Winnipeg Free Press

Winnipeg Free Press (Newspaper) - March 14, 2001, Winnipeg, Manitoba A12 w March 2001 editorials Freedom of Trade Liberty of religion Equality of civil rights the Alberta Challenge albertan had an Opportunity on monday to say no to private health to say no to to say no to on party they embraced Premier Ralph Klein As never increasing support for his govern ment by 11 percentage Points to 62 per cent from 51 per cent in in doing they made Klein one of the most powerful politicians in Canada with a 74seat major Ity in an 83seat they not Only rejected the criticism of the Klein government advanced Pri Marily by the liberals under Nancy they pulled the Rug out from under her in her own Edmonton Riding As part of a larger rejection of the cites longstanding role As supplier of opposition this even Edmonton endorsed the direction the province is moving which is toward a Deb free Prosperity never before seen in and therein lies the Chal not just for but for All the Challenge for Alberta is an enviable one it is to maximize the Opportunity that burgeoning Gas and Oil royalties create in an Economy already run Ning at full tilt and attracting not Only the interest of the rest of but tens of thousands of Cana so in that Albertas population has topped three giving it both economic and demographic the Challenge ahead for the rest of Canada is less enviable to try to keep in the absence of Albertas resource that will not be it May not even be but it is not a bad thing not for other provinces nor for Canada As a the Klein governments landslide Victory All but ensures that its Experiment in for profit health care will continue even As its wealth draws health professionals to the province and away from lower pay those factors May vex health and finance ministers in less prosperous but they will also Force governments to find ways to compete and to join a much sharper debate about the future and direction of health a debate that Canada needs and a debate that goes beyond simple and hackneyed comparisons Between Canada and the United the landslide Victory ensures that Albertas Energy deregulation Experiment will continue As part of a larger conviction that less government is better that taxpayers know Best How to spend their own and that markets Are better Able to select winners than Are which is not to say the Klein government has the it is Only to say by its very confident it challenges All other governments to not simply say but to demonstrate racism at the in the United nations is once again on a collision course with the United a in conference set for the end of the world conference against racial xenophobia and related has been asked by a group of asian including All the Mideast Arab to adopt a motion condemning zionism As a form of if that item appears on the final the has indicated it will Boycott the Canada has not yet made up its a spokesman for the foreign affairs department says that although Canada opposes attempts to equate zionism As Ottawa has not yet decided if it will attend should the Issue be on the this is not the first time the Issue has come before the in a controversial zionism As racism Resolution was approved by the general a Resolution that was repealed amid More controversy in this is the most contentious Issue that the in organizers May be required to Deal but it is not the Only third world countries demand that the West pay compensation for the slave they demand that globalization be declared a form of racism and that the former colonial Powers compensate their former these Are All demands to which Canada and other Western nations should refuse to globalization May in some the villain of the but it will Benefit eventually even the poorest it is Long past time that former colonies can blame their former rulers for the plight they have created for themselves and even some african leaders do not support the proposal for compensation for the slave because africans themselves were heavily involved in these issues Are legitimate subjects of debate at a conference on they should not Lead Canada to Boycott the the zionism racism could be a it is simply ant Israel in its political intent and a shameless attempt to influence the course of events in the Mideast the Only connection it has to racism is the antisemitism inherent in Canada cannot in Good conscience support nor remain silent in its Between now and Ottawa should concentrate its efforts at the in on raising opposition to this odious proposal so that the when it May have some Hope of constructively addressing the genuine evil of racism As it exists in the world dour government plods along Alberta has advantages that Manitoba does the most obvious Alberta advantage is that it is Rich in Gas and royalties from which last year generated about billion for the Public there is so much easy Money that after tax billions in new spending on health and education and billions More in Energy it had a surplus of billion million More than its billion just Back from Alber where its resource advantage has spawned a psychological advantage a Cando spirit the contrast is Manitoba does not have Albertas obvious but it has some just the although you would hardly know at least not since the election of the doer government More than 18 months it forces one to reflect that since the elec Tion of the doer we have known Only dour All talk of tax Relief has most talk about economic development that could arise As a result of lower taxes has been and talk about at least trying to compete with other provinces has replaced with constant whining and hand wringing about the need to stretch poor Man Tobas meagre resources to meet the challenges of All on Good no a Federal healthcare bailout last summer was growth just int fast enough to meet All fresh needs and wants that Are being identified Crown corporations Are flush better raid the a recent million Windfall in Transfer payments As a result of Federal Revenue growth no mention of Manitoba Revenue growth was dismissed As a drop in the it is difficult to remember Only 18 months the Filmon tories promised Bil lion in tax cuts and spending what is easy to remember is the scepticism with which that Promise was the scepticism that of All could achieve such a that scepticism has been proved mis but it continues to be fostered and encouraged All the inspiring what has become of vision nearly Halfway through its the doer government has yet to articulate to Lay out a plan for the future and a Road map to the envisioned it is difficult to get even a confident prediction about growth from this the one Bright spot appears to be the governments willingness to at least press the debate on a new the construction of which would put downtown revival efforts Over the Hump and would signal that Manitoba can do at least that but More than some seeming resolve to build an Manitoba needs this govern ment to step up and explain How Manitoba is going to Benefit from opportunities lying in its the first is the unfortunate need to spend about billion fixing the red River a construction project that will not Only save the City from calamity it will open a window of economic activity that will make a new Arena seem the Small potatoes that it really is in a province of More than one million just As work on the flood Way is so too is work on expanding Manitoba Hydro generating and not just the new Gas fired plants in Brandon and but Mega projects Worth billion in the projects that could be launched to take advantage of the continent wide shortage of youve no doubt heard a lot about that Short not from the doer but a lot if a Meg project is to be that Likely will Force construction of a new Power line from the North running through Eastern a wilderness that could be tapped or depending on the wishes of that line is expected to Cost about billion to add it up and you find that because of Man Tobas hydroelectric advantage and floodplain the province could in the very near future be launching a staggering billion Worth of construction those projects would be relatively Short but while they Are in Progress Manitoba will enjoy a level of artificial Prosperity that could rival the accidents of resource distribution that Alberta and yet this government has not produced for Public consumption a plan to pursue electricity a plan to further develop Hydro or a vision for How this great Vari Ety of Public works programs could be harnessed for the shorthand Lon term Benefit of All Premier Gary doer declined an invitation to even discuss the evident potential with the free press editorial it would on that Albertas greatest advantage is a willingness to use the advantages it has and to inspire Confidence As a the if has beaten hyperinflation by Fareed Zakaria losing your Cool can be very costly in today capitalist when turkeys normally Calm prime Bulent walked out of a Stormy meeting with his president and told reporters hed been financial markets within hours the Stock mar Ket interest rates Rose to per and the currency lost a third of its in turkeys troubles provoked yet another series of assaults on the International monetary the Agency that masterminded the program to cure turkeys rampant critics mostly on the mostly congressional republicans con tend that next the fund should simply stay out of the but what next time Turkey is the last major country grappling with out control its Worth amid All the recriminations about currency crises and Bank that hyperinflation has been if Turkey gets through its turmoil a big if it will be the Happy end of a 20year consider the picture just Over a decade in inflation in Argentina was almost in Brazil in Peru inflation also plagued the new economies of Eastern Poland inflation was Over 200 percent Bulgaria was at the these numbers didst even seem so we were accustomed to the reality that in Large parts of the governments lived beyond their Means and then printed Money to pay the but Over the past one after the other of these developing countries has moved sen Sibly and soberly toward free markets and monetary and fiscal some have accepted the need to float their currencies oth ers have linked their currencies to the euro or the the result few places that participate seriously in the world Economy have inflation rates Over 20 this might help explain what happened after the turkish col which is the crisis Hast spilled Over into other for now at partly this a function of size As one banker Turkey is not but its also after a run on a markets search for other places with similar weak Nesses and abandon them As right there Are few candidates for hyperinflation is the worst economic Mal Ady that can befall a wiping out the value of assets and thus its worse even than a deep inflation robs you of we bib what you have now accustomed to whereas a the reality that recession robs you of what you might have parts of had higher standards the of living had the my that Why it so often toppled go beyond their Ern ments and produced Means and then it want the great depression that Money brought the nazis to of pay the Bills Power in Germany but rather which destroyed the German Middle class by making its savings Why was this War won mostly because of an ideological by the 1980s countries worldwide recognized that Way their economies would grow was to Dereg Cut the size of government and tighten monetary conservative leaders in the West in the 1980s Thatcher gave this process a huge policy push their new and improved left Wing successors of the 1990s Blair stayed the but an even Central institution in the move toward free markets worldwide has been the much maligned the if has made its it partly mis handled the asian economic crisis of it remains unwilling to publicly scold govern ments that slow Down on As Turkey did in the past six it should recognize the political reality that in economist Steve Hankes countries with weak Laws and weak governments have to put their Central Banks in a straitjacket to Force fiscal but these Are tactical the whose Board is dominated by the United has been the principal advocate of free mar free Trade and free whether in Egypt or the if has forced countries to make the unpopular reforms that will put them on the path of sustainable and it Hast shied away from targeting Western in 1976 it asked the last labour government in Britain to Cut its uncontrolled deficit last month it suggested the current labour government pare Back its extravagant spending american in pursuing a Utopia in which countries would live by the global free Market or Are being unrealistic about Are we willing to see a nato ally such As Turkey go belly up so that it learns its capitalist lesson liberalizing even if they dont go far need political especially when they hit a bump in the that Why even the most fervent free marketeer in the developing world sup ports the the strongest proof that the if is an engine of free Market Reform is this in every country in the the if is criticized from the around the the fund is the number one target of the ant free anti globalization in one country the United is it criticized from the has the entire world misunderstood the ifs or is it just the congressional republicans Zakaria is editor of Newsweek International and a columnist for Newsweek Winnipeg free press Winnipeg free press est 1872 Winnipeg Tribune est 1890 vol 129 no 98 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 Olne Manitoba press Council Rudy publisher email Nicholas ;