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HomeMy WebLinkAboutThe Goderich Signal-Star, 1984-08-22, Page 4icktqx6x r"SVArt:VitEDNESDAWAUGUST 1984 I have' always beenta.casi ial but interested observer in the.Am)ericaln s�+stem of politics, from the nomination and primary process through to -election;;; While that same democratic exercise has sparked an insatiable interest, It is, at best, totally bewildering, And the purveyors and participants of that process are completely crazy. Americans, I would submit, take their politics seriously and that demonstrable interest is much in evidence now throughout the U.S. Their zeal and enthusiasm is admirable, something I suspected was completely lacking in Canadian politics. Canadians do 'take their politics serioulsy too, I suspect, but are much less demonstrative about their feelings, leanings and partisan opinions. Still, it's serious business when the nation's business is at stake. Right? Well, not always. Despite exhaustive accounts of the leaders comings and goings on the nightly, news package and detailed account of riding developments in the daily press, not everyone exudes the same professionalism or caring attitude. • Let's face it. There is a certain element of tedium thath pervades the political struggles of the nation. • But, while the party strategists and politicians pound the pavement in search of support and friendlPears, one official party, the Parti Rhinoceros, makes light of the game with preposterous and hilarious claims. That an official political party would make jest of such serious undertakings and perhaps undermine the importance of the federal election, is revolting to and incomprehensible to many Canadians. Taken in the spirit in which the whit is dispensed with, the party, l submit, offers a refreshing outlook on the election. Q Rather than detracting from the election, the Rhino stand merely injects a measure of good fun into a sometimes day matter. Sample the following. The Rhino party unveiled its'platform at a special news conference last week and announced that it would: Lower the boiling point of water to save energy and allow people to sleep in longer before getting up to prepare their morning coffee. Encourage ministers to change their portfolios every day. Establish the right to strike for members of parliament. Give Americans the right to vote in Canadian elections and move the capital to Ottawa, Kansas. Give government aid to small business, especially those with fewer than one employee. Create a new crown corporation, CAN - ROCK, which would develop rock 'a roll as an insturment of peace, harmony as well as an instrument for economic recovery and job creation. Tax relief for the lovelorn by permitting hotel bills, bar tabs and meal receipts collected in search of a lover to be tax deductible. Create a network of regulated brothels where each citizen would be entitled to 1.5 visits a year. It's all pretty heady stuff for a party that attracted 123,000 votes in the 1980 federal election. The party actually came second in two Montreal ridings and campaign director, Charlie McKenzie, said the party would have 891/2c candidates in the 1984 rendition of the election. Recognized as an official party, the Rhinos are given their share of free air time and have an advertising budget of $37.19, much of it raised through corporate contributions. Irresponsilbe? Maybe. But sometimes it's good therapy to laugh at yourself and a little humor is good for this otherwise staid campaign. Member: •CNA Second class mail registration number 0716 BI UE RIBBON AWARD 1983 THE NEWS PORT FOR GODERICH & DISTRICT SINCE 1848 Founded In 1848 and published every Wednesday et Soderich, Ontario. 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PUBLISHED BY: SIGNAL -STAR PUBLISHING LIMITED ROBERT G. SHRIER - President end Publisher DON HUBICK - Advertising Manager DAVE SYKES - Editor P.O. BOX.eEO <�e MUCKING BT. INDUSTRIAL PARK BOOERICH, ONT. N7A 4BB e FOR BUSINESS OR EDITORIAL OFFICES...please phone [819] 324-E331 No need for exchange There was a rather heated exchange at the council table Wednesday evening between Mayor Eileen Palmer and councillor Jim Searls over the press conference announcing the harbour expansion project. At the August 13 press conference at town hall, Mayor Eileen Palmer read a press release prepared by Minister of Agriculture Ralph Ferguson's office. Ferguson latex.; reiterated the contents of the release via a conference telephone conversation on behalf of Transport Canada. The release was delivered to town hall by Huron -Bruce Liberal candidate Bruce McDonald. The conference was also attended by a few town councillors and representatives of Domtar and Goderich Elevator, the principle commercial concerns at the harbour. The councillor asked who arranged the press conference and who .had been invited. Mayor Palmer said that Ferguson's office arranged the affair but later, visibly angry, implie that the questions asked were put to the councillor by a citizen, whom the mayor claimed had asked the questions of other councillors. Regardless of the source of the questions, the exchange between the two was undignified and the manner in which the questions were handled by the mayor was unflattering. R?pliticakvadvertaries,-.at the municipal, provincial or federal level; have the right to comment on or question any matter. Whether those comments were prompted by a constituent or the elected official is irrelevant. Each comment or question put forth at the council table need not be openly ridiculed. Democracy, presumably, ensures and entrenches the right to fair comment and question. Each elected official and citizen has the right to express an opinion and those opinions must be entertained as legitimate. One does not have to agree with those opinions by any means, but everyone must repsect the rights of others. Sacrifice required Each of the three political leaders have their separate pucfposals to reduce unemployment in Canada -as well they should. John Turner's only concrete plan so far is one which would subsidize on-the-job training for young people who have not been able to find work since leaving secondary school. Turner says he would set up a program under which young trainees would receive $85 per week in government assistance during an apprenticeshiplperiod. We wonder whether any of these politicians have ever paused to consider the basic causes of widespread unemployment among young people. Turner is right when he identifies the present problem as "no work without experience and no experience without work." However, his proposal to pay young people generously out of the taxpayer's money may fail. Apprenticeship in years gone by was a system which not only afforded the beginner a chance to,attain skills; it was also a system which galled for monetary sacrifice on The part of the apprentice. He didn't get a great deal of money for the first few years, and he was not necessarily allowed to spend all his time on the job of his choice. He was often required to sweep the floor or clean up the machinery. Now, mind you, he didn't like being the "joe-boy" but he did absorb the fact that if he wanted to get away from the broom he had to prove himself a reliable skilled hand who could produce efficiently. Most apprentices emerged as dependable workmen who could hold satisfactory jobs. What happened to this system which produced millions of skilled, self-reliant people over the years? Minim`nrn wage laws, widely touted as fair and just for the working man and woman, ended the apprenticeship system. Few employers could afford to pay the rates demanded by law, while at the 'same time providing the learner with a machine to operate and a skilled workman to teach the apprentice. A new plan for teaching skilled trades is an obvious answer to the problem of unemployed young people. But unless those same young people are willing to sacrifice to some extent the results may be a total failure. -(Wingham Advance -Times) ,d. POSTSCRI Those of you who read Shirley Keller's farewell column in last week's paper will know by now that I have taken over this spot. Shirley will be a hard act to follow but I promise to try and do my best. I also promise not to write about myself each weekss i am: doing in this very first column. Hower, f thought I would share the following aspect of, my personality with you to help us become better acquainted. I am a klutz. I aril not bragging or complaining:I am just stating a sin-,ple fact of life. I've learned to live with this fact and I'm sure there are others out there like me. I was recently reminded of my klutziness while watching the Olympics on t.v. I find it difficult to do the most simple things in life. Like walking and talking at the same time. Just ask anyone who works with me. They will tell you that I regularly bump into walls, hit my knees on my desk, miss my chair when I sit down and trip over my own two feet (-I usually blame the latter on my shoes). Editor Dave often tells me that I am just an accident waiting for a place to happen. 1D For these reasons, I have avoided playing sports all my life. I enjoy watching athletic, co- ordinated people (Olympic competitors are my heroes) but have resigned myself to being a fan, not a participant. At first I tried sticking to relatively easy sports but after spraining my finger bowling and tearing the ligaments .in my leg tobagganing, I gave up. I quickly came to the conclusion that JOANNE BUCHANAN y who could hurt themselves bowling or tobag:ening was not cut out for riskier sports like downhill skiing ur high diving. And speaking of high diving, my record for klutziness is intact in the water. I have had so many near -drowning experiences that I'm beginning to think I must have been one of the ill- fated passengers on the Titanic in a former life. Despite the fact that 1 grew up right here in Goderich, on Lake Huron, in a house next door to the town swimming pool where I took lessons faithfully, I never graduated out of paddle - *heelers. I learned to tell how many fingers my instructor was holding under water and how to do the jelly -fish float, but I never got the hang of kicking my feet and moving my arms at the same time ( unless that describes dog..paddling. I'm an excellent dog paddler. If they had an Olympic event for that, I might qualify). When I tell people I can't swim, I get a really strange reaction, like I've just told them that I'm a Communist or that I'm from Mars. A few years ago I took a trip to Florida with•my parents. Fortunately, we didn't go near any water except to drive by Daytona —Beach. However, we did go on a bus tour of St. Augustine, one of the oldest cities on the continent, and I fell off the bus—when it was moving. Thank goodness it was just one of those small canopied buses which was quite low to the ground. Other than scraping about 12 layers of skin off my hands and bruising my pride, I wasn't badly hurt. This year my parents went on a vacation and one of their stops was Lake Placid, New York. While touring the city from the heights of a ski lift, my father turned to my mother and said, "I'm glad Joanne isn't with us this time. She would have killed herself if she'd fallen out of this thing." Things are pretty bad when your own parents acknowledge the fact that you are a klutz. Still, they have tried to retain some faith in me. My father, knowing full well that I am a klutz, loaned me his car shortly after I received my driver's licence at age 16 so that I could take my friends to the drive-in one night. He shouldn't have been surprised when I came home and told him I had run into a speaker and scraped the paint off the side of his vehicle. You don't have to pull over to the side of the road when you see me coming toward you though. I've never had a major accident; my driving record of 12 years is pretty good as a matter of fact (touch wood). I don't do major klutzy things; just minor klutzy things. I've never been seriously injured or traumatized. Being a klutz makes your life inconvenient, annoying and even hazardous at times, but it also makes your life interesting (never a dull moment) and helps you to develop a sense of humor. It often becomes a self-fulfilling prophecy; your friends and family expect it of you, and the more you think about being a klutz, the more you act like and become one. That's why I've made up my mind right this minute not to be one any more. Ooops...&?5e! lh2$...1 just clunked myself on the side of the head when I answered the phone. And I have a nick in my thumb from where I closed it in my desk drawer. Oh well, life goes on... Has the Gederich town council lost its municipal marbles? It is difficult to believe to what extent it is reversing the roles of the public's rights and the elected represen- tatives' responsibilities. If a taxpayer can be openly berated at an official council meeting; if a councillor can be treated to an explosive display of hostili- ' ty for doing his job - while a feeble chorus cheerfully hastens to proclaim what amodfnts to its ineffectuality - then there is a serious and obvious lack of respect for our democratic traditions, with an equally serious lack of understanding of the fun- damental principles of elected office. It is sad when a municipal council has to be reminded that it is answerable to the public and not the other way around. Any citizen is free to express an opinion and to take a stand on any public matter, whether or not it pleases the mayor or any other c6uncil member. A citizen has the right to contact any or all council members on public business, in order to do two things - to find out what the member's stand is on certain issues and to let the member know how a citizen views -these No el d representative could possibly agree th all the conflicting opinions and preferences df the publid. It is not expected. But it is expected that an elected individual can be politely approached by a citizen, in order to receive and convey a message con- cerning any public matter. If there are coundil members who regard themselves as being above such public contact outside elections, we have a right to know. In a little improrfrptu vignette during last week's council meeting, some members cl..'med publicly that they had not been call- ed by a citizen. It is a bit confusing - were these members proud of it or did they feel left out? There are several reasons why a council member is not approached. The caller might run out of time, being involved in other matters; a member might be difficult to reach, a member might have been men- tally crossed off as a, w,aste of time. What of it? It is an individual's choice and no official or other accounting is necessary. I like to suggest respectfully that it never was, is not now, and ever will be any -mayor's business X12^°1t ]� to wziom.. It isr_net nn item for an intelligent council's discussion. A council meeting must be chaired fairly, impartially and politely. Could one say sincerely that this is the case with the pre- sent council in -Goderich? On many occa- sions it is more like a girade two atmosphere where the teacher is running the show and whoever does not obey meekly is marked down as a troublemaker. However, in municipal government the taxpayers issue the report cards. An outside observer cannot fail to notice that councillor Searls is not the teacher's pet. He asks questions, sharpens his pencils when he is told not to, and does not join in the games. Councillor Searls and I have locked horns vigorously on many issues in the past and are likely to do so in..the future. But fair is fair. Most of the time now councillor Searls is the one council member who asks ques- tions and probes situations; he says so when he sees in our municpal affairs something with which he does not agree. It is his and every member's right. Some would say it is his duty. It is true that councillor Searls can be abrasive, bat p rhapg the example ee,_tat the head of the table does not help. To at- tempt to isolate, belittle and intimidate him is not the answer. Most people favour fair play. We like to see our democratic insitutions understood and respected. It is not necessary to operate with mutual love and admiration, but no council can work constructively without observing certain standards of civilized tolerance and without a keen willingness to disagree intelligently and with dignity. Personally, I feel frankly pulled as well as pushed by Mayor pahner's municipal work attitudes. She is a well informed, personable and active mayor and the realization of her ambitions usually benefits the town. But every time when I have reached a high level of appreciation of her work, I feel the chilly headwind of the dictorial manner in which she chooses to carry out many of her duties. One feels alternately invited and rejected I hope urgently and warmly that all coun- cil members will learn to accornrnodate dif- ferent opinions and styles in a more benevolently relaxed manner. To gain en- try, it is better tp open a door than to pull liameasiatemo ELSA HAYDON Assnmedraturstanswaramer •