Winnipeg Free Press

Winnipeg Free Press (Newspaper) - July 26, 1997, Winnipeg, Manitoba A h saturday free july 1997 m i u Brian Cole 6977044 editorials Freedom of to Trade Liberty of religion Equality of civil rights gaullist dream there was something poignant about the image of Quebec separatists gathering in the dark beneath the Balcony where former French president Charles de Gaulle gave his famous speech 30 years the crowd cheers As the nationalist rhetoric echoes Over the Public address but As the spotlight shines on the Balcony it becomes Clear there is no one except perhaps a ghost from the it is the perfect metaphor for Quebec an idea that May have had some mean ing once and still arouses but is today an empty de Gaulle infuriated canadians 30 years ago when he suggested that the French speaking q province of Quebec was enslaved by and jul should be set free to take its rightful place among the nations of the the very notion that the Leader of a country freed from the nazis during the second world War with so much Canadian blood would talk in such terms still rankles Many de Gaul Les ideas about Quebec were rooted in the belief that the French speaking Community of the world was in a constant struggle for position with the English speaking As president of the country that was the Mother of French he saw it As his duty to speak out on the Quebec the very thought that a French Community such As Quebec could be entwined in a confederation dominated by English speaking people was unacceptable to the irony in All of is that France has spent the last 30 years travelling in the opposite direction from that de Gaulle charted for even As representatives of the French government today fan the flames of separatism ignited by the former the French nation seeks to give up its sovereignty Over social and cultural policies to a greater european de Gaul Les belief that the French cause could be advanced through nationhood is simply Quebec culture and the French Lan Guage have been not by the fact that it is part of a larger entity called remaining in Canada will ensure that hundreds of thousands of including Many who have come from somewhere continue to be exposed to Quebec and its Canada without Quebec would be an English country and the French speak ing world would shrink the gaullist dream is a narrow there is no place for it on the Balcony of Montreal City hauling Grain this was a terribly severe Winter on the West Ern Canadian rail the cold weather and heavy Snow prevented Canadian Pacific and Canadian National from delivering As much Grain As they wanted to Export the Winter seemed less severe where trains were carry ing lumber and other commodities whose haulage rates Are not subject to a statutory Cap that continues until the year Prairie Farmers lost heavily As a result of the they had to pay charges for ships sitting Idle in port waiting for they lost sales to customers who could not be served in they lost a Price advantage because prompt delivery could not be the losses last Winter May have been million on Canadian wheat Board products they May have been by the statutory rail haulage rates for Grain cannot Rise for another two years except where rail Way costs Are shown to have but Grain grow ers and the whole Grain Economy Are badly served by an inefficient Grain transport system that leaves Grain in bins and elevators when customers Are waiting to receive it May be Worth asking the railways whether the Winter would be a Little less severe if their Grain hauling revenues Rose it is pos sible that Canadian railways cannot operate efficiently in Winter at any but it seems agriculture has adjusted Well to the Sharp Rise in Grain freight rates Over the last dozen the mix of crops has processing in the Region has a further Rise in freight rates has to be thought through carefully to be sure the benefits outweigh the but it is Worth As the rail rates to Thunder Bay and the Pacific coast Churchill and Minneapolis and truck haulage and local processing will become More and More if higher rates produce efficient then the losses incurred this past Winter May be the railways really cannot do then there is no advantage in higher Winnipeg free press Winnipeg free press est 1872 Winnipeg Tribune est 1890 Rudy publisher email Ca Nicholas editor Brian Cole editorial Page editor directors Harry Brown circulation sales and marketing Laurie Verne Kalichuk human resources Perry Nixdorf technology Glenn Williams finance and administration 1997 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 125 no 199 the fatal urge to Rescue Back in the Early seven ties most governments believed that they could direct economic growth by pick ing Industrial believe that governments Are adept at picking economic believe that economic Success is achieved Best by providing a framework in which Market forces will create their own win continue to interfere in continue to believe that they can influence the outcome of economies and also believe that by their actions they can create social just How much interference is desirable is a major Factor in separating the political right from the How governments does not always fit tags of right and nor does spending always seem to follow a logical for two disparate spending intentions announced last City councils decision to support Sam katzes plans for a Ball Park and the Federal and provincial governments intention to Supply More than million Between them to bolster the port of Churchill and allow the Denver based Short line operator Omni trax to buy the line from the Pas to the the Ball Park Deal might strictly be called a forgiving of Rev Nicholas Hirst Enue rather than but the Lon term effect will be the the City is giving up some thing to get the fed eral and provincial on the other Are actually putting their hands in their pock As a result of the governments injection into the port May or May not be a future Suc past injections of Cash have failed to produce a the social consequences of allowing Churchill to Are the Ball Park Deal has caused much wringing of it May or May not be a the chief difference Between the is that the port of Churchill has struggled for Many years while the Ball Park is a Gamble on the one is an attempt at rescuing a the other at picking a and both have something in those that would argue in favour of either would argue that the spinoffs will be what make the investment of Public Money my is not so much to discuss the merits of either As to discuss How they reflect a Canadian View of the role of government the investment in Churchill cannot be construed As invest ing in on the it is an investment made in the Hope that the skills of Omni trax will prevent the port from becoming a further Drain on pub Lic but would the Money have been better spent investing in Success would for have been better spent improving the port of Vancouver so it could better compete with Seattle do governments even think in that Way if they do it would perhaps be a Good idea if they it May always be easier to see the Bene fits of a Rescue Over the Bene fits of investing in a new venture or a going is it just or does it seem to you that Winnipeg City Council and the province agreed much More readily to each put up a year for three years to ensure Eaton remained on Portage Avenue than they did agreeing to lease Sam Katz land and give his Ball Park tax con Cessions dont get me think that investing in downtown is essential and that the Eaton building is a key to the whole revitalization it is that government investment is following failure rather than the Ball is an opportunistic Stab at creating a Revenue generating with any will draw crowds through the restaurants and bars of the Exchange Dis at will mean the kind of Rescue governments seem to enter into All the the City would have to take Over its running and financing or sup port a new Why do i feel that decision would come faster than their original commitment to build it americans seem to be better than we Are at using government spending to build the kind of infrastructure that creates new economic name a Ball Park or an Arena in a City and you will almost certainly find that it was in with civic investment in our downtown is a thoroughly practical use of civic Money and surely the Way to create growth in the if not to try to pick is to invest in facilities that will pro vide a framework for but it would be Good to see governments As eager to invest in potential Success As they Are after or to put it another that they be proactive rather than Nicholas Hirst is editor of the free his column appears on past pushes into the present Ottawa this while everyone around me is immersed in one or another of John Grisham thrilling Ive had my face buried in history books the history of Canada no in beginning to think it should be compulsory Reading for All adult but the oppo site seems to be the my appreciation of the past got an effective boost last year when i was asked to write an article about the East Block on Parlia ment there Are three blocks West of Centre which is easily identified by the peace fellow journalists expressed Delight with my assignment they thought i was headed for the former East bloc of not just across the but our own East Block Doest begun before con federation in one historian Calls it the most important build ing from the Point of View of our history in All of As i stood in the former office of our first prime John with its Coa burning Small Coldwater candles and Gas lamps and in the More elegant offices of past governors Gener Al occupied until i was appalled by my own i had the same reaction in the for Mer office of George Etienne Cartier who helped bring what is now Quebec into Conedera this room after Carti ers occupied by every prime minister up to arid including Pierre Elliot who knew imagine my feelings As i entered the former privy Council chamber where Federal Cabinet meetings were held from 1867 to even the executive coun Kathleen Ohara cil of the province of Canada met Here to deliberate the draft British North America Bill which led to the creation of the Domin Ion of generations of politicians dealt with the build ing of the National the Riel the two world the creation of groundbreaking social pro Grams and much this is where our country was i left the East Block a changed it was As if the great looming Force we Call the past had pushed its Way into my pre and i welcomed my newfound interest in history even extends to my social while in historic Ontario the longtime Home of i resist a night out to see the musical sir he presented by the Kingston summer festival which is also suffering from budget the play is a wonderful mix of past and present with a cynical Young woman of today confronting sir one of the most powerful politicians of in his own r much of Canadas history was shaped on parliament f f Macdonald Points out that politics attracts men who mean by truth their own has anything changed history is particularly helpful in the late 1990s As some among us in Academia and even the Media work hard to take the country Back in time perhaps to the beginning of the Century when the Gap Between Rich and poor was expanding there was Little in terms of professional social work or and the Federal government was rarely inclined and had few pow ers to Deal with growing social after How can we appreciate and defend what we have built As a nation if we know next to nothing about the sacrifices and motivation behind our accomplishments that Why its frightening to hear reports about the Lack of interest Many Young people have in Canadian in my own very informal Survey on the subject elicited the following remarks from children i know its too Many details about nothing Ever and my Favourite too Many but one girl lit up As she told me about the night she spent with her class in Kingston famous fort Henry yet another victim of government she even tried on a uniform worn by a Soldier Long they were smaller in those for history was no longer something abstract and it and so it should if we Are going to preserve what we have Kathleen Ohara is an editor with the issues f ;