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Paget THE HERALD OUTLOOK UN the HERALD Outlook OUTLOOK Is published each Saturday by the HALTON HILLS HERALD Home Newspaper or Halton Hills A Division Canadian Newspapers Company Limited at Guelph Street Georgetown Ontario 8778822 PUBLISHER K Robert EDITOR Brian MacLeod AD MANAGER Dan Taylor Second Class Mall Registered Number STAFF WRITERS Ben Dummett Lisa Rutledge SPORTS EDITOR Colin Gibson ACCOUNTING Jennie Hapichuk Inga Shier CLASSIFIED ADVERTISING Joan Manna II ADVERTISING SALES JeannlneValois Craig Teeter Stacle Roberts Kim Haryott PRODUCTION DEPARTMENT Dave Hastings Gilson Robertson Wilson CIRCULATION Marie Who pulls Canadas financial reins SNAFU by BruceBeattie Dianne Matey TORONTO When money traders in the Far East began their day Monday they wanted to know one thing about Canada were Michael Wilson and John Crow still in control of the money reins When they heard Finance Minister Wilson say Canada was as safe a place as ever to invest they relaxed They Canadian dollar opened shaky but quickly stabiliz ed in When European markets opened trading was orderly By the time traders arnved at their desks in Toronto and New I York the potential damage from the death of the Lake con stitutional accord had been con tained for the time being Instead of selling dollars traders began buying When foreign investors didnt sell we decided to get back in and start buying agian one trader explained But the big surprise was interest rates shortterm rates on the wholesale money market actually dropped a bit Longterm rates edged higher CONFIDENCE MEN The international market has learned to trust those two gentlemen one banker said of Messrs Wilson and Crow gover nor of the Bank of Canada If they can show they remain in con trol and that the financial situation is stable that would limit the damage Hung Tran of Deutsche Bank Group in New York told The Globe and Mail Indeed the whole Lake affair has been a big headache for Mr Wilson He is not without blame When his boss Prime Minister Brian Mulroney tried to stampede the premiers into sign ing the accord Mr Wilson went along warning Canadians that in terest rates could soar if the deal were to fall through Having set the scene for disaster Mr Wilson was quick to try to preyent it On Sunday he gathered together reporters for the international media to tell them everything was all right Thats just the first step Over the weeks and months to come Mr Wilson may not be so successful something fundamen tal has changed Canadians have begun to realize that they should not have all their eggs one basket The Canadian dollar is vulnerable The effects could be twofold Even if foreigners keep buying Canadian bonds and bills foreign investment in Canadian plant and equipment may slow Meanwhile Canadian investors will look for greener pastures elsewhere The flow of foreign money to Canada could slow to a trickle at the same time as the flow of Canadian Continued on Page Poets Corner THE RAIL FENCE Built by settlers in the early days Making rails hard working ways They sawed and split those cedar logs Hauled them out of swamps and bogs Some of the cedar ever grew Aged deep within greatest wood I ever knew Railed were dragged by ox and chain Built to protect the settlers grain All the time they had to spare Built rail fences with great care Later years the wire fence came Wasnt too bad but today a pain After a few years gets rusty red Has no strength just plain dead All the rail fences that we find We rebuild them very best kind Many generations since the rail was made Yet their quality a very high grade Lets preserve every rail They reveal a story tale Albert Brooks RR I Limehouse A NEW YEARS PROMISE I have not promised that skies hall be blue I only promised your strength to renew I never did say that trials Only that with them My help I would tend The future before you lies dark and untrod Yet moving ahead is the great hand of God To lead you to guide you to make the way clear With a holy pure light into a new year The way may be thorny the pathway unknown Yet My love and mercy will always be shown My peace grace and love will shine in your heart With power joy and gladness your soul to impart Fear not little flock I will always be there To comfort uphold you your burdens to share My glory will shield you My fires shall not cease For the end all will be My perfect peace A peace that begins in each human breast And then proceeds outwards including the rest Of all mankind everywhere first to the IbbI I now bless your present your future and past Im coming again soon in power and might My angels will carry you Into the night Now sing songs of joy for salvations from Me Just hold My hand tightly and Ill stay with thee Palmer Georgetown Doortodoor salesmen havent bothered us since I invented these Liberal convention unusual bizarre CALGARY It was one of the most unusual if not bizarre con ventions Canadian political history that handed the mantel of leadership to Jean Chretien What that mantel hides is a deep ly divided and troubled Liberal party an organization that presents the new leader with a monumental challenge Further more he begins his challenging chore in a deeply divided and troubled Canada The razmatazz and hoopla sur rounding the coronation of Mr Chretien was far from an accurate reflection of the mood of the delegates who came to Calgary to select a leader who they hope will become the next prime minister of Canada Seldom if ever have delegates been so diverted from the task at hand In some ways the exercise seemed irrelevant as the Lake accord fell apart and voices of doom echoed from across the country One could sense the deepening depression around a convention that was supposed to be a giant na tional exercise And with this came a decreasing lack of confidence the ability of any new leader to solve the problems facing the country In many ways it was bizarre Tears were actually shed among groups of campaign workers try ing to excite their faithful followers for another rahrah demonstra tion While brass bands roamed the Stampede grounds to spread hap piness some delegates wore black arm bands to mourn the passing of Otbenj of course cheenoibe Mayors trial has lots of drama j I f passing of But whatever the reaction it had the effect of reducing many convention ac tivities to incidental proportions Delegates werent talking so much about the future of the Liberal party the primary pur pose for this leadership wingding as they were about the future of the country ONE EXCEPTION And in the midst of this the delegates turned to a new leader who during the climax of the con stitutional crisis said virtually nothing about it Mr Chretiens silence during the terminal days of the accord was nothing short of deafening And while Paul martin and Sheila Copps used every ver bal tactic in their arsenal to squeeze words out of their rival Shawinigan Jean stuck firmly to generalities Needless to say the frustrations were immense not only among rivals but among delegates from various regions particularly Quebec Seldom have we seen so much booing during campaign speeches The feelings between the Martin and Chretien people were not friendly And we can assume they wont become wanner in the foreseeable future Nowhere will the scars of Meech be more evident than within the Liberal party One could sense the depth of divisions as two former leaders John Turner and Pierre Trudeau sat in different parts of the convention centre never managing to applaud the same constitutional comments There is no evidence that the candidates changed many votes with their speeches or their off stage activities But the corridor conversations among delegates clearly had people looking at things in a new light The fact that Mr Chretien won so much delegate support in Quebec had created a perception among many that he was viewed as a virtual by people in that province But revelations about the sad state of the federal Liberal party in Quebec and how it cannot be seen as representative of the people had an obvious Continued on page a Kevin Bell WiiNngton WASHINGTON From a jour nalists viewpoint the trial of District of Columbia Mayor Marion S Barry Jr has everything Opening arguments show it could have juicy revelations about sex drugs lies corruption and plenty of drama The possible downfall of a mayor who once preached vigorously in the local schools about the evils of drug use is a yam that any reporter would want to sink his or her teeth into While Congress has been sinking in a legislative quagmire and the White House has been trying to make sure that Americans dont forget President George Bushs name the Barry arrest and trial has been the hottest story Washington It seldom has been off the main pages of newspapers or off the top of television news shows since Barry was arrested on Jan 18 when the government claimed to made a videotape of him smok ing crack cocaine in a Washington hotel with a former girlfriend With prodding by an impatient trial judge it took two weeks for lawyers on both sides to finally set tle on a jury It was virtually im possible to find jurors who had not heard of the case so the lawyers settled on people who said they felt they could be impartial despite the avalanche of publicity they had seen or heard But once the trial got under way it was clear that the prosecution is determined to portray the mayor as a liar who has been addicted to drugs for years The prosecution claims Barry once had drugs delivered to his office in city hall and frequently supplied his friends with cigarettes laced with cocaine called Specials This is a case about deceit and deception the prosecutor said in the opening arguments While the defendant was preaching down with dope in our community he was putting dope up his nose STING VICTIM However the defence is deter mined to show that Barry was the victim of an expensive government sting operation that used a sexual lure to entire Barry into taking drugs Supporters of Barry nave claimed that government pro secutors wanted to get rid of a black mayor in the federal city who has been tainted by various government scandals in recent years Approximately seven years ago the government made a deter mination and a quest that it was going to get Mr Barry defence lawyer Kenneth Mundy said in his opening statement at the trial But many people fear that the clash of the mayor and the country twotime presidential candidate Jesse Jackson recently urged the prosecution and the defence to bargain a plea in an at tempt to prevent a trial that has racial overtones Despite the drug and perjury charges against Barry the mayor