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HomeMy WebLinkAboutThe Citizen, 1990-06-20, Page 4PAGE 4. THE CITIZEN, WEDNESDAY, JUNE 20, 1990. Where's the leadership When a country most needs it, usually some leader arises to show the way. So what’s happened to Canada? Not only have we suffered through the Meech Lake mess in which the so-called leaders of this country reduced Canada to its warring little parts rather than the glorious sume of those parts, but we face an economic crisis in which everyone says “ do as I say, not as I do ”. Last week, for instance, Michael Wilson blamed unions and large pay hikes for the current high interest rates. Workers must reduce their pay increase demands to below the increase inflation before interest rates can be reduced, he said. And of course ordinary Canadians must just swallow the higher costs the Goods and Services Tax will bring and not try to make up the difference in pay increases or the country will be in trouble. We should know that song by now since both Mr. Wilson and John Crowe governor of the Bank of Canada have vowed to fight inflation to the last little guy in the country. In the meantime, however, the credibility of Mr. Crowe has been reuined by word that his salary has increased by three or four times the rate of inflation in each of the last few years. Recently Senators voted themselves a high per diem rates on top of their ample salaries to try to encourage more of them to actually show up and do their jobs in the Senate. In sports you often hear about some players leading by example: not giving rah-rah speeches but going out and playing hard and showing teammates how it’s done. In politics we seem to have the opposite, leaders who tell people one thing, then go and do the opposite in their own lives. The best thing Michael Wilson could do if he wanted to make Canadians believe he’s serious would be to roll back his own salary and persuade his Conservative colleagues to do the same (in which case they might shame Liberals and NDPers into going along). John Crowe, if he really wants to get Canadians’ attention could give back those secret pay increases. Senators could show their leadership in convincing Canadians to improve their productivity in convincing Canadians to improve their productivity by going to work without added incentive. These efforts would cost the high-priced politicians little since in their tax bracket they don’t get that much from their pay increases anyway. For ordinary workers, however, the difference between recovering the cost of inflation and what Mr. Crowe and Mr. Wilson would have them accept, can mean a difference between being able to pay the bills and not. Unfortunately we have leaders today who don’t believe in leadership by example. They seem to think tough speeches full of veiled threats will bring people to heel. It just doesn’t work that way. Ironic situation There’s a delicious kind of irony in the threat posed to the passage of the Meech Lake constitutional accord by Manitoba’s native community. Manitoba’s lone native MPP, supported by the Indian community around him, has been putting procedural delays in the way of introducing the Meech Lake amendments into the Manitoba Legislature. With the deadline for ratification on Saturday, it seems impossible for the amendments to now get through the public hearings necessary in time for the legislation to pass. The native community is stubbornly sticking to its guns because it feels that its concerns as a distinct society were totally ignored in the Meech Lake compromise. There have been promises to look at the concerns of natives, women and others in the next round of constitutional reform but with the requirement for unanimity of all provinces and federal government, the native leaders worry there may never be reform again. The irony is that the native Canadians who now endanger the passage of the accord Quebec wanted to protect its distinct society, are even more distinct than Quebecers being here before any of the Europeans arrived. Their society is far more endangered too, spread out as it is over the huge landmass of Canada. There’s irony too in the fact that Prime Minister Mulroney apparently deliberately created a sense of crisis by leaving negotiations until the last moment and now the country may pay for it. It would have been so easy for all the premiers to agree to extend the deadline for ratification of the constitutional reforms but they didn’t want to let up any pressure on Newfoundland or Manitoba. They were afraid thatwith too much consideration there might be second thoughts. It would be ridiculous to have yet another constitutional crisis if the procedural wrangling in Manitoba delays passage of the amendments. What was agreed last week should still be agreed next week. If the accord isn’t passed by Saturday everybody should simply agree to give it more time. Anything else would make this whole farce even more tragic than it already is. Photo by Jeannette McNeil Cruisin' 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 So­ ciety. Since not just every one can partake of these deliberations we will report the activities from time to time. MONDAY: “So,” Julia Flint asked on this morning, “did you go to the big bull fight on the weekend.” “Nah,” said Hank Stokes, “1 just watched it on television.” It took a couple of minutes for Julia to get it straight that she meant the Portugese bullfighters and the politicians both. Billie Bean said it didn’t bother him so much that all the leaders of Canada were locked in a room for a week without us really knowing what was going on. “What bother­ ed me was that somebody let them out.” TUESDAY: Ward Black said it was really heart warming to see the story in the paper about the woman who had got her university diploma at age 100. Well, said Hank, who admits he never liked school, “I’ll go back to school if I live to be 100 too.” Maybe, Tim said, there’s some­ thing to learn from all this. Maybe our politicians might figure out they can still learn something no matter how old they are and not figure they have all the answers. WEDNESDAY: Free trade seems to be breaking out all over, Ward was chuckling as he looked in the paper this morning. The dollar will overcome everything, he says. Take a look at the protest in the Philippines. Rebels have been kill­ ing off American servicemen at the big bases out there but there’s one segment of the local population that wants the killing to stop. “Bar girls” have seen their business drop right off since the killing started as the troops are confined to base so the women carried out a march to protest their countrymen killing off the Americans and their business. “No wonder the Ameri­ cans think the American dollar can buy anything,” he said. THURSDAY: Hank says he’s been wanting to buy more land but with the farm economy the way it is he can’t. But with today’s big rain he’s been getting it for free as his neighbours land all washes onto his property. “It’s even preseeded with beans,” Hank joked. “The only problem is the dirt and the beans are sitting on top of my corn. ’ ’ FRIDAY: Billie was saying he’s^ glad Canadians aren’t very good at soccer. At least then we don’t have our people over in Italy making fools of themselves getting into riots. Yes, said Tim, whoever said the English were stodgy when you see the hundreds of them getting thrown into Italian jails. Maybe the world has found a new alternative to warfare, Ward says: The World Cup. The Citizen P.O. Box 429, BLYTH, Ont. NOM 1H0 Phone 523-4792 P.O. Box 152, BRUSSELS, Ont. NOG 1H0 Phone 887-9114 The Citizen is published weekly in Brussels, Ontario by North Huron Publishing Company Inc. Subscriptions are payable in advance at a rate of $19.00/yr. 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