Winnipeg Free Press

Winnipeg Free Press (Newspaper) - March 17, 2001, Winnipeg, Manitoba A14 win Pic Mam ii 2001 editorials Freedom of Jade Liberty of religion Equality of civil rights a purpose for Power finance minister Greg Selinger faces a greatly changed economic environment As he writes the budget he will present to the Mani Toba legislature april in his budget a year Selinger anticipated Strong private sector Schneider was expanding its Boniface pork Loewen win Dows was expanding in versatile equip ment was getting Back on an even this the Schneider expansion is Loewen win Dows has already Laid off employees and the versa tile Plant is possibly moving to North Manito Bas Job and output growth last year lagged behind the rest of Cana the political context has also Selinger used his first budget a year ago to Lav ish Money on the health the first budget allowed Selinger to splash Money around and charge it to the for Mer administrations that luxury is no longer available to the spending he is about to budget is All the strongest item in slingers Revenue list is equalization payments from which Are running ahead of forecast and which continue to be swollen by Alberta Oil revenues and relative weak Ness in the Manitoba tax the saving Grace that keeps Manitoba unemployment rate Low is Strong growth in Alberta and Ontario that allows Mobile Manitoba workers to head for Greener Pas though Manitoba lost fewer inter provincial migrants last year than it had done in any of the preceding 15 the net verdict of those moving among provinces still was a vote against that is a Stark reality that a provincial finance min ister must Manitoba schools Are hobbled by an antiquated finance Manitoba homeowners and Busi Nesses Are burdened with school varying dramatically from one school division to which in most other provinces Are financed through More efficient forms of government for the Good of the schools and for the Good of the owners of Selinger should use this budget to find a new basis for school this should Benefit both the future generations the government is anxious to protect and the present Economy it must Manitoba oldest housing is not being renovated because of rent tax land servicing policy and welfare housing allowances that encourage exurban growth and discourage improvement in the inner Selinger should use this budget to take the brakes off the housing Manitoba is still dragging a net Public debt of billion billion when you count pension slingers lon term plan last year was to maintain debt service costs at million a bleeding the budget each year indefinitely to feed the he should use this budget to Speed up debt reduction and win greater fiscal Freedom in future Manitoba has Large projects to undertake flood Protection for Hydro development on the Nelson reconstruction of crumbling universities and underdeveloped Community these great works have to be staged and financed in a Way the province can sustain through years of Strong growth and years of Selinger should use this budget to Lay out a plan for the Meg projects that must eventually be slingers first year was the easy he and his colleagues in government were Able to Roll their eyes in dismay Over the conditions left by the for Mer conservative government and to evade difficult after 18 months in they must now recognize that they actually Are the govern that the province has great potential but limited Means and that the Public is counting on them to focus the resources they have on the Aims that matter most for Manitoba Selinger should use this budget to raise the governments thinking beyond Short term tactical set an Agenda for take charge and give Manito bans a purpose for paying their cannabis in court courts at most Levels agree that the use of Mari Juana is relatively harmless to individuals and to and in some medical it can actually be yet it remains a crime to posses marijuana in the supreme court of in a decision not surprisingly called courageous by advocates of this week agreed to hear appeals of three convictions for at Issue will be whether governments can pass Laws prohibiting harmless the great majority of who once were strongly opposed to the use of today seem which May explain Why their governments refuse to come to grips with de criminal even regulation of so called medical with the result that charges continue to be Laid even against persons who smoke pot to relieve symptoms of a supreme court ruling could usefully smoke the Issue out into the the scribe beside the Prince Lloyd Axworthy May be the quintessential he is just Pink enough to Appeal to his party base of support among those canadians who feel that somebody owes them some thing just Blue enough to Frost those canadians who think that the government owes them the ones who usually vote Axworthy has had a Long career in Federal serving in a number of senior Cabinet most recently As minister of foreign where he distinguished himself As Fidel castros Best Friend in the Western before last novembers Federal Axworthy or retired to take a Gen Erous depending on How you look at and accepted an appointment As a member of a thin tank in British this week he was Back in Winnipeg for his first Public appearance since the the new director and chief executive officer of the Liu Centre for global issues at the University of British Columbia spoke to guests at a luncheon hosted by the Eric and Jack Wells the foundation was set up in the memory of two Brothers who were prominent in Winnipeg journalism Eric a much admired for Mer editor of the Winnipeg Tribune and later a commentator on Job and Cactus a much loved radio and television sports each year the foundation sponsors an event to which it invites Public figures to speak on the medias role in this Given his departure from Public it was Axworthy having lived under the medias for Only god and Lloyd know How Many Axworthy was a Good but while you can take the boy out of you cant take politics out of the Axworthy went easy on us us being the the hardest thing he had to say and this from a Man who has been relentlessly dogged by journalists for almost 30 years is that journalists should remember that Are part of the Public and Politi Cal there he a love hate relationship Between journalists and politicians both need each but they do not always like it did the Earth move i guess it All Axworthy have an important role to play in Public he did not actually quote Edmund which is prob ably just As but As he made that comment he pointed to journalism students from red River College who were there on assignment to report on the they did not get to being but were allowed into the Crys Tal ballroom of the fort Garry where once their grandmothers May have squandered their inheritances when it was the Crystal Cash no in the same Way As some of the governments in which Axworthy served squandered the inheritance of a whole generation of Canad journalists love Burke because a quote attributed to him gives their often shabby Trade a dignity that sometimes they actually live up the words cannot be found in any of burkes actual but there is enough respect in his writings for journalists to give credence to the what Burke is reported to have said is that there were three estates in parliament the the lords and the com Mons but in the reporters gallery there sat a fourth estate More important than they All that fourth just As a by being so go whether or not Burke Ever made the com ment about the fourth the thought does journalists no newspaper people Are not like the three estates of burkes the lords the lords temporal and the the fancy that the press is on an equivalent with them has led it in the past to excesses where press lords imagine themselves to be the makers of Public the most they should aspire to be is the shapers of Public pol we have seen recently in Canada a reassertion of the Beaverbrook kind of press lord ism when David Asper sent a diktat to his newspapers that they go easy on prime minister Jean that is the kind of thing that happens when journalists take themselves too when press lords imagine that they really Are a fourth estate instead of just the watchers of government and society that they Are supposed to politicians May Hope to walk Handi hand with but journalists should keep their hands in their pockets when they Are not on their pens or their having now left will come to understand that in time hopeful a new generation of journalists Pardon the its hypocrisy Michael Kinsley according to a report this 15 to 20 Fri agents and a handful of prosecutors Are already at work investigating the Clinton Par this Doest include All the activity up on Capitol booking Dan Burton and Arlen Specter for Pardon related television appearances must itself require staffs of several dozen it May All come to since the crime of giving or taking a bribe or even the lesser offence of paying a gratuity to a Public offi Cial is very hard to if the criminal investigation does flame the critics of for Mer president Clinton will insist that the technicalities and practical limits of the Law be allowed to obscure the basically malodorous ethical nature of the and be did Denise Rich give vast sums to the democratic the Clin ton presidential Library and Hillary Clinton Senate Campaign at least in part in the Hope of influencing Bill Clinton to give her a husband a presidential Pardon of course she was Clinton influenced at least in part by that Money in deciding to Pardon Marc Rich the Pardon is an amazing coincidence if he was Hugh Rodham exploiting his position As first brother inlaw by taking Money from Pardon seekers the question answers was Clinton influenced by Rodham and by his own in making his Pardon decisions apparently not by since none of Roger Clinton supplicants actually got but the invest ment in Rodham seems to have paid on the other there is something unreal about the moral especially in Over the idea that an official act might have Winnipeg free press Winnipeg free press est 1872 Winnipeg Tribune est 1890 vol 129 n0100 been influenced by Money or that someone might be cashing in on his or her proximity to the the main reason official bribery is so hard to prove is that if the Law want writ ten narrowly essentially requiring proof of an explicit beforehand quid pro quo it would cover much of Washington Day today Busi the Normal Pardon procedure works in typical Washington if you want youd better hire an attorney who specializes in he or she is Likely to be an exem ploy be of the Justice departments Pardon with Many friends and contacts and youd better be Able to afford the very same edition of the Washington Post that reported the growing Pardon investigation had an article buried on Page 23 head lined taking a right turn on k it concerned How All the lobbying firms and Trade associations Are bulking up with republicans mostly former Hill staffers to prepare for the new Why companies hire former government officials and con tribute Money to incumbent politicians is As obvious As Why Denise Rich gave Money to the Clinton yet this article accurately 2001 Winnipeg free a division of newspapers division of Thomson Canada limited Days a week at 1355 Mountain Winnipeg Manitoba r2x pm 6977000 a member of the Manitoba press Council reflecting the current understanding about such things reported lobbyists preparations the Way a Detroit newspaper might report automakers planning for the new Model the Washington Post piece tells of Republican politicians pressuring lobbying firms to hire including their own former and quotes them openly bragging about How Treyve just last Senate gop conference chairman Rick san Torum of Pennsylvania held a meeting with several lobbyists in which they agreed to come up with a list of candidates for several High profile in other a senator solicited something of value High paying jobs for political soul mates in implicit Exchange for a Promise to be More receptive to someones private or at least with an implicit threat to be less receptive unless the lobbying firms which amounts to the same of whats really remarkable Here is that lobbying firms and organizations Are now so established and powerful that important politicians Are lobbying some people Are trying to make a criminal Issue out of the possibility that Bill Clinton might have pardoned four hasidic jews in Exchange for a Promise to deliver the hasidic Community for his wife Senate Good suppose its True buying and sell ing official actions in Exchange for votes sounds More like a description of democracy than a criminal to expend All our outrage on the Clinton pardons and Reserve none for washing tons institutionalized Cul Ture of fundraising and influence peddling is to get the balance very Michael editor of slate writes a weekly column for the Washington Post Rudy publisher email Nicholas Patrick editor ;