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HomeMy WebLinkAboutThe Goderich Signal-Star, 1980-04-09, Page 17dave sykes The financial ways of the world have gone berserk in the last few years. It wasn't that many years ago that banks finally consented to open thier , vaults and invited the little gitys in for a handful at modest interest rates. Thus the private consumer loan was barn rand _we've been going in with empty wheelbarrows ever since. Until recently, that is. Interest and mortgage rates have risen to _ heights that are not only unattractive, but, unreasonable for the average consumer. The game is get- ting out of hand. "I can't afford to play anymore," I lamented to a key financial friend recently. "What's to be done about the state of our economy, the falling dollar and rising inflation?" "We're in trouble to be sure," my banking puddy responded while trying to keep his nervous tick under control. "Ban -ban -bankers are a nervous, lot these days. The rates are going up every day and we can't, handle it any more." "But what have bankers got to be so. nervous about?" I que.rried. "You guys handte all the money these days and sheuldn't have any major worries." ,"YOU have no idea what it's like beth a banker today," my friend replied. "It's almost as bad as playing goal for the Toronto Maple Leafs or being recognized as a member of the Argonauts backfield. I tell you, it is a serious situation for bankers in these grim times." My friend was just getting his tick under wraps when his right hand began to flop uncontrollably on the desk. He steadied it With his left hand and ex- plained his position. "This is really serious stuff. Today a banker gets about as much respect as a revolution major at Tehran Univer- sity," he said. "I should have listened o my mother and gone to accounting_ chool or kept up on my tuba lessons." "Certainly things can't be that bad," I offered in consolation. "Bankers have always maintained a respected position in the community." "That r - sed to be the case but now 47. people treat us like we are diseased. They actually hate us," he commented with a hint of a sob. "We have nothing to do with the interest rates. It's not our fault. Bankers are just being used as scapegoats and Y" don't think I can handle it anymore." "Well, this country is in serious shape and it would be a decent gesture if someone stood up and took the blame for a change," I said coldly. "People need to point an accusing finger., It somehow makes them feel better but, everyone keeps passing the buck, what's left of it, of course." "Why, when I hear news of a possible hike in the interest rates it's impossible to go outdoors. People can spot a banker from a quarter mile," he related m flat tones. "We have become the target of much abuse and many of us are forced to wear disguises to avoid detection by consumers." "We have also banded together and formed a fraternity for our own 'protection. If a manager gets an urge t!:.0 i*aise the interesttrates alb be has to do is call up .another hank manager. That manager will go to his borne and they will review the bank's total assets until the Manager's urge has passed. We have toetick together." "Truly a good •system," I agreed." "But will it avoid abuse from the general public." "Certainly not. But it is a start," he said. "Why I can't even wear my cufflinkswith the engraved dollar signs.. People spot them right off and get offensive. I have even retired my tie pin that says 'Let's nail 'em for .20 per cent." • "It is a rough line of work to be in, for sure" I claimed. "What are you and other bankers going to do." "If we are to survive in the banking business we will have to continue to weardisguises to work and plead ignorance of any knowledge of interest rates," he said. "But some us have solid offers from the oil business." . Inside: AMO says Planning Act unacceptable. . , ......... ° .... Page 2A Bob Trotter . . ............... Page 3A Minister's study ,° ... , .... ° .... Page 8A More complaints about subdivision . , ... ° .. ° ........ Page 1OA Great Victoria Egg Race. . , .. Page 11A Make your own kite e . , ....... Page 12A the ode 1 ich ALSTA 132 YEAR -15 Bob's retirement en . BY DAVE SYKES Politics can be :a risky profession and many of our country's MPs live by the political axiom that there are only two ways to quit politics. To dieor get -defeated. But for. Bob McKinley, who served the riding of Huron -Middlesex in the House of Commons for 14 years, neither one of those prospects was attractive. "I made up my mind that I wasn't going to leave the House either 'Way," he said in an in- terview. with the Signal - Star. "I had made up my mind to retire before the election was called." The retirement ended a 14` year political career as the 4 Conservative --- member for -this i idixrg and for Bob' it ended the hours of weekly travel, phone calls, research, meetings and gruelling campaigning and a chance to spend some time at home. The McKinley name has been an active and respected one in area politics for many years. His father • started the McKinley Farms and Hatchery near Zurich in 1920 and Bob's father and brothers are still active in the business. The eldest McKinley ran for the Conservatives in the riding of South Huron in the 1949 federal 'election but lost to Liberal A.Y. MacLean by about 250 votes. __.___-_.. The riding , was. realigned in 1953 and the McKinley name was absent from the ballot until the local Con- servative association convinced 37 -year°. old Bob to seek the party nomination. "The party asked me to seek the nomination and the time seemed good," Bob reflected. "There were seven men con- testing the Conservative nomination and I won on the second ballot in Clinton." Once the nomination was secure there wasn't much time for McKinley to campaign for the fall election but edged the Liberal candidate by just over 1,000 votes., The Liberals held -a minority government under Lester B. Pearson after the 1965 eleo.tion . and John- Diefenbaker led the opposition in the House. During his first term in the House, McKinley said he was kept active looking after ,con- stituency .problems, doing committee work and learning the rules. Also, during that term; -0p150srtion leader John Diefenbaker was asked to appear on a CBC television program and he took four new mem- bers of the Conservative party along for the "He took four new members of parliament with him and picked the ones who were in their offices the earliest -in the mornings," Bob recalled. "I just' happened to be one of them." McKinley realizedthat to be an effective MP he would have to devote all his time to the job and subsequently relinquished his share of the family business to a younger brother. The_.biggest_adj ustment. for the newly -elected member was the time spent away from his family, although he travelled home most weekends.. "It was hard on the family and my wife Audrey had to raise the children," he said. "But, she did a real good job." The McKinleys . have Every spring it happens and this year is no exception. Every spring I Say, "Something has to be done." Something has to be done. It all started on Saturday. If you recall, Saturday dawned sunny and warm. The birdies were singing and the doggies were barking. The aroma of spring filled the neighborhood. I awoke to all of these sounds at the unheard of hour of six o'clock. During the other three seasons this does not happen to me. Six o'clock is the middle of the night. • I bounded., out from beneath the covers, energy oozing from my every pore. I dressed, eager to meet the gorgeous day head on. I thought to myself, spring is a good time to become physically fit. I did four sit-ups and went for a brisk stroll around the parking lot of my apartment building. The rest of the day followed in a similar fashion. I ate healthy foods and got loads of fresh air. By half past eight five children, a son John, who is a vetrinarian in London , and four duaghters. The eldest daughter,. Diane, is a life underwriter in Waterloo and Debbieis a dietician at St. Josephs Hospital, London. The youngest daughter, Janet and Brenda, are both at- tending university. There were several political shifts during. McKinley's first term in office and in 1967 the Conservatives 'chose Robert .Stanfield to lead the party in the next election. • The Liberals- followed suit with a leadership convention in 'the spring of 1968 when a young former Justice Minister by the name of Pierre Elliott Trudeau was se e e t ezl—to---hEa-d"-t•h•e- Liberal Party. Trudeau immediately calledi an election and during the campaign captured the fancy of the Canadian electorate from coast to coast. The Liberals regained a majority government . in 1968 election and McKinley retained the Huron -Middlesex riding against • • the Trudeaumania trend arid increased his majority' over the 1965 election. It would be his second term as a member of the op- position. After holding the seat for nearly seven years, McKinley was an easy winner in Huron- Middleseat in the 1972 election, defeating Liberal candidate, Charlie Thomas of Brussells by 10,500 votes. "I had had time to do things for the people in the constituency in those seven years," McKinley said. "And there was some animosity building towards Trudeau which helped me in the '72 *election." It' was during his third term in the House that McKinley was selected as the Conservative whip by Stanfield.. .It was a position he held for three years. As whip, McKinley assigned Conservative members tel committees, took attendance at the committee level, assigned seats in the - House and generally executed the party leaders' requests. ' Ih 1974, Prime Minister Trudeau called another election and the prospect of wage and . price con- trols was a, hotly con- tested issue. In 1974. McKinley won the Huron -Middlesex riding for the fourth consecutive • term, defeating —fibe al--ea.n_- didate John Lyndon by 7,500 votes. The. Trudeau held the government to the limit that • term, holding power for almost five years before the May 22 election call in 1979. By that time Bob had been a member of the House for more than 13 years and was seriously considering not running again. The tiding •had changed and included two townships from Mid- dlesex County and four townships from Bruce County. "They were afraid of losing 'the riding and the president of the association convinced me to run again," Bob recalled. " I diclmy work. during the recess and defeated Graeme Craig by more than 9,000 votes.'' Joe Clark guided the Conservatives to a minority government.in 1979 but parliament , n't recalled until October. "Clark held a lot of policy meeting before that evening, I was ready to hit the sack. I thought, it has been a long and productive day. Now I will sleep. I slept. On Sunday morning I awoke at five o'clock. I was beginning to realize that my perennial problem was getting serious. There is not much to do at five in the a.m. The stores are not even open yet. Rising in the middle -of the night puts a damper on one's social life. I may have been looking for fun and feeling groovy at five o'clock, but pals and buddies quickly fade away into the sunrise when phoned at that hour and asked, "What's say we go bowling?" Sunday continued much the same as Saturday until I ran out of gas about suppertime. It was Easter dinner and relatives tsk-ed over me and whispered, "She must be working too hard," as I nodded off oVer my ham and yams. Excusing myself after dinner, I went home to bed. Today is Monday and I awoke at four recalling Parliament," McKinley said. "One bf the reasons we polled well was that I had convinced members to talk of Canada as a whole WEDNESDAY, APRIL 9, 1980 4 gruellin and not restrict them- selves • to • a region or riding." But, the Conservative minority government was barely in power six weeks when the budget of Finance Minister John Crosbie led to its defeat. McKinley, claimed he had already ' made his decision not to seek this morning. The birdies were not singing and the doggies were not barking yet. The day had not yet dawned sunny and warm. Stiff from my weekend of intense physical ac- tivity, I neglected to perform my four sit-ups. Instead, this industrious correspondent did her laundry, cleaned her .apartment, clipped her toenails, took a bath, baked some brownies, and had a hearty and nutritious breakfast. All befoa?e eight o'clock. I tbok a nap before I came to word It would have looked suspicious if I had come to work an Dour early on a Monday morning. This is something that is simply not done. It is really difficult to put in a full day at the office when you peak at ten o'clock in the morning. At noon, I was ready for supper. It is now two in the afternoon and I really want to go home and rest. But I Bob McKinley know I can't let myself do that. Something has got to be done. There is no way I can get the world to turn the clocks ahead about six hours to get back in synch with my body, so I'm going to have to force myself to stay awake until at least ten o'clock tonight. This will only be accomplished if I move the coffee machine into the editorial office and right beside my desk. Dark rooms will have to be avoided. My fellow reporters get really annoyed when I sing and tap dance on, top of my desk, but I'm afraid it's the only way. When I go home, the real challenge will begin. My soft bed will be there staring at me. It will get dark outside. I can't think 'about it! Coffee! More coffee. Got to keep busy. Maybe if I put my head down on my desk for just a few minutes, I'll feel a little better. Just a short nap... then I'll go hack to work... bright and cheery... yawn. SECOND SECTION years reelcetion when the February 18 was called adding that he knew there would be good candidates to take over the position. McKinley said he wasn't di sappo i nted Abet • he was overlooked ,in the Clark cabinet despite having been a senior member of the party,. He was, however, disap- pointed in his govern- . ment's attitude towards Ontario. "1 really didn't expect a cabinet post but the •government xorgot to pay more: attention to Ontario," he said. " Ontario is well off and athey assumed they could manage by themselves without federal in- tervention. I am disap- pointed they didn't pay attention to Ontario and disappointed they didn't remain in. government." At the time McKinley announced his.retirement . he was about 30th on the seniority list of members in the . House. His memories of a lengthy political career are numerous and he is reticent to speak of the efficient manner in which he took care •of his con- stituency. • "People could do more good in Ottawa if they worried less who got the credit," he said. "I handled many local problc,ms but I was not as active with the press about the things I did." When . McKinley, first sat as a member of the House he was given a • small office and a secretary. When he retired he had a larger office with two' secretaries, a research assistant and a con- stituency office with a secretary, Locally, he was in- strumental in setting up dredging contracts for the goderich harbour and cath wooden assisting in solving ownership problems at Sky harbour Airport when the. municipality bought it.' Most of the problems directed his way concerned old age security cheques, family allowance and sup- plement problems and late payments by Vie Unemplyment Insuralke Commission. Many of the pleas for help were handled at his. home by. Audrey and Bob phoned her faithfully at .'six every day to find out who called. :'The people got service because I usually called them right back," he said. "I was never at ease if my desk had a pile of letters. I couldn't live with myself. Some members let the correspondence pile up for days but I'couldn,'t." During Parliament the House was in session daily form 2 to 10.30 p.m. with two hours off for dinner each day. On Friday the session was shortened from 11 p.m. to 5 p.m. to allow MPs more travelling time. Bob was involved with committee meetings Tuesday and Thursday mornings and caucus meetings were held•Thursday. McKinley was part of the conserv'ative's agriculture committee during all of his 14 years as well as being Public Works critic, chairman of the Election Expenses Committee, deputy whip and chairm an of the Agriculture Committee It was a demanding job that he says required his full-time attention. Bob said the govern- ment now has a tough job ahead in dealing with interest rates and in- flations. He remarked that in his first term interest rates were at 6 Turn to page 2A