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.
Leadership: More and Less Boisterous Winnipeg city councillor Russ Wyatt, whom Mayor Sam Katz kicked off his executive council committee, chaired Steve Ashton's campaign for Manitoba NDP leadership. Wyatt is back in the party he left. This will do him no harm in his Transcona ward, but it will dash his hopes of being elected mayor if he ever planned to run against Katz. Was this a good move by Ashton? A lot of people would say no. Why didn't he choose Pat Martin instead? What about Michael Ignatieff? Instead of spending the summer traveling the country, selling himself and his party to voters, he disappeared from the political scene. Iggy has been unable to shake the "I'm an American" thing as the Tories and even NDP have been portraying him as a non-Canadian who spent his working life out of the country. His professorial outbursts and musings about raising taxes and giving Employment Insurance to really anybody who applies (which would add billions to the deficit) has not done him any good. Ignatieff also talks about forcing an unwanted election. His attempt to alarm voters by releasing video of a Harper speech, in which the PM said he wants a majority, is ridiculous. I bet a lot of Liberals are saying, "Where did we get this guy?" He has dropped in the polls, especially in Quebec. Is this non-leader another Stephane Dion? Even Bloc leader Gilles Duceppe has gotten into the act, attacking Ignatieff by insisting he is the same as Harper and labeling his Quebec policies as against the province's interests. Duceppe is the same "leader" who wanted to lead the provincial Parti Quebecois, but when he realized he could not win, came back to the Bloc. He wants an election, but his interests are selfish and he should be ignored by the rest of Canadians, and hopefully a lot of Quebeckers. Elizabeth May is another leader (or non-leader) who pops up now and again, although economic problems have greatly overshadowed any support for costly environmental policies. In other words, the only things the Greenies will do is hurt the NDP. May gave up on trying to beat Peter MacKay in his Nova Scotia riding and moved to Vancouver Island to run against Conservative Gary Lunn, the Sport Minister who has won five straight elections. Remember, the big rage is the coming Vancouver Olympics and Lunn is front and centre. May hopes BC environmentalists will come to her aid, but I like the Canadian Press's use of an Albert Einstein quote in referring to May: "The definition of insanity is doing the same thing over and over again and expecting different results." Although Ignatieff has called for the defeat of the Harper government, claiming the Tories have destroyed the economy, put us in horrible deficit and caused unemployment to soar, all indications are that he is barking up the wrong tree. The Bank of Canada again recently issued a statement saying the Canadian economy is doing better than they predicted back in July, in spite of the strong dollar. The bank credits "stimulative monetary and fiscal policies, improved financial conditions, firmer commodity prices and a rebound in business and consumer confidence" with doing the job, obviously a reference to government action. The bank also pledges to keep interest rates low at least until next year. One cannot believe Ignatieff, as Harper certainly did not cause the recession, and even though the deficit is troubling, it was necessary to save the Canadian economy. Every once in a while, the lone Liberal MP in Manitoba comes out with a complaint about government inaction. Anita Neville has been complaining that the jointly funded plan to redevelop Winnipeg Beach has not moved ahead. My favourite cabinet minister, Steven Fletcher, says the Liberals, by threatening to defeat the government, are harming infrastructure investments, hundreds of millions of dollars of which have been committed to Manitoba. He insists that all the promised programs will happen. Even the Manitoba government agrees and said that a number of projects are underway or complete, including the start of the $30-million reconstruction of the Trans-Canada Highway. Fletcher reiterated that Ottawa is providing nearly $300 million for 38 projects in Manitoba, plus more money for municipal, green and university projects. How much is enough? Roger's Right Corner runs Wednesdays.
