Mayor’s take tends to be not completely wrong

Opinion

Hey there, time traveller!
This article was published 17/03/2012 (4935 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

Politicos of all stripes were no doubt glued to their televisions this week watching the HBO movie Game Change, a dramatized account of GOP presidential candidate John McCain’s decision to ask Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin to be his vice-presidential running mate.

The film portrays Palin as a well-meaning but incredibly simple-minded politician who cannot retain even the most rudimentary concepts of economics, foreign policy and environmental science. In other words, all the things you’d expect a vice-presidential candidate to know.

In one scene, Palin (played by Julianne Moore) is confronted by senior campaign consultant Steve Schmidt (played by Woody Harrelson) about false statements Palin had made to the media. Like when Palin told journalists an investigation into alleged abuse of power while she was still governor had exonerated her of all wrongdoing, even though it had not.

Schmidt finally warns Palin: “You have got to stop saying to the press things that are blatantly untrue.” Palin shrugs and makes it clear she is comfortable having her reality trump fact.

That scene kept playing in my head over and over again Friday as I watched Mayor Sam Katz deliver his eighth state of the city address at the Winnipeg Convention Centre. It is hard to get beyond the observation that Katz frequently says things that are untrue. Or, if you want to be really charitable, makes statements that are not completely wrong.

For example, while listing his accomplishments of which he is most proud, Katz applauded himself for finding $43 million when he first became mayor in 2004 to invest in recreational facilities and community centres. That he found the money is a fact; however, where he found the money is the real story. It was cash that was supposed to start construction of the first phase of rapid transit, a decision that significantly delayed progress on that file.

Without missing a beat, later in his speech, Katz declared we must push on and complete the existing BRT line all the way to the University of Manitoba. It was a line written into the speech, and delivered to generate applause; instead, the silence inside the massive hall was deafening. Even semi-informed people in this town know Katz has repeatedly stalled this file, taking money from transit to spend on community centres, and then delaying funding of Phase 2 to study light rail options instead of buses.

At another point in the speech, Katz celebrated the expansion of the Southdale Community Centre. Back in 2008, Katz accused the NDP government of cherry-picking Southdale for funding to help boost its chances in the provincial election. He publicly and privately suggested Southdale did not deserve the cash, earning the contempt of residents in the southeast quadrant of the city. Today, Sam is a proud co-funder. Glad that’s been settled.

Perhaps the greatest continuing fib the mayor utters is his increasingly maudlin demand for a greater share of provincial sales tax to support infrastructure. As he has done for some years now, Katz taunted the province to give municipalities a sum of money equal to one point of provincial sales tax on top of existing infrastructure funding. Although he is right to ask for more money, he has been wrong to keep asking the province to carve it out of existing PST revenues. And he keeps getting more and more wrong as the province’s treasury struggles with a billion-dollar deficit. It is simply the wrong proposal, made at the wrong time, and in the wrong way. His refusal to budge off this position is souring an already sour well with the province.

Although most municipal leaders support Katz’s plan, outside of that group, Katz has very little credibility. The Business Council of Manitoba wants a referendum on adding a point to the existing seven per cent PST to pay for infrastructure. The Winnipeg Chamber of Commerce, host of Friday’s speech, wants a referendum on adding a one-point city sales tax on top of existing PST. Those are controversial measures, but they are realistic because they acknowledge the province is in no position to be giving away hundreds of millions of dollars in sales tax revenue. It’s a tip of the hat to reality that Katz seems unable to make.

Katz has always relied heavily on the public’s inability to retain the intimate details of the history of these files. Come election time, voters don’t seem to care who stalled BRT, or which level of government is dragging its feet on extending servicing to Centreport near the Richardson International Airport, or whether the province can really afford to give away a point of PST. Katz serves up an alternate version of reality, free from the shackles of fact or context, and the gross majority of those Winnipeggers who still vote put a check in the box beside his name.

Makes you wonder. When Schmidt warned Palin to stop saying things that were untrue, maybe it was Schmidt who was off base. Although it’s a much smaller market, untrue seems to sell well in Winnipeg.

dan.lett@freepress.mb.ca