A rchive Date
[ 28-08-2002 ]
Category
[ International Relations ]
sub-Categoy
[ Canada ]
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[http://www.canoe.ca/Columnists/jenkinson.html
Manning predicted the future correctly
By MICHAEL JENKINSON -- Edmonton Sun
July 29, 2002
Groovy baby!
In a well-timed coincidence the new Austin Powers movie opens up just as United Western Communications unveils the latest volume in its Alberta in the 20th Century history series, The Sixties Revolution & The Fall of Social Credit.
The book stars Pierre Elliot Trudeau as Dr. Evil and ... wait a second. Trudeau was the hip, swinging single who loved to shag and repeatedly shagged Western Canada but good. So he'd be Austin Powers. And that would make the straight-laced Alberta premier of the day, Ernest Manning, Dr. Evil for trying to thwart .... oh, it's too confusing. (But anyone who wants to make an Ernest Manning-Preston Manning Mini-Me joke is more than welcome).
A book covering an entire decade's worth of political changes and cultural shifts is impossible to summarize here, so instead of attempting a review (other than to say the book is excellently written, amazingly informative and worth buying) I want to point out that Ernest Manning was an incredibly wise man who pretty much predicted how badly the expansionist plans of the Liberals in the 1960s would turn out.
As premier of Alberta, Manning had fought bitterly against Liberal Prime Minister Lester Pearson's imposition of universal medical coverage in Canada.
While Manning supported the concept of medical care being available to anyone who needed it, he said health insurance should be subsidized for only those who cannot afford to pay for it on their own.
The full subsidization of everyone's health-care costs, he argued, would create a never-ending demand for services, drive up medical costs, and fundamentally weaken society by transferring responsibility for one's health from the individual to the state.
"The arbitrary, compulsory idea of the plan forces total dependence on the state," Manning declared. "It is a complete violation of freedom of choice" and would result, he argued, in a "complete welfare state."
These days, government bureaucrats are mulling over the concept of tax breaks for people who exercise, pointy-headed academics sell the merits of a "fat tax," the Alberta government has mandated bicycle helmets for children and - most importantly - it's illegal to buy your own health care in this country. It's difficult to see how Manning was wrong.
We've surrendered responsibility for our health to the government.
The former premier also hit the bull's-eye when it came to bilingualism and the Liberal desire to entrench official language rights.
Manning argued the concept of Canada being "two founding nations" was contrary to a well-functioning democracy. He once declared that "the separation of race and state is a sound fundamental principle equally as valid and important as the separation of church and state."
To that end, Manning said entrenching official languages in the Constitution would be a "paper victory" that would do nothing to calm Quebec's hyperactive nationalism and would only "impair rather than strengthen Canadian unity."
The former premier also correctly predicted that the Liberal government's plans to remake Canada in the 1960s would result in "pyramiding public debt, drastic increases in taxation and a steady decline in the value of the Canadian dollar."
Finally, Manning's last piece of wisdom has yet to be borne out, but it most certainly will be.
A decade after his Socreds were swept from 36 years in power by Peter Lougheed's Progressive Conservatives, Manning reminisced about his party's defeat.
It wasn't a clash of political philosophies, he concluded, because the Tory ideology "was very little different" from that of the Social Credit government. "It wasn't a conflict of ideology at all. The whole argument was, 'They're old and tired in office; we're new and fresh; we can do all they do and more and do it better.' It was just that simple."
As the Alberta Tories mark their 31st year of power so directionless that their own committees are recommending everything from raiding the Alberta Heritage Savings Trust Fund to establishing photo radar on provincial highways, Premier Ralph Klein should pay heed to the words of a wise man.
Michael Jenkinson can be reached by e-mail at mj@the-newsroom.com His homepage is at http://www.the-newsroom.com Letters to the editor should be sent to letters@edm.sunpub.com.
 World Fact Book (CIA)]
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