HomeMy WebLinkAboutTimes-Advocate, 1978-08-31, Page 4Times-Advocate, August 31, 1978Page 4 r-w-rg ♦ -g1 hink small
Hlext logical step
Beggar your Neighbour
What about seat belts in school
buses?
There has been a recent murmur in
the Ontario Legislature to have
regulations made requiring the in
stallation of seat belts in school buses
and making their use compulsory.
As most of us know, substantial
reductions in deaths and injuries on the
highway have taken place as the result
of seat belt legislation passed more
than two and a half years ago. Now the
question is being asked: should not
these benefits be extended to the 600,-
000 school children in Ontario who are
transported each school day in buses?
There is no doubt that school buses
have had a good safety record across
One of the hardest things with
which a graduate of a community
college or university has to cope is the
prospect of not finding a job.
The practice of a student selecting
a course simply because it suits his or
her fancy has resulted in large
numbers of graduates in areas where
there are very few jobs.
The teaching profession is one
which has had its ups and downs. In the
past decade or so, large numbers of
general arts students at universities
have opted for the world of teaching,
citing excellent pay and good working
conditions as reasons for their choice.
The time has come, however, when
there just isn’t the demand for
teachers that there once was. The On
tario Public School Men Teachers’
Federation knows this and is looking
out for its members who can’t find
work in their profession.
At its annual assembly, being held
this week in Toronto, the federation
will debate a resolution that would see
establishment of a service to provide
legal and employment assistance to
jobless members.
The service would also distribute
information on teacher vacancies
across the province and would help
teachers trying to relocate in another
area.
Experience should help
There’s an old saying that used to
hound Richard Nixon - the famous,
“Would you buy a used car from this
man?” It’s a saying that Frank Miller,
Ontario’s new provincial treasurer, has
also heard on occasion before he
entered the legislature, Mr. Miller
used to make his living selling used
cars:
The used car business is credited
with teaching Mr. Miller something
about survival in the real world. Sur
vival skills are probably the major
prerequisite for anyone who tackles the
responsibility of handling the
government’s pursestrings, on either
the provincial or federal level.
In the past, finance ministers have
tended to have shorter reigns than their
counterparts in the other portfolios.
Remember the Honorable John
Turner, the man touted as Canada’s
next prime minister? Well, although
his political career is hardly totally
eclipsed yet, Mr. Turner’s stint as
Minister of Finance led to his
withdrawal from the political arena in
order to salvage some of his populari
ty.
Then of course there was Donald
McDonald, another veteran member of
the House of Commons who decided to
retire from politics after a period of
handling Canada’s finances. Only time
will tell whether Jean Chretien will be
able to survive the cabinet post any
Times Established 1873
( I inies -
SERVING CANADA'S BEST FARMLAND
C.W.N.A., O.W.N.A. CLASS ’A' and ABC
Published by J. W. Eedy Publications Limited
LORNE EEDY, PUBLISHER
Editor — Bill Batten
Assistant Editor — Ross Haugh
Advertising Manager — Jim Beckett
Composition Manager — Harry DeVries
Business Manager — Dick Jongkind
iPhone 235-U31
(♦CNA
SUBSCRIPTION RATES: Canada $11.00 Per Year; USA $22.00
the Province; but it is pointed out that
safety habits, including the use of seat
belts, are formed at an early age. The
absence of belts in these buses breaks a
habit which may contribute to in
difference concerning their uses when
the young later become drivers and
passengers in automobiles.
Seat belts and padded safety seats
in school buses would appear to be the
next logical move in the advancement
of highway safety in our Province. It
seems unfortunate that the segment of
our population being by-passed in this
regard is the young and im
pressionable.
Let us hope that action to over
come this is introduced and adopted
soon.
Federation president George Meek
doesn’t feel entirely comfortable in his
new role, but knows something has to
be done.
“We have a responsibility to all our
members, not just those in the
classroom now,” Meek says. “Obvious
ly we would prefer that this type of ser
vice wasn’t necessary. But surplus and
redundancies are a fact of life and we
have to help teachers cope with them.”
And while the men’s federation is
doing its part, the ministry of colleges
and universities is taking action to en
sure that student numbers are limited
in programs for which there is limited
employment potential.
“Enrolment quotas are being
strictly enforced for these popular
programs while places remain un
filled in other programs,” according to
a committee reviewing college ad
missions, policies, standards and selec
tion procedures.
We can only say that the actions by
the men’s teachers’ federation and the
ministry are moves in the right direc
tion. After all, its a waste of a valuable
resource to have a qualified, trained
person in the unemployment line when
a little foresight might have prevented
the situation.
Peterborough Review
better than his predecessors.
On the provincial level, Darcy
McKeough has fared a little better. The
Chatham-area politician managed to
survive a conflict of interest scandal
some years ago and bounced right back
into politics. He was the man most peo
ple hailed as the successor to Premier
William Davis.
In the last two years however, even
things in Canada’s wealthiest province
haven’t been quite so rosy. Mr.
McKeough had to withdraw his original
proposal for a hefty O.H.I.P. increase
and the municipal tax reform he had
been advocating for some time has
been temporarily abandoned, ap
parently at the urging of Premier
Davis.
McKeough, who might easily have
waited another decade in the wings
before William Davis steps down from
Ontario’s top job has decided to pursue
his fiscal policies in the private sector.
Frank Miller is a brave man to step
into the breech. The finance portfolio,
even for a former car salesman, can’t
help to create headaches in these days
of inflation and a shaky economic out
look.
If Frank Miller can survive the •
duties of Treasurer of Ontario, then
he’ll prove himself a better man that
many of the other veteran politicians
who havetackled'the job.
Huron Expositor
Advocate Established 1 881
Advocate J
Amalgamated 1924
Published Each Thursday Morning
at Exeter, Ontario
Second Clan Mail
Registration Number 0386
BATT’N AROUND .......... with the editor
There is a place to stand
A place to stand and a place to
grow...and they call that place On
tario!
If you happened to be among the
throngs at the Toronto CNE or even the
Zurich Bean Festival over the past
week, you may dispute the words of the
provincial song, but for those of us who
spent the time roaming around through
the hills, lakes and forests near Elliott
Lake, there certainly was plenty of
space in which to stand.
One’s inbred pioneer instinct rises to
the surface in the wilderness and you
soon reach the conclusion that while
you are not the first person by any
means to set foot in the northern bush,
you no doubt walk on ground over
which no other person has traversed.
It’s a great place to get away from it
all, despite the fact we were only 30
minutes from Ontario’s fastest grow
ing community. However, there were
no telephones, no newspapers and
perhaps best of all, no television.
This naturally required some pre
trip planning in view of the need to
entertain five kids for a week, but it
was found that some lively games of
cards, Monopoly and a couple of good
books did suffice to pass the evening
hours and even one full day of rain
when getting out of the cabin was im
possible.
An added treat was the discovery of
a nearby blueberry patch and meals
were finished off with a large bowl of
the sweet delicacies in amounts that
are impossible at the going rate of 99<t
per half pint.
* * *
From the foregoing, readers no
doubt will assume that the Battens and
Fullers had nothing short of a great
time in the bush. Well, not quite.
First of all, our cottage was equipped
with a humus toilet. The technology in
volved is supposed to break down the
refuse through the introduction of
bacteria and heat. We say supposed to,
because our humus toilet was nothing
less than an outdoor toilet sitting in one
room in the cottage, which unfor
tunately could only be entered through
a doorway which also provided an es
cape for the odors.
Our 10-year-old summed it up quite
well when he said it had all the advan
It's been a losing battle
For the past three years, I’ve been
fighting (and losing) a war which I call
the Great Battle of Necktie. I believe
in a neck unfettered by the choking
confinement of a chunk of silk or
polyester. These useless cloth appen
dages cramp my style, not to mention
my fragile esophagus. They drag in my
goulash at dinner, flap in my face while
I’m humming along on my ten-speed,
and offer an open invitation to
whichever one of my 6’5” students
wants to garroutte me for the E-term
test I’ve just returned to him.
Unfortunately, my employer and his
superiors don’t agree with my views on
the liberated neck. I walked naively
into work on the first day, collar open,
spirits high, and was promptly in
formed of the Eleventh Commandment
— Thou shalt not offend mine eyes by
allowing thy throat to appear ungar
nished in my presence; nor shalt thou
sport turtlenecks, which vex me sore
ly; and lest thou wish to feel the fiery
lash of Unemployment, thou shalt not
allow the blashemous blue denim to
adorn they person. This accompanied
by the roar of thunder, the slash of
lightning, and a horrifying vision of my
lovely contract in flames. The score
after the first skirmish: Haberdashers
a », e e
tages (??) of an outdoor toilet except
the benefit of the fresh air that keeps
those one-holers tolerable for their oc?
cupants.
When we arrived home, everyone
quickly headed for the john and spent
several happy moments merely
flushing the toilet.
’ * * *
Another near catastrophe was a visit
to Cobre Lake, a spot where we had
been assured the speckled trout would
be eagerly awaiting our bait.
What we found were a large number
of minnows who delighted in stripping
worms from our hooks in quick order.
After a fruitless hour of feeding min
nows and snagging fallen timbers, it
was decided to continue the march
along the path around the lake. That
appeared to be a reasonable suggestion
at the time, but the problem was that it
was soon determined that the path in
fact did not lead all the way around the
lake..
The happy band of hikers was soon
confronted with the slippery Terrain of
a northern bush, being forced to slip
and slide through, around and over
dense vegetation. To say that the task
was made more difficult by carrying
seven-foot fishing poles, tackle boxes
and cans of worms would be un
derstatement.
It wasn’t lpng before our seven-year-
old rebelled. He politely sat down and
announced he was going no farther.
While father suggested we tramp on
and force him to follow, his kind-
hearted mother decided she would not
force the issue and would retrace her
steps back to our original point of
departure. Father reluctantly joined
in, climbing a mountain along the way
in the hope of finding a track. There’s
nothing like mountain climbing to
prove oneself to be extremely out of
condition.
So, we trudged the three miles back
along the lake, while our more adven
turesome chohorts continued the other
way, ending up traversing a two-foot
path along a rocky 30-foot cliff that led
to some rather white faces. Their
reward was a tour of a deserted mine
shaft, where an abundance of ice was
discovered along with a few interesting
rocks that weighted them down on the
— 1, Roger (bloodied champion of
human rights) —0.
This whole thing smacks of the re
appearance of the great god and teller
of falsehoods, Outwardshow. I thought
that the bluejeaned, longhaired troops
of the Youthandtruth Army had laid his
hideous corpse to rest after the hard-
fought Battle of Hippie Junction, in the
late 1960’s. But it appears that he has
risen, phoenix-like, and is slinking
about the land, appealing to the conser
vative and the normal in all men. His
insidious message is simply this:
Clothes make the man. He of the
neatly-coiffed head and the smartly-
tailored-for-today’s man-on-the-go-
three-piece vested suit is superior and
preferable to he of the unkempt mane
and tieless torso. The multitudes will
respect the former, and he shall rise to
dizzying heights; the latter will be as
loved as a pint of prune juice in a
dysentary ward and he will go nowhere
fast in the world of Big Business.
Pardon me, but— bunk!
Let’s follow that linfe of reasoning for
awhile. Imagine the following scene:
Adolphe Hitler and Jesus Christ show
up one night at your house, uninvited,
for dinner. Adolphe is handsomely at
tired in a new $300 pinstripe wool
final leg of their journey.
Father’s lone reward was the
knowledge that he had not died,
although he was looking about for some
birch bark at the top of the mountain on
which to write his last will and testa
ment.
* w ★
Another of the problems encountered
was during a stop-over in Sudbury,
when the family van was broken into
and the thieves made off with Lossy
Fuller’s luggage, as well as Jeff’s.
This wasn’t discovered until we
reached our destination and Lossy
started looking for a change of clothes.
Actually, readers would assume that
such a misfortune would be a terrible
blow, but strange as it may seem,
Lossy has a penchant for losing her un
derwear in Sudbury.
On a trip a couple of years ago, her
son dropped a few unmentionables
while they were leaving a laundromat
and the loss wasn’t discovered until it
was too late to retrace their steps.
However, most of their belongings
were located this time by police and
the daily chore of heading for the pile
of rocks in front of the cabin to rinse
out clothing was ended.
To top it off, the fish weren’t biting
very well (our lone entry was tossed
into the minnow bucket and actually
dwarfed by some of them) although
Jack and the boys did manage to get us
one bountiful feed that made the trip
worthwhile.
* * *
The north is truly a place to
stand...to stand and enjoy nature’s
bounty. Even on rainy days, the clouds
drifting on the tree tops and the mist
rising, from the distant hills is a spine-
tingling sight.
The sunsets are colorful and ever
changing, heralded by the woeful cries
of the loons and the gentle lap of the
waves upon the shore.
Perhaps the loons aren’t really as
crazy as their name implies!
A long time ago, the well-
known Fathers of Confedera
tion agreed that, in future,all
of Canada would stand to
gether, sharing equally in the
good and the bad. But some
thing went wrong along the
way and now the impover
ished Maritimes are part of
the same Confederation as
wealthy Alberta and Ontario.
Increasingly - and quite
aside from the well-known
sovereignty issue in Quebec
— Confederation has become
a matter of every province
for itself. The noble concept
of one for all andvall for one
has gone by the boards.
One example of the course
we’re taking can be found in
Quebec where, by provincial
decree, it has been specified
that construction workers
from outside Quebec will not
be permitted to work in that
province unless it can be de
termined that workers with
similar skills are not available
locally.
Quebec’s action invited
immediate response from
Ontario which has introduc
ed legislation barring Quebec
tradesmen. Other regions can
be expected to follow suit.
But let’s not dump ail the
blame on one province. Last
year, for example, Ontario
went shopping for new pub
lic transit vehicles. The
lowest bid came from MLW
Worthington, a Quebec-based
outfit — but the contract
went to Ontario’s Hawker-
Siddley at a higher price.
Alberta, meanwhile, gives
preferred status to its own
contractors for pipeline con
struction. Outside contrac
tors get work only when
there aren’t any local firms
available.
Manitoba stipulates that
only Manitoba-based consult
ing engineers be employed
on nuclear generating plants
there. Competent engineers
from anywhere else in Cana
da are out of luck.
Thqn there are the inter
provincial trucking wars
where vehicles with out-of
province license plates are
pulled off the road by police.
The examples of beggar-
your-neighbour policies with
in Confederation are almost
endless. It’s impossible now
to ignore the fact that Con
federation just isn’t working
out the way the Fathers plan
ned it. The provincial leaders
are to blame — but so is Ot
tawa, which has failed to de-
velopa comprehensive na
tional development policy.
The provincial ploys are bom
out of frustration with an
economy that has stagnated.
There is an important les
son here for Canadians. Al
though we operate one of the
world’s most open economies
(more than half the goods
coming into Canada pay no
duty whereas the U.S., for
example, taxes more than
90% of its imports), our
trade representatives in the
Geneva trade negotiations
are talking about cutting ta
riffs even further in exchange
for non-tariff concessions
from other countries.
But agreement on tariffs
is a relatively easily attained
state, being nothing more
than a matter of arguing over
easily defined numbers. Non
tariff barriers, on the other
hand, are far more subtle and
less readily defined. So, if we
can’t cope with trade barriers
within our own borders, how
can our naive “boy scout’1
approach to international
trade in Geneva accomplish
anything of value? There’s a
lesson on international trade
to be found in our own inter
provincial affairs.
"Think small" Is an editorial ,
message from the Canadian 1
Federation of Independent *
Business^')
/—:------;--------------------------------------------
J ® ctown memory lane
worsted suit, a pair of neat suede
shoes, and an expensive tie with a tidy
Windsor knot. Jesus, in contrast,
sports only a simple cotton caftan, has
dusty feet and open-toed sandals, and
has (gasp — call the cops!) long hair
and a beard. With me so far? If you
adhere to Outwardshow’s dictum-orna
ment is everything, character nothing
— Jesus will end up eating burgers at
McDonald’s and you’ll have a dinner
guest who admires your lampshades
and seems ungrateful when you tell
him you don’t like pork.
Can you conceive the idiotic
situations the Appearance Is Reality
belief might spawn? To be considered a
worthy cleaning lady, Mrs. Magoo
would have to do your hardwood floors
in an evening gown. Local sanitary
engineers would sling festering piles of
refuse into the back of their Rolls
Royce, being very careful not to get
any on their tropical-weight leisure
suits. The mechanic at your favorite
garage might be adverse to fixing the
transmission in your jaunty jalopy for
fear he might sully his velvet tuxedo.
55 Years Ago
Mr. Ed Harness left
Wednesday for Windsor
where he is opening up a
retail produce business.
Workmen are engaged in
making alterations and
redecorating the interior of
the Jackson Mfg. Co.
Mr. D. Watson & Son, of
Wingham, are opening a
grocery store in Exeter
North in the old McTaggert
store on the Lake Road.
Mr. Fred Wells had the
misfortune to have the
middle finger of his left hand
come in contact with a saw
at the Ross-Taylor factory on
Saturday last. He will be laid
off work for a couple of
weeks.
30 Years Ago
Exeter Rutabaga Com
pany’s new $80,000 plant at
Exeter north will be ready to
handle turnips this fall.
A new four-cent stamp
commemorating the 100th
anniversary of the
achievement of responsible
government in Canada has
been issued.
Elmer Campbell, R.R. 1
Exeter, of E.D.H.S. was
awarded the school tuition
scholarship up to $125 a year
for two years for the County
of Huron.
From a 75-Ib. bag of
potatoes sown in the spring,
Aljoe Sanders has harvested
17’/2 bags.
Aistubborn bushjire which
for three days menaced
thousands of acres of choice
resort property in the Pinery
has been quenched.
20 Years Ago
Over 60 applications for
subsidies on construction of
farm ponds have been
received by the Ausable
River Conservation
Authority, secretary Hal
Hooke revealed this week. So
far 30 have been constructed.
Sixty children at Huron
Park, RCAF Station, Cen
tralia passed their “tadpole”
test recently.
Grand Bend Reeve James
Dalton says the summer
resort is “definitely in
terested” in the city of
London’s proposal to build a
pipeline from Lake Huron.
Town Council moved
Monday night to meet the
Ontario Water Resources
Commission to begin an
investigation into a sewage
system.
15 Years Ago
Frank Sheere, tailor at
Walper’s Men’s Wear, was’
back on the job Monday
following a dinner which'
marked the completion of 60’
years at his craft, and all of;
them in the same shop. He
started learning the trade
when he was 14 in the haber
dashery then owned by W.W.
Taman.
The SHDHS board finally
approved culottes but only
after considerable difficulty.
The board had a ruling
requiring that all girls musti
wear skirts so when some
students showed up with the
split skirts, Principal H.L.
Sturgis requested the girls
not wear them again until
the board had a chance to
discuss the matter. f
The summer’s crisis over
a shortage of nurses at South
Huron Hospital is “more or;
less” over but the situation
will continue to be difficult,
Superintendent Alice
Claypole reported. She
revealed at the Hospital I
auxiliary meeting that the)
four beds which had been ,
closed due to the shortage,
would be reopened. I
Bill Tuckey, Exeter, was :
driving merrily along on his I
tractor pulling a load of ,
baled straw to his farm. A .
neighbour tried in vain to
call to him from a field:
alongside. But it wasn’t long '
before he felt an unusual »
warmth on his back. The ?
load had caught fire; how, no
one knows. Firemen were J
called to extinguish the blaze:
and the grass fire which«
resulted.
(A positive offshoot — schools which were troubled by
vandalism would have only to hang a tie in every window
and not only would vandals not destroy the place, they’d
rake the lawns and trim the hedges.) y
Yes, folks, as much as I hate to admit it — it brings a
lump to my throat to say it - old Outty is alive and Well. I
do however have a new battle plan for the upcoming
round of hostilities — my friend Chenier, the artist, is go-
ng,it0 sijkscreen a tie on my hairy chest. No problem
really, I’ll just pretend it’s mohair.
4-1."