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HomeMy WebLinkAboutThe Citizen, 1990-11-07, Page 4PAGE 4. THE CITIZEN, WEDNESDAY, NOVEMBER 7, 1990. Opinion. It’s worth a try The level of cynicism in Canada at the moment is such that even when Prime Minister Brian Mulroney does something good like appointing the study team to examine Canada’s future, many people start doubting his motives. The group of 12 that will tour the country to hear what ordinary Canadians have to say about the future of their country is a good idea. Whether Mr. Mulroney really wants to listen to the results or is simply buying time remains to be seen. In the meantime, however, Canadians have their chance to get their two-bits worth about their country’s future. This is the very opposite to the Meech Lake process in that it is bottom-up, not top-down, planning. While 11 members of the political elite tried to reshape Canada behind closed doors under Meech, 12 Canadians (and not a politician among them) will look at our future with hearings from coast to coast. It may be too little, too late. While this group is meeting, another group is meeting in Quebec that no doubt will either recommend separation for Quebec or a reshaped Canada that will make the unpopular Meech agreement look good by comparison. Even if Mr. Mulroney’s commission does come up with refreshing ideas for change, how to get those changes into a constitution at a time when we’ve got constitutional grid-lock will be very difficult. But the problems come later. For now Canadians should be telling Keith Spicer and his group the kind of Canada they’d like to see and hoping that when all the ideas come in the country will have a new direction to turn to. Remembrance and war Canadians face Remembrance Day 1990 knowing they are closer to being in a shooting war than at any time since the Korean war in the early 1950’s. The possibility of war in the Middle East gives new pause for thought this Remembrance Day. It has been hard for Canadians to take this new threat of war seriously. We have some forces in the Middle East to hold back Saddam Hussein but the force is small enough that few of us actually know anyone involved. It isn’t like the two World Wars where everybody had relatives, friends or neighbours involved. The war also seems so far away. For 40 years we lived in fear of a war that would end our world, raining nuclear bombs and missiles on our own cities. After all that, it’s easy to look on the threat from Iraq being just another skirmish in a far-off part of the world. It isn’t of course. It has the possiblity of being a nasty war that the allies might not be able to win as easily as they would like. Based in the powder keg of the Middle East there’s no telling what might be touched off once the first shot is fired. Since it is Remembrance Day, what does remembering our past wars do to understanding of this possible future one? U.S. President George Bush, among others, likes to draw parallels to the Second World War. Hussein, like Adolf Hitler, is a madman who must be stopped, Mr. Bush says. We can’t afford to appease him as we did with Hitler or we’ll pay a similar price. If he’s right, then the obvious lesson is that we must be prepared for war if it’s necessary to drive Iraq out of Kuwait and shatter the power of this wildman who endangers world peace. The problem is many people aren’t sure Mr. Bush is right. Perhaps the First World War is more the model for the situation where an endless web of political manoeuvering backfired and turned a relatively minor incident into a catastrophe that claimed millions of lives. It seems obvious that if our leaders have learned one thing, it is to respect the horrible consequences of war and not toplay with the lives of others. While right-wing hawks have clamoured for Mr. Bush not tobe a wimp and get on with the war, he and other leaders have been determined to try as long as possible to let economic blockade and diplomatic pressure make Iraq pull back. At other times and w*ith other leaders we might already be at war and our young men (and, this time, women) could be dying terrible deaths under chemical warfare. As we mark this Remembrance Daywecanonlyhopethatthe attempts for a peaceful solution are rewarded and thousands of lives can be saved for more peaceful jobs and raising families rather than snuffed out in a senseless war. Fall frolic 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 everyone can partake of these deliberations we will report the activities from time to time. MONDAY: Tim O’Grady was ask­ ing Julia Flint this morning how she felt about the story in the paper that newspapers short change women in their coverage. A survey showed that there are too few stories about women and too few stories by women. “I don’t know about the writing part but I’m just as glad women don’t get more coverage in the papers. After all women aren’t starting the wars, aren’t commiting the murders, aren’t throwing tem­ per tantrums in the Senate and aren’t polluting the water and air. Since only bad things make the news why should we want to be in the news more?” TUESDAY: The folks were talking this morning about how they’d get dressed up for Hallowe’en if they were going out with their kids. Hank Stokes said he might dress up like a ghost, representing all the farmers who have disappeared from the land. Billie Bean said that for comic relief he might dress up in a Toronto Maple Leaf uniform. Tim said he might dress up as something really scary: a GST tax collector. WEDNESDAY: Hank said if he was Prime Minister Mulroney he might decide to do something less dangerous like go to Iraq rather than have to sit around Ottawa and listen to the flack that comes out when the auditor general makes his annual report. ‘‘You can almost feel sorry for poor old Brian when every nitwit idea of any nitwit in the whole civil service gets blamed on the government. I said almost.” Ward Black said Ken Dye must be finding the job hard work nowadays. ‘‘After all those years when he hardly had to work at all to find scandals with Liberal govern­ ments, he’s having to search a lot harder to find little things the Tories are doing wrong. I mean he’s reduced to wondering if the armed forces know what they’re doing when he used to wonder if anybody in the government knew what they were doing.” Julia said Mr. Dye must be the most expensive comedy writer in the world. ‘‘I always laugh at the stupid things he turns up until I realized how much it’s costing me.” THURSDAY: Ward was noticing the story in the paper that they’ve drilled the first small hole connect­ ing the English and French workers digging the tunnel under the English Channel. ‘‘I wonder if they know what they’re doing,” he Continued on page 6 The Citizen P.O. Box 429, BLYTH, Ont. NOM 1H0 P.O. Box 152, BRUSSELS, Ont. 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