Winnipeg Free Press

Winnipeg Free Press (Newspaper) - December 12, 2000, Winnipeg, Manitoba A10 2000 editorials Freedom of Trade Liberty of religion Equality of civil rights How to merge Ontario conservative Premier Mike Harris forced the City of Toronto to merge with five neighbouring municipalities on to form a Megarity of million the move sparked vociferous but Harriss government was swept Back into Power at a general election 18 months later and the storm of protest was Quebec Premier Lucien Bouchard and his parti quebecois government Are now forcing 25 suburbs of Montreal to creating a Megarity of million the which fulfils an old dream of Montreal administrators the late mayor Jean dra peas dream of one one City and an old Nightmare of the suburban mayors and sparked a series of Public protests from people attached to their Small suburban the controversy May have Cost the bloc que Bouchard parliamentary two or three seats in last months Federal the ruling party is gambling that anger against the mergers will Cool in time for the next Quebec Toronto and Montreal Are following the Trail that the nip government of de Schreyer blazed in when it merged inner Winnipeg with its sub Hea Lingley later separated when its Resi dents complained that they paid Winnipeg tax rates but received less municipal service than the 1972 amalgamation faced boisterous opposition from mayors and councillors and from taxpayers who feared losing the lower tax rates they enjoyed in West vital and other Independent the nip was reelected in 1973 apart from the Hea Lingley prob amalgamation vanished As a political by turning Montreal Island into one big Bouchard will probably make City services More expensive and City taxes higher on Montreal rates of City pay will have to be raised to the level of the highest paid municipal employees and uni form tax rates will be applied in suburbs that now enjoy Low the most expensive City services police and transit Are already operated by the metropolitan merger should improve fire Protection by bringing suburban fire Crews into the tactical Reserve when the Central City has multiple demands for it May eventually encourage residents of the Central City to demand libraries As Good As those in the the experience in Winnipeg and Toronto suggests that Bouchard can probably get away with forc ing amalgamation on Montreal reluctant his party has no legislative seats to lose on the Western part of Montreal Island and the irritation in the Eastern part of the Island is Likely to pass since amalgamated Montreal will have Large English speaking and ethnic minority Popula the Megarity May have to swim against the tide of Quebec language policy and offer services in English and other the one Island will be one City with several How not to merge the european Union is occasionally cited As an example of the direction in which the members of the North american free Trade agreement should Mexico and the United it is could Benefit from eliminating customs barriers and adopting a common As Europe has but Europe has gone far beyond and its example is a warning sign that once nations have started in this the process is not Only difficult to but it is also difficult to the 15 member states of the european Union emerged from their Summit meeting in France this week not much happier than they were when they went into it last after five Days of what were described As gruelling the eur had reached Only a fractious consensus on the issues confronting aspiring new members will remain beyond the Pale for at least three More Mem Bers reluctantly agreed to a new voting Structure that will give More weight to the larger but Only after considerable browbeating of the smaller nations by the big they established a complicated system of tiers of some of which can be vetoed by any some of which can be decided by majority vote and some that will depend on a new coalition veto in which any three of the big four Britain and Italy can override resolutions if they can get the support of at least one of the Small by the year the eur is expected to expand to accept at least 12 new All of them smaller and poorer and most of them from Eastern the agreement reached with so much difficulty in Nice yesterday will become largely irrelevant the big four will have to protect their while the Small increasing in seek to regain a lost the Divide will also grow Between those such As that want the Union to remain essentially a trading and those such As Germany that want to see it become a Politi Cal and social progression towards one big Europe where nationalism will after the eur through its serve in fact As an example to Canada and its Naftal partners on How to proceed with their relationship soberly and with a Clear understanding of where they want to t West mounts guilty Joys imagine tens of thousands of angry citizens in the streets of brandishing denouncing government dictatorship and pro claiming their support for these were not the scruffy would be revolutionaries who took to the streets in the 1960s and trashing and burning in Pursuit of their dream of an Independent these were the eminently respectable Citi Zens of Westmount and out remont and a couple of dozen other suburbs on the Island of and the separatism they were defending was that of their own municipalities from the City of Premier Lucien Bouchard parti quebecois government provoked the protests by forging without Consulta with a plan to amalgamate All the municipalities on the Island of Montreal into a single Megarity and to do the same with municipalities in the Hull and Quebec City the passions stirred up by this plan far exceed any provoked recently by the Issue of Sovereign the Issue Cost the bloc quebecois several seats in the recent Federal having lived in one of those Montreal suburbs from 1969 to 19801 can understand the but not without a certain feeling of in the first because it was Only through the misfortune of others that we were Able to live in Westmount at Fly bombs had been going off in the people were moving out and the housing Market was this allowed us to afford barely a House in not in one of the baronial mansions that towered Over the top of the Moun but a sturdy Brick Semi detached Halfway up the guilt As Well because i no doubt should have moved into a purely French speaking area and sent the kids to French because i knew that i was enjoy ing the benefits of Montreal without helping pay to Deal with its most of the i was Able to relax and enjoy West mounts Many pleasures without being unduly concerned with the the plea 1 sures were considerable quiet treeline a Forest at the top of the Hill and a Green Park at the Bottom a cozy Library where the librarian knew you and took a Liberal attitude towards Over due books a summer swimming free to res All plus they ploughed your Street when it snowed and removed the windrows in the City of could grow to mountainous Best of there was the feeling of living in a Village within walking distance of the heart of a great the Corner grocery stores would the lady in the bakery would slip an extra treat into the bag for the the local the Westmount would record the the cause and the destination of every Call by the fire everybody knew which of our Neighbours had experienced a burning toaster or a strange smell in their of course this cozy intercity suburb was not insulated from the social and political ferment which surrounded for the ferment was too much and they moved those who stayed were among those parading in protest on the if i were still living i would have under stood their fears and their but would i have picked up a placard and joined them in not video games my husband is a True child of the born and raised on a farm near he claims to have had the sort of upbringing that would have inspired Laura Ingalls Jack London and Charles had Dick ens Felt compelled to share the stories of Little Manitoba farm boys forced to walk Miles in the Snow to their on room we never discuss the Yel Low bus that carried the rest of the clan to it sounds too idyllic to be entirely As All tales of childhood eventually the Best stories Are usually a combination of truth made Rosy by repeated burnished until the painful parts Are gone and the funny turned my husbands Summers were spent chasing through Fields with an army of his holidays were dedicated to the Pursuit of mischief with the same gang of they were raised but by parents who worked too hard to organize their childrens play time and would have scoffed at the idea if they had any Chance to consider children belonged outside in the fresh not inside telling their mothers they were god intended them to amuse this is the Winter my husband is reliving his this is the Winter we will have a luge run in our the idea was broached when we moved this graduating to a House with a sprawling it is Long and tiered with gentle slopes and one great drop where the Lawn ends at the it is a Yard meant for Leaf fights and pickup games of for raucous siblings to shriek and play until the Sun sets and the backdoor Light flicks the idea of mowing it made me sit Down suddenly and Call for a it is a Yard bigger than our family of but my husband saw even he saw his past and he was determined to replicate the Best of we would build a luge he and Nintendo stunned children would learn How to actually it would be a huge beginning with our family volunteering to Host Christmas and ending with a masterpiece of ice that the new generation of cousins would Greet with cheers of Joy and we would be building memories for the he and that an impossible thing to argue after a weekend of exhausting labour and Frost bitten the luge run is it begins at the Back door and snakes through the Bank ing hard on the first tier and again five feet the teenager and her dad iced and shovelled and tambolled for two sliding Down the run on a wooden pitching into the Snow on the first hard laughing and working and com ing in re faced and shivering to demand mugs of i grew up with an ice rink in the a masterpiece my parents built each Winter so the boys could play hockey and i could ankle skate around when the future of the nil was off the this was what parents and what children took for we knew what wed be doing after our breath wet scarves scratching our chins and our Knees freezing under Snow this is the Christmas the children of our family will be taught to play without expensive computers or some of them will Dis cover what toes feel like As they Are exquisitely thawing in front of a others will remember when they were before they wore the Man the of adolescence and disallowed play As too our kids Arent going skiing or Snow boarding or having their Holiday scheduled and were giving them the gift of fun and the gift of if my husband just agrees to share the it will be a special Christ Charlotte proved pigs Fly by David Grimes i think a lot of people Are overreacting to the 300pound pet pig that flew firs class last month from Philadel phia to Charlotte had a bit of a panic attack when the plane came in for a land running up and Down the aisle Dis charging fees As she air plane travel is unpleasant what with the cramped scream ing babies and bad food without 300 pounds of incontinent Ham stepping on knocking Over the beverage cart and just generally making a Given the behaviour of some human passengers these can we really hold a pig to a higher Standard of conduct than we do people to my Charlotte did not attack a flight attendant or act in so violent a manner that she needed to be restrained by her fellow no one slapped a pair of plastic Handcuffs on Charlotte and there were no police offi cers waiting to arrest her when the plane flaming Corkscrew All Charlotte was doing was reacting As any firs time pig flier might react to the by no Means pleas ant sensation of a plane suddenly los ing Altitude for no apparent a pig with More flying experience might have been Able to Tell the difference Between a simple Landing approach and a flaming Corkscrew into the Tarmac at 500 then maybe there has been very Little solid research on How Many frequent flier Miles a pig must accumulate before it stops losing control of its bowels every time the fasten seat Belt sign lights i can identify with Charlotte up to a Point because get nervous while the slightest turbulence and in screaming were All going to die and burying my face in the shoulder of what Ever passenger was unlucky enough to sit next to the whole concept of beverage cart was invented for peo ple like i need to be Tranquilli Zed to the Point that if flames Start shooting out of the 2 i can remain Calm because i know we have three other engines As i am not suggesting that it would be Good airline policy to Start plying 300 Pound companion pigs with Gin and tonics As soon As they step it May make the situation better or it May make it the literature is thin on this it is possible that the Landing did not panic Charlotte at she May have Sim ply peeked through the drapes and got ten a glimpse of the squalid conditions in coach and freaked the sight of that much Carryon Luggage alone could have sent Charlotte Over the i was glad to read that the Faa decided that us airways did nothing wrong in allowing Charlotte to Fly As a com Panion for her who suffers from a heart they opened the so to for pigs to Fly in the in certain this Means that Charlotte May take to the air which is All right with As Long As next time Shes wearing a Dia David Grimes is a columnist for the Herald Tribune Winnipeg free press Winnipeg free presses 1872 Winnipeg Tribune est 1890 vol 129 n011 2000 Winnipeg free a division of newspapers division of Thomson Canada limited published seven Days a week at 1355 Mountain Manitoba pm 6977000 a member the Manitoba press Council Rudy email Nicholas ;