Winnipeg Free Press

Winnipeg Free Press (Newspaper) - December 7, 1998, Winnipeg, Manitoba A6 a free tie emm 1998 Brian pm 6977044 no thanks Jee Back As conservative Leader after a i year needs to continue the work that Jean Charest he should do this by building on the party strengths and working around its he should steer Clear of helpful advice from former prime minister Brian who inherited the wreckage resulting from Mulroney brought the party Back to 19 seats in parliament and to official party standing in the Clark needs to take the next the conservatives a National party with a decent Chance of becoming the official opposition in the party has a decent presence in Quebec and the Atlantic Brandon my Rick Sik and Clark with his Alberta give it a presence on the when the party shows strength in Ontario and in British it will be a National party once again and a plausible contender for rumours surfaced in Ottawa last week to the effect that Mulroney was going to join the Battle and help Clark persuade Ontario conservatives not to rally behind the United alternative project of Reform Leader Preston this is help Clark does not the Reform party came into being because West Ern conservatives disagreed with Mulroney free spending policy and with his pretentious style and lost interest in the evidence that mul Roney is once again a major player in the party will help Cement their loyalty to Clark has said repeatedly that he will not join Manning in building a new righting party Large enough to wrest Power from the he Means draw reformers Back into the conserva Tive this is not but a daunting task the fifth largest party in the House of com Mons intends to absorb the second largest in a hos tile Clark is already under suspicion of wanting to relive the he needs to show the Public that he is looking Forward and not dragging the party and the country Back into the Mulroney he needs to show reformers a party they might want to do As i say it must Gall school trustees to be lectured by Edu cation minister Linda Mclntosh about the importance of As education is Mclntosh Job has been to Cut funding to schools and offload provincial responsibility for funding education onto boards that in turn dump it on property but that never stops her from lecturing others on their As she was doing again last warning the Manitoba association of school trustees to expect Little More in the Way of support from the province next it must be galling to trustees because they Are not allowed the easy Way out that is Mclntosh is accustomed cuts or they must sit Down and actually determine which child will not get the help he which child will not get the program in which she might when that process is they must raise the necessary taxes at the local level and take the heat from the property owners for grief that begins with the min ister but ends with angry phone Calls to their it must Gall trustees to be told they must do More with less knowing that the less they Are doing without is the million the province decided to keep for other purposes Between 1993 and last during that same the province did not itself do with while the province was reducing trans fers to it did not reduce the amount of tax it collected from taking million year in and year it is not a stretch to argue that during those years the province subsidized general revenues with property taxes collected for trustees might find it less galling if is Mclntosh tried practising what she the minister is fond of talking about but Given the Chance to accomplish them by reducing the number of school divisions in As recommended in the Nome she opted for political expediency and threw the report out the it might be less galling if she pledged to either disband school boards and their taxing Powers and have the province accept sole education As other provinces have or if she eased the education tax Burden on property by abolishing the special As her predecessor in the department of Clayton recommended in a recent tax fairness it would be less galling if the minister got Down Froin her pulpit and tried life in the Winnipeg free press fans prut Mamne est 1898 Rudy publisher Brian editorial Cage editor Harry Irown is Glenn Williams the other world intrudes remember the two different worlds we live in two different worlds Are becoming Ever More visible in Manitoba and yet the prescriptions of the people with Power is to continue to Widen the last members of the Winnipeg chamber of Commerce lunched on pasta and then they listened to Premier Gary Hilmons annual state of the province to give the Premier he was Quick to say that the Ber of Only one of numerous special interest groups to whom he but the speech made Clear the Premier accounts first to the Busi Ness we Are in the midst of our fourth consecutive balanced he said on Page 3 of his we Are one of the lower taxed provinces in Canada none of the major tax rates have been increased in 11 consecutive our credit rating from both Moodys and Standard and poors has been upgraded for the first time in almost two decades and we now borrow at the second Best rate of any of the provinces in the Day before the premiers the other world Campaign 2000 is a nationwide coalition of Church and Frances Russell Antipoverty organizations Cre ated to Monitor the implementation of a unanimous 1989 House of commons Resolution to eliminate poverty among Canadian children by each annual report card since has charted an increase in the numbers of poor this is in spite of the relative economic Boom in Canada in the past four Between 1989 and the ranks of poor children swelled by or 60 per to number of children in working poor families has grown by 45 per the chief Campaign 2000 is that even though of the unemployment rate has the new jobs Are largely con tract or seasonal and offer few or no Par time jobs account for 20 per cent of All jobs com pared to just 10 per cent in the once Manitoba has the dubious distinction of leading the nation in the rate of child Pover Over on Quarter of Manito Bas per cent or live in in per cent were a family is considered poor when per cent of its income must go to the basics of the both nationally and in contradict accepted economic orthodoxy that the Best defence against poverty is a that economic growth is the Best guarantor of economic Security and that the Best stimulus to economic growth is capital driven by Low Small deregulation and free the Manitoba report card por trays a different world to the pre Miers upbeat a second world that is becoming Ever More desperate due to the first worlds fixation on balanced budgets and Market Manitoba unemployment rate decreased from per cent in 1994 to per cent in 1995 and remained steady at per cent in since Manitoba child poverty rate has increased by per the poverty rate for children in families with full time employ ment stood at 15 per cent in up from Only 11 per cent in social planning Council Board members Sid Frankel and Ellen Kruger say Manitoba Low minimum wage is a major a Manitoban working full time for minimum wage earns just per cent of the poverty line for a single Parent with one Frankel and Kruger also blame the dramatic cuts to unemployment fewer than 40 per cent of the Job less collect compared to Over 80 per cent in if the huge Al surplus is not returned to the unemployed and under employed and is used to provide an across Leboard income tax income disparity and poverty in Canada will a general tax Cut will not be says it will mean a one per cent increase for poor children and a 22 per cent increase for upper income the two different worlds can Only become one when policy makers recognize an obvious economic growth alone is not Frankel if nothing is done to distribute better the benefits of that eco nomic eventually the growth in poverty will become a Barrier to economic Frances Russell covers politics for the free her column appears on wednes Days and the world according to Ted Ted Byfield has More than his share of he is a conservative Christian who is o4uite willing to Champion his beliefs in Public even if by doing so he opens himself to the politically Correct among us who think that the religion of the majority of canadians has no place in the schools or the courts of this disagrees and because his views appear regularly in print he has been likened to an old testament if he he is unlike any such Prophet in the almost years of Christian he has a sense of Humour can be a devastating weapon and led uses it to frighten his Favourite targets abortionists and those who pro Mote alternate Ted has always had this sense of i can recall in the mid495qs coming into the old free press newsroom in the Early hours of a morning to find Ted Busy at Bis typewriter writ ing about a particularly pompous City every few lines he would read Over what be bad written and laugh out Ted is 70 and Bis wit has grown with tbsp Assiff a Chi election of his columns has just been published by Keystone Fred Cleverley of a old fashioned Educa Tion when he was a solitary voice in Western he must be pleased As punch to look around and see How much company he has among people who Are no longer ashamed of their Conser Veuve Canadas new nations Post newspaper is much closer to teds position on Many things than the Toronto Globe and although he has company Ted remains the definitive con the Reform party came into being partly because of teds and he was a keynote speaker at its founding Conven he is far from being reforms he has already chided Preston Manning for putting himself i the hands of those who lost the last conservative and for softening reforms position on he describes Man rings attempt to learn French As cute and As a play for votes not in Quebec but in Preston Manning is either very polite or amazingly truthful inside the front cover of the Book of he describes Ted As one of press in called the was visiting wit Ric arrived the Galley proofs of the i Mam concern my to Mak Gulf that the pm ties from m was gives sufficient to Flatt sub Canadas most provocative one who embodies the West by being proud and it bothers Ted not a bit that his magazines Are considered by some to be so righting As to Lack i was talking with an insurance Agency employee the other Day who admitted that she could not understand Why her husband insisted on subscribing to that Western report in not sure if her opinion of me changed when i told her that i 109 subscribed to the same mag Ted Byfield has a simple for he combines his Mastery of logical thinking with Superb writing he always invites besides his the Magazine column he writes for the three report he also writes for the financial times and for the Calgary and Edmonton Sun Dur ing my Brief visit earlier this year Ted would Dragoon every one in the House to listen to Bun read aloud what he bad he wanted to be challenged on everything from grammar to the ease with which he could be he barely tolerates modern making anyone Peet that he would happier pounding out his words on an old manual typewriter rather than on a modern but then it Matt William Thorsell w desk fact body t him rewriting Jip out of was so ways on limn ;