Observations on several issues
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- Published on Thursday, September 29, 2016
By Ken Waddell
Neepawa Banner/Neepawa Press
Watching the U.S. presidential debate on Monday night was hardly riveting as neither candidate, neither Hillary Clinton nor Donald Trump, are brilliant speakers. That said, the American voters do have a clearer choice after this week’s debate.
Trump came across more clearly than Clinton. More importantly, Clinton kept coming out with promises to improve this or upgrade that. Isn’t it ironic that she was part of the current administration for four years, her husband was president for 8 years and the Democrats have held the White House for the last eight years. Now all of a sudden, she is the leader for change. The simple question that must be asked is where has Clinton been all these years? It’s always difficult for a person in government or so close to government to come around the corner and claim to be a great agent for change. Clinton, in classical terms, clearly lost the debate. That said, the media and many others figure Trump lost the debate. It’s doubtful if Trump can win the election, but considering the Clinton’s background, track record and health, she shouldn’t win. One must wonder if a 20-years-younger politician wouldn’t fare much better.
Another irony is closer to home, namely Manitoba. The relatively new PC government is reviewing all the NDP government’s promises and expenditures. They are cancelling major wasteful initiatives and promises of the NDP government. That’s not the irony, that is to be expected. What is ironic, to the point of being comical, is that the NDP are howling about the review and the cancellations. What did they expect? The PCs promised reviews and cuts, they won the largest majority in 100 years based on those very promises. It is exactly what people voted for overwhelmingly. The PC government has a strong mandate to make cuts, changes and implement efficient new ways of doing everything in Manitoba.
At very local levels, I have been observing that many small town and small city chambers of commerce are struggling and some have shut down. It used to be that the local chamber was a moving force in a community. Several factors have come into play that have lessened the effectiveness of chambers. One is that younger people don’t see the value of that kind of work. Younger people also think they are way too busy with jobs and family to get involved in such matters. An often heard excuse is, “I can’t be involved, I have a job you know.” That is pretty irksome to older people who have given hundreds or even thousands of hours to community volunteer work. The older people all worked long hours too and still seemed to find time to be on committees.
Another reason that chambers and perhaps other volunteer organizations have trouble staying afloat is that there are fewer and fewer locally owned businesses. Corporately owned machinery dealers, manufactures and processors, franchise restaurants and banking institutions are all good employers but often they aren’t able or simply don’t send managers or employees to work with the chamber of commerce. They will send product, they may send money but not so much people.
In the “old days” when you sat around a chamber of commerce board table you had a much larger percentage of business owners. It was a different atmosphere and it’s not likely coming back.
Maybe business is good enough. Maybe lobbying the different levels of government isn’t necessary any more. I don’t think business is good enough. I don’t think our communities are anywhere near reaching our potentials. I do think that lobbying efforts are important as without them, governments at all levels get complacent. The trend is definitely not looking good for chambers of commerce. Maybe they will revive or maybe some other community force will take their place.
One thing is for sure, nobody else will look out for a community’s best interests like an active group of civic minded citizens and for over 100 years it has often been the local chambers.
