HomeMy WebLinkAboutThe Citizen, 1987-08-12, Page 4PAGE 4. THE CITIZEN, WEDNESDAY, AUGUST 12, 1987.
Editorials
Diversification needed
Though many critics have already questioned the
effectiveness of Prime Minister Brian Mulroney’s Western
Diversification program announced last week, no one can argue
with its intent.
Huron county residents can sympathize with the plight of
Westerners stuck in a boom and bust cycle. We too have an
economy heavily dependent on agriculture plus a couple of
major industries like Champion Road Machinery and the Sifto
salt mine in Goderich. We suffer when they suffer.
With agriculture in a bad way and predictions that we may be
stuck with many fewer farmers in the years to come, we must
concentrate on some diversification of our own. That’s why
moves like the formation of the Brussels, Morris and Grey
Industrial Committee last year and the move last week to form a
committee in Blyth to prepare information for the upcoming
1988 Opportunity Tour are so important.
We can’t afford to sit back and hope that businesses and
industries settle here. Any retail business that didn’t promote
itself wouldn’t show healthy growth against tough competition
that did promote and so a community can’t hope to prosper if it
fails to aggressively seek business while other communities are
promoting themselves.
We’ve got a lot to offer people even if we aren’t in the magic
“Golden Horse hoe' . We need to keep trying to sell those
assets like our lower costs, a healthy small-town lifestyle and
even our beautiful scenery.
But surveys show that most growth in employment comes not
from new businesses but from expansion of already existing
businesses. That’s why we should be a lot more appreciative
than we sometimes are of those local entrepreneurs who take
the risks that provide jobs.
There often seems to be a perverse part of human nature that
wants to see people who have ambitious ideas fall flat on their
faces. It’sinallourbestintereststosee peoplewho take
chances in our communities succeed. When people succeed
they create jobs which means more wealth in the community
and can even helppeople who don’t need jobs by such things as
increasing the value of the house they own.
So here’s to people like Robbie and Carole Lawrie in Blyth
whotookthechanceandthis week are opening their large
apartment project. Here’s to all those people in Brussels and
Blyth who have started or purchased existing businesses in the
heartening business expansion of the past two years. May their
most ambitious dreams come true because if they do, our
communities will benefit.
Ontario NDP on the rise?
The most astonishing event on the national political scene in
the past year has been the rise of the New Democratic Party to
first place in the polls. With that fact firmly in front of them the
other party leaders in the Ontario provincial election must be
looking a little warily at Bob Rae and his NDP.
There is cause for concern from the Liberals and
Conservatives. A week-end poll showed the NDP in second
place with the support of 31 per cent of the 589 voters polled,
already ahead of the Progressive Conservatives who have only
21 per cent and within hailing distance of Premier David
Peterson who has the support of a whopping 48 per cent of those
polled.
But the first week has showed signs that Rae might just sneak
up the middle. While Peterson and Conservative Leader Larry
Grossman grabbed the headlines, Rae went quietly along, not
announcing any major programs, just pointing out issues that
need addressed from the effect of free trade on farmers to safety
for workers to the shortage of daycare space.
Meanwhile Premier Peterson in a bouyant mood was happily
announcing policies and glad-handing from one end of the
province to another. The problem is sometimes he gets too
carried away and ends up sounding pompous and boastful such
as when he claims his government has the best record in the
western world in the last two years or he indulges his tendency
for saying things in the province are “world class’’. If he lets
this tendency to exaggerate get to him too much he may just
remind people a little bit too much of that great exaggerator
Brian Mulroney and he may lose some of the fantastic
popularity he now has.
It’s obvious to everybody, including Larry Grossman, that
the Conservative campaign is in trouble. Why else would he
resort in the first few days of the election to two tried and true
moves the Tories haul out when they see trouble: talk about the
Liberals ramming French down the throats of people and worry
about the socialist hordes taking over the province. This time,
however, he managed to make both charges at the Liberals
claiming Premier Peterson has a secret agenda to make Ontario
bilingual and saying he was worried about the leftward lean of
the Liberals. He’s trying hard to hold onto the paranoid
rightwing of his party if nothing else.
As Peterson and Grossman hurl charges at each other Rae,
plodding along quietly, might just find himself in the position of
Ed Broadbent on the federal scene: the quiet, steady guy
people turn to when they’re tired of everybody else.
The difference is that for Peterson, unlike Mulroney and
John Turner, it’s not too late. If he gets back to that feeling of
quiet sincerity he projected when he first took office, the one
that won him his tremendous popularity, he has little to fear. He
needs most to learn when to keep his mouth shut.
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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
Society. Since not fust everyone can
partake of these deliberations we
will report the activities from time to
time.
MONDAY: Tim O’Grady was
depressed this morning after
reading a little article in the paper.
It took years, he said, to get rid of
the image of the 70-year-old Swede
who was fitter than the average 40
year old Canadian but thanks to the
fitness craze we finally sent him
back to Sweden.
But this morning, he said, he
was reading about a 100-year-old
Japanese who climbed Mount Fuji,
the highest mountain in Japan.
Now not only are we going to have
to feel insecure because every
thing we buy from stereos to cars is
made in Japan but somebody’s
likely to start ads saying we’re not
as fit as a 100-year-old Japanese.
Who can argue, Tim said, when he
..finds it hard just to climb out of bed
in the morning, not climb moun
tains at any age.
TUESDAY: Ward Black was say
ing he hopes things soon change or
we’ll be stuck with five years of
David Peterson and the Liberals in
power in Ontario. Hank Stokes said
you never know: the New Demo
crats might pull up and win yet.
That’s a remark usually guaran
teed to give Ward a stroke but he
said he wasn’t so sure it would
make much difference. He’d
heard, he said, that Joan Smith,
the Liberal candidate in London
South was wearing red running
shoesin her campaign. Like the
rest of the Liberals “ that’s her true
colour but she’s wearing running
shoes so she can sneak up on us,’’
Ward figured.
WEDNESDAY: Thetalk around
the table this morning was about
the incident in the ball game where
Joe Niekro, the pitcher was tossed
out of the game because the
umpries found he had an emery
board and a piece of sandpaper in
his back pocket. They accused him
of marking up the baseballs he
pitched so they’d do funny things
whenhepitchedthem. Poor Joe
said he just kept the emeryboard to
file his fingernails and kept the
sandpaper in case the emeryboard
got wet.
Billie Bean said that obviously
was a lie. As spoiled as major
league players are these days With
people to do everything for them,
who would believe a pitcher would
do his own nails. The club would
probably have to hire a manicurist
for him.
Hank figured that might be a
new marketing ploy for the teams.
Most parks seem to have a shapely
girl intight shorts sit down both
Continued on page 28
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