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HomeMy WebLinkAboutThe Citizen, 1986-02-26, Page 4PAGE 4. THE CITIZEN, WEDNESDAY, FEBRUARY 26, 1986. Examining gift horses When communities have been starved for development and wondering if they have a future, it is easy to understand that they can be so grateful when a developer shows them attention that they'll grab at anything. There was understandable rejoicing and relief on the part of the Brussels village council last week when the much -delayed sale of the Queen's Hotel finally went through. Councillors were in equal parts happy to have the old building off their hands after more than two years ownership, have a derelict building removed from main street and to have a large new supermarket on main street. There's the old saying about looking gift horses in the mouth but perhaps council could at least have taken a peek at this one. The reason is that, since the entrance will be off the side street, the entire main street side of the building will be one long, windowless wall. Brussels main street may lose one eyesore to be replaced by another one. There are valid reasons for the developer to have the entrance on the side of the building, close to the parking lot. Modern grocery stores also can't afford to lose wall space to windows. And no one is suggesting that the council should have jeopardized the deal by making expensive demands of the developer. But imagination isn't expensive. Council, while it still had some clout before issuing a building permit, could have made suggestions to the developer that he find some imaginative way to break up that mass of blank wall in a way that would add to main street, not detract from it. One of the main assets of any community is the appearance of its main street. An attractive main street makes a good impression on potential businesses, industries that might locate and people who might be thinking of moving into the community. While it's understandable that council is anxious to attract development, it must also take a long-term view that means they don't sacrifice the long-term health of the community for short-term gain. Gassing high prices Everytime they watch the little digits whirl by as the gas gets pumped into their cars, Canadians grumble and grouch about the high cost of gasoline in Canada at a time when prices are falling worldwide. But in the long -run, cheap gas can be a double-edged sword. Cheap transportation can distort markets, helping the big get bigger and hurting the small. A recent television program on agriculture in Newfoundland, showed that Newfoundland farmers have a hard time competing against vegetables brought all the way from Nova Scotia. Canadian lamb producers find New Zealand flying chilled lamb half -way around the world and landing it in Canada as cheap or cheaper than Canadian -produced lamb. Once local communities had their own cheese and butter factories to process milk and cream from local farms. Today the milk is shipped often half -way across the province, processed and sent back to us. On the face of it, all this doesn't make sense either economically or in efficient use of resources. But cheap transportation has made it common. Often cheap transporta- tion can hurt as much as it can help. The politics of fear One of the most devastating charges free trade advocates have levelled at their opposition is that those who are against free trade deal in the politics of fear. These people, the advocates say, try to persuade people they should be against free trade with scare -tactics; talking about how the Americans will make us change our social programs and how hundreds of thousands of jobs will be lost. Yet taken aback by public opposition, the government and other free-traders have found their own best argument in promoting fear. When Agriculture Minister John Wise spoke to Huron County cattlemen recently he said that if Canadians don't seek free trade, the protectionist sentiment in the U.S. may mean we lose the market for Canadian cattle and hogs in the U.S. altogether. Graham Hedley of the Ontario Cattlemen's Association backed him up with a lengthy presentation showing how dependent Canadian cattlemen are on the American market. The problem with this argument is that free-traders aren't answering the criticisms of what we have to gain by free trade. They're saying we've got to risk giving up Canadian autonomy just to keep the markets we already have. They can say, as Mr. Wise does, that the deal has to be good for Canada or they won't accept it or as Mr. Mulroney does that some things like social policies or cultural policies aren't negotiable. However, with the credibility this government has built up over things like patronage, who wants to take a chance on believing them? If Wise and Mulroney and friends want to convince us that we should embrace free trade, they'd better give us real examples of where we can gain, not just scare us with what we may lose if we don't go along with them. WHEN 1 TO/ -JJ +"�oa131E To PUT HIS PRoBI EMS ON -TviE B ACKBOARD, I DSP`'T MEAn1,'/To MUCN HoMEcJDRK, NOT Not ) -1 N �}LLoW4NC�, oR „MOH SIA -SES cu i J MY l'cnal 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. Since not just everyone can partake of these deliberations we will report the activities from time to time. MONDAY: Hank Stokes was talk- ing this morning about the post office's plan to get rid of its deficit. First of all they stopped Saturday mail delivery to people in the cities, then said they had to stop rural mail delivery on Saturday because it was giving rural people an unfair advantage over city people and now they're stopping delivery to some post offices on Saturday. The next step is closing all post offices on Saturday and then they can start working on Friday. They can sell the four-day week at first on the good employee relations with the postal carriers in the cities. Then they'll be able to start the whole thing over again: cutting off Friday mail delivery to the rural people because it's unfair because city people don't get delivery. Then closing post offices and so on. At the rate things are going the post office should be able to drastically cut the deficit, Hank figures. By the time they stop delivering mail altogether and force everyone to use courier services, they should have cut the postal deficit to only $100 million or so. TUESDAY: Julia Flint says she figures the East Germans have come up with a real answer to the soaring costs of military spending. Seems there is speculation that all those guards in towers along the Berlin Wall aren't really guards at all but dummies. This helps them cut costs and they concentrate their real soldiers on the guard towers back in the first line of defence against escaping East Germans. Ward Black said it's a wonder Trudeau didn't think of an idea like that, he was so bound on cutting defence costs. Hank Stokes said he probably did but the military didn't follow orders. They figure having one dummy in Sussex Drive was enough. ButJulie argued thatthe East Germans have come up with the real solution to the arms race. "After all," she says, "Reagan and the others keep talking about the need for a deterent factor, something that will scare the other guys into not starting something. If they think there are soldiers and missiles and tanks, there's no need for real ones. You've just got to do a better job of keeping your dumm- ies secret." "Wouldn't work," Ward Black says. "The thing that scares the heck out of the Russians more than the real weapons is the amount of .money Reagan spends on them. If the defence budget suddenly came under control, they'd know some- thing was up and wouldn't be scared anymore." "I don't know if Reagan's military spending scares the Rus- sians," Hank says, "but it sure as hell scares me." WEDNESDAY: Billie Bean says he figures there's one thing about this part of the country, what with all the railway crashes lately. Since they took away most of our railway service years ago, we don't have to worry about getting in the road of one of those trains when they go off the track. FRIDAY: Getting back to the question of saving us from nuclear war, Julia says as long as they put the same crew on fueling rockets that fueled that cruise missile out west that ran out of gas, we don't have anything to worry about. They'll never hit their targets at all "Yeh," says Trim O'Grady, "the Americans will be safe from the Russians and the Russians will be safe from the Americans but us poor Canadians in between will get hit with the missiles of both sides when they run out of gas." Blyth's World Day of Prayer March 7 at 2 p.m. "Choose Life in its Fullness" is the theme that will bring all Blyth churches together for the 99th World Day of Prayer. This is a time for all faiths to join together in worship and celebra- ion. This year the World Day of Prayer Service will be held at the United Church on Friday, March 7 at 2:00 p.m. Special guest speaker is Sister RetaCayneofGoderich. For the past six years she has taught at St. Mary's School in Goderich and now is assisting with the pastoral duties at St. Peter's Parish in Goderich. She is truly an example of "living life in its fullness." The United Church is in charge of the service with all the other churches assisting. Special music will be presented by the Christian Reformed Church. Babysitting will be available and lunch will be served. Citizex [640523Ontario Inc.] Serving Brussels, Blyth, Auburn, Belgrave, Ethel, Londesborough, Walton and surrounding townships. Published weekly in Brussels, Ontario P.O. Box 152, Brussels, Ont. NOG1H0 887-9114 P.O. Box 429, Blyth, Ont. NOM 1H0 523-4792 Subscription price: $15.00; $35.00 foreign. Advertising and news deadline: Monday 4p.m. Editor and Publisher: Keith Roulston Advertising Manager: Beverley A. Brown Production and Office Manager: Jill Roulston Second Class Mail Registration No. 6968