September 2021
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FAST DENTURES
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A leader lost and renewal
Long live the crispy, creamy chicken!
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Al Wiebe – no fixed address
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Marty Morantz reflects on two intense years on and off the Hill
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Saving hydro
Dorothy Dobbie
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n October 21, 2019, a quiet and unassuming man took his seat in the House of Commons as the Member of Parliament for Charleswood-St. James-Assiniboia-Headingley. He accepted this responsibility the way he does everything, with quiet grace and fierce determination. Shortly thereafter, the then leader named Marty Morantz the shadow minister for Revenue responsible for the CRA, a post he relished and that suited him perfectly given his legal background and his experience in business. He was in this position and a member of the House Standing Committee on Finance during the We scandal and was able to question figures such as the Kielburgers and Katie Telford. Remember, the election was in
Pine falls generating station.
Graham Lane
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Marty helps a senior at one of his tax clinics. the fall of 2019, just months before the government shut down parliament and the country to deal with the COVID-19 pandemic. Marty had a very short window on the world of the Hill as it normally operates. Then that was it! Boom. Closure. He had already located a
furnished apartment that he now gave up since he couldn’t use it. Banished from Ottawa, he came home to learn the ins and outs of zooming. It was months before he could return to the Hill to take up his duties in the House as one of u 5 ‘Marty Morantz’
Celebrating St. James Centennial with the 100 Great St. James citizens Fred Morris
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arly in this Centennial Year, I decided to make a list of 100 Great St. James Citizens. It did not take me very long to get to 100. I quickly found myself making additions and painful deletions to my list. I soon realized that any list made by only one person would likely only create controversy. However, if everyone had a chance to submit nominations, it could be positive part of our Centennial Celebrations. I would like to thank the 46 people who submitted nominations for 209 people. I learned a lot about the tremendous contributions of many St. James citizens. The final list consists of all 66 people who received nominations from at least two people. The other 34 people
were chosen from the 142 people who were nominated by one person. I began by selecting 10 nominees from my list. These nominees included two original St. James residents, Jane Inkster Tait and Peter Bruce. The final 24 people were nominated by other people. The published list of 100 Great Citizens is not ranked. Although this published list consists of 100 names, all 209 nominees are deserving. The city will archive the names of all 209 nominees. They are presented here in no particular order. I look forward to your feedback. Please let me know about certain honours that I have missed that should be included in the Archive. Fred Morris is a Grandfather, Sports Fan and Political Activist. Fred Morris can be reached at fredmorris@hotmail.com u 6 ‘100 Great St. James citizens’
needless fall federal election looms, polls suggest the Liberals will end up staying with a minority. And, towards achieving that expensive result, the Trudeau government has encouraged Canadians to vote Liberal with announcements promising new and expanding spending programs - despite having already just driven the federal debt up by half a trillion dollars. One of the ‘good news’ actions was Trudeau’s bailout of Newfoundland and Labrador (NL)’s “debt-plagued” Muskrat Falls hydroelectric project. It has parallels in Manitoba, another province with precarious finances increasingly threatened by ill-advised Manitoba Hydro boondoggle investments (made by politicians rolling the dice with taxpayer dollars). Trudeau has upped the federal stake in Muskrat Falls to $10.2 billion. While Harper’s past Conservative government had already given a $5 billion loan guarantee for the troubled hydroelectric project, Trudeau has pledged an extra $3.2 billion from future federal oil revenues; taken a $1 billion direct ownership stake, and, third; upped the federal loan guarantee by $1 billion. The bailout saves a $13 billion project initially commissioned to come in at half of that. Without this pre-election bailout, NL’s ratepayers would have faced a doubling of already hefty electricity rates. This, in a province with massive debts and an unemployment rate twice the national average. Canada’s Parliament Budget Officer (PBO) has concluded that NL’s current fiscal policy is not sustainable, forecasting requiring “permanent tax increases or (massive) spending reductions ... to (just) stabilize government debt”. Otherwise, the PBO forecasts that NL’s net debt could soar out of control. (And, this Muskrat Falls political bailout will not fix NL’s finances overall). u 7 ‘Saving hydro’
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