NDP clinging to any positive press

Hey there, time traveller!
This article was published 19/03/2015 (4215 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

With a futile and divisive leadership campaign out of the way, you’d think Manitoba’s New Democrats would love nothing more than to chill out for a couple of weeks.

Alas, there is no rest for the rifted. The looming byelection in The Pas, which will place a kibosh on political announcements for more than a month, means the Selinger government had no choice this week but to fire up the press-release machine and crank out a pile of announcements it’s been itching to make since the start of the NDP’s somewhat civil war.

First up: Seniors are getting tax breaks. Those breaks make little financial sense in a province still running a deficit, but what the heck — older people tend to vote in greater numbers than the younger people who will end up paying for the promise in the long run. Also, personal-care homes are getting sprinklers. Of course, the fact some personal-care homes don’t have sprinklers should be cause for concern, not something to trumpet in a press release.

Then came a chance for paramedics to demonstrate… well, something. It theoretically involves the benefits of professional self-regulation, but the reality has been lost in the fog of an interminable war with Winnipeg’s firefighters.

Finally, on Wednesday, came the kookiest proclamation yet this week: Pets are coming to provincial parks.

Don’t get too excited. Manitoba Conservation and Water Stewardship is not about to allow a minefield of malamute excrement to materialize amid the campsites of Clearwater Lake Provincial Park.

The Spirit Sands of Spruce Woods will not serve as an open-air box of kitty litter for every Manx in Manitoba. The trails of Turtle Mountain will not be turned over to terriers.

All that was announced is your cats and dogs are now welcome in nine cabins and 20 yurts in a total of eight provincial parks.

As far as policy changes go, this is as minuscule as minuscule gets, because pets have long been allowed in provincial campgrounds — provided they don’t roam freely.

“All pets must be leashed, tied up or caged and under physical control at all times,” declares Manitoba’s parks branch on its list of campground rules. “Pet owners are responsible for cleaning up after their pets.”

Outside campgrounds, there’s an off-leash dog area at Yellow Quill Provincial Park and dog-friendly swimming areas at 17 others. But the reality is officials have not lost their collective senses and decided it’s now cool to let Great Danes run the length of Grand Beach.

Unless you rent one of those cabins or yurts, your puppy isn’t coming into a provincial campground unless it’s chained up like Hannibal Lecter.

The real question is why a veteran minister like Gord Mackintosh would bother drawing any attention to a minor policy change involving what pets are allowed to temporarily reside within a few structures.

The answer is disappointing: Any news that possibly could be construed as positive, no matter how unremarkable, is worthy of a press release in the year before the year when a 17-year-old provincial government asks for another mandate.

To be fair, the province isn’t alone. As my colleague Mary Agnes Welch has pointed out, every time the city, province and feds throw pennies at a playground teeter-totter, out comes a ribbon cutting and a press release.

You know what? Governments are supposed to fix playgrounds. They’re also supposed to maintain roads and pay for police.

So hooray for 29 pet-friendly campground structures. That byelection in The Pas can’t come soon enough.

bartley.kives@freepress.mb.ca