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BEST COW THE HERALD Wednesday September 12 1IM Pate OPINION PAGE Reflections on election night turnaround Even as late as pm election night last Thursday supporters for the provincial Halton North incum bent Walt Elliot who had gathered at the Cedar Springs Motel in Silvercreek for what was to be the expected victory party thought their candidate would represent the riding for another term in the legislature They maintained their optimism despite continual television reports that the New Democrat Party had won a landslide victory and even Liberal Party Leader David Peter son had lost his seat But it wasnt difficult to sense the encroaching defeat as one Liberal seat after another was lost They were worried about Mr Elliots chances Instead of the usual hoopla that characterizes an expected political win only whispers be heard in the motel banquet room As one of the 50 people at the motel commented you could hear a pin drop When candidate Noel was declared the winner shortly after nine pm one Elliot supporter in an understatment summed up the feelings of everybody else saying By PAUL BAGNELL Ottawa Bureau Thomson News Service OTTAWA At the end of August almost workers left a Rio Algon uranium mine in Elliot Lake Ont for the last time They joined others on the towns unemployment rolls who had lost their jobs when another mine clos ed a month earlier The loss of more than jobs in a town of about is ex- to cost the mining- dependent economy another WO or To help lalaVofi workers get this refraining they work labormanagement in dustrial adjustment committees have been formed But like other hardbit towns in the country Elliot Lake Is being squeezed by the ongoing feud between the federal government and the Senate over the governments new By Stewart MacLeod OTTAWA BUREAU THOMSON NEWSSERVICE OTTAWA Its perhaps a bit ear ly to draw comparisons since we dont have all the details from the Mohawk crisis in Oka But already there are some unsettling simiharities with the October Crisis in Quebec That was when then prime minister Pierre invoked the War Measures Act to bring in the troops and put down an ap prehended insurrection Remember the chilling reports of the day We had every reason to believe there was a highly organiz ed army of terrorists on the loose in Quebec far too powerful to be handled by any police force There was talk of hundreds of cells controlling thousands of potential street fighters We knew they were well stocked with dynamite because every time there was a theft of explosives in Quebec it was attributed to the There were reports of modern weaponry falling into their hands perhaps bombs and missiles lets just say Im not a happy camper Others such as Carole Lawson couldnt contain their disappoint ment When approached by reporters outside the banquet hall for a reaction to the loss Ms Lawson who has known Mr Elliot since childhood couldnt hold back the tears Saying she was the first person Mr Elliot approached when con sidering a career in politics Ms Lawson stressed the loss didnt represent a vote against Mr Elliot as a person Mr Elliot was just caught up in a protest vote against the party as a whole she explain ed Mr Elliot is a friendly honest reliable and understanding person she enthused Mr Elliot arrived at the motel approximately an hour later than expected he was congratulating the winner Mr at the celebration headquarters and urged the faithful to continue and stay involved in politics A loss like this produces a gut wrenching feeling but we have to rise above it Mr Elliot told his supporters Although he said he would now enjoy his retirement he unemployment insurance legisla tion The Senate has twice refused to pass Bill C21 legislation which would bring substantial changes to the way unemployment insurance is funded and applied The govern ment has twice refused to amend the bill to satisfy the Liberal- dominated upper chamber As far as retraining Is concern ed the result has been the of one program and a confus ing adVhoc approach to tbe funding We are rafting money in dribs and says Taylor chairman of Rio adjustment committee Twice the committees supply of federal retraining money has run out then been replenished with a lastmoment announcement from Ottawa The last installment million should last a month There were even doubts about the armys ability to handle he in surrection The reports were so frightening and coming from such high authority that only a handful of MPs mostly New Democrats op posed the imposition of the War Measures Act Even such responsi ble members as Tory leader Robert Stanfield with access to cahinet briefings had no difficulty supporting the measure AH CONVINCED Certainly citizens in and around Quebec were convinced that the ar my faced a formidable task We had no reason to question our in telligence system And it was assumed that if Premier Robert Bourassa and prime minister Trudeau felt it necessary to call in the military there would certainly be justifiable grounds It was during this crisis that cabinet ministers and most high- ranking public servants ventured out Ottawa only when escorted by a soldier toting a machinegun Again if our security people felt this protection was necessary we could only assume the enemy was Bens Banter By Ben Dummatt also said he would continue to fight for the Liberal cause He didnt state in what capacity he would carry on the fight Mr Elliot attributed his loss and the Liberal Party loss to a culmination of stuff pointing to the Oka situation the Iraqi inva sion of Kuwait the Federal governments Goods and Services Tax and a high Canadian dollar A lot of people were upset with government in general and the Liberal party took the brunt of it Ironically a lot of the issues on peoples minds the province had lurking nearby probably in frightening numbers Well as things turned out there were some rather large glitches in our intelligence network And the murder of a Quebec cabinet minister along with the kidnapp ing of a British diplomat un doubtedly helped to throw things out of whack In any event when the smoke finally cleared and the counting began it turned out that the army didnt have much to worry about And neither would any smalltown police force A couple of dozen members no control over he added Mr Elliot also attributed his loss to the strong showing of the Family Coalition party explaining he couldnt say definitely but most of the votes probably came from the Liberals and the Progressive Conservatives As to what he expects from the new government Mr Elliot would only say the workings of govern ment will change but how re mains to be seen The Liberal candidate said the local and national media gave his party a bum rap for calling an election when it did Realistically governments in the past have call ed an election after two years into a term Mr Elliot told reporters But at least one Liberal sup porter blamed the loss on the early election call When you have another twoandahalf years why call an election said a depressed Real Tetreault All provincial premiers should learn from this experience he added Calling the election outcome largely a protest vote Liberal supporter Whiting no rela tion to PC candidate Dave Whiting said the election campaign was represented the army we faced A few handguns some dynamite an old car and some other second hand equipment such as duplicating machines As apprehended insurrections go assuming there have been some in the past this could not have been one of the biggies SOUNDS FAMILIAR While its too early to conclude there has been similar misin formation surrounding the Oka crisis there are certainly some in dications of it We were clearly led to believe the Mohawk Warriors were a formidable fighting force armed to the teeth with the latest weaponry Those aerial photos that came to us courtesy of the armed forces were frightening in themselves It was as though we were looking at some Vietnam battleground com plete with trenches We were led to believe there were some War riors ready to die for their cause and all came equipped with the latest weapons perhaps including antitank missiles There was talk of hidden bombs grenades and other weapons that could only be mistakenly sold as a talk with Canadians Instead we should have taken off the gloves earlier he said Halton Hills Chamber of Com merce president Dave Page had a curt response upon learning of the victory Its a disaster a socialist government We dont need more taxes Mr is a nice man I have no quarrel with him I just have a problem with his partys policies he continued Dave Mr Elliots cam paign manager wasnt that sur prised at the outcome I saw it coming 10 days ago he said I saw this unfocused unease and anger out there against all levels of government And we were the first to run he explained believe people in their heart of hearts wanted a change but Im not sure they knew why People would tell me they disliked Peterson but when I asked the reason they couldnt provide an answer said Mr Blainey Based on the mood of the people Mr Blainey predicted politicians at all levels of government shouldnt think about job security joint House of CommonsSenate conference to hammer out an agreement oh the issue an option which has been used just once before in 1947 over a bill to make changes to the Criminal Code The government has flatly refus ed and most recently has sug gested it may use an equally obscure constitutional clause to put more Tories in the Senate potentially threatening the Liberals majority Arcane coostitutiooal strategies matter in Elliot Lake however compared to the towns At moment cant we have had a crisis- we But weve been very near the deadline on two occasions The government is saying that If Bilr passed we could have all kinds of money that wed have commitments sufficient to needs Im not close enough to the scenetoknowhowtruethatis neutralized by a modern army Of course the oftused photos of masked Warriors walking around with assault rifles enhanced those fears But as the army closed in around the dwindling Warriors there seemed to be remarkably few discoveries of awesome weapons apart from one machine- gun No rocket launchers no land mines At least none that anyone talked about And after all that was said about heavy firepower we assume the authorities would love to talk about their finds They did say that weapons were probably flown out by small planes but its unlikely well ever know for sure The most fearsome thing found apart from the machinegun was a string of propane tanks that could presumably be wirted up as ex plosives Some of us manage this unintentionally in our backyards Arsenals may yet be found But in the meantime its difficult to ig nore the similarities with 1970 and wonder just how much our in telligence services have improved since then Elliot Lake miners frustrated by Similarities between Oka and FLQ crisis Taylor estimates RELYING ON HANDOUTS And then we will have to rely on another handout he says predicting at least million will be needed to provide retraining for everyone in Elliot Lake who needs it And each time the federal government signs another cheque it make sure to tell Elliot Lake who it should be blaming for the uncer tainty the Senate Rick Perkins an adviser to Employment Minister Barbara says the new legisla tion would be more than double to million- tbe money committee is 1990 to the retraining programs Elliot Lake and other communities are depending on Liberal senators meanwhile ac cuse the government of seeking to dismantle one of the cornerstones of Canadas social security net work The extra retraining money they say will come out of dramatically slashed benefits and harsher eligibility requirements for workers in low- unemployment areas of the coun try The legislation would also end the federal governments S3 billionayear contribution to unemployment insurance recoup ing this from higher employer and employee premiums The Senate wants the government to maintain at least a billion annual pay ment tabor organizations have accus ed the government of- using retraining funds as a weapon in Its war with the Senate IMPASSE CONTINUES With Parliament set to resume sitting in late September the ball is back in the Senates court but there is no sign of an end to the im passe The senators have proposed a