~ Friday, January 3, 1992 — North Shore News

Winnipeg: A fresh start?

EVERYONE OVER the age
of 12 knows that it doesn’t
matter what’s said. It’s who
said it.

Trevor
Lautens

GARDEN OF BIASES

if, for example, | suggested in
this space that we wave in ihe
bulldozers and flatten Ottawa, or
maybe turn the Parliament Build-
ings into a huge donut franchise,
or perhaps jack up the better
buildings onto Matbeds and move
the whole nine yards a thousand
miles or so, what would be the
result?

News editor Timothy Renshaw
and publisher Peter Speck would
probably say: ‘‘Lautens is coasting
today. The guy’s shameless.’*

And so would you, dear reader.
(I know I have at least one reader.
She is Elaine Schick of Nerth
Vancouver, and she and her hus-
band Ken run the Auld Scottish
Larder on Hastings Street in Bur-
naby, a regular stop on my Food
Search tour.)

Then, suppose I wrote: ‘Oh,
did I mention where all this stuff
is going? To Winnipeg. We should
move the federal government to
Winnipeg.”

f would expect Tim, Speck and
Schick — try saying that fast five
times after three martinis — to
look at each other and nod: ‘‘It’s
one of those dumb ‘provocative’
columns. Rattles the reader’s cage.
Earnest people will write sober
letters to the editor — taking him
seriously. Lautens will snicker.
Has the man no shred of integri-
ty?’

However, what if the idea
comes from the mouth of a
respected senior statesman?

It has. Eric Kierans, former
Liberal cabinet minister, former
head of the Montreal Stock Ex-
change, recently suggested precise-
ly that.

Let's have a referendum on
making Winnipeg Canada’s capi-
tal, the 77-year-old Kierans pro-
posed.

Nobody laughed. Nobody said
he was a jerk columnist pushing
the “‘controversy”” button, because
Kierans isn’t. He’s respected, as I
believe [’ve mentioned.

Kierans first flew this idea on
CBC’s Morningside program. The
national news agency, Canadian
Press, picked it up. The papers
ran it. Yes, even the Globe &
Mail, citadel of serious print
journalism.

As I said: it isn’t what’s said,
it’s who said it.

Kierans made a pretty
unoriginal observation: that Win-
nipeg would be a good choice
because it’s in the country’s
geographical centre.

Also, it has the required cultur-
al amenities: a symphony or-
chestra, the Royal Winnipeg
Ballet, and such.

As voters know, politicians are
very big on cultural amenities.
While they are debating grain
rates or the international mustard
trade, their minds keep stealing
off to music and ballet.

Maybe most important: such a
referendum would shake up the
boring constitutional debate,
Kierans declared. The move would
give Canada a fresh start.

Furthermore, moving the capital

isn*t so novel. Germans are in the
process of moving their capital
from Bonn to Berlin. Brazil com-
Fieted the move of its capital from
Rio de Janeiro to Brasilia 30-odd
years ago. Our own cartier capi-
tals have included Kingston and
Mortreal.

While Kierans does.i’t seem to
have mentioned it, Winnipeg of

_course has another attraction: the

largely French-speaking com-
munity of St. Boniface. That
would give the new capital the
necessary Two Foundiny Nations
flavor. St. Boniface would be
proudly reinvigcrated as a fran-
cophone centre.

Kierans carefully avoided
another point, though it sits there
toe obvious to be ignored: if
Quebec separates, the ultimate
Stupidity, having a nationa! capital
right across the river wouldn't be
wise. There'd be enough friction
to melt the canal.

And Hull, a great beneficiary of
federalism through its inclusion in
the national capital region, would
naturally be dropped in the gluc
from a great height. And de-
servedly. it’s a warmbed, if not a
hotbed, of sullen separatists, like
the youth committee of the Parti

Quebecois that roams the streets
looking for violations of Quebec’s
infamous French-only sign law.

So, frivolous ideas or not, I’d
enjoy a debate on Winnipeg’s
suitability. It would be cold
revenge for the city that lost its
superior bid on maintenance facil-
ities for the CF-18 to Montreal, a
blatantly political sop to a city
that is crumbling, partly because
of the separatist threat and the
exodus of major national head of-
fices — almost 30% left between
1978 and 1982, says the Financial
Times in a recent devastating
report.

1 Suppos?, if | were a passionate
“homer,” i'd argue that the capi-
tal should be moved to our own
North Shore paradise.

But then the politicians, drunk
on our sybaritic ways, would do
even less than they do now. And
we'd never get rid of them. They
wouldn't even go home for sum-
mer recess.

No, Winnipeg is about right. It
would be fun watching the windy
politicians compete with the
famous gusts at Portage and
Main.

i) Bayside inn
= Resort

hn
LIFE

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