HomeMy WebLinkAboutTimes-Advocate, 1980-01-23, Page 4Pelee 4 Tiessel4,11WW040, *So 1410 SONVING. C.04014"A'S 11.01i FA 111100.040 C.W,N.A., .91414,A, CLOS "A! sonel4J4K pubikked by J. W. beds MO* 11101f, P0011$00.11 edits" —.00.1Satten Assistant .101ter, Woe listogli Advertising *meet jiet 1.4tett Compoitnen Mena* Netry DO,* lesieess Mower'-- Dirk ittelikittd• 'in* 23,4331 OCNA I ' aalf.ali Wmng emphasis 0.eniseltral-1,00.14tWoon014 ilae•tw Polslishod keell Wednesday Morning •e limiter, Orden. Sanwa Clots Mail thiaistrat* N webs*, 9311.0 , • Slii$11C/iPTIONltint • Election interest in this area hasn't hit any high points as yet, and if it follows the pattern of recent referen- dums, it probably won't generate any. great public involvement, However, with veteran Bob McKinley on the sidelines, it should be . expected that the Liberals at least will consider they have a fighting chance, particularly in view of the national polls and the fact that many voters in the riding have backed their provincial. counterparts. . The lack of interest at this. point in the proceedings is not too difficult tti comprehend. It would appear that many people are hoping that the coun- try Will elect a. Majority government this time around to preserve them from another trip to the polls in the near future, Given that situation, those non-aligned yoters will wait tn.... the final days to make the choices in the hope that some nationwide trend becomes evident. That may be unfortunate indeed, because it will put the basis of polls ahead of the more important issues in the election; namely, leadership and individual candidate's abilities. 'the , , These are things' yoters should be considering carefully in the days ahead:- Silver lining costly Readers no doubt were chagrined last week to read that the subscription price to this newspaper will increase , by $3 at the end of the month. We share their feeling. Similar to all other businesses, we don't like price increases any more than consumers, because generally speaking they do not add to the profit picture. Most of them are necessary to • merely keep pace with the sharp hikes ' in input costs. • For instance, the T-A was advised a couple of weeks ago that the rampant escalation in ,the silver and gold prices .wouldte directly felt in our production costs. Photographic films, which con- tain silver, will increase by.90 percent. Yes, that's right 90 percept! Ihat'S just one example of the price increases With which we've had to contend,` and unfortunately must pais along to the consumer: A mental block Do some of us have a mental block about immigration? Up until a few years ago we were taking in around •200,030 immigrants each year as potential new citizens of Canada.. And as the years go by we are all the richer for it. • '• Many of these immigrants take the heavy, dirty jobs which no ' one else seems to want. A few years ago in St. Marys a sewerage system was installed and a great many of the workers were rt. cent Portugese arrivals in our country, Very few others cared to accept a shovel as these people did. Fifty years ago there was a Chinese restaurant on the main street of every Ontario town and a hand laundry on every side street. It was a lonely life for these people, but this was the land *here opportunity lay, when one could make enough of a living to send for a wife and family, see one's children move on to something better. The same held true' for Polish farmers, Swedish lumbermen, Italian bricklayers, Jewish tailors, Scottish tot, tile workers, and many more from other lands. In pointing Out how the immigrants build Canada, the Toronto Star has this to say in a recent editorial:- "They did not come to Canada to live off sOmeone else's bounty. Instead 'they *biked hard' and dreatned of better days. They not only kept the wheels of • industry turning, they used their im- agination 'and experience to create new opportuiiities for themselves and others. • . They expanded our tastes in food, they created' new services;' they opened up newindustries. So it is with this generation of West Indians, East Indians, Chinese, Koreans, Maltese, Filipinos, and Latin Americans in Canada, • So it Will be with the 50,000 Viet- namese boat people we have pledged to rescue korai squalid camps in the Far East. Like all the others before them, they will not be taking jobs that Canadians might have filled, they will taking those we scorn and cannot fill. And in a few short years they will be creating fresh job opportunities for all of us. We will be the richer for it. St,; Marys Journal-Argus Br STD FLETCHER For all children there probably canes a time when they realize that their parents are human also that they too make errors, tell an' occasional lie to save face, or appear foolish foe some reason. It is an inevitable process. Hopefully, in most cases, the children do not feel too betrayed when they find out, and even though they May be a little Ashamed of the parent at the time, continue to keep on loving as they did before. I Was in one d the big cafeterias at Western University a few' years ago, Watching people ge by. In one corner of the room a bridge game was going on with much hooting and derition 'at a poor play,, Into the room, uncertainly, came an 'elderly then..With his heavy; old fashioned sweater, he Was obviously out of place, yet the studente ignored him, swirled around him with• their full trays at he stepped carefully to a window seat wheee the spring sun streamed in on him. It seemed to if he were waiting for somebody, for he glanced nervously at the big clock, then eat back, hands folded, In a few moments he seemed to be Mare at ease and began watching the students. Now he emoted &Idlest to ntettd td be there in the academic WOrldi among to many educated• people. With the sun's heat on him and the regular clatter of dishea, his head started nodding and soon he was asleep, his head dropping on his chest, his mouth open a little: A welklad boy came in, looked around the room, then spotted the old man, Angry starlet rose in hit neck and ears and he darted several glances around to see if anybody was looking in amusement at the scene. No one was looking at all. lie tattiest seethed tempted to leave. Instead he shook the old man's sheulder, quite roughly. The old fellow woke quickly, his smile of retognitiott lading as he saw the anger In the boy's eyes. t They left quickly. I htope the lad wasn't too hard on the old guy, later on. There had been no real harm done. Perspectives anel A cruel blow from nature It's naturally difficult to complain about the phenomenal weather to date this winter, but it does create problems for more people than can readily be im- agined. The plight of ski resort operators is Well known, of course, but the Ontario government should recognize that they would be faced with a long lineup if they decide to succumb to the requests to help the financially troubled slope owners who have been staring at green, vacant hills for most of the winter. There'd be a veritable avalanche of similar funding pleas from the thousands of firms in this province which rely on our normal steady diet of snow, ice and bitter winds to sell their products or services. In case you've forgotten, slightly more than one-quarter of the business transacted in this land of ice and snow is based on fulfilling the winter needs of the populace and a large portion of that business has obviously been lost due to the current (at time of writing) quirk of nature which has the area basking in warm sunshine. In fad, the Ontario government could end up facing some claims for compensation from resort operators in the sunny south, who may also en- counter some problems as Ontario citizens cancel travel plans and decide to sit out in their backyards-and soak up the warmth. The claims may prompt the govern- ment to consider a type of weather in- surance for all segments of the economy, similar to the crop insurance program offered to farmers, which is in many ways a type of weather in- surance. But it is indeed very strange to con- There's something positively unner- ving in the experience of going out in sneakers and a sport shirt, in'the month of January, in Canada, to pick up one's newspaper, and being able to find it without groping through half a dozen snowbanks to find that tell-tale yellow or green wrapper. If our December-January weather Was any sort of omen, this is going to be a very unpredicatable decade. Personally, I loved it. Every nightl'd say a little prayer: "Please Lord, make some snow for the skiers." With my fingers crossed behind my back. Frankly, I don't care whether they have to ski on sand all winter, though it's rough on the resort operators. It's pure envy, of course. There is nothing more degrading for a once- young man, a pretty fair once-athlete, to sit in the cIub-house drinking coffee and Watching those rotten kids come flying down the slopes like so many seagulls riding the wind. UnleSs it's to be plodding along a forest cross-country trail, desperately heaving for breath and hear from 'behind a sharp, "Track!", and once again have to leap oft the trail into the deep snow while some young punk of either sex goes by you like a Jaguar passing a tractor. Let theta stew in their own wax. Let them frenetically chew the toes off their skis. Let them put on their great, thanking boots and stomp around in the wreck room. Let them Whine and swear and decry the vagaries of Old Man Winter, WhO this year seemed to know what he Was about, for a change. Don't tell me there isn't a Mother Nature, Its just that she's a 'perverse old bag. Early last fall, I wrote a paean of praise to the glory of a Canadian Oc- tober. sider the fact that there are many economic problems when the weather is too good. Somehow it seems that poor old Mother Nature just can't win! * * * Those of us in the newspaper business are adversely affected by the unusual weather conditions too. After all, once you've taken a picture of the people who head to the golf courses in January or strap on a pair of water skiffs or go lawn bowling, what do you do to fill the void left by the usual photos of kids building snowmen or peo- ple pushing cars out of snowdrifts? We haven't been able to fill any news columns with the normal tales of peo- ple being stranded in blizzards and the usual reports on winter carnival ac- tivities are chopped to the bone as most of the events that rely on snow have been cancelled. Even our advertising department is suffering 'as many of those winter ac-. tivIties are cancelled and our an- ticipated revenue melts or totally dis-' appears. But what is really infuriating, is the fact that to date we haven't enjoyed one winter "holiday" because the weather has shut everything down and that's no doubt the reason why you see so many grumpy people on the street these days as they look at the bare pavement. Come on, Mother Nature, give us a break! The British Small Animal Veterinarian Association is concerned with the dangers surrounding caged birds and no doubt many of our readers will join in that concern. Mother Nature promptly turned on the tap and sat there like a dowager having her Saturday evening soak, while we went through the wettest Oc- tober since Noah was around. I wrote another rather sharp column, demanding at least a few days of de- cent weather in hominally horrid November. Like the capricious Old trout she is; Mother promptly turned off the top, lit the fire, and we had a November of unprecedented sun and clear skies. I didn't dare demand anything for December. I was 'getting leery of the old witch's moods. Apparently sensing my queasiness, she threw in the ivorks; 12 inches of snow; warm rain; green grass; temperatures from zero to almost hot. Fickle wench, My grandboys came down froth the frozen north, braggipg about it, "The snow's right over my head, Grandad," and were kicked out into the backyard in their great cumbersome snowboots and great bulky showSuith to play in the grass. They could have gone out in shorts and fiddled with the hose, their usual July pastime My son arrived home from South America, expecting to freeze to death, blood thinned from five years in a tropical climate, was exhilarated by the snow, and a week later Was running around in a light jacket, claiming that it got colder than this in Paraguay. My father-in-law, after spending nearly half a century taking the rural mail on days when he'd set out in the morning with a horse and cutter and nobody knew when, or if, he'd get back, Slipped on a bit of ice this past crazy December and broke some bones. But don't worry. We'll all pay for this once-in-a-generation aberration of Mother Nature. As I write, It's just a .7)a- Toy bells have sharp hooky on which budgies can impale themselves; the birds can get their heads caught between the bars of the cage; and some have even been poisoned by fumes from an over-heated Teflon lined frypan. The shame of it all! However, the greatest danger to our feathered friends is still the domestic cat, and the BSAVA believes that if cats are neutered, their likelihood of consuming the pet bird is greatly reduced. Accordingly, the Association has in- augurated a service whereby, to use their words, they will "uplift, neuter and rehomex:" your cat fora small fee. That all sounds very good for the cag- ed bird population, but has anyone checked to see if the cats are in favor? * * * Here's an • update on last week's column about our associate in the next office and his continuing battle with the law over his seat belts. As mentioned, Ross has been stopped no less than five times to date, and on each occasion has been wearing the life saving apparatus. No sooner had that column hit the street than he was flagged down again by Cpl, Dave Woodward. • However, Dave quickly recognized his favorite target and had him back on the road with only a brief glance at the seat belts.. Yup, he was still wearing them. Did you ever think, Dave, that he may have a new style suit that is designed to' look like he's wearing seat belts? little nippy, sun shining, blue skies, and skeptical Canadians going around shak- ing their heads and muttering that, "We're gonna get it ones of these days." And they're right. I predict a January and February so cold it would freeze the boobs off a brass Monkey; a March with so much snow we won't be able to see the whites of anybody's eyes; and April in which we'll all be skating to work, because there Won't be any gas for our cars; a May like our usual March; a June with millions of black flies frozen to death in their embryo stage; and so on. And think of all the money and energy we'll save because we won't need any air-conditioning, Of course we might be burning our ffirniture to stay alive, but you can't take it with you, now can you? I think our grand piano, fed carefully, leg by leg into the fireplace, will last longer than the dining-room suite'we bought aeon* ago for $150. It sounds rather appalling, but there are solutions. One would be for the par- ty that Wahts to get into power in this country to simply promise to send everyone south. Just close up the coun- try for the winter, except for Ottawa, which might as well be closed anyway. They could send us all in cattle cars, as the Germans did the Jews. It might even put us in second running for the Chosen People. There is one other factor that could save the day. It is not only possible, but probable, entirely so, that the next few weeks in this country will produce so much hot air that we could all turn off our furnaces, open the windows, let it all flow through, let the grass green, and bewilder the daylights out of the birds that didn't fly south in October. By: Roger ii/Ortb A manufacturer in Wind- sor, Onterie, can't find a qua. fled millwright, even though the job pays more than $20,000 per year. Meanwhile, Albert* businesses are recruiting skilled trades people In Ontario, and Novi Scotia contractor could use two additional carpenters - if they were available, Even big companies like General. Motors have been forced to import specialized technicians from Europe. These are only a few ex, ample of the growing short- age of skilled labor that is creating major headaches for Canadian business. The paradox, of course, is that this labor shortage exists at a time when 800,000 or so Canadians claim they are un- employed. Roger Worth is Director, Public Affairs, Canadian Federation of Independent Business. What's gone wrong? Why haven't Canadians been trained to handle the kind of welt paying jobs that are now be- coming available. The simple answer is that governments have been short- sighted, spending heavily on higher education rather than concentrating on the skilled trades where opportunities now exist. 55 Years Ago Mayor J.A. Gregory of North Battleford, Sask. was in town in connection with the winding up of his late father's estate, Roger Northcott of Hay Township is in a low state of health, suffering from a severe heart attack. Water is scarce in the community. Some farmers are driving their cattle long distances to water. Creamery butter, 41,cents, eggs, extras .60 cents; eggs, seconds 35 cents; hog selects, 11 cents. 30 Years Ago Dr. Hugh Creech, son of Mr. and Mrs, R.N. Creech has discovered a drug for retarding cancer at the Institute of Cancer Research in Philadelphia. Mrs. Hanna Taylor of Exeter observed her 87th birthday Monday. Hon. Leslie M. Frost of- ficially opened the new Exeter District High School. Fifty-three young men of Exeter and community made application to form a Kinsmen Club Tuesday night at a banquet at Club Monetta. 20 Years Ago Huron Lumber Co. has been purchased by Beaver Lumber Co. Ltd., manager Dear Sir, There must be thousands like myself who repeatedly question our deplorable waste of energy. Strange the nearer we get to the truth, the less chance we have of getting publicity. Even recently on Bill Brady's program, the well known events concerning a man's effort to generate his own electricity Was discussed by the caller, who described how this person was fined for certain emissions and or con- travening those laws which have been instigated to protect Big Brother's monopolistic trends, Bill's comment "very interesting" sounded like an echo from a very well known comedy show. I would have thought an appropriate comment from a Blue Blooded Brady would have been one that contained a kw four letter words to show disgust with certain B's that are responsible for such dictatorial depredation. There are several in- dependant ways of finding Our home's requirements of energy needs. I am the in- ventor of a unit kpoWn as INEX which uses the source of wasted heat froth our present vehicles to increase efficiency by 80 percent or More Whilst using less of that fuel we call gas. But like many other ideas to conserve energy, those damned tentacles belonging to the tnonoplistic octopus L Mainstream Canada What's Gone Wrong?' (Z6>C,Y:WriDMQNT)rJ She did it again In many ways, the Problem arises asaresult of poor plow, Ring, and the shortage Is.going. to get worse as the country gets set to spend a whopping $200 billion on new investments in this decade. And while big business is certainly** feeling the pinch, smaller companies are caught in an even tougher dilemma, The 55,000 members of the ea, Indian Federation of Indepen, dent Business, for example, repeatedly rate Shortages of skilled labor as one of their top problems. Governments aren't totally responsible for the locket suit, able training programs. Bust* ness and labor have also been reluctant to co-operate on re- alistic apprenticeship pro, grams, forcing federal and prO, vincial authorities to set up training systems that in many cases bear little relationship to the job market. Nevertheless, all, is not lost. Crash programs to train spe* cialixed trades people are al- ready under way in someareas of the country and plans for more concentrated efforts exist. What's needed, though, is an added push. Unless Cana; diens are trained to handle skilled jobs, the tremendous, opportunities that present themselves in the next, decade will be diminished. A.J. Sweitzer announced this week. Harry Dougall was re- elected chairman of the Usborne Township school area board. Nearly 13,000 trees have been planted in the Ausable water-shed and the Pinery Provincial park by the Ontario Department of Lands and Forest, it was revealed, by. District Foreman , K. Reynolds this, week. The per-day public ward rate of South Huron Hospital has been raised from $11.50 to $13.35 it was announced by Supt. Miss Alice Claypole. Exeter PUC called' for tenders for construction of a filtration plant near its pump house beside the dam, 15 Years Ago Huron County. Council defeated a motion to erect a 75 bed separate wing, on present land at Huronview. Stan Frayne was elected chairman of Exeter's RAP committee at the group's first official meeting of the year. Monday. Also elected were secretary-treasurer C. M. Farrow; vice-chairman Ron Bogart. Mr. and MrS. Robert MacLean of Tuckersmith Township celebrated their 50th anniversary. will not allow any systems to be used until they have control of that system. We all know our govern- ment gets millions from gasoline and vehicle taxes and of course they favour the oil companies whb wish to boost prices in order to feather their own nest. The poor service station operator gets so many cents per gallon whilst our crafty government prefers to get a percentage of the dollar price. No wonder the Clarke government would have the oil companies use billions for exploraition of oil in Order to increase future costs. With so many 'Big Shots? and shareholders making a 'bomb' on oil, there is ho way they will allow their in- vestment to be threatened until the last &bp of the damned stuff is extracted from poor mother earth. Certainly many of us are making holes in their 'ship` but there are too many 'rata' on beard to fill those holes at the Moment. Thank God there are signs that they may be leaving li sinking ship in the neat future, because the people are waking up all around the world and I helieve that. Canadians will elect a government Wit don' t have any ties with the big cor- porations, If they elect the N. D.P. bur energy problems will only get better . and prosperity will improve without the contra of those damned investors. Fred Short ;