HomeMy WebLinkAboutZurich Citizens News, 1981-08-06, Page 4Page 4
Citizens News August 6, 1981
AIME ME
BUST
"This cauntry's got a real dope problem ... but then, we elected them."
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Who,where are these people?
A Gallup poll reports that 67 percent of
Canadians are critical of the federal Government's
handling of the economy.
Surely this can't be right. Some error must
have crept into the calculation. For a moment we
thought that the remaining 33 percent were so chok-
ed up with disgust that they were unable to reply, or
that their replies were couched in language so acrid
that it could not decently be recorded. But no, while
15 percent were uncertain, the remaining 18 percent
declared that they thought Ottawa was managing
fine.
Recluses? Lunatics? Economic saboteurs?
Federal bureaucrats? Relatives of Allan
MacEachan? We demand that Gallup produce these
alleged people!
The Globe and Mail
Emphasize- ability, not equality
I subscribe to the old-fashioned notion that peo-
ple should be judged not by colour, creed or country
but by merit and ability. Unfortunately, the new
cult of "oppressed minorities" demands that every
commission, academic department, restaurant or
workshop be made up as follows:
2 blacks (one man, one woman)
1 person to be, in alphabetical rotation, Asian,
Eskimo and Metis;
13 white anglophone "Canadians", of whom 10
must be native-born;
4 white francophone Quebeckers of whom all
must be native-born and resident in Quebec since
birth.
Of the 13 Anglophones, 10 will have to be
heterosexual and three homosexual (one of these to
be a Lesbian), one Jewish, eight Protestant, three
Roman Catholic and one, in alphabetical rotation,
Atheist, Moonie, and Muslim; 12 will have to be
able-bodied and one handicapped; four must be
students (at least three illiterate), six golden-agers,
one pre -senile and two senile; eight must be of
average ability, four stupid and one may (but need
not) be intelligent. At least half white francophone
Quebekers must be allowed to subdivide according
to their own predilections.
Dr. Gerald Hoffman
in "Our Canada" April/May '81.
Canadian
Published Each Wednesday Sy J.W. Eedy Publkatians Lb.
Member:
Weekly Newspapers Asseci*tion
elMar,e Weekly
News Editor Rob Chester
Second Class Mail Registration Number 1385
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By
ROB CHESTER
Most columnists use their columns for pet theories
and expounding upon half-baked programs for the
common good.
Miscellaneous Rumblings has never shirked this all
important duty. After all, deadline is looming.
Most writers like columns. We can dust off all the
old cliches and string together miles of adjectives that
we would never be able to use in a hard news story.
It's a throwback to the old yellow journalism —
they get a story at all costs reporting, where half the
story is creative writing and the rest'is questionable
news.
This column began life as a discussion of the
economy and how things arear to be in really bad
shape. A page and a half later, I realized I didn't have
a clue what I was talking about.
This has never stopped me before. I often find that
trying to express a situation as it effects me and as I
understand it helps me to better visualize the problem
and increase my understanding.
Not so in this case. Aspects of the inflation -high
interest rates -low international dollar-- et al, are
within my grasp, but the rest is gobbledegook.
My sole exposure to economics consists of a
college bird -course, and a weekly trip to the
supermarket. (And _speaking of a trip to the
supermarket, we'll investigate depression in a future
column.) ,
Even to my untrained eyes, things look pretty
bleak.
What I really want to know is:
Is it wise to invest now, even with high interest
rates and high prices, knowing that things have to get
better and you might -as -well build for the future?
Or
Do you try and save what you can, knowing vicious
inflation will eat away your savings and that things
may get worse: and even if they get
better....puff ....puff ..
I'm afraid it's the same old story, of the rich
getting richer and the poor getting poorer.
Those with money, who can afford to lend it, can
only profit from the high interest rates. Those who
have loans (Like a poor ex -student with both the
province and the feds about to be drooling down his
neck for student loans) or those who have to invest in a
major purchase are getting the short end of the stick.
(Returning for a moment to the start of this
column, it is also interesting to note the variety of
various cliches. Some of which are different, from
what would usually be said, when printed in a family
r. )
at galls most is the constant bickering of
politicians and the apparent lack of control or desire to
pfluence events by our elected officials.
[: Federal opposition leader Joe Clark recently said:
There are new rumors in Ottawa about a new
plan for wage and price controls. We must take
those rumors seriously, if only because the Liberals
deny them.
You will remember that the last time controls
were imposed the Liberals broke their promise to
use the controls period to introduce structural
changes. They broke that promise then and
probably would again. What is important here is the
structural change itself, which is the real key to
growth. Controls don't cause growth. My
preference would be to achieve structural change
without controls — and the only possible justifica-
tion of controls might be to work out the structural
change we need.
I will certainly never forget February of 1980 —
not only for what did happen, but for what didn't
happen. Until the electorate intervened —
protesting 18 -cents -a -gallon increases in gas — we
had planned, for February, a National Economic
Development Conference. It was designed, precise-
ly, to get the agreement of the whole economic
community on the kinds of structural changes
Canada needed to take advantage of the oppor-
tunities of the 1980s and 1990s. We believe those
changes have to be worked out in partnership —
with a strong lead from Ottawa -- but not imposed
from the top down.
Please turn to page 7