Re: The end of political civility (Sept. 28)
Your editorial rails on Trump about his "poor me" routine and states "he’s suckered an entire segment of the American population." It is postulated, "It’s easy to watch the presidential election from the cheap seats, eating Skittles and being more than smug that this couldn’t happen in Canada."
However, assuming Manitoba is still part of Canada, all of this has already happened in Canada. Where have you been the last 10 years of NDP rule? Manitoba voters have been "suckered" by Gary Doer and Greg Selinger into an impossible debt load, largely through bullying Manitoba Hydro.
Data from the last election and the slant of many Free Press editorials and articles (particularly the one a couple of weeks back heaping praise on Doer) and all the negative ones about Pallister indicates one out of three Manitobans and the Free Press do not yet understand how badly we’ve been "suckered," or, if you like, "trumped" or "doered-in."
There are no "cheap seats" anymore in Manitoba because it will take decades to dig ourselves out of the debt built up starting with Doer’s bad decisions with respect to the placement of Bipole III and the building of large dams before they are needed.
Our debt is much more than reported because building facilities before they are needed keeps employment numbers high at the expense of employment opportunities for our children and grandchildren in the future. In other words, we have "borrowed" jobs from future generations of Manitobans who will be faced with massive debt and fewer jobs.
With respect to Trump’s "poor me" routine, as you suggest, it is fictional. Unfortunately for Manitobans, our debt is real. There is certainly no reason for Manitobans to feel smug about our financial future, nor any immunity to being snookered by politicians.