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. yy oe itics by Jim-Beaux Lieyeah

Noev.21- Mental note... do not have editor wake me on Sunday morning for copy again. This is my slant on Cana- dian politics...

Awhile back, I talked about these by-elections as a good way of meas- uring how the Liberals are doing. As predicted, they won 3 out of 4 seats on Nov. 15th. The one they lost, in the riding of Saskatoon- Rosetown-Biggar, they got crushed in getting only 16% of the popular vote. This indicator just serves to point out that although the Liberals are riding high in popularity polls, they are still hated in Western

Canada. The Liber- als managed to get a star candidate, Henry Dayday (popular former mayor of Saskatoon) to run but when they said no to Western leaders looking for farm aid, they sent Dayday up the river without a hope of seeing the daylight of the political trough, known as Ottawa. That riding went to Dennis Gruending, of the NDP, and helped serve notice that the NDP are still a political force, in relatively socialist Saskatchewan. This is no new phenom- enon here as Prairie populism has al- ways been success- ful here. A few other things came out of these by- elections which are worth noting...

Judy Sgro managed to take the former trade Minister Sergio Marchi’s

seat with 74% of the

vote in the York riding of Toronto. What is interesting here is that Sgrio is a Paul Martin support. She won a tough nomination process (which is usually more diffi- cult than the elec- tion itself in Red Toronto) using Martin organizers. This will certainly put her on the fringes of her party as Jean Chretien does not reward the feats of his rivals. This form of Realpolitik has its consequences though. Take Hu- man Resources Minister Jane Stewart. This former pothead comes from a Liberal family that is close to Chretien

(see Bob Nixon. former Ontario

Attorney General, Chretien appointed to kill the billion dollar helicopter deal Mulroney was pushing for and who also happens to be related to Stewart). As head of one of the largest portfolios in cabi- net, she has an inordinate amount of money at her disposal (transla- tion- ministerial slush fund). It came out/was leaked last week, that she had used some money for job creation in her riding of Brantford. Yeah, so?? Well when you are being groomed by Chretien to potentially take over his crown or at least give Paul Martin a run for his consider- able moneys, then there is something deeper going on. And that is your standard smear campaign which both opposition and Liberals will be looking at if Stewart throws her hat into the leadership ring (when it becomes open). Ahhh.. the pleasures of back stabbing politics. But this is what you get when the oppo- sition is divided and the only real chal- lenges from the governing party is not too explode from within. The other interest- ing story to come out of this is renowned Human Rights activist Irwin Cotler. He got elected in the Montreal riding of Town of Mount Royal with an astounding 92% of vote, What...

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esting is that he comes into a party that is starting to turn to the left after successfully battling the deficit. They are looking for a more humane face in the government but whether or not they will take to this activist is a different story. He seems to believe that it is time for him to try to change things from within. What he’ ll probably find is a fat ringworm inside of the rotten apple known as the Liberal Party. Good luck to ya...

I have written before how incom- ing governments like to cook the books to make the situation they are walking into look a lot worse than it is.

This week we got two tastes of this

and the transparen- cies of these actions must be wearing thin on voters by now. In Manitoba, the NDP came in, had a look at the books, and voila a $417 million deficit for the year was produced. The outgoing Tory Finance Minister Eric Stefanson had the gall to say that the province was on track for a balanced budget with the help of some rainy day funds they had set up while in power. Frankly, I think setting up these funds is prudent. Manitoba has been ravaged by the decline in farm

out certainly has created this situa- tion. But digging a little deeper one can sense that they are creating this be- cause they know that they will have problems paying for their election prom- ises. So rather than say there is no money, they cook the books which takes the focus off them and then when they cannot deliver on their promises they shrug their shoulders and point to the fiscal mess they inherited. Another deeper reason for doing this can be seen in New Brunswick, where Tory Premier Bernard Lord managed to create a $227 million deficit where an 18.5 million dollar surplus existed before. He is using this as a pretext to

review all 700 government pro-

grams there. While this is probably a good thing on the surface, here is the reality of it: the Tories have been shut out of power in New Brunswick for a long time. Liber- als inhabit all kinds of plum government positions. What better way to re- ward your loyal supporters than using a program review to turf out these Grits and install your own loyalists? Now whether or not this happens I’1l have to hold my breath in my damaged lungs. Translation: shouldn’t be long before we see this....

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