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.
Editor: A Letter to the Citizens of the North Last week was historic for Northern Manitoba as the new Prime Minister of Canada came to visit. This was a first for The Pas and was only the second time since Confederation that a sitting Prime Minister had visited Thompson. The last time was so long ago that most of the citizens of today cannot even remember the first historic event. The Prime Minister was coming to discuss issues that were relevant to Northern Manitoba, truly an awesome undertaking by one classy Member of Parliament. Or at least that is what I presumed was happening. Unfortunately I could not attend the meeting in person but as fate had it I had the opportunity to see the meeting re-broadcast on the local television channel. The Prime Minister was at his best paying attention to what appeared to be carefully screened questions by sympathetic listeners and supporters that were at that meeting for another reason. I was about to change the channel as the meeting appeared to be inconsequential. Well, was I glad I did not change the channel. The most revealing part of the meeting was the end where the true reason of why the Prime Minister was in the North. The Prime Minister launched the beginning of the election campaign in Churchill riding. Yes he did. Prime Minister Martin rose up and spoke supportively about the future MP for the North. The Prime Minister even made a comment that it was time for Churchill Riding to be part of the government so they could be well represented. This is fine and dandy if there was an election campaign and the Liberal Party of Canada was paying for his transportation and the associated costs of travelling to the North. But who paid for the trip? The citizens of Canada. Yes, the Citizens of Canada again have to bear the costs of the Liberal party and the Prime Minister, for this was not just a chance to meet the people of the North. This was a full-blown endorsement of a candidate to run in the next election at the expense of our taxpayers. The election that has yet to be called but is widely speculated to be in the spring of this year. Yes, the Government of Canada again has manipulated our tax dollars. This thinly veiled attempt by the Liberal Party to have the citizens of the Churchill Riding see a different Prime Minister than the one we are used to seeing on the news. You know the one that is back peddling on the present $100 million scandal, or the $2 billion gun registry fiasco, or the HRDC scandal of Jane Stewart, just to name a few. We have to tell the Liberals that we do not want the same type of government that they are famous for scandal. We have to tell them that we want the Liberal Party of Canada to pay for their own election expenses and not have the citizens of Canada pay the tab for them. We have to demand that the Liberal Party of Canada reimburse the Government of Canada for the costs of this impromptu election announcement. It is clear that the Liberal Government has not learned from its past mistakes. This type of glad-handing and shenanigans will not fool the citizens of the North. We who continue the struggle for democracy in the great country of ours will not be fooled. Ray Berthelette President Thompson Labour Committee
