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HomeMy WebLinkAboutThe Brussels Post, 1975-12-10, Page 6A4,‘61M114 ZIP ELECTRIC For those small electrical lobs around the house you wanted done before Christmas or for the New Year Call 887.‘"9469 - all types,of Service oho- R enovations and new Construction Buildings. 'Prop4 WA" 'NE MERRY.XMAg Looking for a Christmas Gift The Settlement of Huron 'Count by Seoforth out-hor, James Scott is available at :THE. WURON EXPOSITOR $eofortlit and THE BRUSSELS POST. •Brussets only $51 for a hardcover edition Second PC contender meets local delegates to convention LEADERSHIP HOPEFUL — Montreal lawyer Brian Mulroney, seen by some to be a front runner in the race for the Progressive Conservative Party leadership was in the riding last week to talk to local Conservatives. Mr. Mulroney, centre, talks to Seaforth mayor Betty Cardno and Brussels area farmer Murray Cardiff, who are both delegates to the leadership convention, planned for Ottawa in February. (Staff Photo) H Grafftey PC -iteedetsh candidate . visits riciing. Brian Mulroney, 36 year old labour lawyer from Montreal announced that he is running for Progressive Conservative leader, Bob Stanfield's job in November. But he's been campaigning, he says, since September. The 10 week of cross country1 touring (he's on his third coast to coast trip now) before he became an official candidate were to test his strength with Conservatives. Reactions apparently were good because Brian Mulroney is in the race and • running fast. He visited most Canadian cities before his campaign officially } began. Now he says he's going to the rural areas. Thursday he was in Seaforth to meet Huron Middlesex delegates to the leadership convention in Ottawa in February. Seaforth's mayor Betty cardno and Brussels area farmer Murray Cardiff were there to meet him. Mr. Mulroney, who has never run for • election provincially or federally, has worked for the PC party since he was at university in Nova Scotia in the late 1950's. He was executive assistant to NIvin Hamilton for a year when lc was Minister of Agriculture in lohn Diefenbaker's government. tie says that experience gave him ,ome understanding of farming. Prime Minister Trudeau is not Inly not interested in agriculture, le's not interested in learning, Mr. Mulroney said. "It's not glamorous enough for tiro ," he said, and Mr. Cardiff Agreed. Mr, Cardiff said he'd like to see the government out of the egg and milk business. He disagrees with the present quota system and says 'My farm is a business. If something isn't profitable, I get out of it." Mr. Mulroney says "we're paying for the most expensive bureaucratic system existing." Very few of the federal bureaucrats would "recognize a. farmer if they fell over him." - Civil servants don't 'think Canadians are self-reliant and "we are", he says. Top level civil servants are, "not our servants ... they're becoming our masters," he said. Pierre Juneau lost the election to the House of Commons in Quebec, Mr. Mulroney com- ments, and got a job in the prime' minister's office at $56,000 a year. Jaques Lavoie who defeated Juneau is paid $36,000 "or whatever we're paying them now" as an MP. It doesn't make sense, Mr. Mulroney says. Top government advisors have brains and degrees and :look at the mess the country is in." The candidate supports a price and wage freeze ... he was 'on the PC policy committee that recommended it before the 1974 election.' But he resents the fact that the Liberals "laughed at" the Conservative's 90 day freeze during the campaign and then put three year controls on a year later. "1 would have felt better about Trudeau's *speech (announcing the controls) if he had admitted his error, taken a salary cut, said:, he expected his cabinet to take a' cut and announced . that there would be no civil service wage increase for three years. Then he could ask the rest of us to make sacrifices," He says he sees acceptance of the controls across the country, but also a feeling that "you and I are the only people asked to make sacrifices." Mr. Mulroney. called Montreal, mayor Jean Drapeau a "good man" who's looking for about $600 million, interest free, to help pay for the Olympics. Mulroney thinks the Games will go off next summer but Montreal and Quebec will be saddled with a trememdous debt. He doesn't think the federal government will bail them out, or that they should. Mayor Drapeau will not resign, . he says, even if "they're all pretty pregnant down there now." The mayor said when the Olympics were being planned that the games could no more have a deficit than he could have a baby. Mr. Mulroncy's wife is, expecting, their second baby on February 18, the day the PC's are io pick their new leader, A Vancouver Sun columnist says !hat even one-ups the Christmas Day births of the Trudeau boys. Heward Grafftey, the MP from Quebec who's running for the leadership of the Progressive Conservative party, says he's a conservative economically but believes in a progressive social policy. Mr. Grafftey was in Seaforth Wednesday to speak to Huron- Middlesex delegates to the PC leadership convention that will choose Bob Stanfield's successor in January. But no one except a press representataive attended the coffee and cookies session. Mr. Grafftey says that as prime minister he would bring down a budget giving individuals incentives and providing a $2 billion tax cut. He'd make up the $2 billion by tightening up administration of the Unemployment Insurance Commission, abolishing Information Canada, cutting the money the present government spends an consultants fees by 70% 'and by bringing better management into existing government agencies, like Air Canada. "We could save $2 billion right there," Mr. Grafftey said. He says the economy is the main challenge facing the n ext prime minister and argues that he can provide a "Conservative alternative to Trudeau's socialism." Mr. Grafftey says he wouldn't cut any essential social programs in order to get closer to a balanced budget. He'd, like to see Canadians with "the best medical and social care services and the best housing in the world." He says our present medical system isn't working and that it's got the worst features of both the free enterprise and the socialist syStems. He doesn't think Ontario doctors can expect a 52% increase in income. "The crunch is here fee for service (the way doct ors are presently paid) is probably not the answer." '6,,,,114E (BRUSSELS tistitto. DECEMBER i0, 175 Mr. Grafftey, who has al visited 200 of the 265 ridii the country says he wants Conservative leader and minister "because I have convictions about the direct which the _Country and the should be going," He' neglecting his public duty didn't run because he f responsibility, the MP, represents a riding that French speaking says. As PC leader he could h party improve their show Quebec "with hard work ( constituency level", but h promising miracles. Mr. Grafftey has been c maverick. "The party's e right wing may think maverick because of my h social policies," the MP w first elected to the Ho Commons in 1958 says. B Grafftey feels that prog social policies will bring hi into the mainstream' of C life. And that's where the have to be, he said, unle want to win only 60 or 80 the next election.