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HomeMy WebLinkAboutHuron Expositor, 2009-07-29, Page 4Page 4 Juiy-29; 2009 • The Huron Expositor Opinion Proprietor and Publisher, Bowes Publishers Limited, 11 Main St., Seaforth, ON, NOK IWO We need local control of - ecx�nomy In some ways it is difficult to believe it was a mere 20 years ago that the Canadian Prime Minister Brian Mulroney rammed. Free Trade down the throats of his fellow countrymen and women. To be fair, there were many economists that lauded its benefits. There were promises of lower prices and better- s products and jobs in developing. nations. Opponents of Free Trade, meanwhile,' saw dark days ahead. The Canadian Autoworkers Union, for one, saw r' an end to its Auto act, which ensured that at least a ortion of the vehicles sold on Canuck soil were ac ly there, too.s?'�yt^n �.,F Y�iSa •.� J�»r y'.7oj;C+ f �'w' >.: ' '�v .,tics of Free 'frade f'cresaw other"thin:gs, like a class service -sector, he that paid little and offered even less y of benes and uy of life f forward to years later and it's.,,to see both < grade's critics and boosters undersold thethefull rami - .of it. c. -- . themost nervous of Nellies did not project the , tele job t > ton wtould o l; +I ce. minting- gi lam' green light to scam er ���715'ere � 's nether rape. sears: workersofthat would toily > peanuts in rete r products of question- al : ' ty wh +l�h, in turn, u dergo the costly ship ding pias back to North America since, ironically, wor i evelo� . � Ates stall can't afford �c Large >; ox stores have s itcasfully managed to obliterate even the most bustling of downtown cores, continent -wide. The promise was greater variety for lour prices but the reality reads more like questionable quality and dwindling, variety now that the competition.: 4t' ; has been successfullydic, �1.., Anall that, in a nutshell,` is why" tee aade doesn't work. After all, to be successful, the multinationals in charge of the show would have to be manned by the sweetest, ;}f ost well-meaning and empathetic Chief Ex- ecutive • $ cers on this earth with, naturally, only the best intentions at hem. LOL, yes? Now, fortunately, dere are some grassroots -level push - backs against the g 'ain. For one, there are agriculture - based movements designed to urge people to shop local- ly. And, there are much larger movements, including in the U.S. where Ptesident Barrack Obama is &sting for a Made in the 'U`SA plan as a way to stop the bleeding of U.S. jobs. One can only hope that such trends continue since mass-produced goods and services promote little more than mediocrity in terms of both goods produced and jobs created. And, perhaps more ironically, Free Trade has fed the idea that everyone, everywhere, should consume and purchase the same goods and services. That is indeed a strange concept when one considers capitalism is about competition. -- The News -Record Your Community Hemmer U .1110 Publisher - Dave Sykes Editorial and Business Offices - 11 Main Street., Seaforth Ihlephone (619) 627-0240 Fax (519) 527-2868 Mailing Address - P.O. Box 69, Seaforth, ON, NOK 1WO Visit our home page at C www.eeaforthhuronexpositorcom CCanadi QUEBKOR MEDIA WE ACKNOWLEDGE THE FINANCIAL SUPPORT OF THE GOVERNMENT OF CANADA, THROUGH THE PUBLICATIONS ASSISTANCE PROGRAM (PAP), TOWARD OUR MAILING COSTS." I'm not proud of my inability to 'parle Francais' .after trip to Montreal I have always admired and envied those talented people who can speak more than one language. I've envied those who grew up in an environment where learning two or more languages came naturally because of their multilingual parents. And, I've admired those who've done the hard work of learning a sec- ond language, investing in those challenging opportunities to immerse themselves in an- other culture. But, despite the fact that I live in a country with two official languages and have a German last name thanks to a great grandfather who immigrated to Canada over 100 years ago, I remain, sadly, unilingual. -Living and working in Southwestern Ontar- io, it's not really a major issue - in fact, there are very few opportunities I've encountered to speak anything other than English. But, a recent vacation to Montreal made me realize my inability to speak a second language is a deficiency I'm not really too proud of. Oh, we 'got along just fine speaking only English in Montreal - everyone was accom- modating and friendly, easily switching over from French when it became obvious that we couldn't understand them. While it's a community where there are daily opportunities to speak both French and Eng- lish, the week we spent in Montreal made me marvel at the ability of most. people to switch easily back and forth between both languages. And, I truly admired those store clerks who had obviously learned both of Canada's official languages after immigrating from a country Ron & Dawe bark nights at camp Hey Ron...did your hear a noise? What if there's a lion out there, or a tiger? Lions live in Africa, and tigers live in India. There aren't any within 5,000 miles of here. Susan Hundertmark where they'd spoken neither - like the kind gentleman at the gas station who was speaking Chinese on the phone before re- sponding to us in first French, then English when we got lost in Longueuil - and in excellent English gave us easy directions back to the route we needed to find our campground. The experience made me wonder what would happen to someone from Quebec who decided - as we did - to explore another province but didn't know how to speak English. How many of us in Seaforth would be able to take an or- der in a restaurant or respond to a request for directions in French? The more encounters we had in Montreal, the more frustrated I was that I wasn't able to have a basic conversation in French and frankly, didn't have the courage to make a blundering attempt at it with any vocabulary I remembered from high school. While I took French in school from Grade 7 until Grade 13, I will blame my teacher in Grade 13 "conversational French" class for my inability to "parle Francais" with any confi- dence after he told me I had the worst French accent he had ever heard. After learning that embarrassing fact in front of my classmates, I was more than a little reticent to strike up a conversation in anything other than English ever again. Maybe it's time to get over that adolescent scar and give it another try. Because, after enjoying the shops and the sidewalk cafes of Rue St. Denis, Montreal is definitely a place I would love to visit again. Whew, that's a relief. Now 1 con go to sleep. by David Lacey Of course the woods are crawling with bears • SUBSCRIPTION RATES: LOCAL - 38.05 a year, in advance, plus G.S.T. SENIORS: - 36.14 a year, in advance, plus G.S.T. Foreign: 38.05 a year in advance, plus $195.00 postage, plus G.S.T. U.S.A.: 38.05 a year in advance, plus $99.84 postage, plus G.S.T. 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