January 25, 2000
To subsidise or not to subsidise - THE COMMENTARY
By Joseph Planta
VANCOUVER - “Well, as Peter Warren would say, Joe Six-pack is up in arms. Hell no!, is the call of average Canadians when it comes to bailing out the six Canadian NHL teams. Hockey may be a national passion, but bailing them out in the form of tax breaks and subsidies is utterly wrong.”
That’s how I started out this column, but then on Friday morning John Manley did an about face and terminated the bailout package. I was content with the piece I wrote. I had bitched and complained about the God-awful deal, and wrote some, I’m sure, brilliant anti-Liberal and anti-Jean Chrétién copy. Well, the Liberals did what I would have wanted, and what millions of Canadians across the country wanted. But, I must admit even though they did the right thing, the entire matter sits rather crappy with me.
Sure, it’s nice the Canadian people are being heard. Peter Warren said on Friday, it was a good day for democracy. Sure, but what it showed yet again, is the Prime Minister’s utter contempt for the people of this nation, as well as the living proof this administration hasn’t got any balls. They are our leaders. I’m sure Mr. Trudeau would have never given in to the beck and call of the public, especially if no votes mattered on it. Even though people like me can always say that the government should do this and do that, we never actually think that anything will come about of it. Well, Joe and his wife Mary, Mr. and Mrs. Six-pack, as Warren would say, did bitch and complain and guess what, the government heard.
In complete honesty the Liberals have missteped. That switch of opinions may make them more and more dearer to the people’s hearts; but to me, they are a bunch of gutless and coward fools. They bow down to buggers like Burke and Bryden on Wednesday. Then by weeks end they, renege on the deal leaving the GM’s hanging and this scribe, wondering what would have happened if they hadn’t screwed up in the first place.
The first deadly sin that the Liberals committed was even considering the proposition of bailing out multi-million dollar teams, playing a multi-million dollar sport. Bail them out, while their hospital beds are a dwindling, their Prairie farmers a begging and the entire population a wondering where the hell the government was and is? Then on Wednesday of last week, we get an inkling of a Brian Burke smile in public, and Minister Manley beams out a generous proposal for these teams. By Friday, they scrap the pile of shit and are popular with Canadians.
I call them deadly sins, because somewhere the public has to see how Mr. Chrétién and his party are committing political suicide. Their political machine is imploding from within and they are straight on the course of self-destruction. Is this the kind of leadership, Canadians want? A government that says one thing the first, and does one thing the next? A government that governs solely on the polls and what mouth breathers spew about on open line radio and the editorial page? Come on, Canadians deserve better than that.
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An archive of Joseph Planta's previous columns can be found by clicking HERE .