The Citizen, 1988-05-25, Page 4PAGE 4. THE CITIZEN, WEDNESDAY, MAY 25, 1988.
Opinion
Costs out of control?
For those who believe in universal access to free public health
care, this is a time of crisis.
Despite one of the biggest tax increases in history the Ontario
governmentis being blasted by hospital officials and the
opposition New Democrats for being too cheap in funding
hospitals. Health Minister Eleanor Caplan has told the dozens
of hospitals across the province that have run up a deficit, that
there won’t be any special funding to bail them out. The
hospitals cry foul, saying they’re expected to do more and more
without an appropriate increase in government funding.
The answer for many critics of the health system will be at
least some form of user fee, if not outright abandonment of the
free health-care system. Without some sort of market force in
medicine, they’ll argue, there can be no efficiency. If hospitals
can goon growing, taking in more and more patients, and
asking the taxpayer to pay even more in taxes, the system is out
of control. Only market pressures can cap the costs.
It would be a shame if the universality of our health care
system is lost. There are few countries in the world that have a
better system than Canada but everyone from politicians to the
health care workers to hospital managements, must be aware
that there are problems that cannot continue to go unsolved.
We must find a way to continue to give good, accessible health
care without bankrupting the country. The will must be there on
everybody ’ s part to get together and come up with the solutions
before drastic actions like user fees are thrust on the system by
public pressure.
Maybe the bad guys
just have long memories
With the economic summit coming up in Toronto and Prime
Minister Mulroney making the rounds in Europe to try to make
sure things are set up for the summit to run as smoothly as
possible one of the most likely summit topics, agricultural
subsidies, is on the front pages of newspapers again.
People who live with subsidies in so many aspects in their
lives from urban transportation to education are able to join in
common cause in one belief: there are too many subsidies in
agriculture. Never has so much been written by so many who
knew so little.
There is one comfortable way Canadian politicians and
editorialists can join in the anti-subsidy war cry without
seeming either anti-farmer or anti-American: blame it all on the
Europeans and Japanese. Although the Americans give huge
trade-distorting subsidies to their farmers, we can still point
out that it was the Europeans who started this whole madness.
We acknowledge the Canadian government gives huge
subsidies but, lest we be too tough on our own farmers, point
out the Japanese subsidies are many times higher.
The Europeans and Japanese make easy, distant targets and
there is no doubt they are among the worst culprits in
agricultural subsidies and trade distortions. The Europeans
have mountains of excess farm products. The Americans are
angry with the Japanese because they won’t allow cheap
imports of American beef into their country.
Does anyone stop to ask why it is the Japanese and
Europeans that are most likely to support their farmers with
government money? Could it be that leaders in both areas have
long, bitter memories of just what it is like to be short of food?
Living on a tiny, crowded island the Japanese know how easy it
would be for them to have to depend for all their food on foreign
sources. The European nations can remember the hunger after
the Second World War and don’t want to be caught in that
position again.
Along with territory and energy security, food security is one
of the greatest causes of wars. It is strange that many of the
same people who support Star Wars project in the U.S. or the
strengthening of the armed forces in Canada, are those who
argue most against subsidies for food and in favour of free trade
that would see countries stop producing many kinds of food
they can’t grow as cheaply as they can import it. While they
worry about being vulnerable because of not having enough
weapons, they would make their country vulnerable because it
can’t produce the food it needs.
Food has been used as a weapon before. Napoleon tried to
shut off the supply of food to Britain nearly 200 years ago to
starve his enemy into submission. The U.S. has used food
embargos to try to make the Soviet Union change its policies.
While subsidies to keep countries ’ food supply secure are too
high, they can’t even touch the amount spent on armed forces to
keep territory secure. What’s more the money spent by
governments on agriculture has a much bigger ripple effect
than spending on the armed forces.
Food subsidies are not good. They distort international
markets and they make farmers feel like charity cases instead of
proud businessmen. But given the alternative between being
vulnerable to food black mail and spending money on food
subsidies, most governments will spend the money.
Relaxing in the spring sun Pho‘0Dorene <ardlff
Letter from the editor
A legend
is lost
BY KEITH ROULSTON
One of the nice parts of this job
(as opposed to late nights, smoke-
filled rooms and pressing dead
lines) is the wonderful people you
gettomeet. One of my favourite
people I’ve met through the job
died the other day and the world is
an emptier place.
Jack McLaren was one of those
individuals who makesyou look
forward to retirement. While many
people worry that retirement is the
end of the best part of their life, for
Jatk it was just the beginning of an
exciting new phase of a lifetime
filled with adventures. He moved
to Benmiller from Toronto and
worked harder than ever in his
“reitrement”, getting up every
morning and painting for hours,
then spending the afternoon mak
ing frames and framing his
paintings. For Jack, retirement
was a chance to do full-time what
he had always had to do in
spare time while he pursued a
living in his Toronto advertising
business.
Jack was a legend. He served
with the Princess Patricia’s Light
Infantry in the first World War and
was part of the entertainment
troupe that helped keep up the
spirits of the troops. After the war
he signed on with another army
entertainment group, the famous
Dumbells, that toured entertain
ing civilians all across Canada and
even on Broadway.
He was a member of the Arts and
Letters Club in Toronto and
through that met legends like the
painters of the Group of Seven (he
painted with them) and Dr. Fred
Banting.
The stories the man could tell.
Talking to him was like getting the
insiders view of a huge piece of
Canadian history. People who
were only names in books came
alive.
He could tell you stories of life in
the First World War, then skip to
tales of how a performance of the
Dumbells had to be delayed
because the troupe had trouble
getting to a small B.C. town by
riverboat. It makes it so sad to lose
not just the man, but the memor
ies. It’s the kind of loss that has led
the Huron County Historical Socie
ty (for which Jack designed the
Society’s logo) to inaugurate a
program of trying to tape record
the memories of many of our
senior citizens so we can have those
stories for future generations.
But Jack was not just an old man
who lived in the past. He was
thoroughly modern. He was for
instance, a long-time supporter of
the Blyth Festival, having his work
shown in the gallery several times,
contributing use of a painting for
one of its most popular posters, and
attending many performances of
both plays and music events over
the years. It was easy to tell when
he was in the theatre because
instead of applauding, he would
Continued on page 8
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