HomeMy WebLinkAboutThe Citizen, 1988-02-10, Page 4PAGE 4. THE CITIZEN, WEDNESDAY, FEBRUARY 10, 1988.
Opinion
Decisiveness doesn't
have to mean
bad manners
The leadersof the Huron county women’s organization
Women Today may not get the grant they were seeking when
they appeared before Huron County Council last week but they
probably got enough anger from their reception to keep their
organization fighting determinedly for the next 10 years.
In fact, if the women could have taken a tape recording of the
reaction of two of the county councillors (who weren’t
contradicted by the other 25 or so present) they might have
ammunition to convince federal and provincial government
authorities even more money must be poured into Huron
County to protect women from such male chauvinist behaviour.
There were reasonable doubts about the funding request.
Colborne Reeve Russell Kernighan, for instance, questioned
how he could support a grant for Women Today when in his
township the Women’s Institute had been doing good work for
years and never needed a grant.
But then the embarrassing silliness began when Stephen
township Reeve Tom Tomes got up and said his daughter had
been involved in a women ’ s group at high school until ‘ ‘ she saw
the light”. He went on to say he noticed there were few men in
the video presentation the women had just shown and
wondered ifthegroup would be willing to accept male tax
dollars.
Later it was the turn of Robert Fisher, Reeve of Zurich to give
the impression men haven’t become much more sublte than
when they used to use clubs to win arguments with women.
Filling in a recent grant application, he said, he had found a line
at the bottom that said preference would be given to native
people, women and franco-phones. Equality doesn’t exist for
women? he said. It is the poor white, English-speaking male
that is the underdog in society. He joined Reeve Tomes in
hoping no money was given to the group.
Fair enough if the councillors felt they couldn’t support the
group. Fair enough if they felt they had to be honest and stand
up and say they couldn’t support that grant. But surely even if
you don’t believe in the aims and objectives of an organization,
county councillors can show enough maturity and civility to
treat people politely when they appear before council.
When fair-minded people listen to strongly feminst groups
talk they often think they are going too far in their depiction of
men as anti-women. Then you listen to men like Reeves Tomes
and Fisher and you wonder if the women are right and millions
should be pumped into supporting feminist groups.
Distance makes
the head grow foggy
There were plenty of red faces among the ranks of the Tory
blue in Ottawa last week over the resignation of yet another
cabinet minister who bit the dust. The question that might be
asked of the constituents of some of these ministers, however,
is why they elected these members in the first place.
There is much talk about small communities and how
everybody knows everybody else’s business and there are
times when it is true. One of the times when that can be good is
when it comes to electing people to offices.
There are two parts of every political office-seeker: the paper
figure that can be constructed in official biographies or
30-second television clips, and the real person that those in
regular contact with the person know. It is easy to fool people
with the paper figure. It’s hard to pull the wool over the eyes of
people you meet day to day.
On paper Michel made a super candidate for the
Conservatives in Quebec. He was handsome, charming,
well-known, had an impressive background as an accountant
with one of the country’s top firms. Yet by the time the axe
finally fell last week, some of those close to the scene in Quebec
City had been wondering how he held it all together as long as
he did.
As our population continues to grow but the limits of the
number of people we can elect to the House of Commons
remains relatively stable, it is inevitable that there will be more
mistakes in who we elect to the Commons. As ridings get larger,
both in terms of the number of constituents and, in rural areas,
in the vastness of the territory covered by the riding, the
possibility to know the real candidate diminishes. More and
more we must choose our M.P. on the basis of the paper figure:
on how the person looks on television, on how he or she speaks
at meetings, on how impressive the biography looks.
If we, at the local level, don ’ t elect the best people because we
don’t know enough about them, then how can a prime minister
have the best people to choose from for his cabinet. A
democracy in trouble at the grassroots level will also be in
trouble at the top.
LOOKS GOOD MIKE,
LET'S GOWOH AN
ELECTION BUC&ET!
MIKE
WILSON
FINANCE
Confessions
of a life
of crime
BY KEITH ROULSTON
You won’t catch me being
among those demanding the head
of Marcel Masse on a platter for
being investigated by a quasi-judi-
ciai body. Marcel, I’ve been there.
Now it can be told. For two years
I, and The Citizen, have been
underthethreatofaction by the
Ontario Securities Commission. It
began, I suppose, back in the days
when The Citizen was being
organizedin the late summer of
1985. It seemed like a good idea at
the time to have local people in the
community own the newspaper.
Local people seemed to think it
was. Offerstobuy shares in The
Citizen flooded in. The first thing
we knew we had over 80 sharehold
ers. The problem, our lawyer
and our accountant told us, is that if
we wanted to be classed as a
private company, if we didn’t want
to have shares listed on the stock
exchange, we had to have fewer
than 50 shareholders.
Meanwhile we had the paper
started and we had that 15 minutes
offame Andy Warhol talked about.
Somebody thought it was interest
ing how we had got the paper going
and wrote a story for a local daily
newspaper. Canadian Press
thought the story was interesting
so they put in on their wire service.
Newspapers across the country
and as far away as Florida and
Arizona thought it was interesting.
CBC and radio stations as far away
as Alberta called to do stories on
the paper.
The problems really probably
began, however, when the Toronto
Star and, more importantly, the
Globe and Mail thought the story
was interesting and ran the story.
Important people read the Globe
and Mail. Particularly people
involved in big business and the
regulation of big business.
It was during the rush of the
week before Christmas, 1985 that
the telephone call came from
Toronto. The lady said she was
from the Ontario Securities Com
mission and did we know that we
were in violation of this regulation
and that regulation and we could
have all our bank accounts seized
and be ordered to cease operation
(she didn’t say we could be thrown
into the dungeon and stretched on
the rack but it sounded like a
definite possibility). It was a very
merry Christmas at our house in
1985.
Our sin was that we offered
shares for sale without giving
investors a proper prospectus. The
OSC has brought in regulations
against such things so people
won’t swindle gullible investors by
selling them worthless moose
pasture and claiming it’s full of oil
or gold or is going to be developed
into quarter million dollar resort
condominiums. The trouble is an
approved prospectus costs $30,000
to $40,000. We were only trying to
raise $30,000 in the first place.
We tried to argue that we didn’t
really have to go out and sell the
shares that most of the investors
came to us. We tried to argue that
in a small town 47 shareholders
Continued on page 39
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