Winnipeg Free Press

Winnipeg Free Press (Newspaper) - June 19, 2004, Winnipeg, Manitoba A18 Winnipeg free press saturday june 19, 2004 Freedom of Trade comment editor Terence Moore 697-7044 Liberty of religion Equality of civil rights editorials Mihaychuk for mayor w Inni Eggers should expect much of their next mayor. Their City is on the Cusp of a turnaround beginning to show the Prosperity and vitality exuded by other Urban Cen tres in Canada ? the places we visit to shop ride the water slides take in exhibitions of High Art and culture or simply to be where the action is. Former mayor Glen Murray gave us a peek at How Winnipeg could be All of that too but he left office before delivering the dream. What Winnipeg needs now is a dose of reality ? an ambitious plan that combines reason with Hope ? and the Leader ship at City Hall to follow through. Maryann Miry Chuk is the Best candidate for that Chal Lenge. Is Mihaychuk a geologist by training has the experience and Confidence of someone who has spent 15 years in Public office having proven her grit in a career not traditionally pursued by women. She spent six years As a school trustee and subsequently held two senior Cabinet portfolios within the doer administration. She has the advantage Over others in the race of having sat at the provincial Cabinet table with those who must decide How to respond to the City a bid to gain new tax revenues. She can serve Winnipeg Well by winning provincial government understanding of the City a fiscal needs. Winnipeg a Economy is a determining Factor in the provinces Prosperity. Or. Murray a introduction of a dynamic new Deal to change the relationship Between the two governments with the Transfer of taxation Powers and revenues gave Winni Eggers a View of a future in which the City could shake off its heavy Reliance upon property taxes. No provincial government should be allowed to ignore the com Pelling Case for improved tax sharing with the provinces economic engine. It is Winnipeg a Best Hope for finding sustainable sources of Revenue to fix the potholes ? an expressive shorthand for the crushing infrastructure deficit that builds each year it is ignored ? to entice residents downtown to compete with ring municipalities attracting City dwellers and to renew housing in Core and North end neighbourhoods. Is Mihaychuk a plan what she Calls the real Deal is not As bold As Glen Murray a new Deal but More aggressive than that of Dan Vandal. Is Mihaychuk would attract downtown and Core renewal with property tax incentives As would or. Vandal and Sam Katz. Yet she believes she can pave More streets using the promised Federal Gas tax Money and the $25 million of the provinces High Way budget to fix provincial roads within City Lim its. She would lobby the provincial government to fund 50 per cent of transit operating costs. She would protect the tax sharing agreement with municipalities implemented by the Schreyer government but pursue Winnipeg a justified claim to provincial Gas taxes. Is Mihaychuk a plan focuses on the nuts and bolts of How a City works but also recognizes there must be room for the arts and for the water slides and skateboard Parks that make a City engaging and fun. Winnipeg a strengths lie in the diversity of its population and its steady Economy. Its weaknesses Are that it struggles to keep people particularly the Young looking for a future. Gold eyes owner and Man about town or. Katz said this was his highest priority. He enlivened the Campaign with Hopes his experience and can do spirit would carry the City further along in its transformation and that is reflected in the results of the free press probe research poll which indicate he led in support among those who say they will probably vote tuesday. Or. Katz a weakness is that his dreams Lack depth and practical direction for Young people he pro posed More Opportunity to Volunteer and apply for scholarships and promised that As mayor he a work hard to keep rec centres and libraries open. Al Golden wants to shake up City Hall get things done. But he Speaks like a bully in describing the housecleaning required in the assessment department where he sees the work of bureaucrats corrupted by political direction. Garth Steek who never believed in Glen Murray a new Deal believes City Halls real Agenda should be Winnipeg a safety he boasts he is unabashedly pro business and pro develop ment but his main election planks do the bidding of the civic unions. Is Mihaychuk lacks the verve of a Sam Katz the City Hall experience of Dan Vandal. She has not said enough about How to get the City a Urban aboriginal population into jobs something or. Vandal alone recognized As a critical political and civic concern. She will have to work in the next two years to show Winnipeg the Way to being among the front of the pack of Canadas cities. To get this going Winnipeg needs new sources of Revenue tied to economic growth. It needs direction to ensure hard fought tax cuts Are not washed out for Lack of leadership and momentum. Maryann Mihaychuk looks like a woman ready to Roll up her sleeves to get on with the hard work. Nervous about harpers plans Stephen harpers government would reduce Federal income taxes on Middle income canadians by 25 per cent add a $2,000 tax deduction per child for families and bring in a new form of retirement saving that would be paid out tax free. What a not to like or. Harpers promises during the Campaign Are less Radical than the same Man sounded a couple of years ago but hey that a what happens when politicians try to occupy the Centre ground that campaigns Are fought Over. Make no mistake though a Harper government would have significantly different priorities than the continued reign of Paul Martin. In the past i have bemoaned the absence in Canada of the kind of shocks to the economic system delivered in the United states by Ronald Reagan and in the United kingdom by Margaret Thatcher. Liberal Rule has slain the deficit dragon but left an array of Grants subsidies and general form filling state supported capitalism that have produced lower increases in productivity and a loss of competitiveness in compari son with our Southern Neighbours. A shake out is Long overdue. Just How to achieve that shake out however needs to be very carefully spelled out. But this is not what the election so far has been about. It has been about the sponsorship scandal and attempts to make or. Harper and his conservatives look less tolerant than Canada As a whole and shaky on government sup plied health care. With both the liberals and the conservatives trading opinion poll num Bers Back and Forth so both have the support of about 35 per cent of the electorate neither party looks Likely to gain a majority govern ment and neither appears to have solid momentum to carry them to a majority Victory. If As the polls also suggest the bloc sub Cois takes the vast majority of seats in que Bec the chances of an unstable minority look very Strong indeed suggesting that another election would follow very close on the heels of this one. The country it seems wants a change but is less than sure that it wants or. Harper. Why it is not i think because or. Harper appears extreme. He does however equivocate. He says he would allow a free vote in the House of commons on issues like same sex marriage and abortion. To bring a House vote into Law or. Harper would almost certainly have to invoke the notwithstanding clause in the charter of rights and freedoms that allows parliament to override what courts May decide. He never quite says that he would not do this because to do so might alienate some of his right Wing support. All that Means is that a conservative government would look it would produce a climate that would be to the right socially and economically of the Liberal government of the past 11 years. It does not mean that Laws would necessarily change. On health care or. Harper looks almost like a Liberal although the liberals Are doing a Good Job of making it appear otherwise. But that in my View is not what prevents the conservatives from moving decisively away from the liberals. It is that or. Harper and his party Are failing to indicate clearly enough what they will do. All opposition parties have this problem. As or. Harper has never ruled the country is suspicious of what his Rule would be like. Nervousness Over social issues affects Vot ers worries about other parts of the program. The conservatives fiscal plans Are More optimistic than the liberals but could still be achieved. That creates some nervousness but More is formed by questions Over what other parts of their platform might entail and that brings us Back to subsidies. The platform says for examples that or. Harpers government will Cut wasteful corporate subsidies to reduce taxes for All of Good. But at the same time the platform promises closer economic ties Simi Lar to a european style economic Union with the United states. The United states has All kinds of corporate subsidies. What does wasteful corporate subsidies mean does it mean All corporate subsidies Are wasteful or that the conservatives will Only Cut the subsidies that Are is the government Grant to the Csc a waste Ful corporate subsidy How about tax credits for the film Industry Export loan guarantees that Are hugely beneficial to Bombardier and Nortel or. Harper has said he will honour commitments made by this government but what about the next time one of the big car makers is tossing up whether to build in Ontario and South Carolina ideally the fewer corporate subsidies Are paid out the More efficient Industry is Likely to be but the United states record on subsidies is hardly better than Canadas and it is the . We compete most closely with. What a More end ing some subsidies would cause some Indus tries to fail very quickly. If elected the conservatives will learn More about what they can and can to do once they get into office. In the meantime the electorate is Hung up balancing the liberals As the Devil we know with the conservatives As the Devil that we Arent sure How Well we know. they gave us decades of peace i had planned to stay up All night to watch the a Day 60th anniversary commemorations on television but somehow i nodded off waking abruptly to Early Birdsong on a Rainy Vancou ver sunday morning. My bedside clock read 3 45. The cats were still sleeping soundly As i tottered toward the television but As the sound came up they opened their eyes and exchanged a look of annoyance mixed with sincere concern for what was clearly a new sign of my increasing eccentricity and mental decline. Who were not there cannot even imagine. They seemed so few in number and so old. How time slips by How the years pile up silently invisibly my mind went Back to a Day in 1939 or 1940 when As a boy of three or four i stood in a crowd on Academy Road watching some of these men and Many More marching off to the War. They were Young then teenagers most of them Only a decade and a bit older than i was but to those who watched them go by with the band playing they were already formidable warriors members of regiments Long associated with the City. Hitler was in trouble. Years would pass before Many of them finally saw action but the soldiers from Winnipeg were ready when the great Day came. Boys of my age listened to Matthew Halton a radio reports on the a Day landings and we thought of the Little Black devils and the other local regi of those aged men part of a generation born Between the wars was spared the necessity of making the sacrifice. They gave us the gift of decades of peace. There is a bit of film that is always shown in documentaries featuring the a Day landings. Men Are seen waiting nervously in a Landing Craft. The door opens and we see a Beach at Dawn a Large gloomy House in the distance smoke. The men begin to leave the Craft and Wade ashore. It is a haunting and frightening image and it retains its Potency in spite of fre quent use in documentaries produced by the various nations who appear to claim it As their own. It is in fact an important piece of Cana Dian history filmed on the Day at the moment of Landing. I have heard it said that the soldiers seen going ashore Are members of one of ? 2004 Winnipeg free press a division of up Canadian newspapers limited partnership published seven Days a week at 1355 Mountain Avenue Winnipeg Manitoba r2x 3b6, pm 697-7000 ;