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HomeMy WebLinkAboutTimes Advocate, 1993-10-20, Page 4Page 4 Ttmes-Advocate, October 20,1993 Publisher: 11m Beckett News Editor. Adrian Harte Business Mat>twger: Don Smith Composition Manager: Deb Lord Publications Matt Registration Number 0386 ItairataliQUNIENIM9 Within 40 aides (65 km.) addressed to on letter ander addresses $30.00 plrs 112.10 O.S.T. OatuIde 40 miles (88 km.) or any letter oeM.r address $30.00 Om 630.00 (total 60.00) + 4.20 0.8.T. Outside Corrado $99.00 (Includes 665.40 postage) "Men are never so likely to settle a question rightly as when they discuss it freely." ... Thomas Macauley Published Eaoh11141.10.1bAllething at 424 Main St., Exeter, Ontado, NOM 130 by J.W. Eedy Publications Ltd. Telephone 141'-2361.331 •RteS2teatis Robbing Peter, to pay Peter he large crowd which attend- ed Iasi Wednesday's meeting over the public library system was good to see. There is genuine interest in seeing the libraries continue their service to the community, if not improve it. The message also came through, de- spitelhefeigned reluctance of the li- brary board>tothear'it;-that the Exeter Branch Library is -nicely situated where it is, thank you. The overwhelming op- position to thesuggestion of grafting it onto the high school is perhaps more:of a'sad comment on :the perception of :the <high school student body than anything -else. However, oouncilahould be'welcom- ing'thepablic ;inputtowtheproposal rat this point :in °.the game. The snorts of :derisionat chis is too early to :hear such :Bmnmentare:unwarranted. If the town Truly is : barking .up the wrong nee, thentfieyshouldi,e -glad to wastemo more ttiine on itandiry something=else, even inhepIan floes :have its merits. Burpe:tthapstemost'puzzling out- come ofithemeeting.was the suggestion 'from some : of :the:groups that the library oughtao.be:able to :introduce user fees, torindulge in fundraising :events to 'help shore up its finances. The notion user fees or fundraisers create their own currency is misguided, particularly when the user group in this case is just about everyone in the county. Why else do wepay county tax- es? If it cost a million dollars to run a county library system, then it will still cost the people of Huron a million dol- lars, no matter if that money was raised through taxes, selling library cards, or a million raffle tickets on "glass turkeys". One man was recently heard to com- ment on how expensive it was for his 'daughter to participate in a certain activ- ity for a year. Mind you, he pointed out he was saved the indignity of pushing raffle tickets on his co-workers, or ped - idling chocolate bars - most of which he'd end up buying himself. The fund- raiser was a false economy, he reasoned, only robbing Peter to pay Peter, as it were. If :the truth be known, the county li- `bnuybdprobably already has some :clear-cut ideas on how to win its battle with its budget. Once they've heard -what we think, they'll let us in on the se - =et. ADJI. NAFTA not a simple treaty "NAFTA can be stopped in two ways" Dear Editor: Few Canadians, including our politicians and journalists, know what is in NAFTA's 5,400 page Ian to restructure our lives. It was negotiated in se- t, and every effort bas been made to keepit from ublic scrutiny. That is why it was rarnmed through arliament. That is why it is being fast -tracked rough the US. Congress. NAFTA is not a simple ade treaty to reduce tariffs. Here's one example. Article 201.2 declares that "a reference to a state or province includes local overnments of that state or province". Article 105 eclares: "The parties shall ensure that all necessary easures are taken in order to give effect to the rovisions of this agreement including their obser- vance by state and provincial governments." Under AFTA, all public sector contracts of $25,000 or more tendered by municipal governments. school boards, county and provincial agencies must be open to US and Mexican companies, with no resi- dency restrictions. The compliance of provincial and municipal gpvernments to the terms of NAFTA may require new enforcement agencies in our feder- al government or in the nonelected Free Trade Com - mugger. NAFTA can only be stopped in two ways: 1) if the anti -NAFTA candidates of the Liberal, National and New Democratic parties are elected: 2) if US citizens can persuade. Congress to reject NAFTA. To make NAFTA palatable to Congress, side deals on labour and environment have been nego- tiated. But these side deals require provincial con- sent. Thus, a third way of blocking NAFTA would be for Canadian provinces to refuse the side deals. If our NDP government in Ontario would simply state that it will not approve the aide deals, that would help defeat NAFTA in Congress and help raise the profile of NAFTA in our election campaigns. Historically, the US has always tried to get control of Canada via trade treaties. Historically, Canadians have rejected the false profits of tree -trade. I am just one person, doing what I can to restore Canadian control of our own country. Please help me. Vote for candidates who oppose NAFTA. Write to friends and newspapers in the US urging opposition to NAFTA. Call Bob Rae or your MPP to reject the NAFTA,aide deals. Sincerely, James S. Sutherland Kingston zTeter's Point By Peter fies:;i:1 When people say: "after Labour Day", or "al ter Christmas", or "next month", they usually mean: "Go away. don't bother me right now, don't you see that I'm busy?" Ever since early last summer, Canadians have been saying to each other: "after the election." Kim Campbell said it in answer to a question about our social safety net: "I have no time to discuss such important issues now. Talk to me after the election." As we all know, she was campbellizing the subject. But not only the politicians running for office and their spin doctors (note the buzzword) are using this teem as an excuse for their inability, irresponsibility or unwillingness to act and to face the issues. Thanks to the news media, ordi- nary people have now adopted the habit as well. "After the election" has become our way of life. I called Harvey at the printers the other day. "What about my business cards?" I had ordered them two months ago. True, the world doesn't come to an end without them, but after all, WOW cards are business canis. "After thtlltilections," he said. "What do the elections have to do with it?" I asked. but he had already hun g up on mc. Or take McPlumber's. "When are you going to fix our leaking tap over the kitchen sink? It's been leaking ever since I paid your invoice for diagnosing the problem last June." "After the election." "Whoa!", I said, "why can't you come and fix thisigskeSeiore or even during the elections?" "Mice of what?" "Just because." 1 had ordered a book from the local bookstore early in August. Admittedly, it was not a matter Exercise your right to vote '!Politicians out of touchwith realty" :Dear Editor: -The common denominator in this election, and .jrobably more election in our histoiy rs that we the citizen`s of this gid land have had enough, and we are not going to take it anymore. Mr. Chretien said recently in response to Ms. Campbell... "if we follow her 'plan' unemployment will reach 25 percent and there will be a revolu- tion..." Well, I don't want to shock you politicians out of the cherry tree that blinds your view of the world around you - - But! The revolution has already started. I guess that's just further proof of out of touch politicians are with reality. Cross border shop- ping, black market trading of contraband are only two examples of the revolution. All brought about -by greedy, idiotic, asinine government policies. How did we reach this sorry state of affairs? Well, because 1968 was the year we elected a lawyer from Montreal who held his "communist ticket" and never tried to hide it from the public. Unfortunately the man got a clear mandate to do what ever he liked, because the citizens thought he was a charm- ing. charismatic and sexy man who swooped the public into giving him a large majority government. Our fates where sealed. Hence forth a highly centralized government. Small farms being eaten up by large corporate farms, and the average citizen becoming more and more dependent on the government to survive day to day. When this man left "Parliament Hill there were over 1.5 million unemployed. The deficit was out of control. • After 18 years of this we turned d and did the same thing all over again . Once n we voted in a majority government. Which ga them the mandate to use and abuse those who pay their sala- ries -- before being able to pay the bills or feed their families. This gentleman tripled the deficit; poorly negotiat- ed'N.AF.T.A. (I feel deliberately - but thats good for a future letter) and gave us the infamous G.S,T. The Liberals claimed only 1.5 million unem- ployed., The Conservatives claim only 1.6 million '.unemployed. Why do the politicians never, ever tell `the truth about how many people'ntldlyare unem- ployed. All they use is how many U.I.C: Cheques go out every month. I feel certain if they included wel- fare, along with the number of people who dropped out of the labour market the figure wouldn't be 11 percent unemployed it would be closer to 25-30 per- cent or even higher. Scary isn't it? Why do politicians insist on ten -thousand dollar desks and tell us we have to sit on the floor eating Kraft dinner? Why are there over two (2) million starving chil- dren in Canada today? My own observation (from talking to certain poli- ticians in this arca is.... they are totally out of touch with the people, and care less what happens to you. They collect a pay cheque and to hell with us! What bothers me the most is how people are say- ing:... "the hell with it! I'm not going to vote!" One 77 year old man told me there was no sense in voting, "They're all crooks anyway." Please do not sit at home on election day. Get out there and let your voice be heard. Put in a protest vote. Vote Libertarian, Natural Law or National Par- ty. This shows the politicians you're not happy - but you freely exercise your right to vote. Never before has your vote meant as much as it does now. Lets pray to God that never again does a majority government take your vote as a mandate to chase af- ter their own hidden agendas. We have had enough! Michael R. Foreman Exeter, Ontario The quiet before the storm of life or death. I mean, it wasn't as if some- body was bleeding to death, and I needed a first-aid manual to save lift. But after I order a book, there usually comes a time when I want ,o hold it in my hot little hands and decide owhether 1 want to read it or not. So I dropped "11 probably won't. arrivemutil after the elec- tions now." "Gladys", I asked, "what do you mean, after the elections?" "I mean after the federal elections on October 25th." "I know when the elections are." 1 said. "I meant. what possible effect could the elections- have lectionshave on the delivery of a book from a publish - er'?., It seemslhat half the Canadian economy has ground to a halt. We're all paralysed. We sit there, night after night, watching and listening to what the pundits and the pollsters tell us. And as we bite our nails to the bones, we freecc in time and space and become useless for any- thing more demanding than fixing ourselves a late-night snack. Nothing happens. The earth is standing still. It's fall, and there isn't any wind. there aren't even any traffic noises along the 5th Linc. Mind you, the closing of the bridge over the creek is partly responsible for that. But it's eerie. It's unnatural. Is this the quiet before the storm? Will Canadians - including whatever goven anent we may have next week - suddenly spring into noisy and frenzied action and do everything that has been delayed for weeks or months? I hope so. "When are you and the kids finally going to rake those leaves?" Elizabeth asked me this moming. "After the election," I said. Tlie trouble is, the election is getting far too close for conn fort.