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By JIM FOX
© St. Petersburg Times, published February 4, 2001
Chretien sets agenda for new term
Canada's Liberal government plans to nurture the new economy and alleviate the plight of the country's disadvantaged.
Those lofty goals were contained in the speech from the throne read by Gov.-Gen. Adrienne Clarkson as the government of Prime Minister Jean Chretien began its third term of office.
Highlights of the government's program include: turning Canada into a "world-leading" economy, ensuring children and aboriginals have a better life, cleaning up the environment, providing a safe society and promoting Canada's culture beyond its borders.
"Our objective should be no less than to be recognized as one of the most innovative countries in the world," said the speech prepared by Liberal strategists.
It pledged to help poor families and people with disabilities. There will be new measures to help single parents overcome poverty and a modernization of child support and custody laws.
The government also pledged to double money for research and development by 2010, connect all Canadians to the Internet and create a lifelong skills training program while continuing with income tax cuts.
New national parks will be created, there'll be more money for the Canadian Broadcasting Corp., and improvements to municipal water and waster water systems.
Opposition leaders called the speech vague and uninspired.
Carol Anne Letheren, chief executive officer of the Canadian Olympic Association, died early Friday in Toronto. She was 58.
She suffered a brain aneurysm while speaking at a dinner for alumni members of the Schulich School of Business, part of York University.
A member of the International Olympic Committee since 1990, Letheren also was on the influential IOC coordinating committee for the 2002 Winter Games in Salt Lake City.
Celebrated groundhog Wiarton Willie had the news many Canadians were hoping for Friday: a respite from lingering winter weather. With snow falling, the Ontario rodent didn't see his shadow, which folklore says means an early spring. The same was true with Canada's other rodent weather prognosticator, Shubenacadie Sam of Nova Scotia. In the United States, however, Pennsylvania's Punxsutawney Phil saw his shadow, meaning six more weeks of winter.
The House of Commons learned Friday that a Russian diplomat who faces drunken driving charges in the death of an Ottawa woman last weekend had his license suspended 18 months ago for driving while impaired. Diplomatic notes show Andrey Knyazev received an apology, had his license returned and the charges dropped after the 1999 arrest. Last month, Knyazev, 45, was arrested after Catherine MacLean was killed as she and friend Catherine Dore were run down on a residential sidewalk. Knyazev invoked diplomatic immunity and returned to Moscow.
Canada's dollar advanced to 66.88 cents U.S. Friday, while the U.S dollar was $1.4953 Canadian before bank exchange fees.
The key Bank of Canada is unchanged at 5.75 percent; the prime lending rate is 7.25 percent.
Stock markets were higher, with the Toronto 300 Index at 9,224 points Friday and the Canadian Venture Exchange index at 3,294 points.
Lotto 6-49: (Wednesday) 3, 19, 29, 34, 38 and 45; bonus 40. (Jan. 27) 26, 30, 32, 37, 41 and 47; bonus 8.
Ontario Finance Minister Ernie Eves, a cornerstone of Conservative Premier Mike Harris' Cabinet and chief architect of his "Common Sense Revolution," said Friday he's quitting politics to take a job with a Swiss investment bank. Earlier in the week, Economic Development Minister Al Palladini resigned to return to his car dealership business.
Carline Vandenelsen, the Stratford, Ontario, mother of 8-year-old triplets allegedly abducted three months ago, was returned to Canada Friday night from Mexico. The 38-year-old woman faces parental abduction charges. Her children, Olivia, Gray and Peter Merkley, were recently returned to their father, Craig.
Just as another blizzard is blowing into Newfoundland, Liberals are meeting over the weekend near St. John's to choose a successor for former Premier Brian Tobin, now a federal government minister. The front-runner is Roger Grimes, a former health minister, followed by former Fisheries Minister John Efford.
A Winnipeg MP introduced a private member's bill in the Commons on Friday to set up a commission to regulate energy prices. New Democrat Pat Martin said consumers are "reeling with shock and with horror at escalating energy costs." The independent commission would set prices for gasoline, motor fuels, home heating fuel, natural gas and electricity, Martin said.
Prosecutors in Vancouver are asking the British government for permission to try Inderjit Singh Reyat in the 1985 Air India bombing. The former British Columbia resident is nearing the end of a 10-year sentence for manslaughter for his role in a related bombing the same day the Air India flight exploded off the coast of Ireland, killing 329 people.