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.
Official Opposition Leader Stuart Murray said the big winners out of Gary Doer's Throne Speech yesterday are criminals and every jurisdiction that is trying to lure our workforce, jobs and new graduates out of Manitoba. "This government is soft on crime and devoid of an economic vision for Manitoba. Today's Throne Speech signalled that Gary Doer's status quo approach to governing will continue, ensuring that Manitoba's 'have-not' status will continue," said Murray. "This government is so unprepared to get tough on crime that out of a sixty minute speech they devoted a mere sixty seconds to justice. And for them to tie policing to casino revenue is outrageous. Essentially they're telling Manitobans the more they gamble the more funding they'll get for police services. Gary Doer is gambling on safety," he said. Murray said even though they're now into their sixth year of office, Gary Doer and his NDP government have not made Manitoba competitive, they have not made our communities safer, they have not improved health care, they have not addressed the BSE crisis and they have not helped our farmers and other rural Manitobans in need. "Gary Doer's NDP is a 'have-not' government, and it is this 'have-not' approach that is denying patients timely access to care, that is leaving victims of crime to fend for themselves, and that is leading to countless missed opportunities as businesses start up or expand their operations in more competitive, business-friendly jurisdictions," he said. In a province where middle-income families are the highest taxed west of New Brunswick, where new grads are forced to leave the province to find real jobs and opportunity, where the murder rate has hit a record high, and where the Hells Angels and other gangs have become increasingly more violent and their crimes more frequent, Murray said it is unacceptable that the Throne Speech offered no long-term economic strategy and no concrete plan to combat crime. "Unfortunately for Manitobans, the Throne Speech signalled that under a Gary Doer government, the status-quo will continue to win out over modernization, progress and prosperity," he said.
