Winnipeg Free Press

Winnipeg Free Press (Newspaper) - March 6, 2001, Winnipeg, Manitoba As Winnora March 2001 editorials Freedom of Trade of Uberty of religion Equality of civil rights Stock welts Retreat Alliance Leader Stockwell Day yesterday backed Down in the face of scathing criticism of his quarrel with red Deer lawyer lome Day apologized to Goddard and he announced that he was borrowing to pay a share of the Cost Alberta taxpayers were saddled with because he defamed the apology and the financial contribution might have had More political Impact if they had been offered sooner and More in Day said he was sorry the affair had Cost tax payers so much and he explained that he was for Bidden to raise funds to help cover the costs he had after six weeks of growing com plaint inside the Alliance and in Parlia Day recognized that his position was the Alliance Leader has left a deep impression on the country As a person who believes he should be free to defame people who Dis agree with him and should be free to Bur Den taxpayers with the costs of his careless erasing that impression will take sustained and strenuous which Day began yester Day remains Leader of the Alliance and Leader of the opposition in a growing number of Alliance supporters Are ready for Day to move on but that process should not be hastened just because Days reputation is at a Low ebb at this the opposition forces have to prepare and build a political party that can beat the liberals in an election three or four years there is no Merit in dumping Day now and choosing a new Alliance Leader before the foundations of that party have been Day and conservative Leader Joe Clark both want to dictate terms for the new political Force that might be neither of them has enough cards to justify such aggressive a new Politi Cal party that could beat the liberals must have a program that will enjoy Good support across the that program should be established in plenty of time to build a party around it for the next its Broad outlines should be settled during the course of this in order to bring that people from the conservative and Alliance Camps should be agreeing now on a steering committee and a schedule of once that work is in Alliance members will be Able to see whether they need a Leader for their party or whether they should plan to embark on the new wider Day should continue As Alliance Leader until those aspects of the alliances future come into clearer the official opposition cannot under any Leader do much political damage to the liberals in these Early months after their Days followers should accept yesterdays gesture As an end to the lome Goddard sup port their Leader As Best they can for the rest of this year and concentrate on giving Canada a political party that can beat the super chief Matthew Coon Assembly of first nations grand has pried the lid off the Pandora Box of native he has openly associated himself with a movement to give every adult status Indian a vote in selecting the grand a position currently elected by band chiefs in doing the grand chief has Given life to a simmering struggle Between Ordinary native people and the the Best that could come of such a struggle is that full Benefit of the billions spent annually on native services will go to the people who Deal daily with the effects of unconscionably High Levels of poverty and while the struggle has new it also has the makings for a difficult the catching wind of chief Coon comes desire to open up the already have warned the grand chief to Back the chiefs will not tolerate any sort of where one individual has extraordinary Powers Over the first nation chiefs in Cana chief Lawrence from Atlantic Paul suggests that Coon come wants to undermine the elitist dictatorship the Assembly rep allowing him to take absolute control As a super there Are ways Coon come might accomplish but it would defy the Reali ties of the Assembly Structure is undemocratic and its members appear to like it that Coon come is to be congratulated for taking this bold step to giving the movement a National the next step is for those pushing for greater accountability in native government to capitalize on the produce a form of nation Al governance assured to reflect the voice and needs of the people and sell the idea to those who can vote with their if the an membership refuses to buy a new organization might Spring led by a Strong voice that can speak with legitimacy to governments and to canadians about the concerns of Ordinary native the chiefs risk losing much of their influence and certainly some of the Power Over their they Howe still have their Assembly and could carry on talk ing among themselves about the problems of enslaved to new technology Halifax two per cent of the a highly paid elite would run a smoothly clicking network of automated factories and transportation but the rest of us would be free to do nothing but Ful Fil our when computers were As big As freight so Many deep thinkers believed such guff that some urged government to prepare for the coming Leisure without would our lives become meaningless would we go insane not if our hobbies filled the no work vac not if we in piano Art ballroom scuba Flower arrange collecting antique and any of other deeply fulfilling government would provide Leisure professionals to keep us sane and and wed thrive in a sort of year round summer but a funny thing happened on the Way to we and toppled into the opposite far from abolishing technology is relentlessly turning it into Why Are millions of North american Chil Dren living with their grandparents answer their parents Are working so hard to make ends meet they Haven time to look after their own Only 44 per cent of american women with Small children worked outside their Homes 20 years ago 65 per cent Dur ing the 1960s in a on income working 40 to 45 hours a supported a typical but a report by the Vanier Institute in Ottawa the average family now works 65 to 80 hours a week to maintain the same Standard of living As it had in while unions fought for generations to achieve the 40hour work former labour Secretary Robert Reich it is now very common for professionals to put in More than 50 hours a with Young professionals in their 20s and 30s putting in 60 and 70hour work one of my a computer animator for Hollywood regularly works 12hour and sometimes puts in six 15hour Days in one my other a writer and Public relations consultant in reports to his computer most Days at 7 and quits work 13 hours the one consistent line from my kids you never have any time for says a British investment it makes me feel interviewing analysts in London financial Reuters news Agency found that most reported for work at 7 and did not Start Home until 11 hours one million brits spend a mini mum of 60 hours a week on the to make matters a woman Home is no longer where her heart its where her Distant Boss can make her work As hard As she did at the a mans Home is no longer his its a division of the corporation that buys his services and runs his because the technology is so says Michael coauthor of techno the eight hour Day has mushroomed to 16 and 20 there burdened at Home with voice mail and the cell the boundaries Between work and family time have become so blurred that peo ple Are answering messages for two hours before they go to bed at demanding killer fear of and glitches in the technology itself Are causing More and More office screaming some erupting in fist fights More and More women to Rush to the ladies room to weep in private More and More men to kick throw and smash key boards More and More workers complain of isolation from their and just feeling miserable and More and More cases in which information overload and constant dependence on computers Are actually destroy ing Peoples ability to think and skills amnesia is a new workplace and japanese Neur biologist Toshiyuki Sawaguchi says thanks to Young people today Are becoming i Surprise the Guys whole started to escape All this Are the very ones whole imposed it on millions of executive sabbaticals Are As trendy As and a lot More top managers just run away with their fam Ilies for a full year at full pay to the French or there the not the toiling who get to Lux Uriate in the year round summer Brave new Landry heats up the debate John Dafoe Albertas Ralph thinks que becs new Bernard is a greater threat to Canadas National Unity than was Lucien Landry says Klein is damned maybe he but those of us in the rest of Canada would be Wise not to jump to that the Quality that could make Landry seem to be the threat to Canada that Premier Klein fears is the same Quality that just might make him less that his com plete and unswerving Devotion to Quebec Lucien Bouchard was a threat because his determination to Lead Quebec out of confederation was always just a Little bit suspect he in toyed with serving As a senior minister in Brian Mulroney conservative government until he quit Over the fail ure of the Meech Lake As Premier of he promised not to hold a referendum on Independence until win Ning conditions were in those winning while never spelled out in presumably included evidence from Public opinion polls that a majority of if asked in a would say yes to Sov since most polls during Bouchard tenure in office indicated that a substantial majority of Quebe cers were not in favour of sovereignty or even a referendum on sover a lot of canadians could regard Bouchard As not much of a that attitude always left open the possibility that the Quebec Premier could stir up a Cri Sis or exploit events that would even if Only the winning conditions that he was looking in that Bouchard was dangerous to Canada because he did not look no one can say that of unlike Bouchard or Rene Levesque before he has never shown any interest in giving or reformed a his entire political career has involved the sin Gle minded Pur suit of Quebec he believes Quebe cers constitute a Winnipeg free press Winnipeg free presses 1872 Winnipeg Tribune est 1890 vol 129 no 90 2001 Winnipeg free a division of newspapers division of Thomson Canada limited published seven Days a week at 1355 Mountain Manitoba r2x pm 6977000 a member tie Muul olm prs ii cwt Lull he believes that the Quebec nation should Rule Over its own he believes that the inde pendent nation of Quebec could form a new co Federal Union with the rest of Canada but offers no explanation of what form that Union might so Bernard Landry poses a threat to Cana Dian Unity because of his single minded commitment to Quebec Independence and an Early poses Little danger that he might entice a majority of Quebe cers to vote for sovereignty through people will know exactly where he stands if 60 per cent of Quebec voters remain opposed to that then Landry will turn out to be a paper whether he turns out to be a paper Tiger or a raging Landry can be counted upon to bring a new level of provocation to Federal provincial Landry it has a mind of its own and it regularly utters provocative and insulting statements that sound Odd coming from a Man who has ambitions to be the last Premier of Quebec and the first prime minister of an Independent but if some of the new Quebec premiers More outlandish comments can be put Down to excessive polite Cal there is no doubt like Lucien Bouchard before he can generate a Fine line of calculated political abuse when the occasion demands whether of not he turns out to be the threat to Canada that haunts Ralph kleins Landry can be counted on to generate some fresh heat in Canadas never ending confederation Rudy Nicholas Patrick editor ;