HomeMy WebLinkAboutThe Citizen, 1987-07-22, Page 4I’ \GE 4. THE CITIZEN, WEDNESDAY, JULY 22, 1987.
Opinion
Thanks anyway
Il was nice that Hank TenPas got sonic pleasant moments
among his last duties as Reeve ot Brussels when he took part in
the village’s successful Homecoming celebrations. That will
give him some happy memories of a job that too often brought
him anguish.
There's little to be gained from rehashing forever the
happeningsofthelast20 months of councilexccpt tosay that no
one can blame the Reeve for finally deciding that it wasn’t worth
the danger to his health and to the happiness of his family that
the worry of his job was doing to him.
Even in the best of times serving the public is a stressful,
often thankless job. Adding to that is the fact municipal
politicians now must make a commitment for three years. If, as
Mr. TenPas or Hullett councillor Harvey Stewart found out,
they aren’t happy with the way things are going, they can no
longer just wait for the term to end for their own sake must leave
in mid term. Knowing the mess this causes their municipality
must also put stress on councillors deciding to quit.
Mr. TenPas has served his community for many years, not
just as reeve but as councillor before that. He’s had a sincere
commitment to serving and he deserves the thanks and best
wishes of the community.
Best wishes also go to the new reeve, Gordon J. Workman,
another man who has served his community through several
terms on council. It’s to be hoped that his stay as reeve will be
more enjoyable to him than was Mr. TenPas’.
Somewhere a Tory smiles
The stunning victory of the NDP in three wide-spread
by-elections Monday confirms the polls that show thatthe party
is picking up strenth daily as people seek an alternative to the
leadership of Brian Mulroney and John Turner.
The news is all bad for the Liberals who failed to gain even one
of the seats and even worse for the Conservatives who lost two
seats they did have.
But for one Tory there is a silver lining to the dark cloud. Party
President Bill Jarvis may have to increase that goal for the fund
he’s been raising to help keep the dastardly socialists from
taking over the country. With the scare these victories have
given them, corporation presidents will be forcing money into
his hand to prevent that fate worse than death: an NDP
government.
Cutting off our noses
The displeasure with the performance of Canada Post is so
strong, following the recent strike by letter carriers and with the
potential strike coming up by inside workers, that the Canadian
pubLc seems ready to strike out at the organization no matter
what the consequences.
The Town of Wingham for instance, is circulating a
vaguely-worded resolution calling for more private involve
ment in the post office. When the resolution was discussed by
Blyth Council it was decided that this probably meant such
options as franchising the post office. The Blyth council, which
routinely files most such resolutions from other councils
without much discussion, unanimously agreed on this one. One
councillor said that maybe the post office would be franchised
like McDonald’s and that would be a good thing.
Would it?
The privatization practices of this particular government
have been to sell off crown corporations to huge, often
multinational corporations. If a company such as McDonald’s
did operate the post office, what would we in small communities
get?
Take a look at the policy McDonald’s already has. They won’t
even set up a franchise in a community of under 5,000
population (it used to be 10,000 until they ran out of new
markets to expand into). If a profit making corporation took over
the post office, how long could we expect to have service like we
have in Blyth or Brussels or even Wingham. It wouldn’t be
profitable enough for the people in the Bay Street (or even Wall
Street) boardrooms.
Even if, for the sake of being able to offer a national service,
the private corporation maintained post offices in places as
small as Blyth, and Brussels what about Belgrave and Bluevale
and Walton and Auburn and all those other villages. What
about rural delivery? Would people in the country have to drive
miles to get their mail? Would we go back 100 years in the kind
of service we are offered by the post office?
Yes, the post office is a mess. Yes, we’re fed up with strikes
and with high-priced union workers who seem to be
specializing in screwing up the system. Yes we can’t feel sorry
for them or for an even more inept management system. But
let’s not cut off our nose to spite our face. Let ’ s not take a chance
on ruining the good local post offices we do have in a vague hope
of straightening out the mess in city post offices.
Mabel’s Grill
There are people who will tel! you
that the import an t decisions in town
are made down al 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. Since not just everyone can
partake of these deliberations we
will report the activities from lime to
time.
MONDAY: Ward Black was saying
he was going to be sorry to see the
televising of the Contra hearings
end. He’s taken to watching
television almost as much as his
wife usually watches soap operas,
hesaid. Meanwhile she’s upset
because Ollie North and the boys
keep pre-empting her shows.
Julia Flint said that from what
she hears the U.S. television
networks will be glad to see the
hearings over. People are glued to
their television sets but the
networks are losing a fortune
because unlike the soaps and other
regular programs, there aren’t any
ads.
Tim O’Grady said that that just
proves the point that Ollie North
said when he accused the Con
gressmen of being less than
patriotic because, after all, this is
not the American way. If they were
true-blue Americans the Con
gressmen would have scheduled
time outs to accommodate televi
sion commercials every 15 min
utes.
TUESDAY: Julia was saying that
when Jessica Hahn was learning
the Bible she must have learned
about the “wages of sin” and took
it literally. Julia was reading about
how Jessica was holed up in a hotel
in New York writing the story of her
affair with Jimmy Bakker that she
expectstoselltoPlayboy, Pent
house or Esquire magazine. As if
that isn’t enough, her lawyer
figuresshe’sgoodforbook, and
movie contracts that should be
worth $2.5 million.
Hank Stokes says he figures
there would be a lot of working
ladies on the streets of New York
that must be green with envy.
Billie Bean says Jessica should
be a new American hero for her
entrepreneurial ability. First she
gets paid big money to keep quiet
about the whole thing, now she
gets paidevenbigger money for
blabbing about it.
WEDNESDAY: Tim was saying he
may have to polish up his image
and presentation if the govern
ment goes along with the recom
mendation to allow television
cameras in the court room. You
never know who might be watch
ing, he says. Maybe somebody
from Hollywood who would make
him the next Perry Mason.
Julia said the whole prospect of
courts on television was kind of
frightening. They’re already
showing Parliament on television
which has totally destroyed the
integrity of one branch of govern
ment and now if they televise the
courts and we find out the lawyers
and judges are just as big a jerks as
the members of Parliament, peo
ple may turn, not just to the NDP,
but to the communists for salva
tion.
THURSDAY: Hank said this morn
ing that he can remember when
having royalty come to Canada was
a big thing because it happened
once every 20 years or so. Now, he
says, we just got rid of Prince
Edward in time for Prince Andrew
and Princess Sarah. It might be the
fastest way to get people sick of
royalty and move toward a republic
ifwehavethemhanging around
too much, he said.
Ward said he thought it was nice
to have royalty here. In fact, he
said, he thought it would be nice if
we had our own royal family.
Julia thought there might be
promise in this. After all, the
British seem to have more royalty
than they know what to do with and
the press over there seems disgus
ted lately with the actions of Sarah
and Andy so maybe we should just
adopt them as our own. We could
call them refugees from press
persecution.
FRIDAY: Hank was wondering
this morning why it’s taking so long
to process all those refugees that
got off the boat in Nova Scotia.
What questions could they possi
bly be asking that would take so
long to get answers for.
Billie said he heard they were
looking into whether any of these
people had connections to terror
ism.
Tim said he had it on good
authority the order for all the
questioning came down from Brian
Mulroney himself. Given the state
of things in this country he wanted
to know for sure which way these
people leaned politically. If they
seemed likely to vote NDP or
Liberal, kick them out quick. If they
might vote Conservative, bring
them in and give them instant
citizenship. Hecoulduseall the
help he could get.
LOW WATER LEVELS REDUCE
GENERATION
Generation at hydro-electric sta
tions in northwestern Ontario is
down almost 30 per cent this spring
because of a lack of rainfall and
above normal evaporation.
Due to the loss of about 400,000
megawatt-hours of electricity nor
mally provided by water power,
Hydro must rely on other sources of
generation to meet local needs.
These include interconnections
with Manitoba and the southern
part of the province, as well as
coal-fired generating stations in
Thunder Bay and Atikokan.
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