Winnipeg Free Press

Winnipeg Free Press (Newspaper) - June 25, 2004, Winnipeg, Manitoba A4 w Neil leg file Pruess Ollmay june 25, 2004 c Baillie continued from Page a1 political wives Don t talk this Way. They Don t Volunteer the details of their marital separation or the fact that they moved to the family s Phoenix vacation Home while they tried to decide if they really wanted to be a wife and Mommy. They certainly Don t reveal As she candidly does that there were other men during the year apart. Sam and Baillie i m his Katz married six sounding years ago but they d known each Board. I m his other forever. Sort of soft they met when place to land. She celebrated her 21st birthday in that s my role. One of his night i m an ear an clubs. The future mayor was 37. Adviser i guess their reconcile ill watch his nation is recent. Back there Are no Pho Baillie Katz tos of her in the family room of the sprawling Park Boulevard House she and Sam Katz share with their two year old daughter Ava. She says they be made their peace and frankly my dear she does t give a Damn what anyone thinks. Hit s yesterday s news she says. Whatever people Are going to say let them say it. My Mother never said a hard word about anyone. She really adheres to that adage just smile be civil be kind be decent. I abhor Baillie smiles a Cheshire smile and adds some Good gossip of her own. There will Likely be another Little Katz running around City Hall she says if the phone Calls would Stop. We fully intend to have More children. political wives Don t do or say a lot of things that Baillie Katz does. She bluntly admits she has spent a lot of time escaping Winnipeg the place where she was born and raised. She grew up on Queenston in River Heights. Her doctor dad Morris Burke and her opera Singer mom Eleanor still live there. They be been married 53 years she says hitched the same year Sam was born. She laughs that her Mother used to have Kosher meat flown up to Norway House when her dad Practised there. She and Sam keep Kosher now she says musing that a lot of people probably did a t realize he was jewish while he was running for office. That s our identity she says simply. She went to Joseph Wolinsky school and on to the University of Winnipeg collegiate before she got an arts degree at the University of Manitoba. For awhile she thought she d go into Law but realized she was More interested in business. Along the Way she took the lessons that Middle class girls take and armed with the voice of an Angel made a name for herself in the Chai ensemble at the hol Low Mug and Rainbow stage. Despite her Talent and looks her parents stressed that education was More important. She left the City Early and often. Part of the reason for the separation she says is she really wanted to get out of Winnipeg and figure out who she was. I did t have Ava until i was in my thirties. I think it s a difficult transition when a woman goes from being productive and being out there in the real world so to speak and talking to adults All of a sudden you re at Home and you feel like the world is going on without you. I think a part of me wanted to be inde pendent and she worries the Sweet n 10 packet in her hand folding the Pink paper Between her tapered fingers. I really fought against living Here. I was very bitter because it s very difficult to do business Here. I had been used to cities that were absolutely pro Busi poll continued from Page a1 the race is so close that the latest seat projections indicate the liberals will win 112 seats to 111 for the conservatives the bloc quebecois is predicted to Cap Ture 60 of Quebec s 75 seats and the nip 25 Ridings across the country. The projections by Wilfrid Laurier University political scientist Barry Kay for global National Are based on the compas poll and this week s voter sur Veys by end ironic and Piso Reid from a Sample of 3,300 people. It amounts to a virtual tie in seats because Kay who has been doing seat projections for every Federal election since 1980, does not claim much More than an accuracy of five seats. It s too close to Call and say absolutely which party will have the most seats said Kay who predicts another general election within six months. We Are heading toward a dysfunctional parliament. There is just no Way this can work Given the numbers. The bloc will hold the balance of Power and they. Won t work with either the conservatives or the liberals Kay said we Are going to have a new election Proba Bly within six for a majority a party must win 155 of the House of commons s 308 seats. Compas president Conrad Winn said the electoral outcome May Well rest with the ability of the Liberal and conserva Tives machines to get their vote out in monday s election we Are in a dead heat in an atmosphere where voters Are not highly polarized but rather somewhat Uncertain and Victory will go to the parties that manage to per Suade their supporters to actually walk to the polls said Winn. In that respect the smaller parties Are at slight disadvantage because their supporters Are a bit younger and less prone to actually the compas National Survey of 800 canadians has the nip led by Jack Lay ton at 15 per cent of voter support and Gilles Dueppe s bloc Quebec at 13, although the separatist party has a huge Lead Over the liberals in Quebec. The Green party headed by Jim har Ris earns four per cent support in the june 22-23 poll that has a margin of error of 3.5 percentage Points 19 times out of 20. The undecided vote is at 23 per cent which Winn said is not significant Given the fact 40 per cent of canadians do not vote. Winn said the conservatives could still have the Edge in gaining More seats because Liberal votes Are wasted in regions of the country where they Don t Ness. My dirty Little secret is i like this City now. I realize the More i m away How much i do like it. I have to stay near my family. I have a very Large family Here and i have very close cousins and extended family. I we were going to stay Here and not move away we were going to make a definite commitment to do As much As we could for the City and i really believe Sam was the right one for the when she talks about Sam s election she slips into the plural we re going to fix things that need to be fixed she says. This City is going to be progressive and vibrant if it takes everything we be got. She s looking at the next two years with her husband whom she affectionately Calls shoo an abbreviation of his hebrew names a Chance to change the face of Winnipeg. You cannot keep complaining about a City and being apathetic. It Only Hap pens for so Long before you shut up or make a change. You be got to Start trying to make it better and san really is devoted to doing that. I m his sounding Board. I m his set of soft place to land. That s my role. I m an ear an adviser. I guess i la watch his Bacle it goes without saying that this deter mined woman will also be watching her own. J , such As in Alberta were the thries dominate at 61 Pel cent compared to 24 per cent for the liberals and seven per cent for the nip. The liberals Are also handicapped in Quebec when e the by has 58 per cent support compared to 25 per cent for the liberals and 12 per cent for the conservatives. The nip barely Register in the province at five per cent. However Winn said some federalist votes in Quebec May swing to the liberals in response to parti quebecois Leader Bernard Landry s musings that a bloc landslide could open the door to another divisive referendum on Independence. The pm Leader s recent declaration that bloc Success would Speed up the holding of another referendum on sovereignty could Well make some federalist bloc voters rethink their ballot intentions he said. In seat Rich Ontario the liberals have reestablished a 43-34 per cent Lead Over the conservatives and 17 per cent for the new democrats. The poll shows the conservatives with a commanding Lead of 36 per cent in b.c., while the Liber als and nip Are tied at 29 per cent each. In the Prairie provinces the conservatives have the support of 45 per cent compared to 31 per cent for the liberals and 18 for the nip. The liberals Domi. Nate Atlantic Canada at 47 Pel cent ver sus 31 per cent for the conservatives and the nip 15, if the conservatives do win More seats Winn said gov. Gen Adrienne Clarkson might still give Martin the Opportunity to govern in a minority parliament based on Liberal incumbency. But Winn said Clarkson a former Csc Host with left of Centre and anti Ameri can views could risk a severe Public lash if she did not allow the party that won the most seats the Chance to govern. Martin indicated he might seek to retain Power even if the tories gain More seats but backtracked wednesday saying common sense dictates that the first party past the goal Post should try to form the government. An ses research poll of 1,000 people conducted june 21-23 also shows the liberals marginally ahead of the conserva Tives in popular support at 34 per cent to 30 per cent respectively. The nip Are at 21 per cent while the by has 12 Pel cent and the Green party sits at three per cent. The poll which is accurate 3.1 per cent 19 times out of 20, found 56 per cent of canadians want a change in government even though 28 per cent believe Martin would make a better prime minister compared to 20 for Harper ;