Winnipeg Free Press

Winnipeg Free Press (Newspaper) - December 7, 2000, Winnipeg, Manitoba A16 Winnith Dick Bih 2000 editorials Freedom of Trade Liberty of religion Equality of civil rights the new downtown t a then Sears announced that it was buying the downtown Eaton store in it t was widely assumed that meant the Brick Behemoth on Portage Avenue at Donald it was a wrong Sears was referring to the store at Polo from the retailers Point of was the real downtown Over the past couple of certainly since Polo Park doubled in size 15 years the retail downtown of Winnipeg has been the so called stadium area that collection of big Box retail stores on vast parking lots that have filled up the area bounded by route Wellington Avenue and Empress what once was an Industrial area has successfully been converted to a commercial area that today seems to function something like a colossal wherein the streets serve As mall corridors and cars have replaced shopping the Success of the con is Start ing to cause a new set of principally traffic the number of cars that descend on the especially on today far exceeds the capacity of streets designed to handle Industrial traffic with the result that traffic snarls and gridlock those traffic problems Likely will Only get worse As in rail withdraws from its property West of Polo Park for new and As the last Industrial holdouts North of Ellice Avenue decide to escape the congestion and increasing tax loads brought on by demand for property in the the City must do but what to do is not the cites capital budget includes Money to study traffic patterns in the area and to reach some conclusions about what might be there Are some obvious streets such As Silver and Matthews avenues could be extended so As to better link the East and West sides of the existing streets could be made one Way signals could be tinkered with to decrease bottlenecks and Empress Street could be although that is an undertaking made difficult by its proximity to mands All of these Cost Money and it is unclear who should because the stadium area is a redevelopment As opposed to a new devel there exists no mechanism to require the developers to share in the costs of new streets As they would in a new there is no doubt that the for the convenience of taxpayers who also Are has some responsibility to improve the it also is True that the re developers moved into the zone in the full knowl Edge of what its problems were and what they Are in approving spending for traffic studies next City Council should also launch a parallel process to determine what would be adequate improvements to the Street if the Reevel opera and operators of the big Box stores want something then they should pay for per haps through the creation of a local tax City Council also should do every thing possible to encourage innovation in the traffic problems can be solved with wide and expensive streets that can accommodate More but traffic problems also can be solved by reducing the number of vehicles on streets the use of in there is no reason to wait for a master plan to introduce shuttles or other forms of people existing merchants could get together and provide shuttle service since the stadium area has become a new and Ferent it should demonstrate some new and different ways of evenhanded the Canadian government has defended its most recent support for a Batch of ant israeli resolutions at the United nations As being simply the resolutions come Forward each year with much the same wording and Canada routinely supports when the situation in the Middle East is that position might be with a new Intifada launched by the palestinians under the situation is anything but it is a bordering on the Palestine authority encourages the violence in the West Bank and which has seen about 300 people most of them palestinians killed in the last several islamic terrorists from Hamas blow up school buses in israeli terrorists from Hezbollah launch attacks on jewish settlements from across the lebanese Border with the encouragement of Iran and Israel defends in these voted to condemn the jewish state at the United this May be simply business As usual a catch phrase of prime minister Chretien government but it requires some canadians Hope that their governments policy in the Middle East will be there is a huge popular sym Pathy for but there is also a desire to see jus Tice done to the used As a defence for Canadas voting at the in at a time when the Mideast is in crisis and Israel is under raises the question whether Ottawa has changed its policy of support for Israel without letting canadians a Clear and unequivocal statement from foreign affairs minis Ter John Manley is needed to Settle those philanthropy other Side Winnipeg has produced a lot of interesting one is William Forbes Alloway and it is propitious to talk of his exploits As the Winnipeg foundation is celebrating 80 years of he gave Winnipeg a spirit i believe which still pervades our the which he was the first in Canada to serve a Community As a he wrote in 1921 since i first set foot in Winnipeg 51 years Winnipeg has been my Home and has done More for me than it May Ever be in my Power to i owe everything to this Community and i feel it should receive some Benefit from what i have been Able to this love and support of Community is manifested today in the gifts by Israel Asper of million each to the Winnipeg the jewish foundation of Manitoba and to the University of Media is a philanthropist dispensing benefactions on a scale unprecedented he has Cut a Fig ure across the he was greeted like a Rock Star last week at the University of Man who founded the Bank of Alloway and was one of Winnipeg first millionaires and he gave it All to the Community an initial gift of and in the final an additional he was a Man of Many he was 18 when he came Here with the Wolseley expedition in he was transferred to the Provin Cial police and was guard at the door at the first session of the Manitoba legislative his next venture was to open a tobacco shop near Portage and main where his clientele opened his eyes to the opportunities abounding in the new he knew his horses and started a freighting business with James speaker of the in trips to there would be 50 to 100 of carts in a he helped Start the first flour Mill in in he was elected opponents unsuccessfully tried to unseat him claiming he had property Worth while the requirement was he made his first big chunk of Money when he was asked by a Well heeled citizen to get a team of two horses and a he got them from Eastern Canada for and traded them for a strip of land from the Maryland Bridge to Portage which he later sold for when he married and built a House on Assini Boine it became a Salon of the along with he set up a private free to do any not limited As were the chartered the major business was in the commodity in great Supply a vital element in this business was in the Trade in land granted to the half Breeds in settlement for their title claims to the this was in the form of certificates that could be redeemed for 160 it was a Shady chapter in land claims with scrip purchased fora bottle of speculators accompanied government agents when they delivered the Peter general manager of Alloway and recalls the transactions and absolves the Bank for such he tells of Charlie younger brother of conversant in Indian buying the scrip thousands of dollars were concealed in his clothing and what could not be taken care of in this Way was carried in a bundle and used at night As a in their real estate the partners bought 192 feet on Portage Avenue Between fort and Garry for which they later sold in parcels for More than Alloway died in writes Lowe he had a burning love for Winnipeg which could not be during his whole life he was in every movement to further Winnipeg be it financial or the welfare of its the benefactions to Char Itable organizations were generous to a and when aware of Community welfare solicitation was unnecessary a substantial Cheque was already on its the Saint of punctured ballots there has been a bit of an internet backlash the Market is leery of anything inter it and news stories this week have suggested people Arent going on line As often As previously kids Are blase1 about it and we expect paper less offices or an com Merce world any time we might have expected backlash happens with most things that Are the subject of a lot of interest and As discussions in the Media about the backlash itself make for yet another take on the but you still cant beat the internet for bring ing disparate and unlikely groups and for generally making the world a and sort of consider this without the where would old a seventh Century English be these Days thanks to the the Parish of Chad in is enjoying a popularity it might have never expected before the United states became gripped by something called for to these Many americans have been talking chads the Small circles of paper punched out of a ballot before we might Only have thought of if we did so at As a country in or As the name of a fading 70s to Star with but with All the debate about what constitutes an countable Many peo ple have clearly turned to the internet for and perhaps spiritual the ongoing Tugo War for the presi Dency has if not a search of the at least an internet search for All things As one might have the chads Parish web at garnered modest attention until since the the Church site has been besieged with daily traffic has skyrocketed to about 300 hits a from the usual three or posters Are delighted to think that Chad might have something to do with and that he could even be the Patron Saint of elec Tion we did not see this surge of interest com Deborah assistant minister at chads told Reuters news service on after it is Only a coincidence of but you have to hand it to the Church for rising to the to address questions about who was apparently a Humble the savvy web masters have devoted a Section of the site to the sudden the site also now accepts dollars for the Church millennium there Are links to Media stories Cit ing the Chad Chad con information about the voting chads and a Brief biography of Northum Brisborn we Are resigned from the position of Bishop of York due to a dispute within the Church Over the Validity of his con chads humility he stepped Down rather than cause further rift was rewarded with a consecration according to roman he was then sent to where he served until his Chad is not the Patron Saint of disputed elections or the Patron Saint of for that but if the shoe the peo ple at the Church in Lichfield Are eager for him to Wear it appears therefore that Chad has just got a new Job and this time no ones arguing the Church Sites election Page Chad As the Patron Saint of disputed elections is entirely appropriate and it seems that his message in his new role is one of humility not thinking oneself More important than one while Chad was the first Bishop of Lichfield and the Church there has been the Centre of Wor ship for More than Chad has world wide there is even a chads anglican in local there is chads anglican on Portage the Lich Field Sites if you can manage to View it despite All the is full of notes of visitors say they Are grateful to learn about Chad through a tenuous connection to the current election there is also a lesson in humility to be reverend Mitchell a minister in wrote hoped that the potential presidents would remember in All this fiasco that they Are being elected to be servants of the people and that it is from that their authority maybe there is something divine about this Chad Chad god works in mysterious Winnipeg free press Winnipeg free presses 1872 Winnipeg Tribune est 1890 vol 129 no 8 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 members the Manitoba prut Council Rudy email Nicholas editor ;