Winnipeg Free Press

Winnipeg Free Press (Newspaper) - June 7, 2000, Winnipeg, Manitoba A12 Winnora Fri junk 2000 editorials Freedom of Trade Liberty of religion Equality of civil rights end of the line Winnipeg has improved its bus system Over the the shelters and the buses Are you can find out when the next bus will come at any bus Stop in the the routes have been adjusted to match Peoples travel the fares have been kept in this week of commuter when Winnipeg is competing with other cities to see How Many motorists will leave their cars at the bus system has a Chance to remind former customers of the pleasures of taking the the Occa Sion May win a bit of business Back for but the prognosis is not it is a declining it is declining because upwardly Mobile families Are moving to the Large lots beyond the City limits where there will never be a bus Winnipeg transit calculates its level of ser vice by comparing the number of bus hours of service to the number of Square Kilometres where service was pro because the City has sprawled outward while the service has been the bus hours per Square Kilometre declined to in 1999 from in a 21 per cent reduction in the service the slow slide of transit has been going on for from 1962 to the transit share of daily trips to work or to pos secondary education in Winnipeg declined to 20 per cent from 28 per the pattern in other Canadian cities has been Simi families Are wealthier today and As incomes automobile use Winnipeg should keep improving its bus service and keep the fares at a level that its Core Market of Young people can a time May come when the wind will when private car ownership will become so expensive or so inconvenient that Winni Eggers will once again turn to the the Cost of building More Bridges to bring private car commuters into the City May eventually Rise so High that transit improvements will seem like a cheaper Winnipeg will be thanking its stars that it did not shut Down its bus system As it already Tore up the Streetcar tracks and Tore Down the electric trolley but that is for the Long for the cites difficult Job is to manage decline As the majority of Young families in Winnipeg pursue the suburban three car the Region is blessed with Abun vacant Winni Eggers Are not will ing to use the bus for any trip that takes More than 35 and from most of the land yet to be the trip downtown will take More than 35 the transit Market is slipping the bus system should be allowed to decline with All possible military choices As a member of the North Atlantic treaty organization and the United Canada has a stake in and a commitment to collective defence and peace keeping within the country ought to outfit its forces with efficient gear and the training required to employ for at least a military observers have argued that Canada has been trying to meet its International and even take on with less some of the Canadian forces own officers have publicly stated that Cana Das personnel and equipment were both stretched to the limit during the nato Mission in the Balka the essay by a group of ranging from a Captain to a colonel in the inaugural Issue of the Canadian military journal reports that Canad an pilots and ground Crews performed admirably during last years Kosovo but that out dated gear or a Lack of equipment compromised the safety of the pilots who commanded and flew in the air Campaign against the entire nato air strike Force in Yugoslavia had to use single frequency vulnerable to because the Canadian alone among those in the lacked ant Jam the yugoslav defenders made Little Effort to Jam the attackers Canadian pilots were also at risk because they lacked night vision Gog Gles and laser guided the canadians May not be invited along for the next joint operation on account of their outdated publication of such a Frank assessment by a group of some of them in a Public forum should encourage informed Public debate about defence resources have been stretched and Cut Back for about a decade but serv ing officers have been discouraged from telling the Public about the practical outfitting the Navy and air Force with the Best equipment available would be expensive and Canada have a reliable area of Topnotch expertise and equipment to con tribute to International joint it could serve the in and Canada Well if this coun try were to have a declared area of military Excel Lence that the country is willing to pay to do the country political and military leadership May have to make some difficult choices and ask some sections of the forces to make do with a but Standard of As the Mili tary journal article Points air Power has increasingly been called upon in situations of con and the government May choose to establish this As Canadas Point of military chivas capitalist commies Thomas Friedman now that the smoke has cleared from the debate Over whether to Grant China permanent Normal Trade with the United states and membership in the world Trade its time for some wild and irresponsible predict id like to Start the my prediction is that in the Wake of the China vote two parties in the world will never be the same again the communist party in China and the democratic party in lets look at for years Deng the architect of chivas shift to a free described chivas economic system As capitalism with socialist or was it socialism with capitalist characteristics i could never keep it straight and neither could but it no longer because China is now committed to capitalism with to and that is going to be a huge if the chinese communist party Doest either it will implode or China will heres the problem by joining the China is basically agreeing to replace its cur rent mixed free part state controlled which is run by the arbitrary decisions of the communist with an increasingly free Market Economy that will abide by International on tariffs and set by the this Means the chinese communist party is going to have to Back off and shape up or ship you cant have a flourishing free enter prise system with party Hacks interfering with businesses and distorting prices you cant have it style foreign investment without mov ing toward an Independent judiciary that is free of arbitrary party meddling and is capable of fairly enforcing contracts and you cant live up to to norms without government Agen cies ready to enforce to not communist party All that Means a different communist the Ideal situation would be if the communist party would serve As the Bridge and Tutor for chivas move toward a Rule of la based argued the Stanford University China scholar Michael if that Doest happen i see three other possibilities one is that there will be some catalytic like a downturn in the that will Force the party to or face losing Power and there will be a split in the party Between those who want to move Forward and those who and there could be a mass move ment from the longer the chinese communist party puts off the first the More Likely becomes the last As for the United the China vote was not really a vote about it was a vote about How americans feel about and it revealed a deeply fractured democratic the unions were opposed and advocated building Walls the new Economy led by president favored further globalization and a Large group of old democrats advocated some Middle but had no Leader or program to we Are becoming the party of resentment and and that is not who we were and that is not who we want to said Daniel Patrick about the number of democrats who voted against Normal Trade with the Challenge for the democratic if it is to remain is to articulate a new pro Gres Sivisa that addresses the worries of work ing americans about globalization without resorting to Trade there is obviously a Strong feeling among the party rank and file that Clinton progressives elite is Isuf which is Why a lot of democrats Are now groping for a new combination of tax pol labour policy and social policy that could form a modern it would help if the unions got their Heads out of the imagine if All the Money and Energy they wasted lobbying against China were applied to health or education funding without articulating a new the democrats will either become indistinguishable from especially under George if the unions have their the democrats will become just gentler so in the Wake of the China vote the key ques Tion is can the chinese communists become a real democratic party and can the real demo cratic party become a True progressive party nobody gets to stay the Thomas Friedman is a columnist for the new York gambling on aboriginal casinos did you by any Chance visit Minaki Lodge Dur ing the summer of 95 that was the summer of great Promise for the people of the White dog which had purchased the Lodge from the four sea sons Chain for a reported although White dog had always been just up the Road from that summer was the first time in my memory that significant num Bers of staff at the Lodge were clearly there Are advantages to local and aboriginal it was inspiring to find aboriginal teens taking Green fees in the pro shop and aboriginal golfers on the there were teen coun Sellors working with groups of children stay ing with parents at the there were aboriginal aboriginal Bell and aboriginal for All i there were aboriginal people performing every conceivable task at the but i never asked and report Only what i recall and that i liked what i everyone was a from the people collecting to the people who supplied the to the people who owned related businesses in the Village of to the peo ple who saw that Money that had been ear marked for welfare could be put to other at the end of the summer of the Lodge never to by the time the receivers were White dog was out a reported what went wrong who Minaki beautifully built and situated As it has repeatedly failed Over the it is said four seasons was losing million a year before it retreated from Northwestern so i do not fault White like tried like in some see that it might have gone perhaps if service standards had been rolled the economic Hemor rage would have been a trickle that some of the million could have sustained for Many perhaps if White dog had won its tax exempt status before it was on the Hook for some in property perhaps it could have been better that always a question when a business perhaps if some expensive renovation work had been perhaps As was a Casino licence would have been per perhaps in any it was a tragic conclusion to another tragic chapter in the Story of White i am reminded of White dog these Days because of All the and i see being invested in proposals for aboriginal casinos in i do not mean to imply Here that i think any of those proposals will but they or they might not in either what will be said i know i will certainly wonder How it happened that of All became the focus for aboriginal economic certainly i can As i saw at that Good jobs in a Quality service Industry Are to be but if that is what it is All Why not simply have Job quotas at existing Gam bling Why build More casinos if the discussion was about it would quickly become Clear that there is something offensive about the idea that and jobs dealing cards or making change for Slot be reserved for aboriginal As if there were some natural i dont see what i see is that an entitlement to Casino jobs and profits is being Cre ated on the basis of it May be Good in the near but in the Long run surely in the Long run the advantage goes to the Pursuit of All the usual diversity of not to a Job even a very Nice Ghet of what i also see is that Casi nos made huge profits for some reservations in the United states and it is assumed that the same will happen this Assumption is made despite the fact that the Success in the United states resulted because the aboriginal casinos had no compe they found a Legal Niche and filled that Niche does not exist so we Are trying to create it As if the Mere mimicking of some thing will ensure its that is to be but it is no i also see that the nip governments intentions seem at the casinos seem a Pat a no fail a Way of quickly achieving a a return on the million to million proponents Are prepared to but Why is everyone making the same bet Are there no other options to achieve the hoped for the government May have to step on it May have to Force something on people As the invest ment Choice apparently is being forced onto Reserve populations in the belief that the ends justify the i do not wish to contemplate what might happen if they do there Are in All of tremendous i sincerely Hope they Are More clearly under stood than the conduct of the selection process appears to have been to i personally do not approve of especially stat sponsored although i admit to buying lottery tickets from time to i say this because it could be that my per Sonal tastes Are clouding my which is that the emphasis on casinos is i Hope the proponents realize the Promise that i saw in the summer of 95 at and i wish them right and for a lot of i think they could use Gerald flood is a free press editorial his column appears on Winnipeg free press free press est 1872 Winnipeg Tribune Estt 890 1 vol128n0175 2000 Winnipeg free a division of newspapers division of Thomson Canada limited published seven Days a week at 1355 Mountain Manitoba r2x pm 6977000 a Memoir it Manitoba Preu Council Rudy email Nicholas t Patrick Flynn Depuhl editor ;