Winnipeg Free Press

Winnipeg Free Press (Newspaper) - November 30, 2000, Winnipeg, Manitoba Focus a13 Winnipeg fkr 2000 elevate stature of politics politicians Are they Are canadians and that Means a people of diverse backgrounds who inhabit a vast considered by the United nations As about the finest place in which to so Why Are politicians held in such disrepute they Are Dis besotted with mendacious and devoid of Interi if that is the picture of Politi so it is of canadians As a whole and i certainly do not share that politicians have warts like All of us and perhaps Excel in the ability to sound profound while saying i Chat to a taxi Driver a few Days before the election and he says i dont Trust any of i find out he Doest even know the names of the main he is not but he Mouths the popular i do respect most of the people who ran for office and were elected for they represent the finest vocation in a democracy engaging in the govern ment of the we regard the word politics in a pejorative but that is nothing it has been considered fair game to put Down politicos for it has become More pronounced today with the denigration of Practised by righting they say government is so Are Here Are examples of the past arte mus Ward american Humour writer i am not a politician and my other habits Are another wag said Lincoln was right of you cant fool All the people All the but you Only have to fool a Disraeli British prime minister the world is weary of statesmen whom democracy has degraded into Shakespeare a one that would circumvent we Carp about our politicians because they Are most vulnerable and visible they Are the supreme we blame them for All our ills and even bad weather because of inaction on global if we malign we malign we must insist on Clear answers on their programs but they also deserve our we must ele vate the status of politicians As one of i what propelled this Nasty Campaign with All the mudslinging animosity was directed at prime minister Jean Chretien for embarking on an unnecessary spurred by an ego the major was the fear held by moderates of the position of the righting Alliance party that would weaken the Federal favour the wealthy with a Flat encourage privatization of health Facil privatization of Csc television and the fundamentalist belief of a Leader who says the world is Only years this is reflected in the elec Tion i have interviewed hundreds upon hundreds of people in my journalistic career and i choose a politician As the most genuine and he is Tommy a Folk hero known As the father of socialized i first interviewed Tommy in the Early 50s when i was Secretary of the Winnipeg press club and it was my duty to introduce him As a guest the assembled news hounds loved he was then Premier of a Post he held for 18 years from prior to that he had been an my for the we were impressed with his Intelli wit and Lack of Pompos a slight individual but a giant in he was a Man of the people and introduced social services that adopted in other he was a fierce Champion of the underdog and the exploited and took unpopular stands defending civil he was a Baptist preacher and a lightweight boxing Champion of a fighter for social i interviewed Tommy again in in retirement after serving As Leader of the he was so highly regarded that husky Oil appointed him to the Board of where he emphasized the need of Public ownership of Energy managerial record was impeccable he had lifted Saskatchewan out of his Lustre had not diminished nor his ability to make people laugh1 suggested that he made history in his political do int necessarily make he i was conducting the orchestra when we were making some he liked to quote Tennyson my f its not too late to seek a h6w6f world he did and made politics the highest watch russian cos cutting this weeks Canadian Federal election May rank As the dirtiest and perhaps the least intelligent on marred by it demonstrated a dearth of new ideas from All the Par the Mere hint of anything Dif Ferent was condemned As an attack on Basic Canadian the tyranny of the status quo aptly sums up the current state of National ignoring change carries a policy ossification in a world of rapid movement invariably leads to crisis followed by in the occasional Happy instance Roy Roma news courageous closing of redundant Rural Saskatchewan Hospi tals comes to mind Strong medi Cine in other cases like the col lapse of the soviet Union political Struc Tures simply fell apart amid economic despite a political party system verg ing on intellectual Canada has fared better than Many other but our reluctance to modernize Public policy in a time of accelerating globalization is prov ing it lends the colossus South of us an appreciable competitive Edge and leaves us with a scrawny Canadian vast country old thinking plays no part in rus Sias plans for creating a prosperous this vast country is still struggling to recover from history most ambitious Experiment in social the soviet state incurred astronomical expenses in trying to maintain total political domination of its the absence of a real Price system to guide production and consumption meant eco nomic a Lack of abysmal negligence and obsolete equipment produced huge systemic losses and dismally Low in 51 per cent of russian Homes had hot Only 66 per cent had running water at and just 64 per cent had Central half of soviet schools lacked indoor almost a decade after the fall of the Ancien the painful Transi Tion from russian threadbare Condi Tion is dogged by the immense problem of absorbing the surplus workforces of the bloated soviet bureaucracies and hopelessly uncompetitive stat owned enter associated press russians Learned some hard lessons after controlled Economy civil War in parts of the Feder the departure of regions into their own Independent states and a currency collapse in 1997 have com pounded High the remaining soviet too poor to make a go of it on their remain in the Many observers that Russia has turned the Corner capital flight is slowing while barter and the underground Economy now figure less prominently in everyday Richard a professor at Ohio believes russian govern at about 35 per cent of is too Large for a developing an immature Justice system under lies the problem of mafia inefficient government the Power and rail industries Partick use their political Power to maintain counterproductive subs too much Money transferred to regional policy that reduces the accountability of local politicians and invites waste Ful spending an almost eerie replay of the similarly unintended results of Canadas equalization Grants Vladimir russian has responded to the Challenge with an ambitious program to convert Russia into a modern Market demo it contains ideas that should be required Reading for Canadas Lead strategy Putin strategy of development recognizes the Wisdom of having government do a few important things rather than Many things it will sharply Cut Back the russian states social obligations and its involvement in the state funded pensions will be privatized and replaced with chilean style individual accumulation ser vices will be contracted stat owned enterprises Are on the and those remaining will lose their free Utility privileges and tax the plan identifies its main objective As creating conditions for the emergence of the effective private crucial to this is the creation of an effective Western style Justice system based on the Rule of Law and property to Cap it Putin govern ment will replace the Canadia style progressive income tax system with a simple 13 per cent flatmate tax in miscellaneous charges and payroll levies that raise the effective tax bite to Over 70 per cent will be a principal architect of the plan will speak at Winnipeg Frontier Centre on Andrei Putin personal economic will discuss the Central Issue of the 21st Century what is the optimal size of government too Small a govern with no no infrastructure and no court system to enforce contracts the wild in effect Means Little or no economic too big a on the other with High spending and protected business handouts and Transfer Sti Fles the magic Point occurs where economic wealth creation and living standards Are Maxi Recd studies suggest that this optimal result occurs when the government consumes 30 per cent of the Economys while oth ers place it Between 15 and 20 per Illarionov wants to reduce russian states share of the Economy from 35 per cent to 17 per this he would secure a sustainable growth of five per cent and perhaps As High As eight per cent a in the Public sector con Sumes about 41 per cent of according to Recd this is Down from 51 per cent in so major Progress has been but the achievement pales when you con Sider that our american cousins maintain a level slightly better than the Recd per on a provincial in terms of govern ment Manitoba continues to maintain one of the largest and most expensive Public sectors in As the latest Frontier Back grounder shows see our province employs an above aver age number of provincial and Munici pal civil servants per pays them More compared to other work ers than any other and spends an above average portion of the budget on keep an Eye on if Illari Knovs reforms succeed and his goals for economic growth Are one of history stranger twists will we May be consulting Russia on the optimal size of Peter Holle is president of the Frontier Centre for Public letters to the editor the free press welcomes letters from they must include the authors address and Telephone letters May be letters to the 1355 Mountain r2x fax email schools need regular nit Check i am a concerned i find schools do not Check All the kids in they Only Check kids that seem to scratch their Heads or if they Are Sib Lings of a child who has when i was in school we took a whole Day to Check All the kids and the ones who had nits were sent Home and checked when they came it was not a big problem now the schools Are having big problems dealing with these bugs the kids Are not i have dealt with this problem for about a year i keep doing my childrens hair and i make sure they Are clean and then my children get sent Home the next the bugs came from another kids hair and they did not Check the class to see where t came they just sent my child i think the schools should tackle this problem by taking a Day out of school to see which kids have the bugs and make sure they Are clean before they Are allowed Bank in Irene Daniels Winnipeg restaurant approved despite opposition a restaurant on Wellington Crescent Wellington expected to be a reality in March even though of residents in the immediate Vicinity vigorously protested against the rezoning of 529 Welling ton this rezoning was approved by eight councillors without any regard As to the problems it will create in this area with odours right next to some upscale Condo mini a a with marys Academy directly across the nor was it considered that this Reao wig of 529 Wellington will surely create a precedent and eventually Beautiful Wellington Crescent would become commercialized and Winnipeg would lose another unique it seems that the develop ers policy to move quickly and strike while the Iron is hot disregarded All this one wonders How much business this restaurant expects from the local curing Winnipeg Assembly fails to offer alternatives with i read the advertisement a message to All Manito pans from the Assembly of Manitoba chiefs i think the Assembly would be hard pressed to substantiate most of its although the Alliance might be just another party putting self interest above the common i think one has to acknowledge that at least it recognizes that the status quo where through Lack of Opportunity Many natives Are faced with a life of Unzem poverty and addictions Ris not the Assembly of chiefs slams the on both the person Al and party without offering alternatives workable or Owen Wilson Roblin leaders not motivated by Good re Tom Ole sons column religious Dou ble Standard it would be Good to see from Oleson a More i depth look at party morals and the personal beliefs of our with a Little i think Oleson might even break a code of silence that prevents the average Canadian from stating the obvious our leaders Are not motivated by what is right and Ronald Winnipeg Why cant government bail out legion i was appalled and thoroughly disgusted when i heard that one of Canadas oldest legion branches closed its doors for the last and that its 600 Mem Bers will have to find other places to our governments can find thou Sands of dollars to save the jets or have a party for Blue but cant find extra monies somewhere to bail out the legion on its tax surely these people have paid enough Over their be it losing loved limbs or to mention the amount of taxes each has the City has taken away far More than a place of it has stripped them of a Home and the Only family some have this is a Dis Grace we owe these they dont owe theres nothing sadder than the governments neglect for a dying and forgotten group of goodbye Imperial veterans Maureen Morrish Winnipeg Day keeps wife in Tow i would not Call myself a raging Femi most of the Battles have been won by women in the generation before me so i dont feel thanked to be i must comment on the one thing that has stood out for me in this most tunes that Stockwell Day is on he has his wife Valorie in i mean that Days wife always walks a couple of feet behind i could not picture Joe Clark asking a Strong woman like Maureen Mcteer to walk behind Paula Henderson doonesbury by Garry Trudeau Ion ;