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Page THE HERALD OUTLOOK Saturday May J the HERALD Outlook We help finance currency scandal OUTLOOK is published each Saturday by the 11A1 TON HILLS HERALD Home Newspaper of Ha I ton Hills A Division of Canadian Newspapers Company Limited at Street Georgetown Ontario L7G Second Class Mail Registered Number 8772201 STAFI- WRITERS lien EDITOR Brian MacLeod Donna Your Business Diane Matey Thomson Newt Servkt is with cor rupuon The billiondollar Venezuelan currency scandal is a stark reminder that we help finance it Somehow wealthy South Americans manage to amass great amounts of Amencan dollars in foreign bank accounts Some of these dollars come from us J P Morgan an American bank estimated that Venezuelans alone hold billion S abroad almost double the countrys foreign debt Much of that money is owed to North Amencan banks In early March Venezuelans took to the street to protest against government austerity measures designed to make the government solvent again At least 300 people died in clashes with troops The world was shocked Venezuela an oil exporter has been the most prosperous country South America Its emerging middle class resembles the middle classes everywhere its cities look much like North American cities As the oil boom brought new wealth to the nation peasants flocked into the cities from the countryside looking for work When the boom went bust they huddled in tin shanties at the edge of town DEMOCRACY IN DANGER It was a recipe for disaster The countrys newly reelected govern ment of President Carlos Andres Perez denounced world monetary authorities Perez denounced in ternational banks for being impa tient to collect on debts If the banks did not remove the pressure it would endanger the Venezuelan economy he said The argument is sound But one cannot blame Euro and Japanese bankers for wondering where their money is going The Japanese in particular resent the idea that they may be padding the pockets of corrupt government and business officials The Venezuelan people suffer There is something terribly in ail this At home in Canada we watch passively as bankers raise fees to their smaller customers to help offset their huge Mexican and South American loan losses In a much smaller way the Canadian people suffer too CHANGE NEEDED North American governments seem to be striving blindly for democracy in South America They should be more interested in supporting good government than can put an end to corruption Just look at who is being plicated in the Venezuelan money running scandal the local managers of Ford General Motors Chrysler Renault of France Toyota of Japan and Fiat of Italy Then there are the heads of Societe Generale Surveillance of Swit Bureau Ventas of France and Caleb Brett of Britain Several billion American dollars are said to have disappeared Also implicated are two former finance ministers a former treasury director general and former heads of the government department that authorizes foreign currency quotas No wonder there are no US dollars in the Venezuelan treasury no money to pay the foreign debt The former rulers and foreign businesses have stolen it all Meanwhile billions of dollars of new loans are flooding into the country from a group of interna tional bankers Lets hope this time they keep better tabs on the money Berrys World DANGER SHOOTING AREA ADVERTISING Valois ratg Teeter Sharon PRODUCTION DEPARTMENT Dave Hastings Annie Wilson 1 Ui Marie PRESSROOM FOREMAN Man nail Brian AD MANAGER Dan Taylor 1 1 1 ISING I a in in Salt PRESS ASSISTANT Lee SNAFU by Bruce Beattie Opposition jumped on Budget Day You cant win The sentry who was out in the rain protecting us gave everyone pneumonia Is there a Rae of hope for the NDP Queens Park Derek Nelson Thornton Servkt Inc NDP Leader Bob is denying that hell run in the federal NDPs upcoming leadership race And that isnt surprising The real question is whether will run in another provincial cam paign The speculation about runn ing federally seems more hype than reality originating from that clique of Ontario New Democrats whod like to control the Ottawa party It Is noticeable that Robin Sears a key architect of the recent dismal federal campaign as well as both of mediocre provin cial efforts is usually identified with the draft Rae movement Sears has been quoted as saying there is a political vacuum caused by the lack of a declared candidate from Ontario The Ontario delegates and labor delegates from Ontario form up to per cent of delegates at the convention and a number of people have been calling Bob and raising the issue urging him to run Sears said It Is peculiar reasoning seeming to put a higher premium on geography than on either ideology or personality two factors much more likely to influence NDP delegates And it totally Ignores track records probably for the obvious reason that is in relative terms terrible In his first election in against Premier Frank Millers collapsing Conservative cam paign the best Rae could do was pick up four more seats and an ad ditional three per cent of the popular vote In after helping propel the Liberals Into power and claiming credit for the legislation the Liberals produced from 1985 to 1987 Rae managed to gain another two per cent of the popular vote but at the cost of six seats The NDP was down to its lowest seat total since 1971 and in a big legislature at that They did manage to sneak into second spot ahead of the self- destructing Conservatives but even that might have been a tern porary success The last couple of polls show the Tories back in second and the NDP holding only its usual quarter of the vote PROF If that werent enough Raes style is so distinctly college pro fessor that many ordinary people just dont relate to him on a per sonal level And while that proved no barrier to university professor Ed Broad- bent winning the federal leader ship race last time it should be noted that he barely beat a West Coast unknown Rosemary Brown wouldnt have the unanimous backing from the party establishment that Broadbent en joyed Moreover to the degree that geography does play a part being from Ontario will likely be a negative factor at the coming con vention Most federal seats are now in the West and is too closely identified with several eastern political positions especially sup port of the Lake accord Many fee it is the Wests turn to pick the leader But if Rae Isnt going to Ottawa as he himself says does that mean hell take another run at the brass ring here in Ontario There are persistent rumors that he wont do so that for both fami ly and career reasons hell move on before the next election After all being an opposition party leader In Liberal Premier David Petersons Ontario has got to be among the worlds most thankless tasks There isnt the slightest evidence that the New Democrats or the Tories for that matter have made a dent In mainstream Grit support And there is a sense right now that the Ontario NDP is Ottawa Stewart MacLeod Thomion Newt Sendee It was only natural that the Liberals and New Democrats would take more than full ad vantage of the situation and it was equally natural that the Mulroney government would resort to over kill in its own defence but in any event Budget Day in Ottawa was like none other It was quite a day that Marcelmo Dos Santos president of Mozambi que chose to visit the Canadian Parliament Little wonder he look ed somewhat confused about our particular form of democracy in action The core of the issue was whether Finance Minister Michael Wilson should resign because of the highlights of his budget had been leaked a day before he was to deliver it to Parliament But that was merely a base from which to launch one of the widestranging attacks and counterattacks in modern memory Liberal Leader John Turner een had us going back to A D 1286 to refresh our thoughts on parliamentary traditions And miraculously tt e budget leak was somehow associated with the beheading of Charles the First As he pointed an accusing finger at Mr Wilson and as his followers bellowed resign resign and out out the Liberal leader said he was dealing with the most serious matter that I can recall in my lifetime Across the aisle the Tones were not merely defending the finance ministers right to remain in office they were accusing the Grits and by implication the NDP of being on the side of criminals That was because they assumed part of the budget had been stolen NOT CLEAR Just how Mr Turner and his outraged supporters were siding with the alleged thief apart from utilizing his handiwork is not clear However Mr Wilson saw it as aiding and abetting a criminal act Prime Minister Brian Mulroney saw it as sabotage aenme Lord knows what else was said It was virtually impossible for even the most experienced observers to pick up individual voices in the raucous House How much was absorbed by the presi dent of Mozambique is anyones guess But it was superb drama the kind that comes perhaps only once in a politicians career or with each budget leak You see by wor shipping at the feet of Westminder traditions we have attached so much importance to budget leaks that were unable to deal with them on a rational basis The tradition says that if budgetary details are revealed before the minister delivers his speech in Parliament the minister must resign Never mind that no Canadian finance minister since 1867 when Canadas annual revenues were a year has ever resigned because of a leak And never mind that no British chancellor of the exchequer has ever resigned over a leak unless he Was directly responsible for disclosing the