Winnipeg Free Press

Winnipeg Free Press (Newspaper) - March 17, 2001, Winnipeg, Manitoba Focus a15 Nii 2001 v mayoral race parisians look for least offensive voters feel they have me Choice for mayor Paris when parisians went to the polls last sunday to choose a new mayor and other municipal they were like Many modern Day they Felt they had Little out of and for the first time since the end of the Paris commune More than 130 years they turned against the the socialist candidate took 34 per cent of the nine Points ahead of conserva Tive candidate Philippe the second round of voting was scheduled for conservative Vot ers might yet Combine to keep Paris City Hall in conservative the Campaign had the makings of a Good psychodrama with lots of mystery and the socialist party candidate is a Little known Bertrand he is openly elegant and his support is not due to his Star Quali ties or his abilities As a on the it is thanks to his image As a relative unknown someone apparently a Practised in the Art of renunciation a final Victory for the relatively discrete Delanoe would be neither a Triumph for the left nor a defeat for the but a renunciation of old style politics by the parisian elec the game of politics is so discredited Here in France that it is Best not to seem the image of the anti politician was created for Delanoe by Circum More than by in just after the election of socialist party Leader Francois Mitterrand As president of the became a Deputy in the National representing the 18th arrondissement of in he lost his seat in the National Assembly and went to work in the private he returned to politics by Way of the municipal Council of since has headed the socialists within the in it was Proba Bly a Good thing for Delanoe that he gained Little notoriety through his Francois Moll associated press an unidentified supporter left congratulates socialist Paris mayoral candidate Bertrand Delanoe role As Leader of the by Philippe the candidate for the ruling rally for the Republic known As the apr who has been Delanoe main is a True political he appears regularly on television he is the for Mer president of the National and the former head of his throughout the there was a sense that he was too much of an apr Man and too much of a politician to apr leaders ignored warnings that they were making a mistake in choosing Seguin As a candidate probably because it was impossible for them to accept the extent to which the historic image of politicians was being rejected by the strangely the third con tender of note is Jean who ran As an Independent after being rejected by his own party rally for the Tiberi was Deputy mayor when Jacques Chirac ruled he slipped into the top Job when Chirac moved up to become Tiberi is wallowing in Contro Versy because of several judicial inquiries into the mishandling of As More and More corruption comes to the apr has tried to create a kind of Maginot line of defence trying desperately to pre vent any investigations that might implicate who will be facing his own election Campaign in the near to do they have thrown most of the blame on Tiberius intrigue but beyond the miseries of Politi Cal there Are other reasons for the deterioration of the image of politicians generally in the eyes of it is a decline in which both the right and the left have contributed in there is a Gap Between the self importance of politicians and their capacity to imagine an alternative to the present system of management which no longer seems to the word democracy sounds hol Low Here in because the sys tem of Power is too too too arbitrary and too Delanoe proposes to decentralize Power for the Benefit of the mayors of the 20 Arron Disse ments across that could be a positive first but More fundamental change is budgetary and management processes must be taken from the hands of what one observer describes As the Little insignificant and stubborn Carica Tures of Louis in their magnificent offices and opened up to the until it appears that parisians will be forced to opt for the least offensive political Choice hop if nothing to bring an end to the reign of bad manage ment and Kathleen Ohara is an editor with com letters to the editor the free press welcomes letters from they must include the authors address and Telephone letters May be letters to the 1355 Mountain r2x fax email powerhouse didst control kids i am writing to express my annoyance at the article Eri titled Street kids Cen tre locked March this is the Sec Ond piece of Media coverage that i have seen on the plight of the Organiza Tion known As a youth out reach service formerly located at 121 Osborne in the i am the proprietor of two stores in the building that powerhouse was recently locked out in none of the pieces i have read or seen on Power houses did the reporter bother to inquire from the other tenants of the building As to Why we were complain ing to the landlord about when powerhouse was they had a vision of helping Street kids to help themselves get off of the we supported their efforts and even advertised in their monthly newsletter to help supplement their that when powerhouse opened its larger office on the top floor of our building they used to be in the problems soon began to excessive noise Levels from Yelling wrestling and running around from their patrons began Caus ing plaster dust to fall from the ceiling of one of our Eden lingerie our lights would habitually Flicker on and off when Large crashes would occur from their arguments Between their clients would often occur in the evenings out Side their Entrance during their Friday night Coffee we have observed these same kids spitting off of the bal Cony at Osborne Village customers and throwing garbage off of the second one of my staff was also almost hit by a drinking Glass lobbed by a youth hanging off of a second floor railing Over the the tenants of this building wrote letters to Carol Barton As Well As the landlord asking for him to step the result was the closing of their Friday night Coffee still the prob lems on the Odd instance that powerhouse did evict a problem the youths often came into the complaining store and swore at their staff for getting them kicked several of the tenants wrote followup letters which resulted in powerhouse being locked out of the i wish to question the Wisdom of our government for granting Money to an organization that in Many a duplication of services being offered by other social services Winnipeg Macdonald youth services and cos to name a the fact we witnessed Many of the same dozen or so kids going upstairs most Days every How Many of these kids Are no longer on the Street weve had their youths bring Down messages to our store in the past and telling us that they were being paid to do is this their employment being paid to be powerhouses errand boys they advertise in their newsletter that they will pay kids to draw pictures to Deco rate the Walls of their is this their artistic program Many of powerhouses employees were hired with Little or no social social or crisis intervention training or exp How can the government justify this funding our other the Sells Many of these same youths hair clothing and we Welcome them in our store and most of them Are quite Good we do not let then hang around or Panhandle out front when they our problem is riot with it is with powerhouses inability to supervise them while they were on powerhouses that is Why their buildings other tenants wanted them daemon nightshade president the crypt clothing company Eden lingerie company Street kids showed hostility i took great interest Reading the front Page article regarding the Street i do have sympathy toward any person who suffers from but there is another Story to some of these kids Pic tured in the free i have worked As a Volunteer foot patrol in the Osborne Village area based out of the Winnipeg police ser vice beat these kids Are any thing but Nice one of the teens Plit ured in the paper has been arrested Many times for drug they will also take great pleasure in intimidating people who will not give them cigarettes or one night while on i asked a group of them to not smoke and drink alcohol in the bus it was a very cold night and Many elderly residents were huddled outside while waiting for the bus As they were probably scared to enter the the kids finally left after one spat into my i would also like the kids to explain How they can afford to keep pets and Wear Nike or Adidas clothing that i cant even afford whenever on i would try to approach these kids with Courtesy and understanding but i was always met with hostility and rude my sympathy now goes out to the merchants in the Troy majors Winnipeg water bus needs better stops re Venice comes to the Prairies March i complement the initiative of splash dash Tours As Well As that of the City authorities in their support for a water bus though i wonder about the Wisdom of some of the choices for proposed Docking Bottom of Spence Street and the top of Hugo Street Why not bring the boats right up to the Maryland just below the Misericordia health where the River is usually navigable in summer and would be easily accessible to almost All of what a Delight Ful Way to spend a summer a walk through Wolseley pleasant tree Down to the boat Landing followed by a cruise Down to the the benefits of extending the water bus route a Little bit further up the Assiniboine River could also be enjoyed by the people of Boniface and who could now cruise right up As far As the Misericordia and take in and restaurants in and around Jeremy Fry Winnipeg help avoid circus the shrine circus is coming to town again and the shrines and Gar Den circus want us to pack up the kids and take them to the Spectra even in the year this spectacle involves magnificent animals parading about in demeaning per forming tricks that show none of the animals Beauty or Only the trainers ability to control these animals Are confined for Long periods in their dragged from town to town for most of the year and forced to learn meaningless and unnatural the animals suffer this try something different educate your children about these creatures from a like renting a but for goodness avoid the Howard Almodal Winnipeg let Manitoban chose senator the recent death of senator Gildas Mol Gat has left a vacancy in the upper this has been a patronage appointment of the Federal ruling party in the prime it is Long past due that this 19thcentury paternalistic practice it is an insult to every i urge the Manitoba government to unilaterally set up a proper democratic selection process in order to allow Citi Zens to choose who shall represent political patronage is not an appropriate mechanism to select a sen we have the right to be and the right to please make it Clear to your provincial and Federal members that anything less than a democratic process is not Andrew Cooke Winnipeg doonesbury by Garry Trudeau you scorer of via ;