Doer Ambassador - Plum for the Compliant

Doer Ambassador - Plum for the Compliant

Postby Oscar » Mon Aug 31, 2009 9:41 am

Doer Ambassador - Plum for the Compliant

August 28, 2009

The Editor
Winnipeg Free Press

Dear sir:

Today, Prime Minister Steven Harper appointed NDP Premier of Manitoba, Gary Doer, as Ambassador to the USA. What significance has this appointment; what lessons can be learned from it? How is it that a supposed leftist is appointed by Harper to represent our country in the USA?

Firstly, Harper has modeled his administration on that of Doer's. For a decade, Doer has run the tightest, least open government in Manitoba history. He has successfully muzzled any divergent voices in his caucus and is the sole voice, the sole spokesman, on any controversial issues. Harper has emulated this dictatorial one man show to a tee.

Secondly, Harper, obviously, admires the rhetorical and ideological finesse of Doer. Doer, disguising himself with the 'leftest' reputation of the old NDP, has totally devastated the Manitoba Conservative opposition support base by implementing the big business, corporate America business agenda that Harper also bows down to.

Thirdly, Harper admires the 'Teflon Premier's' ability to implement that neo-liberal agenda and never get stuck with the responsibility for the consequences of his policies.

Some (just a few) examples:

OlyWest was an aborted idea of subsidizing the international meat processing industry with Winnipeg City resources right in the centre of the city! Doer avoided the backlash from this public defeat by having positioned the Mayor as the lead person in this boondoggle. Defeated, Doer withdrew virtually unscathed.

Long before the 2008 'crash', the Crocus Fund, a provincially legislated investment fund, under the direct supervision of the government and heavily advertised by the government as the safest investment Manitobans could have, failed and devastated the savings of thousands of Manitobans. Through adroit obfuscation, blatant denial of responsibility, and ploys like proroguing the Legislature for long periods of time, again Doer avoided serious political injury.

The OlyWest boondoggle was part of Doer's plan to persuade southern Manitoba to vote NDP. Doer took the initiatives of the former conservative government and blatantly expanded factory farming of hogs, to the environmental devastation of the province. Traveling in southern Manitoba in spring time, one has to scrape the excrement off one's teeth because the air is so heavy with manure smell it condenses in your mouth. The fact that this short-sighted political boondoggle is now failing miserably and that farmers are lined up for Federal bail-out money has still not stuck to Doer.

The inability of the public to connect the spring run-off from all those hog farms and chemically fertilized lands, and the fact (that) Lake Winnipeg, one of the largest freshwater lakes in the world, is dying, its beaches unsafe to swim in, the fishery about to tank, again favors Doer. Perhaps in this case he should be called the Fabreeze Premier.

While Doer has been kowtowing to the industrial-business elite internationally, he has also been devastating the city of Winnipeg with projects that can only be described as urban sprawl on steroids. The recent floundering of the obscenly huge Waverley West housing development, and the mushrooming traffic and transportation difficulties in the area have likewise been so adroitly managed that the public does not realize that Doer himself is the main force behind this misconceived undermining of the vitality of the city.

Winnipeg is famous for its floodway that has for half a century protected the city from the spring flooding of the Red River. Even Doer's expansion of the floodway, a huge project, was so ill conceived and poorly designed that the very first flood since its completion (the spring of 2009) came within inches of devastating the city. This because the real objective was to keep the construction industry and workers satisfied but did not consider the possibility of ice being on the Red River in springtime. Again, with all the control of the media and piles of money for covering-up the facts, Doer and his management team have successfully avoided serious criticism. Even school children know the ice on the rivers doesn't just disappear, but Manitoba media hold Doer et al to lower standards of accountability than even children.

Finally, in this short list of boondoggles, Doer has exacerbated the distortion of Manitoba Hydro from a provincial utility into a for-profit provider of energy to the American market. Of course, the income to the province is touted at every opportunity but the environmental devastation and its long-term costs are never tabulated or discussed.

Despite the fact that the agreements with our native Manitobans concerning previous hydro 'development' have been abused and never resolved, the Doer government has continued the economic imperialism in the northern part of our province that has (seen), and continues to see, our native population and their rights and livelihoods, and the environment as collateral damage to “economic progress”.

The appointment of Doer as Ambassador to the USA is exactly the plum Doer has been working toward. Like Harper, his main objective as premier has been to further the agenda of the international corporate elite. The fact that he leaves the province as his policies and pet projects fail and crumble, is evidence of the success of short-viewed, expedient politics.

Canadians can expect our Ambassador to the USA to represent Canadian citizens with the same cynical expediency as he has represented the citizens of Manitoba.

Shane Nestruck
381 Arnold Ave
Winnipeg
510-8828
474-2588
shanedn@mts.net
http://geocities.com/SaxologyCanada/
Oscar
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Record or hype?

Postby Oscar » Mon Aug 31, 2009 8:03 pm

Record or hype?

August 31, 2009

The Editor
Winnipeg Free Press

Dear sir:

There is no doubt that Gary Doer is successful as a politician, if you measure success in terms that look only at elections and power within his party... and possibly international profile, but where is the evaluation on record?

Surely, a politician...servant of the people?... should be judged to some extent on his performance and not only on media preceptions of his 'political' profile.

Duff Roblin made the decision to build the Floodway. He paid a terrible political price for that decision. Does that mean he was a failure?
Doer, on the other hand, has presided over the province for the last decade, a particularly good time economically speaking, but during Doer's term the capital city has declined, Manitoba's environmental record has been abysmal, the industrial farming of hogs, among other boondoggles, is failing miserably, and perhaps most importantly, the relations with our northern native population remains mired in the early 20th century pattern of economic imperialism. The boondoggles and failures of his policies will haunt Manitoba for decades. And yet the WFP and other media publish tripe such as today's article - 'Doer as ambassador a good move: poll'.

Is politics such a shallow, irresponsible medium? Is Journalism such a shallow obsequiously uncritical profession? Are polls, that consult the vast disinterested and apathetic public, the true measure of this appointment?

Shane Nestruck
381 Arnold Ave
Wpg. MB
510-8828
shanedn@mts.net
Oscar
Site Admin
 
Posts: 9078
Joined: Wed May 03, 2006 3:23 pm

Obsequious nihilism

Postby Oscar » Mon Oct 19, 2009 6:01 pm

Obsequious nihilism

October 17, 2009

The Editor
The Toronto Star

Dear sir

While the media embarrasses itself in its obsequious adulation of 'the socialist', Steven Harper chose as the next ambassador to the U.S., Dan Lett in today's Winnipeg Free Press gives a rare and balanced resume of Doer's career and the realities behind Doer's 'success'.
http://www.winnipegfreepress.com/opinio ... 62017.html

Lett fairly reiterates many of the warts in the career of this opportunist/populist, but he may have stepped a bit too gently around, or omitted many of Doer's failures that came with his working man on the street expediency.

There is absolutely no question that in pure winner/loser terms Doer maneuvered the NDP and kept it in power for ten years, but at what expense?

The question the media seems to want to avoid most is whether or not as head (leader) of the government, his pragmatism and expediency was beneficial leadership- beneficial to the people who he hoodwinked into voting for him.

Are the facts that our schools and universities, our roads and highways, and the capital city of the province, all falling apart at the seams, signs of successful, farsighted leadership? Is Doer's preference for archaic urban transit, bus rapid transit (abandoned for good reason all across N. America), some sign of leadership? Is the demise of Lake Winnipeg, from a place where 'everyday working people' could enjoy the wonders of nature, into a lake of forbidden beaches that are a threat to the health of those supporters of this 'working man's' premier, something that indicates priorities of a 'socialist' working for the common man? Is the collapse of the hog industry, one of Doer's pet projects, evidence of economic foresight? The list of Doer's failures is 10 years long!

Has Doer's so-called leadership left the the natural environment, or the urban environment, or the political environment with our fellow native citizens in both the northern parts of the province and in our capital city, in positive healthy condition?

No. Opportunism and expedience, the hallmarks of Doer's cynical political success, have left the province and its hard working citizens mired in archaic concepts and short term illusions from the last century.

Calling Doer's record while in power 'leadership' is the height of obsequious nihilism. Should we be celebrating the fact this so-called 'socialist' and Steven Harper choice will now represent our country in Washington, or is this another sign that political representation 'of and for the people' is dead in Canada?


Shane Nestruck
381 Arnold Ave
Winnipeg, MB
204-510-8828
204-474-2588
shanedn@mts.net
Oscar
Site Admin
 
Posts: 9078
Joined: Wed May 03, 2006 3:23 pm


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