Welch's Gripe Juice

with Mary Agnes Welch

• Tiny defence of the WRHA

  I can’t argue with a single word Policy Frog says about the confused way the WRHA has communicated and delivered its H1N1 vaccination program.

  But, I will note that it could have been way, way worse. We didn’t secretly vaccinate the Moose or the Bombers like they did with the Calgary Flames. As far as I know, our auditor general is not launching an investigation of the program like the Alberta AG might. We didn’t have to call in the cops or security guards to keep order at our clinics like they did at several sites in the greater Toronto area last week.

  View Full Post | 5/11/2009 12:19 PM | 2

• Tiny bit more cabinet spec

  Yellow Snow has made some very reasonable cabinet shuffle predictions. I specifically agree that Stan Struthers would be a good fit in Ag and Nancy Allan in edumacation.

  I’d also like to amend my slightly less specific predictions by suggesting Steve Ashton would make a good energy and mines minister, with added responsibility for Manitoba Hydro. I should have thought of that last weekend, but someone smarter than me mentioned the idea to me recently.

  View Full Post | 23/10/2009 11:55 AM | 4

• That didn't take long

  About an hour after Greg Selinger was voted the new leader of the NDP, the Tories issued an e-mail blast slagging the guy.

  They accused Selinger of being untrustworthy. He all about knew about Crocus, the 1999 election rebate scheme and he’s going to harmonize the HST, which will cost us more on consumer goods.

  View Full Post | 19/10/2009 7:53 AM | 14

• Delegate debacle

  This quote from the Selinger camp in

  Bruce and Larry’s story

  caught my attention this morning:

  View Full Post | 16/10/2009 11:35 AM | 18

• Peep at the lameness

  The Doer government just issued a press release about how it’s got a new program to fund peepholes for seniors.

  Wow. Way to use the levers of government to reform society and battle injustice.

  View Full Post | 7/10/2009 3:48 PM | 3

• MYND

  Last night’s Manitoba Young New Democrats delegate selection meeting in the bowels of the U of W was pretty neat, if only because the meeting actually started on time, the votes were counted before midnight and there was some yelling.

  The 250-or-so students had a little good-natured shout-off after Selinger and Ashton finished speaking, hoisting their signs and chanting each candidate’s name.

  View Full Post | 7/10/2009 11:47 AM | 2

• Indo Outrage

  Here’s an interesting update on last night’s big NDP delegate selection meeting in Inkster: Despite his barn-burner of a speech, subtly accusing some NDPers of, at best, being snotty toward new members and, at worst, being a bit racist, leadership hopeful Steve Ashton didn’t actually pick up many delegates.

  Early morning numbers suggest Greg Selinger got 61 of the 71 delegates up for grabs. Ashton got most of the rest, despite a focused strategy of appealing to the Indo-Canadian community and a rallying cry of speech last night.

  View Full Post | 1/10/2009 10:31 AM | 3

• Ride the Pony

  Doer is widely expected to attend tonight's delegate selection meeting in Concordia, one of the 13 Super Thursday meetings that might give us a better snapshot of each candidate's support. The Concordia meeting will be the first of many Doer love-ins, I bet. How do I know? The event is being catered by the Pony Corral.

  Anyone who follows Doer knows how hilariously fitting this is. As my colleague Mia Rabson just joked, the Pony might go bankrupt when Doer goes to DC.

  View Full Post | 24/09/2009 9:17 AM | 0

• Shrink-ocracy

  Yellow Snow made some interesting observations about the fatness of NDP party rolls. Recently, a longtime NDPer was telling me about memberships in the Schreyer/Pawley years – 25,000, and the unwritten rule was that no general election would be called unless the membership list topped that. Same in Saskatchewan’s NDP. No vote unless there were 35,000 members.

  Compare that to now, where NDP membership has for years hovered around 5,000 or 6,000 and everyone’s all wide-eyed with glee that suddenly the rolls have more than doubled. As one Tuxedo NDPer joked the other night, they’re having riding association meetings is real halls rather than just her and her mom in her living room.

  View Full Post | 23/09/2009 9:59 AM | 3

• Swan's song

  Amid the bedlam of last night's delegate selection meeting, there were a couple of neat things. At first, one neat thing was the informality of it all. It was kind of earthy and grassrootsy -- which can degenerate into anarchy pretty fast.

  Another surprise was Andrew Swan -- he gave the best speech of the three leadership contenders. He was focused and practical and upbeat and he didn't sweat at all, unlike his campaign kick-off press conference. How did he not pick up a single delegate? The room certainly was Selinger's, who had a gaggle of staffers busy pulling the vote and milling about looking well-organized. But in ridings like Tuxedo and Charleswood that tend to be a bit more conservative, you'd think there would be at least a little love for a more centrist embodiment of the NDP like Swan.

  View Full Post | 21/09/2009 4:10 PM | 3

• Thoughts on Gay-gate

  Stu Murray, the former head of the provincial Tories and the new boss of the Canadian Human Rights Museum is having a rough start in his new job. He's come under fire from gay and lesbian groups for voting against extending adoption rights back in the day, and not having a particularly well-prepared explanation for how that jibes with being an international advocate for human rights. In a speedy bit of damage control, it sounds like Murray and the human rights museum folks are meeting ASAP with anyone remotely gay to smooth things over, as well they should.

  I think Murray made it pretty clear then and now that he personally supports gay rights -- though, in a nifty interview by CBC Radio's Margaux Watt the other day, he refused to say how he'd vote if he had the chance again today. But the whole episode makes me think three things:

  View Full Post | 20/09/2009 10:30 AM | 10

  1. Oswald for Preem

     

     Enlarge Image 

     Manitoba Health Minister Theresa Oswald (in red) answers a question from the media at a meeting of provincial, territorial and federal health ministers in Winnipeg today. (MIKE DEAL / WINNIPEG FREE PRESS)

     What the heck happened to Health Minister Theresa Oswald? She’s always been a fairly smart and capable minister, but she often comes across a little tentative and jargon-y in scrums and in Question Period.

     I wasn’t really sure why there was such a fuss to get her to run for the NDP leadership earlier this month, beyond the fact that it would be nice to have one woman in the race.

     View Full Post | 17/09/2009 5:06 PM | 7

  2. Gay rights

     Former Tory Leader Stu Murray, named today to head up the Canadian Museum for Human Rights, is among the nicest guys in Manitoba politics. But one wouldn’t call him a hardcore human rights activist a la Nelson Mandela.

     In fact, one of the few times he had a chance to vote for human rights, he didn’t. That was back in 2002 when he voted against an NDP bill extending adoption rights to gays and lesbians.

     View Full Post | 15/09/2009 5:13 PM | 17

  3. Dismissive Doer

     Something’s been niggling me about how Premier Gary Doer reacted to part of the 1999 campaign finance hubbub.

     Last week, some very interesting letters from auditor David Asselstine emerged. He was the guy hired by Elections Manitoba to go through all the NDP’s campaign finance paperwork to make sure it was copacetic.

     View Full Post | 5/06/2009 2:05 PM | 2

  4. Selinger on the hook

     How did it happen that one of the most respected cabinet ministers, known for his by-the-book, squeaky-clean image, was the one stuck facing hoards of reporters peppering him with questions about the NDP’s 1999 campaign finances?

     It was the biggest scrum I’ve seen in a long time at the Legislature, and Selinger was kind of on his own.

     View Full Post | 4/06/2009 12:02 PM | 1

  5. Arts mayor

     

     Enlarge Image 

     Cadence Weapon (UPPER CLASS RECORDINGS / CANWEST NEWS SERVICE)

     I thought my hometown was kind of boring and straight until it named hip hop artist Cadence Weapon its new poet laureate.

     Brilliant move, Edmonton! So brilliant I almost want to move back.

     View Full Post | 3/06/2009 12:23 PM | 3

  6. Rebategate

     Couple quick thoughts on new questions now swirling around how the NDP filed their campaign spending returns in 1999.

     If you read today’s story, you’ll know the Tories have dug up some interesting letters from back in the day.

     View Full Post | 26/05/2009 2:35 PM | 1

  7. Schmutz patrol

     

     Enlarge Image 

     Months of garbage piles up in the shrubbery around Polo Park. (JOFF SCHMIDT / WINNIPEG FREE PRESS)

     Before I gripe about big businesses who let garbage fester around their properties, let me give a shout-out to all the volunteers who spent the weekend picking up months and months of soggy trash in West Broadway and along Omand’s Creek.

     Dozens of volunteers braved Saturday morning’s crappy weather and went street by street in West Broadway, raking the trash out from around shrubs, cleaning up vacant lots, tidying around the autobins. It made a miraculous difference. The neighbourhood looks great.

     View Full Post | 12/05/2009 10:42 AM | 6

  8. Downtown is where real governments go

     If the current incarnation of the First Nations Governance House project at Polo Park is belly up, why not build it downtown instead?

     That’s the question smart friend and reader James Ham just e-mailed me, and it echoes one we were talking about in the newsroom this week when word filtered out that the city’s first urban reserve might be in limbo.

     View Full Post | 1/05/2009 12:16 PM | 1

  9. Tax cut hype

     Have you seen those snazzy ads on TV touting the bevy of new Harper tax cuts? The one where the cheerful citizens pull dozens of new tax benefits, like the one for first-time homebuyers, out of the air? My beau and I just bought a new house and we were checking out how much we might get from that credit. Turns out, bupkis.

     The homebuyers tax credit doesn't apply unless:

     View Full Post | 30/03/2009 11:39 AM | 0

  10. It’s a surplus! (Except for that $11 billion we owe.)

      So the NDP are doing some pre-budget ramp-up that involves touting a steady-as-she-goes budget that makes good on small tax cut promises and makes education a priority.

      They are also crowing about a $316 million surplus expected when this budget year runs out at the end of the month.

      View Full Post | 20/03/2009 10:51 AM | 1

  11. I can't blog about this because it doesn't exist

      Here's my favourite obfuscation of the day: "The minister is unable to comment on legislation that does not exist."

      That was the line from the Doer government yesterday when my pod-mate Carol Sanders tried to get Labour Minister Nancy Allan on the horn to talk about why the province has no anti-scab legislation. The impetus for the question was a move by Safeway to hire scab workers in advance of an expected strike.

      View Full Post | 12/03/2009 9:19 AM | 4

  12. Elmwood strategy

      Two smart people on opposite sides of the spectrum have been kibitzing to me lately about the stranglehold Doer's NDP have on the province's political culture, and how that will only change if people THINK it can change.

      People assume (and the media perpetuates the idea, say critics) that the NDP are invulnerable, that they'll never get defeated in dozens of ridings, that Doer's personal popularity will never wane and the NDP will emerge unscathed from every mini-scandal like Crocus and Brian Sinclair. Something needs to dent that perception if any opposition party is to have a chance or if the province's stagnant political culture is ever to change.

      View Full Post | 10/03/2009 9:31 AM | 5

  13. Byelection speculation for nerds

      We all thought Premier Doer might call Elmwood today. But he didn't.

      I've checked the calendar, and I think the byelection will be called Feb. 6 for a March 9 vote.

      View Full Post | 30/01/2009 2:00 PM | 5

  14. Catch Up

      The Manitoba Children’s Advocate has a new storefront office on Portage Avenue downtown with the world’s biggest and bluest sign over the door.
      
      I think that’s a not-so-subtle signal to Manitobans that the Doer government takes the debacle that has been child welfare seriously and is trying to fix it, including giving the Children’s Advocate more power, more staff and a pretty high-profile location.
      
      I’d be more cynical about that if I hadn’t just finished reading and hearing about Alberta’s child advocate who has been slagged as toothless, slow and weak.
      
      Alberta has a few programs that Manitoba is looking to copy – the prevention model, for one – but things sound just as screwed up in my old hometown province as they are here. Kids in hotels, kids dying in care, a government that’s even more secretive about ongoing investigations and audits. So I’ll take an awning on Portage Avenue as a sign of hope.
      
      ******
      
      There was an interesting letter to the editor just after Christmas from a Jim Brennan who took former NDP MP Bill Blaikie to task for jumping back into politics provincially. Mr. Brennan, who appears to have no love for the NDP, said Blaikie should have left politics with a sense of pride and accomplishment, and allowed the next generation of NDPers to have their shot. Instead, he’s forced a number of up-and-comers to “sit at the political children's table” and wait for their turn again.
      
      That includes, in my mind, longtime party volunteer Darryl Livingstone, who would have probably been Elmwood’s new MLA if Blaikie hadn’t heeded Premier Gary Doer’s call back to action. And it includes Fort Rouge MLA Jen Howard, probably the brightest of the new crop of MLAs and the one next in line for a cabinet spot. If Doer is true to tradition and does only a small shuffle, and if Blaikie fills the vacancy left by the late Oscar Lathlin, Howard will have to wait.
      
      It would be a shame to make her spend years up in the nosebleeds like Competitiveness Minister Andrew Swan did. Howard worked for years in Doer’s inner circle as a health policy wonk, so she knows government. She was the Chosen One when Fort Rouge MLA Tim Sale retired. She made quite a barn-burner of a speech about the need for a pragmatic, third-way strategy not long ago at the federal NDP convention, which got tongues wagging. The party also put her up on CJOB in the spring to duke it out with Tory Leader Hugh McFadyen over the Elections Act changes. She more than held her own.
      
      Whatever cabinet post Blaikie gets, everyone assumes he’ll be a supremely capable minister who brings, as Prof. Paul Thomas said recently, a little gravitas to Doer’s front bench. But a few new faces in caucus and in cabinet could have breathed some life into what’s become a pretty boring government.
      
      ******
      
      I want to float OCN Chief Glen Ross as Lathlin’s possible successor as MLA for The Pas (whenever the byelection is called…). I have no idea what his political leanings might be, whether he has any ambition to work in the Doer government or if he’d even be much good under the dome. But a colleague, a child welfare worker and a friend who is familiar with northern environmental projects all say he’s among the best chiefs in the province.
      
      ******
      
      We just got a new house with a dishwasher. Damned if we can find P-free dishwasher soap at the Safeway, even though phosphates in dishwasher soap will be banned next year. What’s up with that?
      
      ******
      
      This is the most interesting thing I have read in a long time. It’s the audit report on Winnipeg’s catastrophically messed up Indian and Northern Affairs office. It didn’t get a lot of play yesterday, I think because INAC went full-on, Harper-style, micro-manage overkill at the media briefing.
      
      But if you are wondering why First Nations seem to be no better off despite billions in program funding, you’ll get a sliver of a snapshot why here. Missing money, shredded documents, tears and rumours and toxicity in the office, staff that can’t respond to e-mails or get undercut by the minister … all while Garden Hill has no running water.
      

      View Full Post | 13/01/2009 2:24 PM | 1

Advertisement

Ads by Google