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HomeMy WebLinkAboutThe Goderich Signal-Star, 1983-04-27, Page 4• • My On research would indicate, that children undergo a complete meta xnorh- posisat the age of two. •Regardle sof ..,a• t lt#d"s deportment, demieanor,, breeding and inclinations, there is a sudden and irreversible transformation which infiltrates children at precisely the moment they turn two. In parenting; circles it's known ,as the "Terrible Twos." "He was such a wonderful little child until suddenly on his second birthday he began to terrorize - the other.children 'in the neigh- bourhood and joind a motorcycle gang," bele red have parents s t commented in exasperation.. In light of the fact my own son recently, celebrated his second birthday; I conducted an informal poll with parents on this sudden and firghtening transformation. I submit, that all children, scant minutes past their second birthdays., turn • into human dynamos, bent on destroying their parent's .character alnd patience; Sample the chewing evldence, d This morning, after ' unfruitful 28 miminute searell #pr - Mn.. tear keys, I demanded my son:s presence fQr a father, son dialogue. to work.. Where did Daddy has to go r you put his car keys?" I ask in fatherly but firm tones. ' "Dad's keys?!' he says as if he had never seen the things before in his life. "Where are dad's keys?" ' . • "Look here, kid. I'nr the one asking the questions cause I'm the father. Now, I saw you playing with my keys, do you remember where you put them?" I ask still managing to retain some semblance of patience while glancing at the clock. "I want dad's, keys," he says matter of factly. "You already had dad's keys and you lost them," I begin yelling by now. MY patle.. betel alert. house. Of conriacurs me every ted;,(. mover Each a chair, Aug "Where's:, no-one lupe + ; damn well here; respo the d suggests he will also. Ind while avoiding the in - 41u_ lonin84 d looks`nervous s hl(e. fadOrs :the impending deadlines of the da n(i ttte a egitls screaming because f ile wants to Ro toe.or . The mother of the'ebild explains Haat ': while°, she, would relish the thought, he must 'stay home while dad un- personates aproductive member of society. . In a desparate move, the mother of the child discovers the car keys in the broom. closet, an obvious location. - "I should have known," the mother of the child offers. "That's his office." ',The child, apparently, has a predilection for wearing his dad's shoes and entering the broom closet while pretendinghe's going to work. "Qn ',i uesday morning I failed to see the humour ;inthe situation, I don't .think it will downy good to speak to the child when T get home either. pa swingo t e stooge know are hoeause htes was, playing with them. a few minutes before hand, The mother .of the tor� tble two-year old joins in. the • search party''and° now he thinks we're having a greattune The whole mily has joined. h. ti" the- game and he's' delightefad. We look in , underwear drawers, m the oven, in the refrrdgerator, under the cushions on the couch and in the toilet. When one has children these become Common ' hiding places. However, still no keys. The mother of the child questions him relentlessly on the whereabouts of the keys. *CNA BLUE RIBBON AWARD Second class mail registration number -0716 SINCE 1848 THE NEWS PORT FOR GODERICH & DISTRICT Founded In 1846 and published every Wednesday at Goderich, Ontario. Member of the CCNA/and OWNA. Adver. filing rates on request.Subscriptions payable in advance °19.90 In Canada, °S0.00 to U.S.A.. °50.00 to all other count- ! tries. single copies SOc. Display advertising rotes available on request. Please ask for Rate Card No.13 effocllve Oc. tober 1. 107. Second class mall Registration Number 0716. Advertising is accepted on the condition that In the event of typographical error. the advertising space occupied by the err Item; together with reasonable allowance for signdture. will not be charged for but that balance of the advertisement will be paid for of the ap- plicable rate. In the event of o typographical error advertising goods or services at wrong price, goods or services may not be sold. Advertising 1s merely an offer to sell, and may be withdrawn of any time. The Signal -Star is not responsible for the loss or damage of unsolicited manuscripts. photos or other materials used for reproducing pur- poses. PUBLISHED BY: SIGNAL -STAR PUBLISHING LIMITED ROBERT G. SHRIER-President and Publisher DONALD M. HUBICK-Advertising Manager DAVID SYKES-Editor O. BOX 220. HUCKINS ST. INDUSTRIAL PARK GODERICH N7A 4B6 Goue�r. r�cr FOR BUSINESS OR EDITORIAL OFFICES please phone (519) 524-8331 Changing attitudes . In the last couple of years, people from Newfoundland • to British Columbia have been forced to accept a hefty dose of economic reality and the results have been fascinating. The 'dose of reality', df course, came in the form of a recession that created massive unemployment, high interest rates, near -record business bankruptcies and, most important, a great deal, of uncertainty about the future, particularly as it pertains to jobs. The result; the attitudes of ordinary Canadians about spending and getting value for their hard-earned cash has changed dramatically, and people may' never, return to the heavy borrowing, free -spending ways that charac- terized the 1970s. . It's true, Canadians generally don't have as much money to spend, but they are even shepherding the money that is available.. It seems we've made the giant leap from a nation of seemingly uncaring spendthrifts to one where frugality and value -for -a -dollar are paramount Some retailers even contend that consumers are becoming so selective in their buying habits that the at- titude verges on stinginess. There is evidence to support -that theory. Everyone in the country, it seems, is developing a rain - day nest egg to offset the threat of personal, layoff, reduction in pay or a cutback in the number of hours worked. What else could explain the acknowledged fact that , Canadians are saving a staggering 14 per cent of disposable income ( about $80 billion) up 50 per cent from.a normal nine to 10 per cent. Attractive high interest rates have certainly played a role in this savings binge, but there is little question people are heeding the Boy Scout motto "Be Prepared'. While Canadians appear to be saving much more in recent years, it follows that they are spending less, which is indeed the. case. Imports of mainly manufactured goods were down 13 per cent in 1982, and some major department store chains are losing money because of the drop-off in sales. Discount retailers and bargain basement operations, on the other hand, appear to be picking up business as con- sumers shop around. It seems that Canadians are becoming more price conscious. Bu$ then. there is always.. the Change in borrowing patterns. Simply put, we're paying off loans rather than in- creasing the balances to buy . more consumer goods. Consumer credit (as a percentage of after tax income) is now at its lowest level since the 1960s, and even credit card companies are feeling the pinch. Canadians are in fact paying down those plastic balances with the !tit high interest rates. • In retaliation, some credit card sponsoring banks have intitiated a monthly interest rate charge to the card holder. Other banks have started a monthly user fee. Restraint in wage settlements, it appears, has suddenly -. become natural and it is not that atypical for employees to grant concessions to the employer or maintain the same wage and salary level rather than take a raise. One union after another has accepted the reality that many companies cannot afford big salary increases, so. mediocre raises and even reductions have been.. negotiated. At the government level, restraint programs have been grudgingly implemented and accepted,. Thepoint, of•course, is that the average Canadian has . reacted quite reasonably and realistically to excruciating changes in the economic environment. Savings are up, borrowing is down and there is real soul searching and investigation before major consumer items are pur- chased. Now it appears the recession is ending. Yet, even the policies contained in Finance Minister Marc Lalonde's budget may not be enough to change people into free - spenders again. That type of attitude has disappeared and been replaced with caution out of economic necessity. Perhaps Prime Minister Trudeau was right when he claimed that con- sumers were not given concessions in the budget because Canadians would not spend the money anyway. Given recent circumstances and attitudes, the money would probably not be spent. It is a tough chore to change people's ideals that have been carefully carved out of necessity over the past couple of years. The new Canadian budget does appear to be a budget of recovery though, and Lalonde has promised to create 120,000 new jobs and the consumer has been given help to buy new homes and furniture. Canadians have been given tax breaks and incentives and other incentives should stimulate the housing in- dustry. The budget may give the economy a boost, Canadians will have to do the rest. . Jaws By Dave Sykes READ SHIRLEY KELLER 4o- , I know what you're going to say. "She's a Liberal,". you'll say. "She'd defend Marc Lalonde's budget if it called for the an- nihilation of all the newborn baby girls in the country. There may be some truth in that I suppose. I admit to being faithful to a party whenever Ican ..: and there have beentimes when I have sup- ported a party unwisely. I'm sure I'm not alone in that kind of a confession. Fact is I'm rather lukewarm on Lalonde's proposed budget. I was aware as I listened to him deliver his long speech in the House of Commons last Tuesday evening that he was doing his best to appease as many bitter tax- paying Canadians as possible. It was -evident Lalonde tried to put something constructive in the budget for business people, industrialists, building tradesmen, miners, farmers, young unemployed, old unemployed, new home buyers, artists ,.... justabout, every sector of society, And he didn't do a bad job. It wasn't a great budget, but it was a good budget .... considering the fact the government has no money in reserve , and only one way to raise new money for government spending. Ther are those who think the "little guy" got it in the ear again. Well, it could have been wprse. While Lalonde was picking the loose change from our pockets for new taxes, he was creating increased numbers of opportunities for Canadian workers to earn paper folding money. I planned to shut off the television at the end of LaLonde's delivery. But the television moguls pulled a fast one - they interrupted Lalonde's speech to bring viewers a capsulized version of the budget as prepared by one or two reporters and to introduce some reaction from the Opposition members to the finance minister's proposals. So I was almost forced to watch as the Progressive Conservative member raved over Lalonde's indiscretions the previous day in "leaking" some budget figures and how it .had "cost" : taxpayers $200,000,000 to "save" Lalonde's face. And just moments later I heard the NDP critic rail against the finance minister because he had been so stingy with government funding for "job creation" projects and had only injected $4.$ billion into job creation over four years when it should have been at least that much over one year. Obviously the PCs were much more -concerned about "getting Lalonde" than about the worth of the budget while the NDPs cared 'nothing. for "tradition" and the staggering deficit as long as there are people out there running out of UIC benefits and depending on government programs to solve their problems. It was typical Canadian politics. Everyone did his job. Everyone opposed the budget. The PCs were livid Lalonde had put $200.000.000 extra in the budget; the NDPs were furious Lalonde had put no more than $200,000,000 xtra in the budget.. Predictably, nobody on either side was ready to say it was at least a start toward recovery after some difficult times. Then we were subjected to the smirk of the United Auto Worker spokesman who scoffed at the pittance the government had put toward job creation; and to the jibes of the consumer spokesman who claimed there was nothing in the budget for housewives. Neither cared that the businessman between them .felt the budget put fresh wheels under industry and commerce to begin to - put Canadians back to work. Neither seemed interested that while one million Canadians are having trouble finding jobs, 25 or 30 million more Canadians are working and are encouraged now to have con- fidence in the economy, and to begin again to buy Canadian -made manufactured goods and to invest their savings in the companies -that .create ' new jobs for people who produce those goods. ` ' But the worst punishment of all was liatenning to the pitiful pleadings of the Progressive Con- • servative jackals Who howled for Lalonde's resignation. No one suggested that the press had been irresponsible in releasing such material ... or that the press had been just a tiny bit un- derhanded in filming the material in the first place. Nobody asked, "Was it a leak of information or was it an outright spying mission which deliberately took the advantage to steal an illegal peak into confidential government papers?„ Nobody called for the resignation of the news director who allowed the "leak" to have public exposure. Nobody suggested the Hamilton television station that released the story should be banned from future news conferences for lack of integrity. But even more than that, nobody suggested the average citizen of Canada - persons without a political axe to grind - really cares a fig whether a portion of the budget speech was made public day early. What difference does it make?' Millions of Canadians didn't even care enough to tune in when the budget was actually handed down last Tuesday evening. It's about time Canadians asked for a moratorium on such ridiculous "traditions" which promote useless in -fighting among power- hungry politicians. .fust like every other segrirent of Canadian society, 'politicians should be expected to be primarily concerned with earning their keep. They should get on with the productive debate which will get legislation underway to put Canada back in the mainstream of the world's competitive markets. They should cease the bickering fostered by our antiquated government s'rstem and behave like the professionals taxpayers thought they had elected: Since Goderich council passed its 1983 budget in March I have been asked several times about my reaction to it. In my opinion it is. a good budget, well processed and presented. However, there are two items of disappointment to which I shall refer below. You see that I do not hesitate to register my opinion, because municipal government in general and as it relates to our town specifically is a subject to which I am deep- ly committee. One could say that now it is a fascinating hobby. Over the years progressive and open methods have been developed locally in municipal dealings and affairs. The system has evolved into a healthily flexible, well in- formed and efficient partnership between the concerned leadership by council members and an alert, caring and up-to- date administration. I was pleased to see that this highly beneficial and suitable format continued to be followed in the 1983 budget preparations. The substantial amounts of surplus passed on from previous Councils' careful work- ings, with administrative support in finan- cial initiatives, resulted in an appreciable surplus of some $188,000. - at the end of 1982. It is of definite help to this council in carry- ing on with previously prepared and com- mitted projects without a hefty tax increase. The two items of disappointment were the five percent increase in the remuneration the council gave itself and the more than or- dinarily rough treatment given to the tourism committee whose budget was singl- ed out for slashing. In dollars and cents the five percent in- crease does not amount to much in the overall budget, but as an example of the principles of leadership and restraint it is very much a negative step: There should be no comparison or confusion with the in- crease given to the employees, as for them their jobs and positions are their career and livelihood. * During the fairly recent election cam- paign we all remember there was much talk about leadership and restraint. It was in- teresting to note that when the increase bylaw was passed, the returning members (councillors Carey, Searls. Doherty and r Wheeler) voted against the five percent pay increase. The newcomers to council who had held office merely three months decided that the increase was necessary and deserv- ed. In the leadership question it should be noted that the pay increase Council gave itself was the direct factor leading the P.U.C. to demand the same percentage in- crease. Of course, in all fairness - cduncil has quite a long time ahead with many chances to convince us of other and better versions of leadership. One of the directions I should like to see is a more truly understanding and ap- preciative relationship the council members could cultivate with the committees, star- ting with the Tourism Committee. It is such a pity that some councils and some members find it difficult to realize fully and , to admit what remendous help there is in the work done by these tireless volunteers and how it adds to the positive image of our'tom- munity. One detects a particularly unfor- tunate tendency to regard the helpers as adversaries to be put down on many occa- A sions. It appears that many personality and who knows whatever conflicts are dormant for a period; then the old dislikes are taken out and polished again and they are visible for miles. For goodness sake - can't they be buried? It is not enough to pay lipservice to the im- portance of tourism in our economy and then to turn around and cut the tourism budget by more than one third. If a commit- tee member is willing to spend his or her time without any pay, in order to promote the town or to learn how to promote it better still, I would expect council to provide the bare expenses without any hesitation, if there is going to be any credibility IA the en- tire set-up. Perhaps it was the presentation of last year's audited statement to the Council that Made me think again how no Council works in isolated glory and how it takes many years of steady work, devotion, restraint and leadership on the part of many people to make a municipality function solidly and as well as ours does. ELSA HAYDON •