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HomeMy WebLinkAboutTimes-Advocate, 1985-03-06, Page 4Page 4 Times Advocate, March 6, 1985 Times Established 1871 Advocate Established 1881 • Amalgamated 1924 s tt imes Published Each Wednesday Morning at Exeter, Ontario, Second Class Mail Registration Number 0386. Phone 519-235-1331 NOM ISO ►CNA LORNE EEDY Publisher JIM BECKETT Advertising Manager BILL BATTEN Editor HARRY DEVRIES Composition Manager ROSS HAUGH Assistant Editor DICK JONGKIND Business Manager SUBSCRIPTION RATES: Canada: $23.00 Per year; U.S.A. $60.00 C.W.N.A., O.C.N.A. CLASS 'A' Worth investigating The matter of police overtime costs has fostered periodic debate at Exeter council in recent years and members of the committee should perhaps be looking at the success en- joyed in that regard by the Petrolia police department last year. In that community, .the overtime hours were reduced from 765 hours in 1983 to only 264 in the past year. The saving to the town's coffers was a substantial $9,810.21. Petrolia Police Chief Bob Brooker attributes much of that reduction to the fact that the department's secretary was sworn in as a special constable and assumed most of the court work. As members of the local council know, most of the overtime hours worked by members of the depart- ment are for court duty. If the Petrolia move was only made last Ju- ly, that means the reduction was recorded in only six months. Over an entire year, the cost reduction would be even more phenomenal. It is a system that appears worthy of further investigation. Intolerance decried Huron County Board of Education to rned down a recommendation to develop criteria for a late French im- mersion program in grades 7 and 8 at their February meeting: In a prepared statement to tthe board trustee Frank Falconer told the bo re_ it•IL w ich way you vote, but remember one thing, who won the war between Wolfe and Montaclm". Falconer, a trustee for the Clinton area, went on to comment when the taxpayers of Tuckersmith and Clinton area elected a Scot to the board "They were sure they were not going to get French "Immerge' with his vote". Such prejudice is unfortunate but especially so when it comes from a person elected to serve on a public body such as a board of education. Canada has two official languages. Mr. Falconer would do well to remember that even though the English won the war, and although their intentionsd were to assimilate the French, the constitution was drawn up with -two official languages. As citizens of Canada where there are two official languages, it is becoming increasingly necessary to be fluent in the two languages if one is to Strike has The last thing anyone needs or wants is a postal strike, par- ticularly those of us whose business depends to a con- siderable extent on the postal department. However, true to the old adage that it's an ill wind that blows no good, the possibility of a postal strike would have one positive aspect in that it would reduce considerably the high cost of run- ning the office of Prime Minister Brian Mulroney. Although he has been warning Candians frequently about the need for belt tightening, and even suggested during his successful election campaign that cutting the cost of government would get top priority, he apparently has set himself above those who need to practice restraint. In the federal spending estimates tabled last week, Mulroney had $6.7 million set aside for his own office expenses. He plans to increase the staff by about one-third. The cost increase is a whopping 54 percent more than big -spender Pierre Trudeau spent in his last year in office when he was blasted by opposition leader Joe Clark for spending millions on a "small elite" in the prime minister's office that were gut- ting the decision-making power of cabinet. If Joe has some similar thoughts about his own party leader's extravagance, he's persue career choices. It is to the ad- vantage of all children whether they plan to spend their lives in Huron County or net to be as fluent as possi- ble in French. It could open oppor- tunities for them in their future careers. m e o. vtous advantage of a second language be it French or any other language, such intolerance for another language and culture is bigotry of the most blatant form just as slurs against any person for their religion, colour or race is prejudice. Surely there are many people in Huron County who are not only tolerant of different cultures and languages but appreciate that it is the differences in our heritage that make Canadians a rich and colourful mosaic. It is the Scot, German, French, Japanese, Italian and African origins of our people which makes our country vital and interesting. It is time for the silent majority of Huron, who are ashamed of such pre- judicial comments as those made by trustee Falconer, to speak out and make sure their opinions also make the headlines of the county's newspapers. Lucknow Sentinel one advantage naturally keeping them to himself. In defending the 54 percent in- crease, a spokesman said tht much of the added staff increase was needed to keep up with the Batt'n Around ...with The Editor correspondence being received by Mulroney and his wife. So, if a postal strike does come to fruition, it would be assumed that most of the staff could be laid off as the correspondence dwindles. In defending his office ex- penses. Mulroney fell into the normal trap of trying to explain it away be noting that it was a very small part of the overall government spending estimate. "You're talking $6 million out of a budget of $106 billion," he advised. That indeed may he considered small potatoes, but that $106 Killion is made up of all those $6 million expenditures that can equally be considered a small part of the total . But they make up the total. nevertheless. When people run into problems with their personal budgets, the reason can often be found to be in the fact that they failed to realize that the dollar spent here and tlie dollar spent there were adding up. The same thing obviously hap- pens with governments, although it is the failure to realize that the million spent here or there has contributed to the overall problem. How many other expenditures were included in the $106 billion without much consideration because they were a very small part of the total? Clearly, if the Prime Minister expects Canadians to consider seriously his message for budget cutting and restraint, he'll have to provide a moreacceptable ex- ample himself. A 54 percent increase for his of- fice expenses does not fall in that category, particularly when many of those being added to the staff are there to develop political strategy to ensure the Pro- gressive Conservatives and their leader will remain in power. Ironically. they gained power. through an overwhelming man- date from the voters to streamline government and get the country out of the financial mess in which it was carried by the over -spending habits of their predecessors. A concerted effort to fulfill that mandate has not been forthcom- ing as yet. Serving South Huron, North Middlesex & North Lambton Since 1873 Published by 1.W. Eedy Publications Limited In some mess Boy, the world is in some mess today, isn't it? With two world wars in this century, and the oceans of blood shed in them, not to mention the limited wars in Korea and Viet Nam, you'd think mankind would come to its senses, sit back and say, "Hey, chaps. enough is enough. Let's sit back, cultivate our own gardens, and have a few centuries of peace and friendship. Let's relax a lit- tle, try to make sure everybody has at least two squares a day, stop burning up irreplaceable energy, and make love, not war." Not a chance. All over this planet people are starving, shooting, burning, blowing up, raping, mutilating, and demonstrating, all in the name of some non-existent ideal, such as freedom, or nationalism, or languages, or religion, or color. And nobody is making a nickel out of it all, except the purveyors of weapons. All over the world, in vast areas of Asia, Africa and South America particularly, there are probably 300 times more refugees, orphans and just plain starving people than there were at the beginning of this century of enlightenment. World War I, with its millions of dead, produced a bare decade and a half of peace. It also signalled the beginning of the end of the fairly fair and benevolent British Empire, allowed the beginning of the massive interna- tional communism, and by its punitive peace terms, laid the foundations for World War II. That one produced as little, or less. It vaulted Russia and the U.S. into the great confrontation that has been going on ever since. It wrote finis to the British Em- pire and reduced that sturdy peo- ple to a drained, impoverished, third-class power. It split Europe down the middle between two philosophies, communism and capitajlsm. It launched on the world the final weapon by which mankind could write kaput to his own species. Has it smartened anybody up? Not exactly. Today we have Ira- nians beating on Kurds, Chinese glaring at Russians, Cambodians hammering Laotians, blacks fighting blacks all over Africa, Jews and Palestinians toeing off, dictatorships in South America, India in turmoil, revolution in Central America, Irishmen blow- ing up each other with giddy abandon, old Uncle Tom Cobley and all. We don't seem to learn much, do we? The united Nations, a no- ble idea, conceived with a touch Sugar &Spice Dispensed by Smiley of the greatness man can aspire to; is a joke, albeit an expensive one, merely a political sounding - board for every new pipsqueak nation that wants some publicity, along with plenty of foreign aid. The U.S., which emerged from W.W. II as a great, powerful and wealth nation, has been terribly weakened, chiefly by its external affairs policies, or lack of them, and the meddling in foreign af- fairs of the notorious CIA. It had its shining moments: the Marshall Plan to put devastated Europe back on its feet; Ken- nedy's showdown with Kruschev over the Cuban missiles instal- ment; an attempt to make a bet- ter deal for blacks in their own country. But these were flawed by other events and attitudes: the backing of right-wing dictators around the world; the loss of face in Korea; the treatment of Cuba ; the med- dling in the affairs of other na- tions; the fairly indiscriminate supplying of arms to anybody who could pay for them ; and finally, the abortive, badly - burned -fingers mess of Viet Nam. At home right now, the States has growing inflation and unemployment, belligerent blacks and hardline unions. Abroad, "it has lost a great deal of credibility, and seems to be pushed around by anybody who has plenty of oil. American imperialism is com- ing home to roost, and there are a lot of vultures among the roosters. Cuba is an out -spoken enemy. Mexico, sitting on a huge oil deposit, is cool, considering past grievances. The Philippines are gone. Japan and Germany, the losers in W.W. II, are the win- ners in the economic war. The U.S. dollar is no longer the inter- national monetary standard. The Panama Canal is going. But let's not forget the tremen- dous power that lies in that great, half -stunned nation of the Western hemisphere, the U.S. of America. The giant may be slumbering, having nightmares, twitching in his sleep. But he's far from dead. There is still a great, latent vitality in the States. With strong leadership, and a renewed sense of purpose, the Yanks can make a tremendous comeback, as they have proven more than once. For our sakes, they'd Netter. Despite what our ubiquitous na- tionalists blather, Canada is riding on the coat-tails of the U.S., and you'd better believe it. If they suffer, we suffer. If they bleed, we hemmorhage. Let's not give it away: our gas and oil and water and hydro power. Let's trade shrewdly. like a Yankee. But let's not get mean and stingy and narrow, either. Let's be neighborly. For the simple fact is, that if Canadians get all upright and righteous and miserly, refusing to share, they could walk in and take over this country and help themselves. And nobody. nobody in the world, would lift a finger to stop them. End of sermon. Coming up short If you are one of the little folks around you've probably heard about all you want to ever hear about how nice it must be to be missing all the bad weather up here and how neat it is to be the last one to know when it's raining. Since I happen to be married to one of the under five -footers. I've managed to store up a few of the better one-liners. Whenever somebody reassures her that at least good things come in small packages I usually retort, "Yeah but so does poison," and when I hear the one above about the rain I come back with, "Sure, sure but By the Way by Syd Fletcher who's the first one to know when there's a flood and who gets all the breaks on low -hung doors and those sailboats that don't have standing room for 'normal' peo- ple. Then again that- line probably went over your head didn't it. dear. She reminds me of all the famous people who were short like Napoleon and Elizabeth Taylor and the chances to gel in to places for half-price and if that doesn't shut me up remarks "Be quite or I'll bite your ankle I haven't thought of a good one for that yet. but I'm working 111 it. v