Right in the centre - The great divide

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Published on Thursday, December 29, 2016

By Ken Waddell

The Neepawa Banner/Neepawa Press

There seems to be an ever widening gap between style and substance. In recent weeks, we have had a never ending media diet of how despicable Donald Trump is supposed to be. Trump is a bit weird, that is fairly obvious, but to listen to his detractors one would think Trump can single-handedly ride the States into the ditch. He can’t, as he has to get approval from Congress and the Senate for legislation.

Now the United States may well not have much success in the next four or eight years but there will be a lot more factors than Trump. The United States economy is at far more risk from the national debt and outlandish union wages than they are from Trump. If the United States are to recover some of the 1950s and ‘60s glory in business and on the world stage, they will have to make some definite moves to improve their economy.

One major step would be to become more self-sufficient in energy production. That is already underway but there is a long way to go. Being dependent on Middle Eastern oil has cost the U.S. a lot of money, lost opportunity and thousands of lives in military conflicts they should likely have stayed away from. The U.S. should no longer consider itself the policeman to the world. They need to concentrate on building their own businesses and infrastructure, as it is obvious that both have declined over the past 30 to 40 years.

As to style and substance, we have some ongoing lessons closer to home. Our Canadian prime minister is proving that his critics were right, he’s not ready to be prime minister. Quite frankly, I don’t think he will ever be ready. Justin Trudeau is a very light weight thinker. He’s a drama teacher, and may well have been a very good one, but there is no correlation between a good drama presentation and running a country. Because something sounds good doesn’t mean it is good. 

Even closer to home, we have some style criticism being thrown up against Premier Brian Pallister. He can be abrupt and he wants things changed in a hurry. I think everyone understands that and it may be in stark comparison to the former NDP government. Under the Doer/Selinger regime, it seemed that the only real change was in the number of unionized public servants and their salary levels.

However, Pallister has been criticized for being, horror of horrors, well off financially. He has an expensive home in Winnipeg and a home in Costa Rica. He also spends a few weeks at his home in Costa Rica. To listen to some critics, that isn’t a good idea. I guess these same critics haven’t looked at Justin Trudeau’s travel schedule, but I digress.

The critics, and all the rest of us, need to look at results and not so much at lifestyle. Let’s see what Pallister can do.

He has a strong mandate, so does Trudeau and so does Trump. 

All three have an opportunity to make some changes for the better. All three have huge problems to overcome. We are admonished in the Bible to pray for our leaders for wisdom and strength. There is no doubt they will need wisdom and strength to stand against the forces that intend to destroy our civilization.

I am certain that all three are being hindered by some very dumb rules. Case in point, if a medic or firefighter finds someone in peril on the streets in Manitoba, they cannot pack them off to a safe place against their will. That simply doesn’t make sense. Instead of waiting for the expense and time for a police officer, why not be allowed to intervene?

Instead, the medics have been known to have been forced to wait for extended periods of time instead of solving the issue on their own. A woman died in the frigid cold last week because of that rule.

I think instead of criticizing the lifestyle (ok,ok Justin forgive me) we should praise our leaders for taking decisive action.

I will go one step further and say the Liberal government did the right thing with the recent changes to the Temporary Foreign Worker program.

Yes, we need to pray for our leaders for wisdom and strength in the face of adversity.

May you and yours have a happy and prosperous New Year.