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HomeMy WebLinkAboutThe Citizen, 1986-03-05, Page 4PAGE 4. THE CITIZEN, WEDNESDAY, MARCH 5, 1986. r 0 Alml Rectors are doctoring reality While it is easy enough to support the Ontario doctors' desire not to be ordered around, it is a little harder to support the amount of fuss the issue is getting when there are other problems around. While the doctors are getting gallons of ink, for instance, the tragedy of thousands of Ontario farm families continues, virtually ignored by the mass media. It's old news. So doctors, with the highest income of any professional group, protest for the right to be able to charge more than the regular amount allowed by OHIP. With their talk about freedom, however, the doctors have a selective memory. If they want true freedom. for instance, perhaps we should increase the number of people allowed to enter the medical profession, and turn the profession into a truly free market system. Since the doctors profess to want to have higher fees so they can spend more time with patients, perhaps some of the people turned away from medical schools now because of restricted enrolments would be willing to sacrifice some of the extra income in order to spend more time with their patients. Doctors and all self-regulating professions, like to have the best of both worlds. They like to control the entrance standards and thus keep numbers of their profession to a level that guarantees a high income. They like to set minimum fee schedules and in some cases, discipline those who undercut the schedule. They like to set codes of conduct for their professionals to the point at which they and not society in general, are the final arbiters of proper behavior. Ontario doctors are subsidized in their education, to a far greater extent than American doctors whom they like to point to as examples of free enterprise. In the U.S. tuition alone for a medical school can be $18,500 a year. There are few government loans or grants so a doctor can expect to owe $100,000 to the bank by the time he graduates. How many of our current doctors would be earning their high incomes if they'd lived by those rules? While the doctors have tried to paint the Peterson government as intransigent, they themselves have refused to negotiate without a guarantee the government will drop its legislation. The trouble for the doctors is that they're in a battle that will be tough to win. The longer they argue, the less support they're likely to get from a public who begin to look at doctors' income and at the average income of other mortals and wonder why they should have much sympathy. The Peterson government may also in the long run be hurt by the appearance of stubborness. Both sides have a lot to gain by softening their positions and sitting down to talk. Departure of a passionate Canadian Perhaps Jean Chretien had outlived his time. He was a man of passion at a time when people seemed to want cold calculation of the bottom line. He was a man who cared passionately about Canada at a time when we're being told instead that larger markets and larger profits are what really counts. Perhaps he should have read the signs of the changing times when he lost out to John Turner at the Liberal Party leadership convention two years ago. People said basically "We love you Jean but we're going with the bottom line. We think, we've been told again and again, that John Turner can win and we're going with the winner." Of course Turner wasn't a winner and in retrospect, Chretien although he would likely have lost too, wouldn't have delivered up Quebec at least to the Tories like Turner did. Now comes the irony of ironies. Turner, who left the Trudeau cabinet and whose spectre has been in the background for years, now will have to likely hear all those rumours of an eventual Chretien return someday in the future. Here's hoping there isn't too much of that kind of talk. Chretien has been a political scrapper, but he's had the reputation of an above -board, honest man. His resignation brought to an end, at least temporarily, all those rumours of his supporters trying to undermine Turner. Still, even if there is never another time for Jean Chretien, here's hoping there's a time soon for someone else with his kind of spirit, the kind of driving passion for the country, who knows the measure of a country is more than the Gross National Product or the unemployment rate. "Of course, / owe this award to the little woman!" (tr rdlle world view r � 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. Sinccnotjusteveryone can partake of these deliberations we will repert the activities from time to time. MONDAY: Tim O'Grady was saying this morning that every- body is looking for increased efficiency these days even when it's pretty hard to get more efficient. For instance, he said, an hour is only so long and it's hard to make it stretch. He figures the guys on late night sports shows are doing their part. They're talking so fast these days they can almost squeeze an hour's worth of talking into a half-hour show. Next, he predict- ed, they'll have guys who talk so fast you'll have to record them on your VCR and play them back in slow motion to understand what they're saying. TUESDAY: Ward Black was say- ing thateither there are a lot of liars out there or there are some real fools running the investment houses. Listen to people talk, he says, and you'd think they're all about able to qualify for welfare but he's been looking in the papers and half the ads these days are for trust companies trying to lure people to invest with them. Somebody must have some cash. Hank Stokes said all these people who claim they're so hard up but listen to them squeal if there's an income tax increase in the budget. Lots of years on the farm he'd have been happy to have any income to be taxed, he said. WEDNESDAY: Billy Bean had another one of his schemes to make the town grow today. Now some people are building retirement homes for senior citi- zens so he figured we should build a retirement home for unwanted dictators. "I mean," Billie says, "there's poor Baby Doc looking for a home and for his wife and his $100 million or whatever he took. The way his wife spends on clothes, she could single handedly make the local clothing store owners weal- thy. Then there's Marcos and they say he took $5 billion with him. That could do a bit for the local economy. He'd need a couple of new mansions and that would keep the builders going and he'd need lots of staff and a few body guards. And just think what the taxes would be on one of his houses." THURSDAY: Julia Flint was talk- ing about the big dispute over separate school funding this morn- ing. "Isn't it funny," she said, "how so many of the same people who claim that we need competi- tion in the market place to keep the costs down in everything else, say that having two school systems is a waste of money?" FRIDAY: The budget got a going over of course the last couple of days. Billlie Bean said if they keep taxing the "sin" products like Any opinions? Does anybody out there have an opinion? One of the pleasures of the early weeks of The Citizen was the steady string of letters to the editor on a wide range of subjects. That stream has dried up and letters are virtually extinct these days. One of the benefits of a community newspaper is in provid- ing a forum for opinions and ideas from people in the community. It makes the community stronger and provides a livelier newspaper as well. The Citizen welcomes letters to the editor. All letters must be signed but, if the subject is particularly controversial, the writer may use a pseudonym when liquor and cigarettes, soon people will start giving them up and how are they going to find a way to tax clean living. Julia says she always feels a twinge of guilt when she hears about these taxes because she's just not pulling her weight. She uses about five or six bottles of wine a year and has never touched a cigarette so she feels downright unpatriotic for not doing her part to reduce the deficit. Ward Black says in all his years in politics he's only seen two things that everybody agrees on: they all agree government spends too much and that government should cut spending by cutting programs that effect everybody else but them. the letter is printed in the paper. Get those pens out and get that frustration out of your system. 4*ir r LAI riaTter SERVING THE HANDICAPPED tg Cfti,zen 1640523 Ontario Inc.] Serving Brussels, Blyth, Auburn, Belgrave, Ethel, Londesborough, Walton and surrounding townships. Published weekly in Brussels, Ontario P.O. Box429, Blyth, Ont. NOM 1H0 523-4792 P.O.Box 152, Brussels, Ont. NOG 1H0 887-9114 Subscription price: $15.00; $35.00 foreign. Advertising and news deadline: Monday 4 p.m. Editor and Publisher: Keith Roulston Advertising Manager: Beverley A. Brown Production and Office Manager: Jill Roulston Second Class Mail Registration No. 6968