Winnipeg Free Press

Winnipeg Free Press (Newspaper) - October 30, 2008, Winnipeg, Manitoba C m y k Page a13 posted october 15 s Tephen Harper no doubt breathed a sigh of Relief last night knowing As he must that his Gaffe filled and seemingly aimless Campaign could have turned out worse. His strengthened minority Likely better reflects the jitters canadians Are feeling in the face of the International economic crisis and an understandable desire for stable government than it does a warming up to his new sweater vested look. Sadly for or. Harpers hoped for majority and for the country it also represents a lost Opportunity the bloc Qutb Cois and its separatist ambitions Are alive and Well again because of or. Harpers stubborn determination to make Small cuts in cultural funding and his inability to sell in Quebec the idea of throwing the Book at a handful of violent youth offenders. Still or. Harper did improve his part yes support everywhere in Canada with the exception of Newfoundland and Labrador and increased his majority by a respectable number which should give canadians the sense of Security and continuity so important at this time but which will prove painful but nevertheless productive for the splintered parties of the Centre left. In theory it is possible that liberals new democrats and the bloc could form an unprecedented coalition and steal government from the conservatives but in practical terms it is a Remote possibility. Liberals already divided on the merits of Stephane Dionys leadership would have to concede that they Are no longer Canadas natural governing party but rather just another member of the Gaggle on the left. New democrats would have to climb into bed with liberals knowing that when they did that twice in the past they ended up. Well you know what. Independents former conservatives All Are More Likely to support or. Harper than an Alliance on the left. Greens which have nothing to offer except perhaps Goodwill would have to collectively concede what their Leader Elizabeth May seems to have already conceded that they Are not a movement so much As Liberal wannabes. It is difficult in any event to see How any party could Cut a Deal with Gilles Dueppe and retain any credibility that such a coalition would serve Canada. And for what Why form a coalition that would Only fail in the end while creating confusion in the meantime one steady hand on the Tiller is what Canada needs not a Bunch of oars pulling in different directions. Better would be for or. Harper to Rise to the occasion pledge to Lead a More conciliatory government one perhaps modelled on the Liberal minority of the Early 1970s when the government worked with other parties on issues in which they had shared interests. The environment is a Good example. It should never have been a partisan Issue. Now it need not be one especially considering that All parties to greater and lesser extents agree on the idea of a Cap and Trade system. In fact it would seem that or. Harper has Little Choice but to become More of the sweater Vest Guy in the future. Canadians have twice now told him that while buy his leadership they dont like its style. Canadians want him to change. Having been told twice or. Harper should show that he can listen. Or. Dion failed to exceed expectations and he Likely cant escape them now. It could be said in fact that he delivered seats to both the conservatives and nip through his Green shift policy which would have been a hard sell even for a Leader with great communications skills. He will be tempted to hang onto the leadership but the fact is there will be a leadership review in May and there Are attractive alternatives available with supporters who have not forgotten that or. Dion won the leadership More by gambit than gift. He seemed to unite the party in the election but the rallying was to the Brand More than the Leader. Liberals should Start working on a dignified exit strategy and a truly United party with a shared vision. Jack Layton proved to be a Strong campaigner but for ideas that suited the last Century not the present one. His party must know or at least it must learn that what it needs is a More centrist approach of the kind Manitoba Premier Gary doer offers if it Hopes to Ever truly contend for Power. Yes or. Layton grew his party this time but not As much ased Broadbent did in the past and at that it was by harvesting disaffected liberals voters that Likely wont be there for him under a stronger Liberal Leader. Elizabeth May has shown herself to be not a Leader so much As an Able lieutenant and one in the wrong party As her Alliance with or. Dion demonstrated so Well. Or. Dueppe meanwhile must be pleased that he again has confounded the National electoral system saving his part yes Bacon As usual by promising anything and criticizing everything knowing he will never have to deliver anything other than years of service to enrich the pensions of bloc maps. At the Start of the election it was Clear that some of the leaders would not survive the result. Is. May is As Good As gone. Or. Dion and or. Layton should recognize that they too have taken their parties As far As they Are capable and plan their exits accordingly so As to allow their parties to prepare for tomorrow. It is Clear that canadians will have no stomach for another election any time soon and that any party that brings one on will be punished. Or. Harpers platform was modest. He should work to achieve it in a manner that inspires greater Trust. The other parties should find ways to co operate to bring Down the shrill partisanship that has marked the recent past while ensuring they Are ready for next time. Winnipeg free press thursday october 30, 2008 View from the West and beyond comment editor Gerald flood 697 7269 Gerald. Flood free press. M. Ca Winnipeg repress. Com a 13 while we were away. Election editorials published at Winnipeg repress. Com during the labour disruption Jonathan Hayward / the Canadian press archives prime minister Stephen Harper celebrates his election Victory on oct. 14 in Calgary. Until next time touting rubbish posted october 16 t he Day after the election some of the usual suspects in the environmental movement were hand wringing about what it might mean for the future of the planet that the Liberal Green shift proved toxic in the current political environment. The Gist of their ruminations was that the concept was Sublime but simply too difficult for voters to understand which was condescending rubbish. What killed the Green shift was not that it was difficult to understand but that it was difficult to believe. Unlike most supporters of the proposed Carbon tax at least most supporters who Are quoted by the Media most canadians Are not True believers they have not become so entranced by the architecture of the idea and the need to put a Price on Carbon that they accept these things As orthodoxy. Even or. Dion two years ago did not accept a Carbon tax As the holy grail. That came As a sort of conversion on the Road to Kyoto Only very recently. And As is said of reformed alcoholics there Are none so fervent As the recently saved. That appears to have applied to or. Dion who refused to even consider that he might be wrong when advisers told him he might consider not putting All his eggs in the Green shift Basket. Heck some of them even warned correctly that it was the proverbial Han Basket to hell. But or. Dion refused to listen and instead embraced the Green shift As a Panacea not Only a Means to save the planet but to stamp out poverty Cut taxes realign the Economy jump Start productivity and stick it to the Rich a Little. But he and say just How much Carbon use would be Cut As a result of the $ 15 billion scheme. He and say just what Impact it would have on the Price of anything produced by Energy which is everything. He or say who the winners and losers might be Only that All would be taxed according to their need for Energy but none would be rewarded according to their need for subsidy tax cuts were same for All across the Board. He never said How High the tax might increase Only that it would Rise to $ 40 a tonne in the fourth year a figure that experts scoffed at saying that a Carbon tax would Only be truly effective once it achieved a level five times that High $ 200 a tonne. He never explained what would happen if an Industry eliminated 100 per cent of its waste but was still a massive user of Carbon. Would it go under or move to India it also was a bit much to hold up Sweden As an example of How a Green shift could work in Canada. Sweden is a nation with a Hom Dion vanishes posted october 21 t he Speed with which Stephane Dion has fallen from purported contender for Power to nobody of interest is nothing Short of astonishing. Less than 24 hours after he announced he would resign eventually As Leader he had already lost control of the party apparatus Liberal front runners Michael Ignatieff and Bob Rae announced they were taking charge of the tone of the contest by forming a pact to ensure it is civil. And they Hadnot even declared they Are running. If or. Dion had an opinion about the antics of his formal rivals it was not reported. It might have been different if or. Dion after stewing and fretting about his future had been More emphatic More decisive More insightful in announcing the obvious monday that he had to go after bringing his party to its poorest showing since confederation. But he was none of those things. Instead of stepping Down immediately he announced he will remain As Leader until a successor is chosen Likely in seven months time. Instead of a Quick and dramatic flourish he has chosen to bleed to death As a lamer and lamer Duck. Already the role of managing the leadership contest has slipped away. Does he really believe that he can use the time ahead to fund raise for a party he left strapped for Cash when perhaps six or 10 or More leadership contenders Are tapping every Liberal they know for every Penny they can get his complaint that he had been brought Down by Low conservative attack ads was risible. Or. Dion was there after All when his party ridiculed first Preston preacher Manning then Stockwell he walks with dinosaurs Day and then Stephen scary Hidde Agenda Harper. He seems to have forgotten that from the beginning he was seen As nerdy and aloof. Cartoonists and pundits alike have been having fun with him for More than a decade. Surely somewhere at some time in his political career someone explained to him that attack ads Only work if they Are grounded however tenuously in the truth. The conservatives most effective attack and no doubt the most offensive to or. Dion was the relentless Campaign that he Isnit a Leader. Nevertheless or. Dion has been an honourable member of parliament with a distinguished record of accomplishment. He could have left on that High note not this sour one. Genous society compared to Canada and one with a Long tradition of embracing socialist principles that would sound extreme to most Canadian ears. It also is a compact nation with a population of about nine million living on a land mass about half the size of Manitoba. It enjoys efficiencies and economies of scale that Canada simply cant match. Towards the end of the Campaign or. Dion had refined his sound bite message to a few words to the effect that the Green shift was simple and would put More Money in the wallets of canadians. Which was not True even in the minds of True believers income tax cuts in theory were to be equal to increases in Carbon taxes. Canadians know that when they Are being promised they Are to be taxed in order to make Money that Well it does not pass the sniff test. Canadians understood the Green shift. They just did not believe it. What pointless pain he has prescribed for himself by refusing the bitter Pill. Hello hard times posted october 23 t he extraordinary shifts in economic clout and the new fault lines they Are exposing to the detriment of have not provinces like Manitoba were made starkly Clear by the responses of some provinces to the International economic crisis this week. Ontario the manufacturing heart of the country and the Driver of its Prosperity since confederation is relatively weakened for the first time not on its Knees but with head Down. The Mcguinty government on a spending spree just seven months ago has announced that it will miss its Revenue projections by almost $ 1 billion and go into deficit by $ 500 million this fiscal year As its Bedrock industries Auto and Timber falter. Meanwhile Saskatchewan which until recently was Canadas breadbasket Basket Case with a population in actual decline is welcoming Back its economic migrants furiously cutting personal income taxes and Squirrel Ling away More than $ 1 billion of newfound Potash and Oil wealth even As the Price of Oil Falls to Levels not seen in three years. Alberta is debt free and has so much surplus dough it is bidding up the Cost of skilled workers across Canada while remaining the Best social welfare program yet invented an Economy that has enriched a million canadians who exercised their mobility rights to move there. And now British Columbia also flush with Energy and commodity Money has made the Economy not climate change its priority and moved up a plan to Cut personal taxes in an Effort to prime the pump. Even the East coast provinces Are booming on the strength of Energy resources. Newfoundland and Labrador the economic Doormat of provinces Well before the collapse of the fishery is growing Rich although not As Rich As Premier Danny Williams insists it should grow at of Tawas expense and it is pushing ahead with resource and hydroelectric Mega projects All of which signals what has been growing increasingly obvious Money is moving West and Power with it. But what of have not or is that will not Quebec and Manitoba Quebec has again shown that it will get whatever it wants by spurning the conservatives advances in the last election. And Manitoba Premier Gary doer showed his hand last week by insisting that Ottawa not fight the crisis by slowing the flow of Money for infrastructure. Or. Doer is counting on that Money to keep the wrong engine of Manitoba ass Economy beating that is government spending. Or. Doer has been having a swell time of it in office for a decade spending other canadians Money showered on his government through record Levels of Transfer payments to bad effect. How insidious the role of free Money has become was made Clear last week when nurses pay increases were doubled to 10 per cent this year As a result of a Deal or. Doer struck last year to keep them Happy by pegging their pay to that of other provinces that can pay More but dont enjoy the vaunted Manitoba advantage or. Doer insists is More rewarding than tax cuts and smaller government. He needs the infrastructure Money because the big expansion projects in Manitoba Are All in the Public and quasi Public sectors from the Airport expansion to bus rapid transit to flood Way expansion and the Hydro Tower on Portage Avenue. Or. Doer defended the Call for infrastructure Money by arguing the country needs to create jobs. Certainly thatus True in Ontario but much of the country is at full employment so full that we Are bringing in temporary foreign workers by the Boatload. If acted on or. Doers Call would have the effect of directing More Money his Way but at the Cost of driving Ever higher the Price of building infrastructure As we have already seen happen at the flood Way and Northern Hydro projects. Suddenly Saskatchewan has Money to build nuclear reactors As does Alberta. So no Grid West seems Likely now. Nor a Grid East where Ontario has Given up on striking a Deal with Manitoba and is putting its eggs Back in the nuclear Basket. Or. Doer can talk a Good game on clean Energy but increasingly the minimum $ 400 million he is prepared to waste to bring a new Hydro line Down the West Side of the province Over a Shorter East Side route looks shall we say less than prudent. To the governments credit it a snot blown All of the $ 3 billion a year it reaps in Transfer payments from provinces like beleaguered Ontario. In fact it has banked some $ 600 million of it into the Rainy Day fund. How Long it stays there is anybody yes guess. But youve got to know that Ontario knows that its there that it knows where it came from and that it is More than enough to keep it out of deficit this year. Ontario has already been campaigning nationally for a new Deal on transfers like equalization arguing it makes no sense that Manitoba can put on the Public payroll More teachers doctors and nurses per capita than have Ontario can afford. Which is not to say Manitoba should suffer but it is to say that for the first time we might see How or. Doer governs in hard times. A 13_ oct 30 08. Ind a13 10/ 29/ 08 8 53 02 pm ;