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Overflow crowd reacts strongly to the Thursday opening plenary session Linda McQuaig mixes humour, economics and politics ' ' W e are suffering through a bad global economy. It's possible to turn things around." Opening plenary speaker Linda McQuaig wowed a full house Thursday morning, mixing humour, economics, and exploded government myths in explaining the current crisis in public sector funding . The shifting of public sector" jobs to the private sector is contributing to the "inequality of access as individuals. We are moving away from a society where everyone belongs, we're no longer a whole community when people are forced to look after their individual needs ," said her books Shooting the hippo and The cult how our bureaucracy works weren't so McQuaig. of impotence, indicating that governments, funny, they ' d be downright scary. are to some extent, faking their powerless"The problem is not globalization or The activism of OLA impressive ness. This feigned impotence, and the technology. What has changed is the politMcQuaig is not a prophet of doom. She mythology governments create allows gov- ical will of governments to stand up to the is "pleased with the activism of OLA" and ernments to be run by the financial market financial markets," said McQuaig. But she says we should question what's happening. without having to provide the real reasons remained optimistic. "When the public is It is possible to turn things around and for harsh social and economic policies. motivated and organized around an issue, move toward a "good global economy," as the government listens." was experienced from the mid-forties to the The government will listen Her books are still available at the OLA mid-seventies. This would serve the interIf her behind-the-scenes glimpses at Store. Worth more than a look. est of the broader community. .. Public pressure works," said Autographing schedule McQuaig, and she cited the recent examples of th e recall of the MAl Treaty and the EXPO '99 Session Store reJect ion of the proposed bank mergers as examples of governments listening to pubhe opinion and not bowing to the financial Friday masters. Hugh Brewster McQuaig made numerous references to Ken Oppel ShereeFitch Gayle Friesen Arlene Perly Rae Koechlin/Zwann Kady Denton David Bouchard Norah McClintock Marjan Glavak William Bell Pat Hancock Robert Sutherland Arlene Chan Peter Sis Katherine Barber BRODART LTD is now Booth 239 Canadian Institute for Environmental Law and Policy is now Booth 520 OTIP/REAO Ontario Teachers' Insurance Plan is now Booth 522 Stricker Books is now Booth 514 Digital Frog International is now Booth 707 Education Safety Association of Ontario is now Booth 126 Companion is now Booth 704 Louisiana Catalog has changed to 531 Manlea Enterprises is now Booth 620 Breakfast and 501 Breakfast and 501 615 720 614 712 417 615 720 613 720 720 12:10 12:10 12:10 12:10 12:00 12:35 12:35 12:35 12:35 1:00 1:00 1:00 615 1:00 1:25 813 510 (meet her at her session) 12:35 12:35 12:35 12:35 12:35 1:00 1:00 1:00 1:00 1:25 1:25 1:25 1:25 1:50 Saturday Peter Sis Paul Hoffert Andree Lacelle Luncheon (autographing after his speech) 1102 (autographing after his session) 1106 (autographing after her session)