The Reminder is making its archives back to 2003 available on our website. Please note that, due to technical limitations, archive articles are presented without the usual formatting.
Done Like Dinner "Done like dinner!" This sort of famous comment was a feature on a CBC hockey broadcast ages ago by a Toronto Maple Leaf player describing the Leafs' opposition in the Stanley Cup final. He was right, but it was also the last time the Leafs won the Cup. It can also be used to describe a political opponent or opposition, such as the PC Party in the last provincial election when the NDP was "guaranteed" to win all but a handful of seats. As we know, that didn't happen and the Tories won 20 ridings, much better than the "experts" expected. These same pundits say the Doer government will win the next one in a walk supposedly because of the Premier's popularity, claiming that the Tories could not win the crucial seats needed in the city. However, the past three polls have predicted a different outcome, with the two main parties tied in the first two and the Tories surging to a five-point lead in the latest. What's happening? The Winnipeg Free Press, as usual, called on the same old political science profs for answers and got the same old answers Ð the federal scene is having an impact, there's a new Tory leader, etc. Nothing new here except that in this writer's opinion, these profs haven't ever been really politically involved or really know what's going on in the parties Ð or in the minds and opinions of the voting public. The NDP strategists complain that the Probe Poll doesn't mention the leaders when it asks people how they will vote, and therefore the answers are not valid. But it has been pointed out that in 1977, Manitoba Premier Ed Schreyer, a New Democrat, had a 65 per cent approval rating going into his election against Sterling Lyon, a Tory. Sterling won a majority promising a "gentle government based on common sense." Ed had too much baggage. Is the same happening to Gary Doer? Is the Doer government done like dinner? Supporters say not a chance, that Doer is an experienced campaigner who will best the opposition in the coming election, but will he? There are a lot of cracks in the government's armour. The Crocus fiasco just won't go away, and Doer's continuous refusal to take any blame or Ð horror of horrors Ð call a public inquiry as demanded by the Opposition and the press should be a major issue in the campaign. Also of concern will be the Compensation Board issue, the cost overrun on the Red River Floodway (due mainly to the NDP's insistence that all jobs be unionized) and the fact that only two companies bid on this major contract at four times the extra costs. The Feds, who are paying half the projected costs, have insisted on no cost overrun and will only pay what was promised by the former Liberal government. There are plenty of other issues, including the huge costs of education taxes on farms and homes. The government claims they have lowered their share of these taxes, but any lowering has been gobbled up by hard-pressed school boards. Then there's the matter of health care issues such as continued long wait times for needed operations. There are even mundane issues such as the deplorable state of the roads and highways in the province and the lack of dollars to fix them in spite of the millions of gas tax and gambling revenue gained by the province. Skeptics say this is too local an issue to have an effect in a campaign, but is it? A wise man once said, "All politics is local," and he has been proven right over and over. Personal and business taxes in our province remain among the highest in the country, and business groups insist this is causing a stagnation among small and large business. The government, with its insatiable spending habits, continues to depend on federal dollars to survive. This remains a have-not province with a huge deficit, whether or not you factor in Hydro's debt. A recent report on the province's finances shows that 30 per cent of all Manitoba's spending represents federal dollars, with a huge amount going to pay for health care. Roger's Right Corner runs Wednesdays.
