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Home My WebLink AboutThe Citizen, 1989-08-16, Page 4PAGE 4. THE CITIZEN, WEDNESDAY, AUGUST 16, 1989. Opinion No questions asked Canadian companies are on the auction block and foreign buyers are lining up to grab off as big a chunk of the Canadian economy as they can. Still, the financial experts tell us, don’tworry, it’sallforthe best. Already this year more Canadian businesses have been bought up than a year ago and the year’s barely half over. The giant Falconbridge is being bid for. Consolidated-Bathurst, the forestry giant has been bought out and even Canadian Pacific has been rumoured as an American takeover target. One analyst speaking on the CBC business show Venture, the other night, said Americans are eyeing Canada because they’ve bought up just about everything else except Japan and they’ve found out they can’t get in there. But, another business leader said on the same show, the universe is unfolding as it should. Nationalism, he said, has no place in business. Nationalism breeds inefficiency and cheats consumers out of the savings they should get from bigger and bigger economic units. Another Canadian business leader said it’s the money that counts, not who owns the company. Obviously then, Canadians are foolish to worry about a little thing like the security of our energy supplies or other essential services. What does it matter if the future of these supplies is decided in a boardroom in New York of London? There’s a nagging question though. If security is a foolish concern for a country, why is it that so many of the reasons for companies to get bigger and bigger has been the quest for security for the multi-national company: security of the supply of raw materials, security of having a ready supply of investment capital, security of not being too dependent on one kind of business. If the owner of the business doesn’t matter, how come so many companies fight so hard to maintain their independence in the face of hostile takeovers? And, one wonders, if these business leaders think it’s fine for Canadians to live in what amounts to a rented country, how many of them live in rented homes or how many like the security of owning their own home (even if it’s just a piece of air several floors up in a condo apartment?) The current government, however, is happy to see the current rush in foreign investment after advertising that Canada was “open for business’ ’ several years back. It will be up to future Canadians to see if we got the business instead. Dispose of our own gar W/, Canada’s record as a country caring about the environment took a beating at least in a few parts of Great Britain last week as British dockworkers sent two cargoes of Canadian PCB-contaminated soil packing back to Canada. Canadians like to see themselves as likeable people (we urge each other to wear maple leaf pins when we travel to distinguish ourselves from Americans) but we can hardly see ourselves as the guys in the white hats on this issue. Just imagine if the shoe was on the other foot and someone from Britain or the U.S. was trying to send toxic waste into Canada for disposal. Imagine how it must seem to the people of Pontypool, Wales to see 3600 tonnes of PCB waste being shipped from a huge country like Canada for disposal in their crowded little island. The shipping of the wastes to Britain is j ust another case of passing a rather big, dangerous buck. The age old way of getting rid of a problem is to push it into somebody elses backyard, far enough away to be safe for us. Yes, these PCBs are a mess but if Canadians created the problem, they should find a way of solving their own problem, not pushing it onto the people of a country an ocean away. It happens so easily It’s been a tragic week locally. One young man finally succumbed to injuries from a traffic accident late last month. Another, just 16, is killed in a traffic accident. A mother is seriously injured in a fall in a farm accident. Families are troubled all over our area because of these tragic incidents. Nothing can change that. But for the rest of us maybe realizing how easily these accidents can happen, can prevent more suffering. You don’t have to be stupid. You don’t have to make big mistakes. It only takes a split second of things getting out of control to bring about tragedy. We should all have respect for the potential dangers all around us. Misty morning Letter from the editor Sixties memories BY KEITH ROULSTON Pardon me if I don’t join in all the fond reminiscing going on in the press these days about the 20th anniversary of the Woodstock rock concert. I missed Woodstock. In fact I think I missed the sixties. To look back on it, Woodstock was an amazing event with half a million people crowded into a farm field in the rain for three days. It’s amazing they even survived be tween the garbage and the fact they clogged the roads so they couldn’t even get food into serve the people. Still, I don’t think Woodstock is quite as important in the history of mankind it’s being made to seem this week. The arrival of Christopher Columbus in North America seems small by comparison. Maybe the second coming would take second place if you listen to all the hype about Woodstock. Back in August 1969 I not only wasn’t at Woodstock, I don’t even remember hearing about it. I was about as far physically and men tally from Woodstock as I could be that summer. Newly married, I was spending my first (and last) sum mer sweltering miserably in the heat of downtown Toronto. I was, for one of the only times in my life, putting on a suit and tie every day and going to my first post-gradua tion job. (My boss was so impress ed with the importance of a tie that one day when I forgot one, he sent me home to get it). I can see how I missed Wood- stock with all this happening but missing the whole sixties genera tion thing seems a bit harder to do. Bruce county farm boy though I was, I was ideally located to get involved in this whole “counter culture’’ stuff. I was going to school in Toronto, only blocks from Yorkville and Rochdale college and working on the student newspaper: Continued on page 6 The Citizen P.O. Box 429, BLYTH, Ont. NOM 1H0 Phone 523-4792 P.O. Box 152, BRUSSELS, Ont NOG 1H0 Phone 887-9114 The Citizen is published weekly in Brussels, Ontario, by North Huron Publishing Company Inc Subscriptions are payable in advance at a rate of $17 OO/yr ($38 00 Foreign) Advertising isacceptedon the condition that in theevent of a typographical error, only that portion of the advertisement will be credited Advertising Deadlines Monday, 2pm - Brussels, Monday, 4pm - Blyth We are not responsible for unsolicited newscripts or photographs Contents of The Citizen are © Copyright Serving Brussels, Blyth, Auburn, Belgrave, Ethel, Londesborough, Walton and surrounding townships. Editor & Publisher, Keith Roulston Advertising Manager, DaveWilliams (*CNA Production Manager, Jill Roulston Second Class Mail Registration No. 6968