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.
By Jonathon Naylor Let's say you desperately want something from somebody. Something big. Something that this person has clearly said you will not get. From your position of weakness, would you integrate into your persuasion strategy the public hurling of insults at this person? Probably not, but northern Manitobans are about to find out whether this unusual tactic Ð played out on a grand scale Ð will bear any fruit. A week ago, Niki Ashton and, at the MP's urging, Michael Moore posted opinion pieces on the Oscar-winning filmmaker's popular website. Mincing no words, they took aim at nickel giant Vale for its plan to close its Thompson smelter and refinery by 2015. The always-entertaining Mr. Moore proclaimed that Vale's decision is about "killing the social contract of Canada" and part of a sinister capitalist plot to ensure "the Third World will become the Only World." Mr. Moore linked the vaguely defined "fight" to keep the smelter and refinery open to the revolution in Egypt, noting that everyday people around the world "are standing up right now and saying 'No!'" For her part, Ms. Ashton opined that Vale has acted "arrogantly," even illegally, while pursuing a master plan to undermine employee wages, pensions and benefits. So to recap, you, Vale, are a criminal who wants to pompously drag Canadians into poverty. Oh, and by the way, would you mind changing your global business plan so that the Thompson surface operations stay open? If Vale is so awful, why on earth would Mr. Moore, Ms. Ashton or anybody else be demanding they maintain their current presence in northern Manitoba? If Vale's ominous ambition is to turn Canada into a Third World nation, we need to get them the heck out of our country! Now! Rhetoric Obviously a lot of what Mr. Moore and Ms. Ashton say is heated rhetoric. Mr. Moore makes his living being irate and outrageous, and politicians like Ms. Ashton need to always look like they are "doing something" to solve problems, whether there is something they can do or not. Vale announced last November that its Thompson surface operations will close by 2015 Ð with no layoffs. They reiterated their plan in January. Initially, Ms. Ashton and her counterparts at the provincial level spoke of wanting to work with Vale to somehow avert the closures. "We're partners, let's work this out" was the appropriately cooperative message. But now the communication is much different. It's essentially: "We are the good guys. You are arrogant dictators who smile at human suffering. You better work this out." Rather than helping matters, this sort of bombast Ð coming as it is from people of prominence, not just everyday citizens Ð drives a wedge between Thompson and Vale. None of this is meant to compliment Vale. Mr. Moore and Ms. Ashton are right to call on the public to support the people of Thompson. Here in Flin Flon, we know all too well what it's like to lose parts of a mining operation. But if they think that name-calling is the ticket to swaying Vale, or any company for that matter, they are seriously misguided. Local Angle runs Fridays.7/3/11
