Winnipeg Free Press

Winnipeg Free Press (Newspaper) - June 10, 2001, Winnipeg, Manitoba B4 say Winnipeg free june 2001 Freedom of Trade Liberty of religion Equality of civil rights editorial wanted a big idea for the nip a band of Well known new including Union leaders and my Svend Robin is attempting to re Brand the fed eral party in the Hopes of attracting which Slid to a negligible eight per cent in the last Federal elec Tion and which remains stuck there the party fortunes have fallen so its relevance to canadians has Slid so that a Survey last week found that Only 29 per cent of canadians surveyed think that the party definitely should continue to contest compared to 35 per cent who think the party is Over and its time to turn out the that a Little subset of the dwindling number of new democratic support ers wants to rebuild the party no of great interest to the subset and its but it is of no great interest or import to the rest of Cana should the so called rebels come up with ideas and policies that Are of Broad that might but at the there seems Little likelihood of the fact is the rebels Are Well known faces with Well known agendas that they have preached for a generation with steadily diminishing Why the group thinks it can rethink the party by turning to the very people who have been rethinking the party with so Little Success is difficult to but it might be and Good Luck to the Federal nip needs to find new ideas and directions if it is to that was demonstrated in the last Federal election when its slogan was think How much better Canada could be and its platform consisted of every conceivable Way in which Canada could be made better for Canad the scope of the promises simply cannot be comprehended without sit Ting Down and Reading through the 20 pages of Earnest lists of better everything from free drugs to decent and fulfilling jobs for those who want it was to be financed by eliminating tax cuts and introducing new such As a tax on excessive business which were defined As More than 10 per were that platform something More than a fantastic wish were it something that was actually profitable businesses would be fleeing to saner havens and Canada would be headed toward Canadian voters obviously under stood they As the nip of Alexa Mcdonough did that government simply cannot make every thing nor should it what government can and should is make it possible for people to make things bet Ter the served one useful it showed that the great advances toward social Long the Dps Trump have already been achieved through the introduction of such and inspired programs As old age pensions and the Canada pension the platform showed having achieved those great the nip continues to Dine out on the tin Kering with this or that level of adding to this or that always promising that if this much of something is More will be left the party Only with Many Little ideas targeted at Little grievances and resentments from fragmented pockets of nowhere was there a big idea that could Appeal to or or even the rebel group thinks the big idea might be found by focusing on Union issues and anger Over globalization As demonstrated in Quebec City during the Summit of the americas this Given that fewer than 30 per cent of workplaces Are unionized and Union members did not support the party in the last it is difficult to see where a Union Agenda could take the Given that the demonstrators in Quebec City represented Only the Radical elements of anti glob Aliza Tion and that their antics put off Many it is difficult to see where Broad support is available on that on one the rebels May be on to the nip could become the Champion of the Environ clean air and water Are things that All canadians Benefit from and might see Benefit in championing the environment could become for tomorrows nip what social Justice was for yesterdays it could be the big idea that again infuses its Mem Bers with the sense of purpose it once the As growing support for Green parties and movements is that the environment is More than a motherhood framed environmental policies touch All the traditional bases from health care to fiscal a healthy environment could cure some of medicare burgeoning the and nationalists might be attracted by an environmental Agenda that pits canadians against the righting Agenda of the Bush an Energy conservation program could have the same pocketbook advantages As tax cuts or enhanced entitlement it could be that a comprehensive Green Agenda would create the Politi Cal environment the nip needs to sur and which might properly attract greater voter Bush will fall in line London you have to admit that its there is not a single Leader of any major foreign Power who thinks that president George Bush foreign policies particularly on missile defence and global warming Are sen most of them believe that if he carries on Down this it will mean political and environmental and yet they say Little or nothing to condemn them pub take British prime minister Tony just one Day before he won reelection on there he was on the radio suggesting that Bush plan for National missile defence Ned May be pretty sensible after Given the threat from rogue states and nuclear proliferation and All nobody imagines that he actually believes a word of but even on the eve of a resounding election he Felt obliged to say Blairs emollient words about the technologically ludicrous and diplomatically dangerous son of Star wars plan is typical of the Way world leaders have been dealing with the Bush adm Nistra a Shock went All around the for when pres ident Bush simply denounced the Kyoto Accord on greenhouse Gas the one tangible sign of International Progress in addressing the problem of global yet even most foreign leaders held their Why one possibility is that the United states is so big and Strong that it scares but that seems the United states can be brutally unforgiving to poor nations that successfully defy it ask the cubans or the but it is fairly tolerant of dissenting opinions from its which leaves two possibilities that leaders like Tony Blair Are simply spineless and Craven or that they Are being very the National missile defence for will almost certainly lose Momen Tum before it becomes a major threat to global strategic it exists mainly As a pretext for giving the administrations friends in the defence Industry a lot of Public Money As a Reward for their sup port during the election and that can be accomplished without deploying much of the research and development is More lucrative the russians can be mollified by some american purchases of missile interceptors from and the chinese can be calmed with private assurances that this project int really going anywhere future phases of Star wars will have much More trouble getting through the budgetary process now that republicans no longer control the after and mean while the bulk of the armed forces will be working hard to sabotage Ned because it steals Money from their own pet so theres no need for Blair to lie Down in the Road in front of this juggernaut even if that were his natural incl much the same goes for the Bush administrations policy or Lack of one on climate a lot of Bush pro Oil Industry plans for solving the fictitious Energy Cri Sis Are just going to die in Congress now that the balance of Power there has shift As for most people in the International Energy Industry think that Bush rejection of the climate change treaty is just a ploy to win time for the Oil Industry giants to catch up with their foreign if the Kyoto Accord went into effect most of the hugely prof Itable business of Selling new technologies to help countries meet the new standards for emissions would go to firms like by and Royal which Are several years ahead of their rivals in devel Oping these on this Bush is really Only calling a cynical timeout to win time for Industry to catch up technologically before those standards Are so it makes no sense for foreign leaders to jump up and Down and wave their knickers in the they might As Well save their breath and let events take their course they have realized that Bush is neither As dangerous or As Stu pid As he what was said the new York times said in an editorial for june 7 european integration has been one of the great successes of the last half binding together historically hostile nations in an Ever closer eco nomic Union committed to a common set of democratic a concerted approach to this integration by France and Germany was crucial to its Suc but As the 15member european Union considers admitting new Central and East european Mem Bers and strengthening its political Unity to reflect its economic Interne France and Germany Are not working in they Are pressing competing visions for the future course of european ensuring that the differences do not Lead to paralysing gridlock will be a major Challenge for the eur in coming Germany wants to Transfer decision making from National governments to a european federation and has called for a new constitutional Gerhard schroeders government is advocating the creation of a More accountable european executive and a More powerful As the continents largest with a population on third larger than that of Germany is accused by some of wanting to strengthen the european federation to amplify its Lionel a socialist who is Frances prime recently rejected this German vision for Europe i want a but i remain attached to my he Outlin ing a plan for a Union whose primary constituents remain National govern instead of the european people at Britain also prefers that inter governmental though it does not share Frances ambitious Agenda for the eur is expected to admit up to a dozen new member states in the next with the first Batch set to join in and a decision on How to Reform the unions institutions is also slated for that the differences Between Germany and France Are Likely to become More pronounced As the constitutional debate since the end of the cold France has been concerned about its diminished role in world affairs and the East Ward shift in Europe Centre of German reunification ended the rough parity in population Between the two and the eur admission of the czech Republic and others will place Berlin at the heart of at the same a More assertive now led by a generation that came of age after the no longer feels the same moral duty that Konrad Adenauer and Helmut Kohl once Felt to act Only in coordination with the Challenge for the twp and for the rest of is to prevent this new dynamic of healthy Franco German differences from derailing Europe further residents can save historic Winnipeg Christopher Dafoe Vancouver a couple of people called recently to seek my views on the proposed removal of the big Eaton building on Portage Avenue and its replacement by a multipurpose my opinion on the of is not Worth although i am a native i am not living in Winnipeg at the pre sent i have never attended a professional hockey game and i would not be seen dead at any Musi Cal event other than a military Tattoo held in the no matter where it happened to be All that i do have some thoughts on the old Eaton its its present and the future of downtown when the big store went up in the first decade of the 20th it dramatically shifted the civic emphasis from main Street to Portage thanks to the big main Street was pretty Well washed up As a retail Portage Avenue became the handsome buildings went up and Busi restaurants and ice Cream Parlours bloomed in the blocks Between Eaton and the Winnipeg old timers can recall a time when Portage Avenue was jammed with Street traffic and crowds of Day and it seems a Long time ago the Gigantic Eaton a Golden Beacon of Commerce at the Start of the 20th became a Symbol of decline and commercial collapse at the begin Ning of the As commercial activity shifted toward Suburbia and the Portage with its empty stores and vacant became an increasingly depressing when Eaton closed it seemed almost As if the end of the world had and in a Way it the great Eaton which had once been the Symbol of Prosperity and had become a White ele Phant and a major Libil How could it be used various suggestions were but nothing seemed quite right or it was inevitable that some body would suggest that it be demolished and a Public edifice of some sort Likely to draw crowds put up in its Why not an Arena what about a cemetery what downtown Winnipeg really in is a Large number of live people living and working in the a Large downtown such As that enjoyed by a City such As is what Winnipeg really needs to bring the Core area to life there is space for such a downtown population and streets of old houses and former com Mercial buildings that could be usefully but there As few signs that Large numbers of Winnipeg Gers yearn to reside within walking Dis Tance of Portage and Winni Eggers have traditionally been drawn to the take the experience of my own for my fathers father arrived in the City in 1887 and lived in digs in the Vicinity of the present Day Exchange when he married in 1890 be and my grandmother moved into a Small House on Balmoral near then at the Edge of the old House still awaiting Gen when he brought his family Back to the City after a sojourn in Montreal exactly 100 years they moved into a new Brick House with a View of the Prairie near the Corner of Spence and that House is still there along with several blocks of other sturdy hous Many of them built a Century Back by my mothers i can detect no movement to Gentr Ify any of those although people in some cities would probably kill for Homes like that if they could get in Winnipeg the Siren Call of Suburbia has always been in the Early 1920s my fathers family As Many did at the to River a number of Winni Eggers have seen the advantages of living in spacious apartments inserted into old Ware houses in the but not enough of them to make a real this is a because the historic District seems ideally suited for residential development and yet its streets remain unaccountably empty much of the downtown Winnipeg will not be saved by an Arena or a new Tele phone Call Centre or a parking it can Only be saved by Winnipeg Large numbers of willing to resist the Siren Call of Suburbia and reclaim their historic City by living in ;