to work out the details of its Post referendum that Prospect becomes less it could turn out that the difference Between a United Canada and a fractured one is the inspirational breezes that blow through Bouchard during the next three or four Bouchard has gone from federalist to separatist to federalist and Back to separatist again without losing any of his fabled passion for the cause he serves loyally at the when that cause is Quebec when he emotes Persua sively about the collective identity of Quebe cers he can be driving his audiences closer to a frenzy than any other Canadian it is a Good there that Bouchard attentions have turned to other the Bouchard we see now is concerned about Quebec debt and the Quality of its Public education sys tem and the crisis facing health those issues were on Quebe cers minds before Bouchard whipped up nationalist Fervour and it is those issues on their minds after the emotions of the referendum have sub Bouchard is the consummate pragmatist a passionate but a pragmatist none the the evidence is mounting social democracy is on hold in Quebec while budgets Are balanced and debt loads lightened talking about fiscal prudence keeps the Bankers and business people at avoiding any Abra Sive rhetoric that could Speed up the exodus from the province a referendum wont be called until after the next not due until 1998 or a pragmatist also knows when to make a the Man who quit the conservative party after Meech Lake the Man who led a provincial party to official opposition status in the House of the Man who lost his leg and almost his life to an awful Dis is the Man Best positioned to make a Deal with As the Quebec government struggles with the same Fis Cal complexities that other governments Are the elements of a new perhaps one remarkably like the begin to if Bouchard can see that it is a better bet than the uncharted Waters of he will summon the passion to sell it to que it will be an easy uneasy peace can anyone have Confidence in the West anymore that is a question that must be at least whispered in the capital cities of the world these since the end of the cold the failures of Western democracies have been almost unbroken disaster in Geno cide in Slaughter in the the various factions in the former Yugoslavia the the the bosnian muslims must Bear the main responsibility for the disaster that has occurred the carnage that could have been limited if Europe had reacted strongly instead of simply wringing its hands and tens of thousands Are dead and Many More have lost their Homes and had their lives it took several years several years during which a United nations peacekeeping Hamstrung by its rules of was forced to watch what amounted to genocide take place in the Balkans for the West to summon the will to the american brokered Dayton Accord was supposed to bring peace to the Balkans through the de Facto parti Tion of Bosnia into Muslim and serb sections and the introduction of a nato army to enforce last the last ser held Section of Sarajevo was turned Over to Muslim that Transfer was accompanied by wide spread the rape of women and the burning of this was instigated by the bosnian serbs who appear intent on proving that ethnic coexistence in an Independent Bosnia is not the bosnian govern ment seems to agree with that idea and is Happy to see the last of the serbs it was watched with mild interest by the nato which refused to become preventing rape and pillage is not part of its says one must is its mandate then if a West Ern army cannot safeguard civilians and cannot bring War criminals to what purpose does it serve there were Hopes that the nato Force would help bring to the it has proved no More effective than was the in both it is Western weakness that is to Winnipeg tree press Winnipeg free press est 1872 m Winnipeg Tribune est 1890 Rudy publisher email Duncan Mcmonagle executive editor Brian Cole editorial Page editor directors Leaurie advertising Calvin James Verrle Kalichuk human resources Stephan Majorki operations Glenn 1996 Winnipeg free a division of newspapers division of Thomson Canada limited published seven Days a week at 1355 Mountain Manitoba r2x pm 6977000 a member of the Manitoba press Council vol 124 no 99 Quebec Sharpens the axe the Quebec governments Fis Cal flip Flop last week was utterly the Curi Ous thing is How Many especially in Quebec failed to predict in the Campaign leading up to last Falls referendum on Lucien Bouchard and other campaigners on the yes Side promised Quebe cers that a yes vote would be a vote not Only for sovereignty but for social a Sovereign list Quebec govern they would never follow the Lead of other Canadian provinces and slash spending to bal Ance the provincial the theme was taken up by influential commentators and newspaper columnists who declared that the referendum Campaign was aimed not Only at achieving Quebec Sovereign but at stemming the neoconservative fiscal tide at the Quebec some Quebe cers reportedly voted yes in the referendum under the illusion that it would prevent govern ment the referendum is now behind the sovereignty according to is on the Back Burner for a couple of years or and the first priority of the pm govern John Dafoe ment will be to get the provincial deficit under and How will they get it under control by hacking and slashing spend ing just like Mike Harris in Ralph Klein in Alberta and All those other provincial premiers who have come facet face with fiscal Reali Quebec finance minister Bernard Landry set out the gory details in his update on the state of provincial social he will be put on hold until the provinces finances Are in better the first step towards fiscal sobriety will be a spending Cut of billion in the coming fiscal year and of billion the year the popular social democratic cure for budget deficits higher taxes for the not on because Landry says taxes Are already too High in Quebec and further increases would make the provinces businesses less All of this will sound familiar to canadians in almost All the other provinces who have heard the same message from their own provincial governments and from the Federal finance Paul they All say pretty much the same thing because they Are All facing pretty much the same problem the Burden of carrying a huge Load of debt is sapping their ability to embark on new whether they Are social reforms or the March to political the problem is especially acute in Quebec because the looming Independence option creates uncertainty in business and invest ment slows economic growth and compounds the budgetary prob As a Landry Quebec is one of the most indebted provinces in Canada and one of the slowest to move to get its debt under and the result of that is that the Quebec government has lost its margin of including the ability to pursue its separatist the Burden of debt crushes a lot of not Only the parti Quebe Cois dream of an Independent it has prevented Ottawa from adopt ing new social policies that the lib eral party promised in the last Gen eral it has prevented provincial governments across the country from endearing themselves to their voters by adopting generous new programs or cutting it has of encouraged right Wing governments to enjoy some Fis Cal Quebe cers who truly believed that the pm could exempt them from the fiscal reality All around them have Short not Long after Lead ing the pm to its first provincial Vic Rene Levesque set about breaking contracts with provincial Public servants and slashing their Quebec looming years of Auster Ity May persuade some Quebe cers to rethink the notion of at the very least they should now be aware that the separatist option has heightened their exposure to the pressures caused by fiscal Uncer the bearer of that message today is not some fiscal terrorist from the business sector but the pm governments own minister of John Dafoe is a former editorial Page editor of the free his column appears c Ity plan rates four garbage cans in the late 1960s and Early 1970s we went through some interest ing they were interesting particularly for the people who came of age during that those were times of of a rethinking often not a very Clear rethinking of what had gone before and what the world should we had moved from buddy Hollys i love Peggy to the rolling stones i cant get no the difference Between the tone of the lyrics in those two songs one is Nicey Nicey and one is angry angry defines not just a generational change buddy Holly Sang in the 1950s and the rolling stones reached their stride in the 1970s but a qualitative difference in baby Boomers do not think in the same Way that their parents the generation that came of age in the late 1980s and Early How is also very different from their for one the children often have Blue or Green this is not a result of strontium90 in the milk that the children had to drink after nuclear tests in the 1950s it is the result of cataclysmic change in the generational in 40 years on television we have gone from father knows where no one Ever did anything to soap operas where almost no one does anything that is entirely perhaps generations Are always there is always a legacy from one to the from the 1950s to the there have been a lot of changes people pass them on to their successors who take and adapt them and move them into the kind of slots that they want them to some things dont change a generation people became More distrustful of govern ment than their parents had they demonstrated in the streets against the Vietnam they demanded to know what was going they asked hard questions because of younger people Are still asking hard questions older people Are still asking what both groups have in common is that they Are not usually getting satisfactory f Tom Oleson in the late 1960s a Radical Maga Zine called ramparts was published out of new it was not a particularly Good but it was always in when Richard Nixon looked like he was winning the it bellowed from its cover Only four More voting Days till a reference to George Orwell novel and the threat of perceived totalitarian if ramparts had had its we might Well be living in a totalitarian society the leftists of the 1960s and 1970s did not easily Toler ate in its Brief How it did perform1 one useful it ran a series of articles called the kitchens of new writers for the Magazine went around the City with health inspectors to Check out the kitchens of new Yorks the results sur prised almost everybody and almost 30 years they Are instructive to in a re jigging of the fourstar system of reviewing restau rants for Quality of food and used garbage cans instead of four garbage cans meant a really filthy the kind where you want to eat if you knew what went on behind the Kitchen As the series some of new Yorks tiniest eateries didst fare As Well As some of its what goes on in the Kichen will a mystery from now lowliest its an interesting whether we go to the Ritz or to Joes bar and we dont know what goes on in the anyone who knows anyone who works in a restau rant Kitchen has probably heard some horror stories a spilled salad scraped off the floor and put Back in the for we most of not Likely to get Access to those we cant know what might have happened to the food we Are being that is Why we have City health inspection at least in it is Why we used to have a City health inspection depart health inspectors would routinely drop into restaurants and inspect their premises and their restaurants were routinely fined or closed for violations of health no a new system adopted by the City of Winnipeg brings a drastic reduction in the number of inspections of the Rea son put Forward for this is an emphasis on education giving restaurant employees a course in this must be a darn Good according to a free press since november no charges have been Laid against any restau rant in the City for health that compares with roughly a dozen charges in any two month period pre it is a useful of to have the cites restaurant workers certified in food the real reason for this is to save the City Money at the citizens we have All been around the Block before and we know that peo ple sometimes take it is one thing to know that you have cockroaches in your Kitchen or mouse poop in your it is another thing to make the efforts to ensure that you that is what health inspectors Are supposed to and that is what they Are not doing As for a review of the changes to the cites health give it four garbage Tom Oleson is a free press editor Ial his column appears tues Days and ;