From: roholdr@ccu.umanitoba.ca (R Ross Holder Jr)
Subject: Re: UTILITY IN POLITICS
Organization: University of Manitoba, Winnipeg, Canada
Distribution: can
Date: Fri, 9 Oct 1992 23:23:13 GMT

In <BvtLqu.1AA@watserv1.uwaterloo.ca> dbowman@minotaur (Don A. Bowman) writes:

[Quote of another user deleted.]

>The government cannot deal with with [other] issues until the constitution is
>fixed.

Why not?  God knows there's enough people employed by the government to do
more than one thing at once.  This line of reasoning is very weak and every
time I hear it, I get a belly-ache.  It's not like the Minister of Defence
can't manage his department - even innovatively without a YES vote in the
referendum.

>If there is a NO vote, the governments will have to spend more time
>trying to find a new agreement, instead of being able to continue
>discussions with this as a framework. A YES vote leads to a strong
>government devoted to economic problems, a NO vote to a government
>paralysed by more constitutional problems.

Look, the Constitution isn't going to be out of the news whatever the result
for a while yet.  If you have a problem with that, you're at liberty to
change the channel, I suppose.  Anyway, Constitutional affairs - particularly
those that will all but etch in stone certain aspects of our democracy
- can't be pushed the way this agreement is; scholars and commentators on
whom the public relies to get various interpretations of the legal text can't
give us their insights yet because it isn't out.

[Quote of aonther user deleted again...]

>our country is being torn apart by its own people, divisive bickering and
>arguing. It seems so important to us that we sigle-mindedly ignore all
>else.

Well, I certainly don't and I'm sure if you asked the thousands that turned
out at the Jays' game last night you'd have found other things on their mind.
The country won't grind to a crashing halt if we vote NO - it's not our
last chance.  Canadians have been engaging in divisive bickering ever since
Confederation and, again, I'll predict I won't stop after October 26th.

>Our current government has done much to fight the Trudeau-deficit.
>Inflation has been conquered, and we had the highest G7 economic growth
>last year. People who simply complain that the PM is the source of all
>problems ignore reality.

Bigus dealus.  Canada also has the highest unemployment rate of G7 nations,
and this year's recession - according to the Economic Council of Canada (I
believe it's called) declared it was a made-in-Canada phenomenon, free trade
isn't working; Canada's chief negotiator in the deal hotly denounced the 
Americans as not being completely honest about certain matters like - oh
lumber and textiles...the list goes on.  These problems were here long
before the referendum was even being thought about and it would be
ill-reasoned to conclude that, suddenly, these problems all have something
to do with a potential NO result in the referendum.  I don't believe in
blaming the PM for all our problems, either, but it's a much safer bet than
alluding to the referendum's "blameworthiness" for Canada's economic woes.

>If you really want attention paid to workers and families, vote YES, get
>the deal in place and the framework under way, and then help your
>government ease the internal bickering -- don't add to it.

Just agree with the government, right?  Isn't he really saying just don't
question the government and everything will be fine?  Somehow, I just
don't think I could bring myself to trust Brian Mulroney 1/1x10^10000000000
that far.

I'm voting NO.  How about you?

-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
R. Ross Holder, Jr.  INTERNET: roholdr@ccu.umanitoba.ca  (Winnipeg, Manitoba)
       Department of Philosophy                The University of Manitoba
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-- 
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R. Ross Holder, Jr.  INTERNET: roholdr@ccu.umanitoba.ca  (Winnipeg, Manitoba)
       Department of Philosophy                The University of Manitoba
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Newsgroups: can.politics