View From the Legislature

Sometimes government runs into trouble purely as a result of circumstances beyond its control.

Recent statistics show that as the economy has slowed down over the past several months, Canadians have been putting more money against their debt and saving more money.

This week is Victims of Crime Awareness Week in Canada.

It can be difficult to put into perspective both spending and debt when it comes to government.

In the past when Manitobans thought about violence, there might have been a tendency to think it was limited to only certain parts of the province’s largest city.

This past Thursday something remarkable happened in the Saskatchewan legislature. Every political party, including the NDP members of the legislature, voted in favour of a resolution in support of the development of nuclear power to help meet that province’s energy needs.

On Wednesday March 25th, Premier Gary Doer stood up in the Manitoba Legislature and declared that the NDP government had balanced the budget. It was a statement so untrue it is a wonder he wasn’t blushing when he said it.

There are many math based classes that challenge students in their grade school and university studies. For Manitobans in general, there is a new numbers game that is being played that is equally challenging. It’s called NDP math.

There are many things that go into building a strong community or a region. Some of them are very tangible and easy to identify, like roads, public buildings and recreational centres.

Long before the media began to turn its attention to the economic woes of American banks, the stock market and the automobile industry, there was a vital sector of the Canadian economy that had been mired in difficult economic troubles.