Winnipeg Free Press

Winnipeg Free Press (Newspaper) - June 6, 2001, Winnipeg, Manitoba A12 of Frek june 2001 comment editor Terence Moore 6977044 editorials Freedom of Trade Liberty of religion Equality of civil rights two tier parliament prime minister Jean Chretien thinks that he deserves a 42 per cent increase in pay and that members of parliament from All parties deserve a 20 per cent Rise in the salary they were elected to he believes in it so strongly that he is prepared to trash the traditions of parliamentary government while he rams it through the House of commons with Little your member of parliament receives the equivalent of a the prime minister receives on when the Liberal government expects to pass its new your my will earn and Chretien pay will be bumped up to whether the Mem Bers deserve a sub Stantial raise in pay that will fatten not Only their pay cheques but their pensions has been questioned by the the opposition maps and one Lone Liberal the prime minister is not concerned about those con his Only Visi ble concern is that his will be the Liberal majority guarantees that the Bill will As with any other piece of it will then become the Law of the under Normal Cir would be applicable to All these Are not Normal Chretien has introduced an extraordinary pro vision into the Bill that would require members to personally sign on to receive its Chretien argued last week that it would be hypocritical of maps to vote against the pay increase and then to accept the Money after the unstoppable Liberal majority passes the increase into if you want the said Liberal House Leader Don Boudria this you sign up for if you you dont this is a curious understanding of the Rule of and one which the Canadian Public should Hope the liberals will not apply in a general although Liberal my Tom Wappel made it pretty Clear recently that it is his understanding of How his government works if a person does not vote for it or with he should expect no Benefit from Chretien position if More cynical than the Issue is not whether maps or the prime minister himself deserve a generous increase in the Issue is whether maps sitting in the House today should be so generous to them opposition maps do not necessarily oppose the increase in but most of those who object believe that any such raise should not take effect until after the next Chretien threatens them with exclusion from the increase if they do not toe the governments Chretien has not made Clear whether this two tier system of pay for parliamentary service will be continued forever in offending constituent whether this is blackmail or simple bribery on the part of the prime minister is a moot that the major hypocrisy Here is to be found in the legis and that the Bill represents a perverse under standing of the parliamentary is obvious to everyone except the Liberal review Hydro rates Manitoba doer government has introduced legislation to lower Hydro rates to Northern and Rural customers without Independent scrutiny by the Public utilities the Premier has Given no Good reason for bypassing a review of these except to say his government promised the rate Cut during the 1999 election Campaign and therefore it shall be he forgot at the time to that his plans would not go before the watchdog particularly Manitoba Hydro deserve to have a full airing of the costs and benefits of such a commitment and that can Only be done at the rates across the province Are set to reflect the Cost of providing electricity to the it costs More to Send it to fewer users dispersed Over a greater area than it does to Many residents clustered in that Why users in Winnipeg pay less than those in the for by Legisla any change to those rates must go through hearings at the where Manitoba Hydro makes us Case that an increase or decrease is justified based on the corporations financial the interests of Consumers at such hearings Are represented by pub but also by members of the Public who wish to the rules not Only allow scrutiny of the acumen of those running the Crown they also provide ample Opportunity to bal Ance the political Agenda of a particular govern ment with the views of the ratepayers and the electorate Premier doer says the Bill sets out that this rate restructuring is a onetime Only exception to the but it is a substantial its annual Cost of million is not compared to the revenues the Utility draws from current Export sales but it does change a Basic business premise upon which rates Are ratepayers might argue that it is precisely such an exception that the pubs Power of review was intended to Check or More they could argue that the governments pressing need to avoid review of this plan at the pub makes the need for such scrutiny All the More republicans Grieve coup of one Michael Kinsley Trent Lott is becoming at first the former Senate majority Leader tried to look on the Bright Side about his newly reduced Sta theres something liberating about being in the Lott noted philosophically on a Callin radio youre Freer to advocate positions and amendments you really think should be in suggesting that politicians find it easier to be honest when there out of Lett was not merely saying something we All believe but demonstrating it As so it would be unkind to ask what this observation suggests about the positions Lott advocated before last or anything he might say should he become majority Leader acceptance is the last of the famous five stages of As conceived by Elisabeth youre supposed to arrive there after going through bargaining and but Lott seems to be doing it within Days Hes slipped from acceptance Back to and even in a Call to action released by his office and first reported sunday in the new York the poor Man seemed maddened by the loss of Power and a sense of and crack your he declared that was King Lott merely called for War to regain Republican control of the which had been Over turned by a coup of one that subverted the will of the american voters who elected a Republican doctors believe this May be a fevered reference to James Jeffords switch from Republican to also described by Lott As the impetuous decision of one Man to undermine our republicans must recapture the Senate not just because that would be Nice but because we have a moral obligation to restore the integrity of our to restore by the democratic process what was changed in the Back rooms in democratic control of the Senate lacks the moral authority of a mandate from the Letts notion that democratic control of the Senate is not merely unfortunate but actually illegitimate is interesting for political reasons As Well As the obvious psychiatric the Senate minority Leader int the Only one suf Fering painful symptoms of withdrawal from the drug of political his is not even the most severe have you been Reading the Wall Street journal editorial Page republicans and somewhat to their Are always Quick to develop a sense of Manifest destiny a conviction that democracy has anointed them and their Agenda they had this with some throughout the they had it in they had it As recently As two weeks with impressively Little fac Tual facts by a therapy of limited usefulness in cases of advanced but let us try a few on Letts notion that the people have decreed a Republican majority in the sen ate and anything that prevents one amounts to a coup these pills May help others who Are less severely one Small flaw in Lotts narrative tapestry is that there was not a Republican majority in the Senate even before that impetuous betrayed Western the result was remember its dubious enough to suppose that when people vote for a particular Senate there making a conscious decision about which party they wish to see in add in the tiebreaker role of the vice especially one elected under the circumstances of this and the theory becomes but suppose that Lott is right and Senate elections Are referendums on which party should control the in that Case the moral authority of a mandate from the voters belongs to the who got million votes for senator last compared with million for the the fact that states like Montana get just As Many senators As new York and California makes it easy for republicans to have even an actual major Ity of Senate seats without getting a majority of the a Republican with a More finely honed sense of irony than Lotts might hesitate before Thun Dering about the moral Sanctity of majority until two weeks the republicans dominated both elected branches of govern ment without a popular majority in either and they were Busy with plans to reinforce the effective conservative majority in the unelected american As we Learned last int a system of majority it is majority Rule tempered by some purposeful departures enshrined in the Constitution and by some inevitable accidents of like the population of North Dakota and the Quirky personality of a particular senator from ver there All part of the you can not reasonably pick and choose among these demanding that the other Side be Good sports about the ones that help you while denouncing the ones that Hurt you As betrayals of although they rightly contested an inaccurate vote count in the democrats have been very Good sports about the Basic fact that they lost the presidency while getting a major Ity of the the by seem to find it inconceivable and illegitimate that they should be out of even when that result is dictated by both simple majority Rule and our systems Peculiar Depar Tures from and to think these were the people who used to be fixated on the need for term Michael editor of slate writes a weekly column for the Washington Post he should but Stock stands still some time ago i decided i would not write about Stockwell Burt Day and his woeful Lack taking shots at Stock was too it seemed the equivalent of boys removing the wings from he is so hapless that pointing it out More than once seemed both cruel and once you Start comment ing on stocks shortcomings and theres no end to i suppose also that i naively thought he would do the right would find a Way to make a Graceful exit in the interests of what is left of Preston mannings Reform which actually threatened to make a difference in Canada by offering new solutions to old you can thank Presto for the modest tax cuts Paul Martin implemented weeks before the last you can thank Paul Martin for launching yet another Liberal spending spree weeks after the last but Stock stands he wont he wont take a Hes oblivious to smacks upside the when eight of his maps stabbed him in the it was passed off As a donation of free falling poll results that simply an invitation to take up things Are so bad that yesterday we Learned that Days chef could no longer stomach making meals at Stornoway and walked out just As Day is dithering about a Garden party for the which has not been issued invitations because someone neglected to have them he has fallen so he has become such a figure of that free press cartoonist Dale Cummings last week portrayed him As a turnip without a Peep of Public of things could be worse and no doubt they will Stockwell Days stubborn refusal to see the to realize that he is destroying the party he purports to can Only be described As which got me thinking that maybe it and i beg your indulgence Stock Well Day is the political equivalent of the which is an idea you must at least admit is ironic in a fundamental sort of reflect for a Long ago in the land of the the Stern ruler begat a son who wandered in the political Wilder Ness until he had a vision of salvation from the tax and spend orthodoxy that was making life a hell of a lot harder than it need he gathered first a few and the grew they wanted to spread the word far and wide and feared the visionary could not take them to the promised and so it came to pass that they cast Down their Leader and embraced instead a false Prophet who has taken them Down a new Garden and Down and Down and the tablets on which was inscribed the beliefs and convictions of the the beliefs and convictions shared by the Multi have been the loss of the word to mix created a Tower of babble in which every party member seems to speak in tongues so that no one knows what is being said or for How an unholy Alliance has been tried and has the multitudes have taken to falling upon one the idea of the the beguiling agent of dark forces who corrupts purpose so that All that is Good is made is an idea that predates in biblical references he is finally Defeated at the end of time by the forces of in older there is no Happy Stockwell Burt Day has been around for less than a but he looks like an old Winnipeg free press Winnipeg free press est 1872 Winnipeg Tribune est 1890 vol 129 m0171 2001 Winnipeg free a division of newspapers division of Thomson Canada limited published seven Days a week at 1395 Mountain Manitoba r2x pm 6977000 a of Mir of i Mutton pern canned Rudy email Nicholas Patrick editor v ;