Winnipeg Free Press

Winnipeg Free Press (Newspaper) - June 30, 2004, Winnipeg, Manitoba A14 Winnipeg free press wednesday june 30, 2004 Freedom of Trade comment editor Terence Moore 697-7044 Liberty of religion Equality of civil rights editorials keep on sitting p rime minister Paul Martin and the opposition parties should aim to keep this parliament going at least a year before pitching Canada into a fresh election. No Public purpose now discernible is served by triggering an election sooner than that. Or. Martin and his Liberal party have adequate authority to govern on the basis of this weeks elec Tion. Their authority has been eroded by Public Dis gust Over the sponsorship program and this was reflected in loss of their parliamentary majority. That however need not prevent them from meet ing parliament presenting a legislative program and beginning to carry out the elements of it that parliament can approve. The country could stumble into an Early election if the govern ment fails to keep a close Eye on parliamentary support for its policy. A Basic survival skill for minority govern ments is the ability to count in this Case to count to 155, which is a voting majority in a House of commons with 308 seats. The government needs a careful focussed Well informed House Leader who knows exactly who is going to vote what Way on what ques Tion and knows when to bring a question to a vote and when to let the matter drop. The country could also stumble into an election if the opposition parties gang up on the government at a moment when they did not intend to. All the opposition groups Are Likely to see an advantage in let Ting some months pass before they take the risk of triggering an election. None will want to Bear the blame for triggering an unnecessary election. If however they accidentally All vote against the government at the same time they could find them selves fighting an election they were not ready for. The opposition parties should appoint careful and efficient House leaders who will not let such an Accident happen. With the election results As they stood yesterday the new democrats had 19 members in the new House of commons. The liberals at 135, were 20 votes Short of a Bare majority. The new democrats Are not Able to offer the Means of survival to the government in return for adoption of parts of their program. The nip consequently has been dealt a weak hand. If the liberals can pick off a few stragglers from opposition caucuses with offers of Cabi net seats or other advantages the calculations May suddenly change but for the time being the nip has Little leverage upon the government. The government needs time to Complete its investigations of the sponsorship scandal publish the reports and prosecute any wrongdoers who Are brought to Light. The conservatives need time to fill in gaps in their program and show the country what they amount to with their newly elected Ontario and Manitoba members. Unless events Force some Cri Sis upon the country the parties should let these processes unfold for a year at least before scheduling a re match. Summer slowdown Kathleen Werstiuk a cancer surgery was cancelled in part because of poor information flow Between the surgeon the Hospital and the Winnipeg regional health authority. But mostly it was can celled ? before some dogged complaining by her daughter to get the operation Back on the surgery slate ? because health service in Manitoba is rationed. Under medicare health service in Canada is free but there a no service goes the joke. It is no laughing matter however to people like mrs. Werstiuk and her surgeon Darrel Drachenberg who is understandably frustrated trying to work within the bureaucratic framework that denies patients Good timely care and chases away talented doctors. This is something health minister David Chomiak can do something about and he should. The so called summer slowdown is a euphemism of sorts. This is when elective Surg eries an Odd term for the Host of necessary operations including heart bypasses lumped into the category Are regularly cancelled for months. Nurses doctors and support staff take vacation of course. But the Warha the hospitals and the health minister All rely upon the perennial mass cancellations to keep health care costs Down. St. Boniface general Hospital and the office of the health minis Ter deflected mrs. Werstiuk a complaint saying or. Drachenberg failed to inform the Hospital of his growing list of surgical patients. Surgical waiting lists ? for the most part the coveted property of surgeons in Winnipeg rather than of hospitals or the health authority ? ought to be managed electronically centrally at least to the extent that administrators would not be Able to say they were oblivious to a pressing problem. Saskatchewan a new surgical information system has been designed to provide a trove of service data to health administrators and their political masters permitting Bud gets and or schedules to be shifted among surgical services ensuring no waiting list grows disproportionately Long. That May in fact push Saskatchewan to spend More on surgical services. It can show taxpayers and patients where optimum waiting times Are not being met. Then people would be Able to demand better service from those managing their tax Dol Lars. And or. Drachenberg a situation reveals that such a system May also help Winnipeg retain the talented medical professionals hospitals and the health authority spend a great Deal of time and Money to recruit. Perception its still everything one month ago i was tearing across Central Ontario in a rented car in Pursuit of a big Story. The tectonic plates of Canadian politics were shifting no less. The weekend papers said the liberals were in free fall in Ontario especially in Central Ontario and that commuter zone North of Toronto that a identified by its Tele phone area code 905. Wow that a right where i was. I could chronicle the collapse. I started out in Peter Borough where people were saying they were shocked by the developments. Peterborough is a Bell wether Riding. It always votes with the govern ment at both the Provin Cial and Federal level. Why if the liberals were in free fall it meant that popular Liberal my Peter Adams might be Toast and that would be too bad because fact is Peter Adams deserves the respect that people give him. On monday or. Adams was re elected and Peterborough a reputation As a bellwether was affirmed. From there it was o nto Lindsey a postcard pretty town where the annual Lilac festival was underway. Free fall seemed confirmed there. The Liberal was not liked even liberals agreed on that. On monday Liberal John of Reilly was soundly thumped by conservative Barry Devolin. Then it was on to the Village of Greenbank in the Riding with a Tongue twister name ? Clair in ton so Gog Uxbridge. There conservative candidate Bev Oda was thrilled with the week end news and declared i a sure i a going to win this on monday she did. Then on to Whitby Oshawa where i found Liberal my Judy Longfield alone at her Campaign Headquarters fretting about having to organize her daughters wedding in the mid dle of the Campaign. Longfield had heard the bad news at the doors Long before the week end reports and frankly she expected to lose. On monday she won by 5,000 votes Over conservative Ian Mcneil. Next in Pickering Scarborough there was already much concern that boundaries had changed to the disadvantage of Liberal Dan Mcteague. And now this conservative Tim Dobson was feeling confident. On monday Dobson lost by a staggering 12,000 votes. On to Ajax Pickering where there was no incumbent but where conservative Rene Soetens was gamely predicting a conservative minority government. On monday Soetens was buried by Liberal Mark Holland. Finally in Newmarket Aurora Belinda Stronach former Magna corp. Ceo and conservative leadership contender was glowing sunburn red in a peach outfit. Wisely she did not overstate her chances. On monday she squeaked past Liberal Martha Hall Findlay by 700 votes ? 21,805 to 21,103. So what is this All about Well its about what a difference a month can make in an election Campaign not a Dif Ference in the facts so much As a difference in our perception of them. A month ago i was hurtling across Ontario in Pursuit of the following Story As i wrote at the time the party could lose 30 seats in Ontario and fall to 135 a month ago that possibility was enough to Send Shock Waves across Canada but especially across Central Ontario. It sent Shivers of fear Down the spines of liberals across Canada. A month ago that possibility ? a Liberal minority ? was absolutely intoxicating to conservatives. On monday the exact same Story ? liberals reduced to 135 seats ? was taken to be a great Victory for liberals and the redemption of Paul Martin. On monday the exact same Story was taken to mean the conservative horde had been turned Back at the Gates and that Stephen Harper had some explaining to do. It was that kind of election. visits to Manitoba a living past can you have fun with an 125-year-old organization devoted to Manitoba a history yes. The Manitoba historical society marked its 125th anniversary this june. The society does a lot of useful serious stuff including operating downtown a dal Navert the 1890s Home of Hugh John Macdonald son of sir John a. Mac Donald running a comprehensive award win Ning website . publishing the informative Manitoba history journal and a newsletter giving awards to writers of Manitoba history and to Centennial businesses and farms and encouraging Young historians. But what i like most Are the Field trips. They re fun. And you learn a lot about the Manitoba we be built together. Oldest child to say i am the child of a suf Fragette and i have never known a mothers at the Archibald historical museum near la Riviere we checked out the Home where Nel lie lived when she began teaching she had to sleep in a double bed with a daughter of the household and the spacious Home in which Nellie and her druggist husband Wes lived in Manitou Between 1904 and 1911. Its one thing to read a spirited account of history but its even better to see and touch where history was made. You almost feel you be travelled Back in time. I certainly got that feeling in the old Brandon court House where Hilda Blake pleaded guilty to murder and after a five minute trial was sent to the Gallows. Hilda using an american bulldog revolver she bought in Winnipeg shot the wife of her employer at Short Range. When she mounted a newly constructed Gal lows near the court House in 1899, Hilda an orphan who came to Canada at age 10, was 21. Tom Mitchell of the University of Brandon Cross ventilation but oddly enough a Pokey Kitchen with five doors. And Well never forget the Wawanesa museum exhibit on Percy Crindle an eccentric Well educated englishman who lived in a nearby farm House with his wife Alice Nicol a Cam Bridge student who knew sanskrit and their children and his mistress Elise vane and her five children. History has it the two women ran the farm while Percy uttered about with his science earlier this Spring the society a members clambered aboard the Prairie dog Central rail Way for their annual general meeting in War rens memorial Hall. At the meeting Fred Headon author of the the railways of Winnipeg gave us a fact filled presentation on the five railways that made Winnipeg a railway Hub and Canadas third largest City at the beginning of the 1900s. An unregenerate railway Buff i had the thrill of sitting in a 1901, Wood panelled Canadian Northern railway coach the Prairie dogs old est. Our train was pulled by a 1952 Alco diesel ;