The Brussels Post, 1978-03-01, Page 3Ronnenberg
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Music Is Now
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New Albums And
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ARRIVING DAILY
MIMIC
16 Ontario Street,
Stratford 2711.29q0
Festival Stage
THE MERRY WIVES
OF WINDSOR
MACBETH
THE WINTER'S TALE
AS YOU LIKE IT
JULIUS CAESAR
TITUS ANDRONICUS
Festival and Avon Stages
Leonard BernsteM's musical adapted from
CANDIDE by Voltaire
Third Stage
nirD AND JACK by Sheldon Rosen
MEDEA by Zany Fineberg
FOUR PLAYS by Samuel Beckett
Not I, Footfalls, From an Abandoned Work; Come and Go
STARGAZING by Tom Cone
Avon Stage
PRIVATE LIVES by Nod Coward
THE DEVILS byjohn Whiting
UNCLE VANYA by Anton Chekhov
JUDGEMENT by .Garry Collins
HELOISE AND ABELARD:
LOVE LETTERS FROM THE MIDDLE AGES
by Ronald Duncan
DEVOTION by Larry Fineberg
tiAWORT11—
A PORTRAIT O1 THE BRONTES by Beverley Cross
For Complete Information
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after April 17 only.
I THE BRUSSELS , POST MAR 1 1978
4.•
Sugar and Spice
by Bill Smiley
Something pleasant
Something rather pleasant happened in
Canada recently. Not too many pleasant
things have occurred in this country of late, so
perhaps we should observe and enjoy this one.
I'm referring to the general decency shown
by the press and politicians, neither ,of them
noted fo-r this quality, in the Francis Fox
affair.
In case you've already forgotten it, Mr. Fox,
a brilliant young cabinet minister and Solicitor
General of Canada, confessed he had
committed a minor peccadillo and resigned
from the cabinet.
He had forged the name of her husband to
a paper permitting an abortion for a married
lady with whom he was, apparently, on more
than speaking terms. he was caught when
another lady wrote' the prime minister and
squealed on him.
Mr. Fox, a Rhodes scholar, proved once
again that you can have a lot of brains and still
be a dummy. He not only committted forgery,
he committed adult very, And he seems never
to have heard of birth control.
That's all right. There are a good many
dummies among our illustrious leaders, and
always have been. Most of the others just
haven't been caught.
But what was rather startling about the
whole business was the restraint practised by
Fox's opponents in politics, by the press, and
by the public in general. Nobody went for his
jugular, or that of the government, which is
astonishing, in these times, when sympathy,
compassion, and decency seem to be going by
the board.
Had it happened in Britain, the tabloids
would,have had a field day, and the poor man
'would ave been chased out of the cabinet,
out of parliament and probably right out of the
country by the sheer weight of the scavenging
that would have taken place.
But no, not here. Political foes expressed
sympathy. editorials reminded us that we all
have a skeleton or two in the closet, and the
head of the United Church wrote Fox a letter •
hoping that "there is enough grace and
understanding in this country that you will not
have to live under the cloud."
Such forbearance. A generation ago the
man would have been howled out of the office..
Not so very long ago, as some elderly Tories
remember, a num .ber of cabinet ministers of
that denomination, were smeared rather
thickly for exhanging bonmots with one Gerda
Munsigner, a German lady with a shady past.
What in the world has come over us? Why
this sudden benevolence toward a fellow
human being? Is it some sort of midwinter
madness that has crept sneakily into our dour
Canadian puritanism?
Or is the whole thing a crafty Liberal plot to
snatch headlines and induce sympathy among
the women on the country? First Margaret
bogs off and leaves that poor, dear man with
three boys to raise. Now Francis, with one
swell foop, reveals that even a cabinet
minister is capable of passion.
• If this is the case, what in the world is Joe
Clark going to do to counteract all this free
publicity, before the election • campaign
begins? His wife is staying home and
behaving herself, and his own past is
impeccably dull.
My suggestion to Joe and the Tories, for
what it's worth, is that they start looking
around for some really rotten people as
potential cabinet ministers. Whatthey need in
their anxious ranks are a sex deviate oritwo a
couple of guys who served time for armed
robbery, and a few ladies who were formerly
happy hookers., A jam of tarts, as it were. Toss
in a child batterer and someone who snatched
underwear off clothes lines, and they'd run
the Libeials right off the front pages.
Is it true that.we all have a skeleton in our
closet, something that would be humiliating
were it exposed to the avid public eye?
Maybe there are a few lofty souls with a
clean slate, but I'd be surprised if there were •
enough of them to form a hockey team.
Come on now, gentle reader. Cast your mind
back over your life, and take a close look into
those dark corners you' have managed to
almost forget.
Have you never picked your nose when
nobody was looking? Have you never, ever,
smelled your own armpits in similar company?
Have you never helped destroy a reputation
by repeating gossip? Have you never done a
cruel thing or a mean thing in your life? Have
you never got drunk and made an ass of
yourself. Never said a bad word? Never
hawked and spat a gob when nobody was
around?. Never emitted air from an orifice
sneakily?
Well, good on you, as we say in Austrailia,
if you haven't. You must be under six months
of age, and even infants can't quality on all
counts.
I could probably count on my -toes the
people in this country who have not lied,
cheated, stolen, commitfted adultery at least
in the head, worshipped the graven image
known as a car, or failed to honor their father
and mother, at some time.
Personally, I h ave so many skeletons in my
own closet there's no room for more. I had to
start shoving- them under the bed.
If Joe Clark takes my suggestion with the
seriousness with which it is offered, I'd be
glad to help. I know some really rotten people.
Stratfrrd Faith.
26th Seam
Ci !Ma 1
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