Winnipeg Free Press

Winnipeg Free Press (Newspaper) - April 15, 2005, Winnipeg, Manitoba Canadians Are appalled at the Avalanche of allegations of kickbacks fraud favouritism cronyism rampant corruption and possible criminality cascading out of the Federal sponsorship inquiry and eager to punish the Federal liberals severely. But Many believe the country lacks an alternative. Stephen harpers conservatives Are still seen As too right Wing socially and economically too out of step with Core Canadian values of tolerance and compassion to be entrusted with Power. All but one of six polls released this week have or. Harpers conservatives in a statistical dead heat with prime minister Paul Martins liberals and stuck at the same level of support they garnered in last years Federal election. Itsos Reid prior to the lifting of the ban on group action president Jean by aults explosive testimony reported liberals at 34 per cent conservatives 30 per cent. Itsos Reid after the lifting of the ban reported liberals at 27 per cent conservatives 30 per cent. Liberal losses All shifted left to the nip the greens and the bloc quebecois. None went to the conservatives. Decima again with or. By aults testimony under wraps had liberals with a nine Point Lead. Decima with or. By aults tears on full display had liberals and conservatives in a statistical dead heat conservatives at 32 per cent liberals at 31 per cent. Leger and Leger Post ban reported another statistical tie 34 per cent for the conservatives and 31 per cent for the liberals. The one standout was Ekos research. Postman it gave a Clear Lead to the conservatives 36.2 per cent to just 25 per cent for the liberals. Voters know that when a party really crosses the ethical line As the liberals appear to have done the Only appropriate punishment is defeat. They certainly meted it out to Brian Mulroney is ethically challenged tories in 1993. If As or. Harper insists this is the biggest scandal in Canadian history Why is his party still mucking around in the same Ballpark As the disgraced liberals canadians Are a savvy lot. The polls show respondents Are As Likely to reply they All do it As to indignantly claim this is the worst Ever when asked about the testimony being heard by or. Justice John Gomery. Itsos Reid finds that fully 50 per cent of respondents said they would not consider voting conservative under any circumstances while a slim majority believes the wrongdoing was committed by a Small rogue band of corrupt individuals not the party. Nearly nine out of 10 canadians do not want an election until they hear from judge Gomery. This reflects growing awareness that some of the damning testimony is not supported either by documentation or the usual right of the accused to Cross examine the accuser. Individuals without standing Are having their names dragged into the sewer with no immediate recourse. One has lost his Job based on hearsay and several have taken or Are planning Legal action. In addition one political scientist specializing in political ethics has questions about the optics of the chief commission counsel Bernard Roy a former principal Secretary and close confidante of or. Mulroney. Michael Atkinson vice president academic of the University of Saskatchewan and the author of numerous books and articles on parliamentary government Public policy and political ethics said in an interview that he understand or. Roys appointment from the outset. The reason people much prefer courts and judges to politicians when it comes to important issues of governance is there is a sense there will be a Neutral application of the Law that the decision makers have no axe to grind. An example is the auditor general. Canadians Are drawn to something that clearly cannot have a political Agenda. So when you bring in or. Roy you begin the process of compromising the inquiry even though As far As i know his behaviour has been pretty professional. But Likely the chief reason canadians Arentt flocking to the conservative Banner is the spectre of social conservatism. Twice this week alone the party itself revived it. Last weekend or. Harper appeared before an anti same sex marriage rally on parliament Hill. Fairly or unfairly opposition to Gay marriage has come to symbolize indifference to minority rights and antagonism to the charter of rights and freedoms. Then on wednesday former Reform Leader Preston Manning and Ontario Premier Mike Harris issued a report for the right Wing Fraser Institute calling for the abolition of the Canada health act a customs Union with the u. S., wholesale devolution of Power to the provinces and a $ 300 billion Cut to the Canadian Public sector. The social conservatism Issue is just below the surface or. Atkinson warns. Politics is very volatile right now and its not Clear that what people Are telling pollsters today will be the ballot Box Issue whenever the election comes. France Russell its. Net is. Allan fumbles l abour Minster Nancy Allan has fumbled the launch of legislative changes to the workers compensation act so that the process appears tainted by partisanship. Is. Allan should move quickly to repair the damage to assure All Manitoba workers and employers that web legislation reflects their views and not just what new Democrat ministers and members of Manitoba federation of labour promote. Is. Allan got off to a bad Start on tuesday when she introduced Bill 25. The Bill almost in its entirety reflects the views of business and labour representatives who worked for More than a year to overhaul 25 year old web legislation so As to make it More inclusive sensitive and generous. Their conclusions were unanimously reached a remarkable show of no partisanship. Is. Allan however resist taking partisan credit for the review committees work by crowing in the legislature that Bill 25 shows it was our government that has shown leadership. She then held a news conference that More closely resembled a Pep rally to declare again All the Good things the doer government plans for the workers of Manitoba. Such self laudatory behaviour is not unexpected from politicians and in this Case it might have been forgivable except for one thing while is. Allan was taking credit for the work of the review committee she failed to mention that she unilaterally decided to Amend the legislation so As to Cut the web Board of directors out of the final decision making process and consolidate the Power arbitrarily in her own hands. She also neglected to declare that she had bowed to labour demands to reverse the onus on which occupations Are in or out of the web program a reversal that Means All workers Are in the program unless they Are specifically excluded. The Manitoba employers Council whose 25,000 members pay $ 160 million a year to fund the insurance program was justifiably alarmed and had every reason to believe it had been betrayed by the minister. Is. Allan then quickly drafted a letter in which she attempted to explain after the fact what she should have made Clear at the outset. No new occupation groups will be included As a result of the passage of Bill 25, she said. After passage the web Board of directors will be asked to review for purposes of possible inclusion in the program excluded occupational groups beginning with highest risk groups As the review committee had recommended. She did not however explain Why she had made a Power grab reserving to herself the Power she shares with the web to make final determination of which workers will be included or excluded from the plan. This Lack of clarity suggests that is. Allan intends to reject the recommendations of the web Board of directors reviews if she so desires. Workers in Manitoba do not need a minister who can arbitrarily foist on them employment insurance they themselves reject lawyers for example or Golf club operators or mayors and scores of other occupations. Is. Allan should show she understands web is the result of a Compromise Between employers and workers by restoring shared responsibility in determining coverage. She should also put into the legislation the promises she made in the letter she wrote to repair the damage she had done. Rudy Redekop president up Canadian newspapers limited partnership Murdoch Davis / publisher Winnipeg free press est 1872 / Winnipeg Tribune est 1890 Patrick Flynn / Deputy editor � 2005 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 remember the British disease i think the United states May be coming Down with it. Quite a few different syndromes have been tagged with the term British disease. The one i am referring to is the one Margaret Thatcher spoke of when she said to cure the British disease with socialism was like trying to cure leukaemia with leeches. It is a form of National Industrial decline through ossification rigidity entitlement smugness ignorance and want of imagination. Britain was accustomed to being the Best and it could Point to Rolls Royce and Jaguar and a whole lot of other once great companies to prove it. British unions had won powerful protections for Job Security so that you could never change a workers duties even if the new machinery required change. So nothing did change and the sales of Rolls Royce and Jaguar declined As did those of the British Industrial Economy generally. I thought something Odd was afoot a few weeks ago when general motors discovered to its Surprise that americans were not buying pm vehicles As they used to. The firm was already bargaining Down its retail prices. In the face of declining sales it also Cut Back production and lowered its earnings forecasts. But its not just pm. Ford announced on april 8 that it was lowering its production and its earnings guidance. Sales were off because the company thought of High prices for steel and for gasoline escalating health care costs and a weak u. Dollar. But its not just cars and trucks. Harley Davidson announced on april 13 that sales of its motorcycles in the United states in the first three months of this year were one per cent lower than in the same months a year earlier. Overseas sales were still growing but most of its Market is in the u. The firm Cut its 2005 production target to 329,000 units from 339,000 units. Earnings that were expected to grow by around 15 per cent in 2005 Are now expected to grow in the Range of five to eight per cent. But its not just vehicles. Coca cola reported in mid february that its sales in the United states had declined in the fourth Quarter of 2004 compared to the year earlier period. Overseas sales still grew a Little bit. The company attributed the decline to poor performance of its retail business without reaching any deeper to suggest an explanation. This wave of corporate under performance you notice has no relationship to the concurrent wave of corporate malfeasance boo cooking and prosecution of corporate High flyers. These companies were not caught lying to investors about their profitability. They were failing in their Basic purposes the things they Are supposed to be Good at. Coke it seems no longer knows How to come up with the Catchy jingles and entertaining sales campaigns that will move drinks off the shelves. Harley Davidson and Ford and pm Are still making motorbikes and cars and trucks and coming up with new features and new colours but americans Are not buying them like they used to. These iconic firms no longer know the secret cravings of americans or no longer know How to satisfy them. They re going on doing what they did last year and it just Isnit working any More. Part of it is overseas Competition. Americans want asian and european cars even at higher prices. George Bushes devaluation of the u. Dollar was supposed to give Domestic products an Edge but since Ford and pm already produce overseas for the u. Market the devaluation has Only helped a Little. Another part of it is health care costs which both Ford and pm say Are killing them. I suspect a bit of it is the inertia that overtakes 500 Pound gorillas who dominate by mass but Arentt real Swift on their feet. The advanced stages of the British disease were seen in the 1970s, when Edward Heath Harold Wilson and James Callaghan pretended to govern Britain. Things got so bad that Wilson and Callaghan had to negotiate a loan from the International monetary fund to keep their government solvent. The if dictated deep cuts in Public spending in return for the loan. That humiliation helped finish labour and brought mrs. Thatcher to Power. The u. Is a Long Way from that extremity but i suspect it is on a Road that leads in that direction. Terry. Moore free press. My. Ca Freedom of Trade Liberty of religion Equality of civil rights e editorials a 14 w Winnipeg f ree p Reissf Vidaya pril 15, 2005 comment editor Terence Moore 697 7044 Terry. Moore free press. My. Ca asian uproar the second world War is 60 years Over but its memories linger in Canada and in Europe bittersweet recollections of great heroism and greater suffering. In Asia memories of the War Burn with bitterness and nowhere More painfully than in China. This months anti japanese demonstrations in China were a symptom of those unhealed wounds. Japan has never fully acknowledged responsibility for the atrocities committed prior to and during the War. Unlike Germany which has assumed a Burden of guilt Japan has done Little More than talk around it. In China the recent protests were spurred by new textbooks for japanese schools that still refuse to fully admit responsibility for such things As the rape of banking it is like the germans denying Dachau and for Many chinese it is intolerable. Canadians particularly Winni Eggers can share some of that chinese pain. This country is Hong Kong veterans Many of them Winnipeg grenadiers suffered horribly in japanese prison Camps a fact that Japan has never adequately acknowledged. Canada should join China in coaxing Japan to bring this chapter of 20th Century history to a close. There is More than history at play Here however. Very Little happens in the streets of Chin ass cities without the Active approval of Beijing or at least a Wink and nod from the country is communist leaders. In permitting these protests Beijing has an Eye on the future As much As on the past. It has frequently been said that the 21st Century will be the Pacific Century the Era of a rising Asia. There Are three giants China India and Japan which will compete to stand astride the continent and they Are now beginning to push for position. China and India have recently entered into negotiations to expand Trade and Settle outstanding Border and political disputes. It is Japan however that the other two fear the most. Today it dominates Asia economically. Until the end of the second world War it dominated the continent militarily and is looking now at rebuilding its army. Memories of that past and fears about the future will motivate chinese policy for years to come whether it is expressed through marketplace riots in Beijing or through intricate International diplomacy. Frances Russell Terence Moore Val were res column in some copies of yesterdays paper a column by Val Werier appeared with the byline of Tom Oleson. The free press apologizes for the error. U. Coming Down with something voters wont buy tory option ;