HomeMy WebLinkAboutThe Citizen, 1986-10-29, Page 4PAGE 4. THE CITIZEN, WEDNESDAY, OCTOBER 29, 1986.
Farmers need
effective voice
When he was speaking recently in Brussels, provincial
opposition leader Larry Grossman accused Agricultured
Minister Jack Riddell of having a loud but not very effective
voice in cabinet. Two isolated examples last week may show
that Mr. Grossman is right.
First of all, The Ontario Federation of Agriculture presented
its annual brief to the Ontario cabinet. When Jack Wilkinson,
second vice-president, said farmers need more money to stay
on the land Robert Nixon, finance minister asked “Is there
enough money in the treasury to make farmers prosperous?”
Later last week, Lily Munro, minister of citizenship and
culture, announced she was giving a special one-time only
grant to help wipe out the deficit at the Stratford Festival and
another $1 million to be split between the Grand Theatre in
London and Magnus Theatre in Thunder Bay.
The grants to these theatres were important. In all three
cases, deficitsfrompastmisfortune or past management
mistakes were threatening to drag down organizations that
were important to their communities both economically and
culturally. Yes, there were mistakes made in these
organizations, but Mrs. Munro realized that the survival of
these bodies, despite their mistakes, was important to the
whole community.
Farmers are facing the same kind of crisis. Even before this
year’s bad weather many were hanging on by their fingernails.
Some of them had made bad business decisions. Many had
been victims of government policies earlier in the decade that
drove interest rates to ridiculous heights. Many are now victims
of a battle of subsidies between the U.S. and the European
Economic Community that has sent prices to rock bottom for
every crop with the ironic exception of white beans which many
farmes saw rot in the fields. A study released last week showed
that Canadian farmers get 25 per cent less for nearly every crop
than their counterparts in the U.S.
Mr. Riddell’s response to the problem so far has been that the
farmers hit by bad weather should have had crop insurance.
That argument is irrelevant in this case.
The fact is that even those farmers who had crop insurance
will not recover enough to show a profit at a time when profits
are desperately needed. The rumours are probably
exaggerated because of the depression over this fall’s weather,
but one rumour we had heard was that up to half Huron’s
farmers won’t be able to afford to plant a crop next year.
The rural community, not just farmers themselves, faces a
crisis. If farmers can’t afford to plant crops, seed dealers,
fertilizer dealers, equipment dealers, even main street food
and clothing stores are going to be badly hurt.
Yes, Mr. Riddell doesn’t want to undermine the crop
insurance program. Yes, there is some real doubt about the
value of long-term subsidy in many farm products. But what we
face here is a crisis of the kind those theatres faced, where the
failure of one segment of the economy can be devastating to the
entire community.
Sure, the figures Mrs. Munro was dealing with were peanuts
compared to the crisis in agriculture but if Mr. Riddell does
have clout in cabinet, it’s time to prove it. If the Liberal party,
with its power base in southwestern Ontario, with two cabinet
ministers from Huron county, can’t come up with the kind of
one-time-only emergency aid for farmers that it gives to
theatres, then perhaps people will find Mr. Grossman a more
attractive alternative.
Still plenty
of real causes
It’s probably a sign of the baby boom generation reaching
middle age that has ‘60’s nostalgia so prominent these days
even though there are plenty of things to forget about that
period.
Few of us would like to return, for instance, to the turmoil of
that time when people, in the name of causes they believed in,
were willing to hold mass demonstrations and sit-ins, confront
police and soldiers and, for the lunatic fringe, resort to bank
robberies and violence in the name of freedom and liberty.
At least, however, the causes people fought for then had
some real meaning. People fought for civil rights for blacks in
the United States. People fought to bring an end to a war they
thought the U.S. had no part of in Vietnam.
Today much of the activism and passion is gone, but the
lunatic fringe remains. Last week in London, someone threw a
firebombthroughthe window of a fur store. In less serious acts,
other fur stores had their locks filled with glue.
When people can become so radically violent over as small an
issue as the fur industry one would think our society must be so
close to perfect that there are no other causes left to fight for.
Unfortunately there are still plenty of problems that these
“activists” could turn to that need much more attention. The
plight of poor people in the 1980’s, for instance, is less hopeful
that in the prosperous *60’s. There are more people
unemployed, more people on welfare, more people worried
about how they are going to pay the rent with soaring housing
costs in the cities.
There are plenty of real causes to fight without resorting to
such idiotic crusades.
White water
he world view
from Mabel’s Grill
There are people who will tell
you that the important decisions in
town are made down at the town
hall. People in the know, however
know that the real debates, the real
wisdom reside down at Mabel’s
Grill where the greatest minds in
the town (if not in the country)
gather for morning coffee break,
otherwise known as the Round
Table Debating and Filibustering
Society. Sincenotjusteveryone
can partake of these deliberations
we will report the activities from
time to time.
MONDAY: Somebody mentioned
to Ward Black this morning that
there were rumours that Pierre
Trudeau might be coming out of
retirement to rescue the Liberal
party. Weimmediatelygotworried
because Ward started shaking,
almost as if he were in convulsions.
Mabel worried. She said she
knew she should have made a fresh
pot of coffee this morning and not
just warmed up what was leftover
from Saturday. Tim O’Grady said
he thought maybe it was an allergic
reaction, recalling the way Ward
used to behave whenever Tru
deau’s name came up in conversa
tions all through the 1970’s.
Billie Bean thought it might be
that the very prospect of Trudeau
coming back sent Ward, a good
Tory, shaking in his boots. Finally
somebody happened to notice that
the corners of Ward’s mouth were
twitching and we finally realized
what he was doing was laughing
convulsively that anybody should
even think of bringing back the old
man.
TUESDAY: Tim was looking at a
copy of a fashion magazine that
Julia Flint brought along with her
this morning and he asked if
anybody else had ever noticed that
all the models in fashionable
clothing ads on television or in
magazines always look as if they’re
in pain.
Hank Stokes took a look at the
pictures and said it looked like they
were uncomfortable like their
underwear was too tight. Billie
Bean took a longer look and said he
didn’tthink they were wearing any
underwear at all. Time said it was
probably just the latest fashion to
look pained in life but Julia set us
all straight. She said they probably
looked so pained because they’d
just caught a glimpse of the price
tag on the clothes they were
modelling.
WEDNESDAY: Hank Stokes was
mentioning about Bob Rae claim
ing some of the homes for senior
citizens are paying as little as $2.10
cents a day to feed their residents.
“No wonder we farmers can’t
make a living”, he said.
Tim said he’d like to get hold of
Mr. Rae and find if any of these
places are near here. “If they are,
maybe I could make a deal with
them to feed my kids of that price, ’ ’
he said.
THURSDAY: Billie Bean was
mentioning this morning that he’d
heard the Ontario dentists may be
taking credit cards to pay bills after
the beginning of the new year.
One thing, says Julia, at least
there won’t be the problem they
usually worry about with people
and credit cards: people getting
carried away and buying more than
they need.
Billie thought the wonders of
technology are staggering. First
the dentists came up with high
speed drills so it wouldn’t hurt so
much when they drilled your
teeth then local anaesthetic so it
wouldn’t hurt so much when they
extracted a tooth and now credit
cards so it won’thurt so much when
they extract from your wallet.
FRIDAY: Hank was asking Ward
this morning what he thought
about the fact that the Provincial
government is going to sell the
Minaki Lodge up in Northern
Ontario. Ward thought it was
another example of Liberal mis
management that they couldn’t get
more than $5 million for something
the government has spent $50
Continued on Pg. 5
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