007% in The Politician Who Loved Me and Left Me

Our latest Agent 007% adventure has our suave and debonair man of intrigue wooing the sultry Ollie Weste with promises of economic development incentives. When an angry contingent sets out to eradicate Ms. Weste, our hero decides to save his own bacon by leaving her to her own devices. With quick thinking worthy of any double agent, 007% uses a well timed hog plant moratorium bomb to escape the dangerous predicament of vocal public opinion. Stealthy maneuvers with the Clean Environment Commission (CEC) further ensure our hero’s survival, to the detriment of the public interest.

When not involved in action adventures, our premier can be seen in such heartwearming stories such as Mr. Doer Goes to Washington (while his costar Greg Selinger stars in the Crocus-inspired version of “Heat”), Mr. Doer Goes to Texas and everyone’s favorite, Mr. Doer Meets the Terminator. The worthy effort of a trade mission is all for naught if the only signals the NDP are sending to the business community is an unwillingness to make a public inquiry into Crocus (the only way to restore faith in our capital markets), the forced unionization of Floodway workers and playing shell games with firms such as OlyWest that are willing to put millions of dollars into our economy and hire many Manitobans.

Hugh McFadyen recently expressed his desire to move the OlyWest plant out of Winnipeg. As most readers may know, my family business was ready to undertake heavy litigation on the OlyWest issue. After all, we had hundreds of thousands of square feet invested in the St. Boniface Industrial Park, making us one of the project’s largest stakeholders. Our concerns were expressed to OlyWest and they agreed to move the inbound traffic (containing live hogs) further south, away from the residential and industrial park areas. We also went to great lengths to seek out the opinions of impartial third parties. It would have been much easier to dig our heels in and continue to be part of the “No” contingent. We took it upon ourselves to look at the issue from the view of the community at large instead of from the perspective of our own self interest.

I still offer qualified support for the OlyWest project being located in Winnipeg. Many tough questions should continue to be asked of the project. If Doer would stop playing games with the CEC, perhaps we could have enough faith in our regulatory systems to answer them. While I may not share Hugh’s opinions on this matter, were I to become MLA for Seine River, I am sure he would offer me the courtesy of letting me articulate my beliefs on this or any other issue which may not strictly follow the party line. The efficient and respectful flow of ideas is the cornerstone of any successful organization, be it a company, family, governmental agency or political party. I wonder if Today’s NDP is equally receptive to differing ideas within their own party. The unwillingness of ANYONE within the NDP to speak up for ALL Manitobans on Crocus seems to suggest otherwise, much to the detriment of anyone holding Crocus shares, RRSPs, pensions or any other financial instrument…