I get no respect ...

Firefighters for Doer

The love affair between firefighters and Gary Doer just keeps on going.

That was reaffirmed today with an announcement of more firefighters, including forest firefighters by Doer in the back yard of a Winnipeg Fire Captain in Kirkfield Park where hopeful Sharon Blady is hoping to turn that seat NDP orange.

We hear that Kirkfield Park, Springfield and Inkster are all about tied as good possibilities for pickups for the NDP in Winnipeg, where Doer's numbers are incredibly strong.

Where does firefighters come as a priority for Manitobans in the poll numbers? Well, probably doesn't really register ... until the question is asked who do you trust to make sure the services you rely on are there when you need it. About then, questions like 'who do the firefighters trust' and 'who do the nurses trust', etc. come into play.

That and the NDP's record of keeping Manitoba affordable and keeping the government affordable make it a hard case for change, despite how 'hard ... hurry hard' Hugh works to make it seem we need the kind of change he offers.

Sorry for a kind of straight-up rant today. But we couldn't really help ourselves. If you want to see something different -- then instead of firefighters, you can find out how you would save $14 on a $200 bicycle.

It had to be said ...

Day 6 of the campaign and no one has said it ... publicly, at least.

But it's about time it was.

It is absolutely unbelievable that the Winnipeg Sun has Ross Romaniuk -- a nice guy, we submit -- covering the election campaign.

Nice guy or not. Good repo or not. It just stinks.

Ross is the partner of Hugh McFadyen spinner Michelle Bailey.

Whether Ross's coverage is fair or not cannot be reasonably assessed because he has an undeniable conflict of interest.

The Sun needs to clean this up and shame on them for letting it happen.

'Nuff said.

A few of these things are a lot like the others...

Freep armchair QBs leave a bit to be desired

It's day 5 of the election campaign and this is the first post since the call. Yeesh -- a little slow.

As you may have guessed, we're a little busy on the husting, but we'll do our best between now and May 22 to get a word in edgewise.

Today we look at the deep thoughts of Freep armchair quarterbacks Dan "Sausage Man" Lett and Lindor Reynolds.

First Lindor, calls the Jack Reimer "prop" slur against contender Erin Selby no big deal and Status of Women Minister Nancy Allen a bit disingenuous for asking for an apology. In fact Lindor says the NDP called Reimer "sexist".

Where did they say that? Reading their release on the NDP site, we see no reference to "sexist". Nor do we see the quote in any news story.

We do see the term in Mia Rabson's story -- but not in a quote or attributed to anyone.

Wethinks the meat is missing there. Lindor should check who said Reimer was "sexist" or whether he made a derogatory remark. There is a big difference there and Lindor should know that.

Dan, on the other hand, thinks the NDP "blinked" over McFadyen's anticipated "me too" with Stephen Harper on the 1% cut to the PST (what? not 2%). Seems to us the NDP have responded to every Tory announcement so far. Why is that blinking?

Anyway, Dan's biggest error is the repeated contention that in the 1990s the PCs had a tough time because of a recession and cuts in transfers from Ottawa.

If that is to hold water at all, it may be said for the early 1990s. But the latter 1990s and certainly in the last few years of the Filmon administration, transfers were growing again and the economy was doing well.

Dan, too, should know better. We hope the analysis on the campaign trail picks up a tad over this mornings offerings.

Sigh ... we're back to Bunkbeck, again

The honeymoon is over, likely to his relief. We've torn up our membership in the Tom Blowback fan club.

Today Tom takes a run at Denis Rocan, using every one of Michelle Bailey's talking points and adding a few deep "insights" of his own, such as the following keen observation, intended to demonstrate Denis's mutinous tendencies: "Immediately after the NDP won government in 1999, for example, Rocan was seen giving then NDP MLA Becky Barrett a hug in the Legislative Building, saying 'I'm so happy for you.' Ugh."

Hmm. You gotta admit that "ugh" is a nice touch.

But he also hypes his blog at the end of his column. (He has a blog? Who knew?) In it he aims at Gary Doer (shock! awe!) and tries to trip up the premier on how many nurses were fired by the Conservatives in the 1990s.

Was it 1,000 or 1,500? Tom asks. It can't be both. Must be a lie.

The answer is simple. Maybe simple enough for our erstwhile columnist and now blogger to get.

The 1,000 comes from the Manitoba Nurses Union in their 1998 annual report (you may have seen this citation recently here). The 1,500 comes from more recent annual reports of the two nursing colleges - the Licenced Practical Nurses and the Registered Nurses.

Those documents actually show well over 1,500 nurses who left the system in the 1990s -- just as the $4 million contractor Connie Curran recommended to Gary Filmon and his senior staffer Hugh McFadyen.

Quite the record, eh Tom?

Introducing ... The Sweatermobile

Or, perhaps, the Fratmobile.

Great YouTube link sent to us.

[UPDATE: THEY LATER SENT US A STILL, AS YOU CAN SEE AT LEFT, AND FIXED THE VIDEO.]

Our emailer says: "Video taken last night during a Tory war council at their campaign headquarters at 1700 Ellice (hmm, wonder who's the landlord?). Tory caucus members and candidates were given a kick-the-tires view of the Sweatermobile by McFadyen. Enjoy."


Enjoy, indeed.



---------

The gift of Carman-gate just keeps on giving for Huey. Just like the clap.

Not a huge surprise Denis Rocan was booted from caucus for using his opportunity to speak to the budget yesterday to rip McFadyen a new one and then vote to support the budget.

But you have to wonder whether McFadyen is beginning to regret his campaign to oust the venerable MLA, cuz now he has a complete and utter loose cannon on his hands.

(Interesting to note, too, that Rocan was the only one Huey was successful in knocking off. Both other targets, David Faurschou and Jack Reimer, rebuffed the Tory leader and his crew's efforts to dump them.)

It was hillarious to hear CBC radio this morning further drilling into the Wellington NDP "issue" with McFadyen calling it "a big mess" or something like that.

Meanwhile he has a member of his caucus speak at length about why Huey and the Tories suck in the Chamber, every word recorded for posterity, and then mutiny on the budget vote. Virtually unheard of.

Big mess, indeed.

Wellington's Waterloo?

This morning, CBC radio's Leslie McLaren reported that challenger for the NDP nomination in Wellington, Joe Chan, has been disqualified from the contest, due to lack of previous disclosure of unsavoury parts of his past -- specifically child porn charges associated with his former computer company.

Chen is previously infamous in political circles for alleged, uh, creative campaigning for Daniel Mac councillor Harvey Smith. It hit the media during the 2002 race against McLaren's former CBC colleague Maureen Pendergast.

But in today's story McLaren finds U of M prof Sharon Sampert with a pithy quote to the effect of: "If the party doesn't want you to run, they'll find a way to disqualify you."

The implication being Chan was run out of town on a rail unfairly -- the victim of a nefarious backroom deal, perhaps.

According to the report, the letter Chan received says the child porn issue could potentially embarass the party if he were the successful candidate.

Do you really think the NDP is right and the opposition would dredge up that child porn thing in an election to embarass the party?

Naw, couldn't happen.

The waiting list myth

The myth of the waiting list, whether for health care procedures or as highlighted in recent days, for child care spaces, is pervasive.

Pat Wege of the Manitoba Child Care Association quotes day care centres with hundreds of people on waiting lists as a sign the system is in crisis.

It is true there are a lot fewer child care spaces in some parts of Winnipeg and in some communities across Manitoba than are needed. But it's hardly a crisis.

However, it is a myth -- as with doctor waiting lists -- that they are a measure of the need or a reflection of the time one may have to wait to get a spot. They are not.

People looking for child care put themselves on several lists at once. Consistently when a space opens up at a child care centre, the staff has to call many different people on their list to offer the space, as they have already found another option by that time.

So the list not only contains names of people on several lists, it also contains those who are no longer looking.

This is the same for doctor waiting lists.

That's why Gord Mackintosh announced yesterday, smartly, that the province will institute a centrally managed waiting list for child care. This will save parents from phoning around to several centres and get on those lists.

And it will prevent dishonest advocates like Wege from wildly exaggerating a situation.

She should actually be ashamed of herself for acting so churlish in the face of a government that has stepped up to the plate on child care where few other provincial governments have.

It would have been completely reasonable for the government on budget day to say "we can't afford to backfill the shortfall from the Harper government's withdrawal from the child care deal. Sorry."

But it's been a priority over the past eight budgets and that's why our child care system is the envy of most of the country.

Too bad Pat Wege can't see that.

Blogger shocker: we like Tom

We find ourselves in an odd spot this morning, being in complete agreement with Tom Brodbeck.

His column today correctly points out the peevishness of the child care lobby in Manitoba, grousing loudly about the sorry state of publicly funded spaces.

Their yapping is of course complete nonsense.

Manitoba has arguably the second strongest public child care sector, behind the enviable $7-a-day service in Quebec (though we hear of many reports that accessibility to spaces in Manitoba is far greater).

The government has poured millions over the past 8 budgets to strengthen child care across the province. More than 6,000 new spots have opened up. Wages for workers have gone up.

And despite the Harper government pulling out of the national child care deal reached with the former Martin administration, every dollar has been backfilled by the province.

Of course the government could always do more, but few sectors have done as well in the past few years comparatively as the child care sector.

They come close to post-secondary students in terms of their leadership's dishonesty in portraying their "plight" under NDP rule.

A tale of two critiques

"(T)ruly bold initiatives are lacking."

"Unfortunately the budget was an opportunity missed ... (filled with) low expectations and an acceptance of mediocrity for our future."

The above two quotes were said by prominent spokespeople about last week's provincial budget.

The quiz of the day is which side said this, that the budget was disappointing to them? The right or the left?

The answer is -- both.

If you didn't know better, by reading the media you'd think Greg Selinger delivered at least two completely different budgets last week.

One version -- there wasn't a single tax cut worthwhile to be seen and social spending is out of control.

The other version -- the tax cuts were far deeper than Manitobans want and a betrayal of core NDP values.

Here is a passage from Dave Angus's predictable missive on the weekend, feigning surprise the budget did not make Newt Gingrich happy on tax cuts: "I was confident that the message of our uncompetitive tax structure was not lost on this government and they recognized the economic benefits to adopting a framework that would attract investment and job growth."

Why was he so surprised? Because"(t)he province had received unprecedented levels of equalization, $117 million increase from the federal government..."

Let's get this straight. Because equalization was finally brought back to the 10-province formula as Harper promised, this should be poured into tax cuts for Angus's members?

Hmm. Didn't Jean Charest do that? We recall it didn't work out the best for him.

But let's get real on taxes for business. In 1999 when Gary Filmon left office, Manitoba's small business tax rate was the second highest in the land at 8%. It is now 1% -- the lowest in the land by far.

So, does Dave Angus or Shannon Martin -- the former Tory staffer who never ran a business, as far as we're aware, but now head of the Manitoba branch of the Canadian Federation of Independent Business -- publicly recognize that Manitoba's small business tax rate is now the lowest in the land? No. Nothing.

(On the same theme, for years the Free Press has campaigned on increasing the provincial funding of education to 80%. Do they even tip their hat? No. All the FreeP does is complain about only $10 million specifically allocated specifically to Lake Winnipeg -- even though more than $130 million is dedicated for water and wastewater infrastructure projects that will help the root causes of water quality in the lake and across the province.)

Anyway, the not-enough-tax-cuts view is in contrast with that of Manitoba's left wing. A piece by CCPA's Shauna MacKinnon and Jim Silver in the Free Press was subtly titled "Doer abandons his principles".

"A major illustration," of the way Gary Doer is supposed to be abandoning his NDP roots according to the duo "is the way in which this budget kowtows to the tax-cutting lobby."

Whaaa?

So which is it?

We wager most Manitobans will understand that the 2007 budget is a solid, balanced plan with strong investment in priority areas and good tax cuts for business and families.

At some point both groups should realize they're overplaying their cards a bit and get back to reality.

Three posts in one night ... yikes

OK, here's the scoop -- the first post of the evening was one made by an Addict yesterday that we didn't get to. The one below has been sitting since the weekend by another.

So this third should be overkill. But we can't help ourselves.

Without comment, we offer a couple of gems that we were just notified have hit You Tube.

Enjoy.







Whew!

An attempt at a clarification

We get mail. We always answer -- not always to correspondents' satisfaction, we admit.

We received a note from Mr. Bernie Bellan (apologies for earlier misspellings) taking us to task for writing this last week:

"Bernie Belan's gang pulled the government out of their main lawsuit as it was compromising their case. And a letter to the premier from Belan essentially saying 'if you settle with us I'll go away -- if not I'll run for the Liberals to make our issue as political as possible' is currently under investigation by Elections Manitoba."

Well, that the matter is under investigation is not in dispute. But our characterization was clearly not quite right. It was more the issue of Bellan offering to drop out of the race if the government agreed to his terms.

What those terms are exactly was the subject of some back and forth with Bellan.

Here's how the Free Press's Gabrielle Giroday characterized the situation on Sept.23, 2006:

"The shareholder who was one of the first to tip off Crocus Investment Fund investors to irregularities in the fund is now in hot water for e-mails he sent to the premier's office.

"Bernie Bellan announced last month he will seek the provincial Liberal nomination in the Assiniboia riding, potentially pitting him in an election race against NDP Energy Minister Jim Rondeau.

"However, Bellan's campaign may already be in trouble, thanks to e-mails suggesting he would not
run for a provincial nomination if the government settled with Crocus shareholders over at least $60 million worth of lost investments."

That is not quite so, now says Bellan to the Addicts:

"I didn't specify what it was that I was suggesting the government might offer to Crocus shareholders that would induce me to drop out of the race. As I told the investigators from Elections Manitoba, I was being deliberately vague because I thought the NDP would simply take my idea and promote it as their own unless I had some guarantees from them beforehand.

"What I was after was an increase in tax credits to Crocus shareholders who I thought, were about to be able to redeem their Crocus shares for cash as a result of the pending GrowthWorks offer to purchase all Crocus shares."

There's a lot more, but that's basically it. Those who have read the email in question (not us) and the reporter seemed to think Bellan was saying he wanted a settlement to drop out. Bellan says he was vague and was really angling for a new tax credit scheme.

So there you have it. Maybe.

Money Back Guarantee

Mia Rabson provides one of the most concise explanations of why wait time guarantees are the worst health policy trend to come along since provincial governments of the 1990s cut enrollment in medical and nursing schools with the view that the ageing baby boomers should actually need fewer nurses and doctors to look after them.

The Wait Time Guarantee promise by Canada's New Government™ was a gimmicky act by people who have no real power over health care delivery in this country except to give money to the provinces and make vague threats to Alberta about enforcing the Canada Health Act.

(Of course the previous ill-fated Martin campaign had little ground to stand on calling Harper's crew gimmicky in the policy business.)

Having politicians decide how long you should wait for your heart surgery or hip replacement has had perverse results in other jurisdictions where it's been tried - like Great Britain.

Patients who are closing in on the "guaranteed" waiting time get care before other patients who may actually have greater medical need. Waiting for cancer treatment is not the same thing as waiting in line at the deli counter. Medicare was not designed to be "first come, first served". The goal of our health care system is to get people what they need when they need it -- no matter who they are or how much money they have. And generally, we try to let nurses and doctors decide how quickly you need care based on the seriousness of your condition.

Working with health care providers to reduce wait times has actually had good results in Manitoba. As Mia points out, cancer treatment times are down to about a week -- one of the shortest waits in the country. This was achieved because the government worked with Cancer Care Manitoba to keep radiation therapists working here and replace old equipment that was constantly breaking down after the decade of neglect, otherwise known as the "Filmon Years" (see current Manitoba Nurses Union campaign). Investing in people and machines -- that's the way to shorten wait lists.

But, hey, we'll still take the money from the feds. They've been shortchanging health care for decades, while racking up massive budget surpluses. It's the least -- literally -- that they could do.