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Halton Hills OUTLOOK each Saturday by the A I TON HERALD Newspaper of Hill A Division of Newspapers Company Limited Street Georgetown Ontario L7G Second Mail Registered Number Mil AD MANAGER Dan Taylor MARKETING REPRESENTATIVE Caroline MacLeod Craig Teeter J tannine Valols Tbeir Outlook Mulroney attempts Tw0 a Crowd to strike a balance By BILL BUTTLE Ottawa I Stewart MacLeod Thorn ten Maws Sanlc When Prime Minister Brian Mulroney restructures bia cabinet on a more permanent baats for next years new he must be particularly sensitive about Quebec And no were not droning on about satisfying Quebecs demands hopes and aspirations All that has changed what requires much greater sensitivity now Is ensuring that other regions of the country are not offended by the power or perceived power thai Quebec wields in Ottawa Does that strike a familiar ring It should because It was a constant concern during the years and even before that when Lester Pearson wanted to ensure that Quebec felt at home within Con federation But all that changed In IBM when the Liberals with no visible means of support in the West and almost wholly dependent on their tradl strength in Quebec were turf ed out by the Tories Finally a new era of Western power had dawned No more would all the levers of ministerial power be In the hands of No more would all the major decisions be made by Pierre Trudeau Marc JeanLuc or Jean Chretien etc No more would there be cabinets with lust token representation from the West via the Senate The preoccupation with Quebec would end And so would that old about the tall wagging the dog DIDNT WORK Well there Is no doubt that the West got powerful new voices around the cabinet table when Mr Mulroney assumed office And tainly many of the major economic portfolios moved out of Quebec par to Ontario But anyone who thought there would be any dramatic and fun change In the dynamics of Confederation was In for a fast reawakening And now Just four years after replacing the dreaded Quebecbased Liberals the prime minister Is facing many of the same problems that plagued his predecessors The special needs demands and aspirations of Quebec are as much In the forefront now as they were din ing the years Only the has changed And if the prime minister doesnt exercise great can during this present mandate hi could easily suffer the same ate a Mr Trudeau There Is beyond any doubt a perception In English Canada that the Mulroney government has been giving special treatment to Quebec Whether Its in the distribution of economic development funds the awarding of federal contracts or the location of particular industries and establishments its conventional wisdom that Quebec has been treated with singular generosity Ironically thats how many people felt during the Trudeau years The only difference was that these peo ple felt Mr didnt give s hoot about the West No one Is saying that about Mr Mulroneys govern Just that It might give a big hoot about Quebec MAJOR ISSUES Now that the Tories have swept S3 of Quebecs federal seats one could normally expect the govern to dim the spotlight on the pro vince and divert attention lo other areas But its not going to In the last Parliament when Quebec returned Tories 10 of them were appointed to cabinet The betting is that at least will be In the new cabinet that Mr Mulroney will cobble together over the winter And lets not forget the Meech Lake accord which whether you like It or not Is all about Quebec and Its distinct society Many of Iti supporters say the cord Is flawed but that having Quebec signature on the Constltu more than compensates For the imperfection- SNAFU by Bruce Beattie Corporate takeover shakes things up Your Business Diane Thomson Km 5vlc Sorry that ones part the yard here Its a deal that will resound throughout the annals of American corporate history famous for lis sheer sire The billion leveraged buyout of Nabisco Inc has put the smiling face of Ross Johnson the companys Winnipeg bom chief ex on the front pages of business magjuines and newspapers all over North America Nabisco ended up the of takeover artist Kohl berg Kravls Roberts and Co a firm that roams around looking for undervalued companies to buy restructure and resell for a profit beat Mr Johnson and his management group joined by Shearson Lehman Rut ton and another group headed by First Boston Corp a New York In vestment dealer Not only Is 1 1 the biggest deal ever dwarfing even oil company takeovers but It Is turning out to be one of the moat for its In plications The Junk bond market ft about to be hit with another billion in highyielding debt which doom savers Tear could strain Its capacity More Interesting though Mr Johnson chief ex Is emerging as a bit of a cor porate buccaneer Meanwhile the bankers invest ment dealers and lawyers who as advisers on the deal stand to pocket million or so In fees LEGENDARY DEAL The saga began aptly on Oct 19 the anniversary of the stock market chieftains Mr Johnson realtxed that the stock market was not about to value stock as highly as he did At times like this raiders and other corporate wheelerdealers find they can make more money buying and selling whole corporations than they can trading in their stock Corporate shuffling allows shareholders a chance to take their profits in a lacklustre market but employees often do not fare as well In the end restructuring comes to be seen by workers as a euphemism or layoffs and other cost cutting From a blow by blow description in The New York Times of the bid ding war for Nabisco It looks like Mr Johnson may have been more interested In lining his own pockets than looking after his employees which Is why ho lost the war Nabisco Is the company that emerged when Reynolds the big tobacco company makes Winston Salem and Camel merged with the food company In the evolution of American capitalism companies come together for a while In giant conglomerates only to come apart again later Both the merging and he unbundling seem like a good Idea at the time GREED AND GLORY No matter who ended up with Nabisco the new owner would have to sell some of the companys divi sions to pay off the deb In a leveraged buyout the bidder bor rows money against the companys own assets to buy It then sells some of those assets to repay the lenders Little of the bidders own capital is used Mr Johnson opened with a bid of a share for his company when the stock was trading at a shore on the market Analysts say his low ball bid invited competition Four days later stepped in with an offer of Staff Comment Was there a full moon last week If memory serves It waa actually lust one of those fingernail moons but youd never know by the wort- of three levels of government Down at Region coun elected Regional Chairman Peter Pomeroy to a third term with a voice vote Election of a Regional chairman Is a contentious Issue because many believe he or she should be elected directly by the Yet one week later those same councillors elected two members of the police commission by secret ballot Why a secret ballot Mr Pomeroy said It had always been done lhat way The only councillor to object was Miltons Bill Johnson On the local front a Road family will have to pay more than to hook up to town water after both the town and the Region railed to live up to commitments guaranteeing them free water hook up they lost their water due to work on a nearby subdivision Beverly and Alex McKee who have been drawing water from a fire hydrant since June were furious with local officials saying they were naive in thinking that elected of ficials can be trusted On the provincial front our Liberal government went out and hired a consultant who Is affiliated with a huge Insurance brokerage prepare a report on insurance rates The report recommended a to per cent increase In rates My question Who actually set- down and asked that consultant to do a report and paid them knowing their position A dearer conflict Interest Is probably hard to find Yet someone did It Dont get me wrong I heartily disagree with government bashing I believe our public servants arc a hard working dedicated lot who are doing the best they can A vast ma of municipal work gets done well and efficiently as I nave seen first hand at the town and Regional But Its just these types of lions which arise now and then that makes an observer scratch his head And speaking government bashing no one and I mean no one does it better than our Regional politicians Hardly a meeting goes by where someone isnt condemning the pro vince Tor foiling hand over enough money or for some new policy I watch it week after week Why should the province constant dish out money to Halloo There are many other Regions and ties In the province lo look after while trying to balance the budget or at least reduce the deficit at the same time Its simple The province cant ford to pay for everything Give it a rest and do the best you can with what youve Nobody can blame politicians for attempting to stick to a tight budget Its called fiscal responsibility Regional coun liars should know all about thai Theyve monaged to keen tax hikes well below the rale of inflation Why shouldnt the province have a go at it Inddently one of the against the hearings looking Into the Insurance rates Is the public will be ai a severe disadvantage because the topic is so technical sound lam I liar to