Loading...
HomeMy WebLinkAboutTimes Advocate, 1991-05-01, Page 4Page 4 Times -Advocate, May 1, 1991 Publisher: Jim Beckett News Editor: Adrian Harte Business Manager: Don Smith Composition Manager: Deb Lord Second Class Mall Registration Number 0386 5UBSCRIPTIQN RATES: CANADA Within 40 miles (65 km.) addressed to non tetter canter addresses 630.00 paw 62.10 O.S.T. Outlsde 40 mites (65 km.) or any tetter carrier address 630.00 pia* 630.00 postage (total 660.00) plus 64.20 G.S.T. Ovtslde Canada 668.00 • • pinion T Walkathon wondrous he string of people stretched as far as the eye could see along Huron Street and out to- ward Usborne Township. It was hard to believe that this was only the first year Audrey and Steve Skinner organized a walkathon in mem- ory of their daughter Stephanie who died after a liver transplant operation last year. The support for the Skinners was evi- dent in each and every one of the nearly 350 people who took 'part in the walka- thon. Even more support will be com- ing in over the next few weeks as those pledges are collected and those dona- tions to the Childrens Hospital of West- ern Ontario go out. All in all the event served as a poig- nant reminder of how volunteerism and charitable contributions are going to be playing larger parts to our lives as gov- ernment support of our favourite causes and institutions fails to meet the need. Here's hoping the walkathon returns next year. A.D.H. But it's only money I is unthinkable that a provin- cial government would even dare to put forward a budget in which it plans to spend $9.7 billion more than they take in. Unfathomable, unpardonable, uncon- scionable. That's 9.7 billion. And unlike mil- lions, which long ago became the smallest chip in the government poker game, billions today are still real mon- ey. To put it all in perspective, we -have to consider that with something less than 10 million people in Ontario, Bob Rae's NDP government is planning to spend roughly $1,000 per person more than what they collect from us in taxation. That $9.7 billion is going to cost us 'about $1 billion a year in interest until it is paid off, and considering Ontario still has a sizable deficit to ponder in the first place, we have a right to won- der if the excesses of 1991 will ever be paid off. A deficit is never free money. The higher it gets, the less can be done with our future tax dollars. If the government spent only $1 per second, it would take more than 307 years to spend $9.7 billion. So to spend an extra $9.7 billion in 1991, the govern- ment has to spend $1.1 million every hour of every day beyond what it takes in. At the end of the year, will you honest- ly be able to say you benefitted by an. extra $1,000 worth of government ser- vices? In this era of tight fiscal responsibility, this deficit spending seems woefully out of step with the times. So how far will we ride this gravy train? Does Exeter council go ahead with its PRIDE 2 project using $560,000 of "anti -recession" provincial funding? Or do we build it and hope our grand- children can one day pay for it? A.D.H. The terminal bachelor? It seems pretty tragic really. 1 look around me and it seems that people everywhere are get- ting married, some of them years younger than myself. A few of them arc even having children. Well, if I think about it (and I don't particularly care to) when my father was my age, 1' was seven years old. It does seem extremely weird to be able to re- member one's own Dad when he was younger than oneself. The family photos come out and there's a picture of me three years old, and there's Dad. He looks just like me, only younger. 1, however, not only have no children, but have no plans to be married in the distant future, or at least for the next three months - which, upon reflection, is about the maximum length of time anyonc should plan a wed- ding in any case. Where have 1 gone wrong? But along comes a University of Guelph study in my daily mail that says I may be on the right track after all. Apparently, the Guelph Geron- tology Research Centre (it's not in the dictionary so 1 can only guess what it means) has done a study on the never -married and has found them to be better off than most might believe. They surveyed 3,130 people between 58 and 94 who never married, in order to distinguish them from those who are wid- owed, separated or divorced. Although I'll admit those people are a little older than I, they all Hold that thought... By Adrian Harte must have been 27 once, right? About 9.1 percent of the popu- lation never marries, say the Guelph people. And although some of the never -marrieds would have very definite ma- sons for not hooking up with a partner of the opposite sex, the rest claim their permanently sin- gle status was not intentional, it just tumed out that way. The good news is that these singles are often better educated, earn higher incomes, and have more friends than those who got married. Happily unmarried. I could live with that, 1 thought for a moment as 1 read down the page. But there is a catch. It would stem that never - married men are somehow not all as successful as their female counterparts. The study claims two "cluster groups" emerged from their research. The women are often highly successful, but the males often suffer poor health and lower levels of in- come and education. So while the women gave up marriage for careers and the brass ring, I'm beginning to con- jure up an image of pizza boxes, beer caps under the couch and the TV remote control within arm's reach. What's it to be? It would cer- tainly be hard giving up the priv- ileges of my single lifestyle. And what would there be to gain from marriage? - apart from the obvious, 1 mean. Even Fred "the Grover" Groves in the next office is be- ginning to complain that his pur- chasing power of amusing toys has been severely damaged since he began to plan for his wedding in June. Do I need that kind of hassle? Somehow I get the feeling Ill never get the chance to decide my own future, married or un- married. I don't believe in the inevitability of fate, but 1 also don't hold much faith in con- scious decisions holding firm. Who can possibly tell what lies four months down the mad any- way? Who would want to? — — - "Men are never so likely to settle a question rightly as when they discuss it freely." ... Thomas Macauley 4eler, OatsM IPS y J.W. E w as Ltd. Telephotos 3331 OAT. Atl0isi0sii In many parts of the world Mayday is time for celebrating the common people, the men and women who work with their hands to keep us all clothed and housed and fed. Mayday is a time for saluting farmers and farm hands, construction labour- ers and factory workers, and all the other "blue collar employ- ees" who are the mortar between the bricks in the house that keeps us all together. Canada was built by "common people", not by kings and queens, not by nobles and aris- tocrats. But look what has hap- pened to it! Follow me through an abbreviated curriculum vitae of Canada, the glorious country for which we all claim to stand on guard. Here, in 750 words I give you my salute to those who built this country and my con- tempt for those who are wreck- ing it. Conception Canada was conceived by big - game hunters who migrated across the ice of the Bering Strait to populate an entire conti- nent, by Viking seafarers and Basque fishermen, by French and British explorers, merchants and adventurers. Fruition Canada was carried to fruition by fur traders who travelled thousands of miles by canoe to bring firearms and iron pots to the Indians and to carry off whole shiploads of beaver pelts destined for the fashionable felt hats of Europe. Birth Canada was born in the blood and agony of tribal warfare and genocide, in a hundred years of Iroquois raids, in the extinction of the Beothuk and Petun and Neutral tribes, in the massacre of the Hurons. Its labour pains were felt in the sacking of Louisbourg, in the battle on the Plains of Abraham, and in the cruel expulsion of the Acadians Mayday from their Maritime homeland. Thousands of common people died so that Canada could be born. Baptism Canada received its baptism by fire along its hostile border with the United States. Like all other armed conflicts, the War of 1812 'and the rebellions in Upper and Lower Canada were fought by common people against common people. Peter's Point • Peter Hessel Childhood Canada was nursed and nur- tured by the toil and backbreak- ing labour of European settlers who cut the trees to build their hurdle log cabins, pulled the sturrj s to make room for their fid modest crops, and gathered rocks and stones to clear their land. They shaped the country and proudly passed it on to their children in trust. Adolescence Canada was raised from child- hood to adolescence by the bare, sweaty backs of Chinese railway workers, by the cal- loused fists of sturdy Germans and Scandinavians and Ukraini- ans who broke the prairie soil to tum it into one of the richest bread baskets in the world. Adulthood A mature Canada was peopled by common men and women, by traders and trappers, loggers and lumbermen, farmers and backwoods artisans, fishermen and canal workers. Their wives and sisters and daughters worked just as hard - to create this nation. Once again, Canadi- tetter to Editor an blood was shed, this time in worldwide conflagrations. the soldiers who died were common people - of European, Asian or native background. Finally Canada had become•a world-class nation, the envy of poorer and less fortunate peo- ples, a safe haven for immi- grants and refugees from every corner of tate globe. It was a good country to live and to have children. It was too good to last. Old age Suddenly Canada grew old and weary. It wasn't the common people who pushed it toward disintegration. They were too pre -occupied with earning a liv- ing and raising families. People with lots of time on their hands weren't satisfied with having a good country. They wanted to reform it, change it, meddle with it, twist it around, shape it to their own lik- ing, and turn it upside down. These were not workers and farmers, not office clerks and teachers, not shopkeepers and mechanics. The common people lost the country because they were too busy. So it fell into the hands of politicians and policy advisers, social planners and public ad- ministrators, constitutional law- yers and economists, union offi- cials and opinion pollsters. Where did they all come from? The country was studied to death and royal -commissioned to death. Death Canada was being ripped apart by federal, provincial and mu- nicipal bureaucrats and vote - seekers. They and their profes- sional groupies preyed upon the common people like hawks. They picked their bones like vul- tures. As I said in the beginning, this is my salute to the common peo- ple. Don't blame me if it sounds like an obituary. Blame yourself. Too many pollee officers in Exeter Dear Editor. We believe that there are too many police officers in Exeter. We feel that the Exeter Police have no need to be here because the O.P.P. can do just as good a job as the Exeter Police. We are paying money to the Ex- eter Police to keep them going which could be u ed for other things. In a recent T.A.tarticle, Council - tor Dorothy Chapman out- lined a plan whereby we would pay the board who oversees the Exeter Police Dept. as well as paying for the Department. These coats would go up higher so we could pay for the board as well as the po- lice department. IA This area doesn't have as many crimes as other areas and perhaps Just a slight increase in the OPP force could handle the town police requirements as well. If Exeter were to grow in size considerably, then we could con- sider the use of the Exeter Police, but until that time, let's just work with the O.P.P. Tom Passmore Mark Finlayson i