Winnipeg Free Press

Winnipeg Free Press (Newspaper) - June 7, 2001, Winnipeg, Manitoba A14 pin Jim 2001 comment editor Terence Moore 6977044 editorials Freedom of Trade Liberty of religion Equality of civil rights wee dram of Choice consumer and corporate affairs minister Scott Smith made much yesterday of the importance of expanding choices for con Sumers of there very Little in the changes he proposes to the liquor Law to sup port the after Long study and Broad Public after at least observing the endless possibilities open to actually increase Choice by eliminating the mountains of regulation and government ownership of the liquor monopoly that thwart private and enterprising efforts to create real what the minister actually proposes to do is very Little allow liquor Beer vendors and mostly beverage rooms to open on in terms of the Choice the minister it Means that Manitoban can buy booze six and half Days a week instead of and they can buy drinks in rooms instead of these prudish Steps mean Only that Mani Toba has become the second last province in Canada to allow liquor to be sold on in Exchange for these but nevertheless improve ments in the proposals make More rigid the rules for operating licensed for the on advice that it would be easier for the government proposes standardized hours of operation for he could have simply said that the Market is the Best judge of opening and closing but instead he decided that no bars can open before 9 and All must close at 2 which at the very that shift workers who could have been accommodated in a Raissez Faire environment will not be accommodated in the environment that Smith declares is one of expanded in order to ensure that those communities which oppose alcohol sales can continue to oppose alcohol the minister has decreed that they can Block sunday sales by passing that might make sense for a Community but it is meaningless for a Community East Kildo which would have to get the entire City of Winnipeg to ban sales in order to satisfy local in order to ensure the continuance of the govern ment monopoly and its unionized government work the minister refuses to simply privatize retail he threatens the survival of eight Pri vate stores by opening them to subsidized Competition from the government monopoly most is that Smith did not take this Opportunity to actually redraft the liquor to remove from it 50 years of regulatory confusion and Cross referenced amendment that requires an army of bureaucrats and boards to manage to we Are left with the same monopoly Structure that not Only thwarts real Choice but wrongly continues to be both the monopoly seller of alcohol and the regulator of its a conflict of interest that is ludicrous to Smith May value but he certainly is not very Good at making chasing rainbows fifty defenders of the derelict Eaton building on Portage Avenue met this week to review possible Means to Block its demolition and the construction of an Arena on the heritage Winnipeg director Bernie a former City warned them against chasing his advice seemed Winnipeg is generously supplied with interesting buildings dating from about 100 years these have been sheltered from demolition because of their appearance and their historical associations but usually without regard to the Prospect that tenants might be found to use them and pay the costs of their the resulting abundance of empty heritage buildings has become a tourist attraction and provides inter Esting locations for shooting Street scenes in defenders of the old Capitol How finally had to admit that the building could not be put to use and it is now being pulled the old Nymha building has similarly reached the end of the for Many years in it was enough to show that an old building was interesting and it could be kept vacant for the Eaton building was abandoned by the department store at a time when it had already become Clear that Winnipeg had More historic buildings than it knew what to do though it stood since no one nominated the Eaton building for listing As a heritage proper the proponents of the True North Arena do have a use for the Eaton site and Are willing to invest their own funds in building the suggestions for other uses have been brought Forward by thoughtful and Well intentioned people who do not own the building and will suffer no loss if their ideas prove Wolfe urged the Savee tons meeting to focus on persuading City Council to withdraw support from the True North this might be done if they could show that a Developer with financial backing and tenants had a definite plan to use the in the absence of such a the Choice lies Between a plausible and appealing Arena project and what we have now the abandoned of a department that teasing glimpse of Utopia self starting entrepreneurs tend to share a work ethic that is alternately admirable and they Rise at 5 because there just Arent enough hours in the Day to accomplish everything they want to for one company int they Start new ventures for some thing to do on weekends and at but lets forget for a moment about those Spe Cial even if they do drive the econ Many More average working people feel they work too pressured to do More with while juggling the demands of family Leisure activities and other As it turns things could be worse for working according to a global study by new Yor based Market research company Roper starch people Liv ing in developed Asia work the longest crybabies in North America and Western Europe actually work the Topping the charts Are South who work an average hours a followed by turks argentines and Tai wanese the Best place to have a according to the Survey where full time employees work an average of hours a the countries joining France near the Bottom Are Italy great Britain Canada and the and China but were barely on the Way to the utopian work even if canadians do work fewer hours than the 32country aver age of hours a another from recommends that it would be healthier to work three hours a assuming we could still somehow get that same pay Cheque for the 15 hour work life would be after when it comes right Down to peo ple like better we like to get any kind of stuff at for need evidence attend a movie preview a retail store a product launch or a sporting event and watch other Wise reasonable people do completely unreasonable things to win a free Orange shirt they would ordinarily never marketers might find that a product with a Premium Price suggests High Quality and Good taste to maybe that does work some of the but if its i suspect its somehow even More accessible Content has been a Large part of the internets in seven or so the internet has become a treasure trove of free publications and seemingly endless amounts of reviews and a Friend joked yesterday that today inter net users will be Able to Tell their future grand children about the Days when you could get any song from the internet for Grampa they might say with wide eyed were there dinosaurs in 2001 the online son sharing server that was beaten up in courts for enabling copy right announced this week that it has struck a distribution Deal with three major record labels that Are launching a music subscription service this the Genie is out of the bottle for the most part when it comes to music and the inter and there will continue to be myriad ways to freely Swap music files and other inform but some commercial internet observers say the Halcyon Days of free everything online Are winding no one is making any As so Many failed Dot corns can now the Yahoo web Portal now charges for its Lon distance internet phone which used to be Freebie internet like Toronto based Are closing unable to run a business solely on revenues from the online mag is now soliciting subscribers for its Premium a search engine and subsidiary of the primed a Magazine plans to charge for some of its email some newspapers Are no longer posting their entire daily Content and archives online without Kevin Werbach is an Industry analyst with adventure holdings and a former Federal communications commission attorney who talked about this with an online technology lots of companies went too far Down the Road in giving things away for free and found that they charge Werbach was quoted this anyone who thought the web would somehow change the Laws of economics was deluding stifle that its that sort of think ing that will kill the three hour workday move o Grey puts common sense on the line Deborah Grey is a practical woman by most a decent human she is not Given to rhetoric or displays of this makes her an oddity in her strategy appears to have been to work hard and rely on common and it has served her Well in her 12 years in the House of there is a Les son Here for Alliance party since her election to the House in 1989 the first my her performance has reflected a reasoned approach More often associated with a mediator than a political she has earned the respect of in her own party and others except for prime min ister Jean who reportedly dislikes her that got to say something about the strength of her but not half As much As the fact that yester after the Alliance party caucus meeting members chose not to explain Why no disciplinary action was taken against her for calling upon Leader Stockwell Day to step some said the Issue never came this after eight others were expelled from caucus for basically the same it was simply the easiest thing for the embattled maps to sanctioning someone of is Greys standing would have invited More Trou this is no As a senior party offi Cial once called she is also no shrinking Violet her own raised by her Mother in she came close to going astray after her Alco Holic father left when she was she found straightened out and became a school she fostered children on the Reserve in Alberta where she first and where she Learned to catch fish with her Bare like most she fell out of love with the Mulroney tories in 1988 and lost and then won a called after the Man who beat her died an avowed opponent of the Charlottetown she found herself sitting beside none other than Lucien Bouchard in her first year in the there she a Lone my from the newest party of the far battling political tradition and political she is not taken with rash since last Falls she watched Day unravel the party standings in the minds of Cana she stepped Down As Deputy Leader in she then held her Tongue when a number of colleagues began trash ing the Leader in a very Public for after a resounding vote of Confidence from the Edmonton North constituency association she remained quiet about her next no doubt she was weighing the value of the Alliance party principles to abide by the party Constitution which sets out a process for Leader ship and to act according to the will of the grass roots and the caucus pol icy not to trash the Leader in in the Howe is Grey gave in to Stockwell Day is a destructive Force within the party and the Alliance needs to Start the process of in her no nonsense the gig is is a pragmatist with a soft did not move without she polled her constituents and found that 49 per cent thought Day should is Grey believes that dumping Stock is necessary to gain votes among canadians and she also believes that the will of the constituents will not get her party there is no sense in being in parliament if you Are not bound for might As Well join the and so she has played her telling the Media monday she was joining forces with the dump Stock some wonder if this is an Endrun to a leadership others wonder Why its taken this Long for one of the party brightest lights to emerge As a prospective but could a High school teacher who possesses More common sense than Charisma have elbowed into the Power struggle Between Ernest Man rings kid and the treasurer of Alberta timing is per is Greys next Deci Sion is whether the party future lies with a new or whether the goals of the original Reform movement can be served by teaming with the her record suggests she will move with considered Deborah Grey relies on common the party faithful should 3 Winnipeg free press Winnipeg free press est 1872 Winnipeg Tribune est 1890 vol 129 no 177 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 outre Manitoba press Council Rudy publisher email Nicholas Patrick Flynn Deputy editor ;