Gary Doer is a dictator

Not content with simply being the Premier of Manitoba, Gary Doer has also decided he wants to be:

The Mayor of Winnipeg — by doling out funding to the City in drips and drabs targeted toward provincial government priorities. Also by doing an end-run around City process and committing funding to projects like the expansion of [...]

Doer’s slush drink fund

How is the MLCC donating $1 million to the Canadian Museum for Human Rights really any different than MPI’s failed and much-criticized attempt to donate $20 million to the U of W, BU and CUSB a few years back?
Isn’t this just a back-door way for the Doer government to provide more funding for the Museum?
EDIT: [...]

A $35 million sidewalk?

The City of Winnipeg is considering three different concepts for the Disraeli Bridge rehabilitation project, scheduled to start in late 2009.

Concept A is a 4-lane divided road with standard 3.5 metre lanes on the inside, 4.4 m shared vehicle/cycle curb lanes, and one 1.8 m sidewalk on the east side. Cost: $125 million.

Concept B is [...]

If at first you don’t succeed…

Fueled by the success of his 2007 Provincial Election platform, Tory Leader Hugh McFadyen continues to doggedly pursue the issues that matter most to Manitobans:
The premier confirmed support for the world junior bid in the legislature this morning during questioning by Opposition Leader Hugh McFadyen on the chances of an NHL franchise coming to Winnipeg.
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About those MPI rebates

How much does it cost MPI to administer and mail out rebate cheques, and how much paper waste is generated?
Wouldn’t it be easier to just reduce everyone’s insurance next year instead? Yes, I realize that not every single vehicle owner is going to renew their insurance next year, but it would capture ~95% of them, [...]

Dear Sam: tone down the trash talk

Are the pressures of the job finally getting to Mayor Sam Katz?
First, he threatened bodily harm toward an idiot who brought a Hitler-themed sign to a protest over privatization of City services.
Next, he had this to say when Councillor Lillian Thomas suggested she might run against him in the next civic election:
That would be the [...]

“Beyond Kyoto” or just greenwash?

The Doer government released a new climate change action plan today which didn’t include a carbon tax. No surprise really, considering that the Finance Minister bragged just two weeks ago about how Manitoba still has the second-lowest gas taxes in the country.
I’m no Al Gore, but even I realize that a revenue-neutral increase to fuel [...]

Boundaries commission is like Risk for local political geeks

At Curtis’s suggestion I took a look at the site for the 2008 Manitoba Boundaries Commission. This group will review current population distributions across the province and determine what adjustments need to be made to provincial constituency boundaries.
This could definitely get interesting, especially in South Winnipeg where Fort Whyte (+47%), Southdale (+22%) and Seine River [...]

Flipping this BRT idea on its head

Warning: this is one of those late-night ideas that I haven’t really thought through completely, but wanted to post before I forgot. I might think it’s even nuttier than you do by the time I wake up.
I’m wondering, instead of constructing a $70 million+ exclusive-use busway from Jubilee to downtown, what if we built a [...]

A chicken in every pot, or pot in every chicken?

While Gary Doer and the NDP deservedly get a lot of criticism for being the most boring government in the history of Manitoba, Hugh McFadyen and the Tories seem to have the market cornered on harebrained, what-have-you-been-smoking? schemes.
Last Spring’s election brought us gems like “bring back the Jets” and “let’s build a beach in Point [...]