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/