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.
Manitoba Liberal leader Jon Gerrard visited Wal-Mart yesterday not to make a purchase, but to sell voters on the idea that his party offers a promising alternative to the governing New Democrats. Gerrard spent the afternoon shaking hands and handing out copies of his party's latest dismal report card on Premier Gary Doer's government. "What we're seeing is that they haven't developed ways of making sure that each dollar is spent as well as it could be," he said. See 'Waiting' P.# Con't from P.# The River Heights MLA several times mentioned health care, a source of pride for the NDP, as an area in which the province is failing its citizens. "There are still some areas where dollars are being spent in ways that are not necessarily improving health," he said, "and if you're [spending] public dollars, you want to make sure that in fact they're going to improving health care." Gerrard called Manitoba waiting lists a "major problem," mentioning that 35 people have died while waiting to be tested for sleep disorders. "That's a lot of people, and some people have had to wait up to seven years. It's just not good enough," he said. Another concern for Gerrard is expenditures, as he repeated the familiar Progressive Conservative Party charge that the NDP has a spending problem. "I think it's very clear that this government, when you look at the nature of the budget. . . this isn't really a balanced budget," he said. "If you look at the Rainy Day Fund, that Rainy Day Fund has been going down, and the only reason it's been going down is because the budgets haven't been balanced and they've had to take from the Rainy Day Fund." On a tour of northern Manitoba, a region Gerrard accused the NDP of neglecting, the Liberal leader said it appears as though support for his party is growing. "I would say that what's interesting, having been in the North a couple of times a year, [support is] coming gradually," he said. "Almost at every stop now, we're bumping into people who were saying, 'Well, we're not just happy with what the NDP are doing. We're looking for alternatives.'" That's good news for a party with just two seats in the Legislative Assembly. Gerrard, a doctor by profession, and Inkster MLA Kevin Lamoureux are the only Liberal Members of the Legislative Assembly. For more on the Liberal Party's report card, log onto www.manitobaliberals.ca
