Loading...
HomeMy WebLinkAboutThe Goderich Signal-Star, 1977-06-09, Page 7-�r dave sykes I promise not. to,twrite any further columns on the election. That is of course unless elected then I promise to disavow any knowledge of previous promises. Promises. Elections and politicians thrive onyt them and electors hunger for them. This election"rompaign has had its share, of promises but the well is running dry and during the last week of the campaign a politician couldn't buy G' a promise anywhere. During the first few weeks of the campaign the promises were reaching the electorate in a slow dribble. But they soon picked up •pace and politicians could grab promises for his riding from a plentiful source. Unfortunate situation but just as the voters had a number of promises to tempt their political palate, the politicians ran out and were forced to attack each other's promises. Ontario Premier William Davis has promised: to create 100,000 new jobs each year fora sieca4e,provide. ia- rov'a centive to business and industry to ex- pand, reduction of work stoppages and strikes, control energy prices, expand property tax eredits for senior citizens, continue to fight inflation, encourage growth of the private sector, -plant two trees for every one felled in Ontario, assure a farmer a decent living, home, care, eight percent rent control and no regional government. Opposition leader Stephen Lewis has promised; $300 million from corporate tax concessions for job creation, $100 million to cut provincial income taxes, grants to builders for non-profit housing, $30 million for job retraining, senior citizens exemption from education tax, increased taxes on the corporate sector, expansion of the forest industry, farm income legislation, review of regional government and an increase in the minimum wage to $9 per hour. F ODDER ICH SIGNAL-ST,i1R0'H.1RSPAY��,e. Liberal Leader Stuart Smith has createl mired. to 1 5 0 promised: 00 new jobs in. the private business sector and save $41O million in unemployment, spend $200 million a year for three years to create 1.00,000 jobs, raise the price of domestic oil to world prices, remove education and social welfare from the property tax, any tax increases would not exceed wage increases, stibsidy for small businesses, encourage home building, a closer check on the forest industry, preservation of farmland, trim education budgets and keep increases within the inflation guidelines, continued rent controls and no regional govern- ment. They were all great promises but they ran out quickly and there just isn't one to be found anywhere. It has politicians in a frenzy with the election taking place today and promises being at a premium. Recently one politician dejectedly E5 stated that all the gimmickvbsd been used. apd. parties were,. -eV* :_.. proiixiisei from old"platforrns" "I have a- great idea," the p040001 said delightedly to a party supporter at a rally, "What if we promised a chicken la every pot and a car in every garage. Surely the voters would go for that" "Can'tsee that it would work," the supporter said, "It seems that someone tried that before and anyway people are grumbling that they don't have a pot to put the chicken in nor a garage to put the car in." "Why then we will promise to sub- sidize small pot manufacturers and promise to build 900,00Q new garages over the next 34 years. That's a promise that's hard to turn down." Promises. I promise not to make any predictions on the election today. Promise to vote? THS W oderich area housing actior ee intends to.buck a decision by rio Housing Corporation on the of a senior citizens housing ent in the town. oderich area action housing ee wants to build the 48 unit two senior citizens housing ent at West and Waterloo ear the town core area. Com - airman Roman Dzus said last at thelroup has picked the site seven feasibility studies done, ee sites by OHC architects. to rouril s IiM to Whether they are contrived, t, confusing or sim• gerated, elections tnrave on o politicians. s provincial election the issues en as numerous as the ries pushed in front of a leaders a press conference. But the ing comes to an end today and have been narrowed to an t few. Or have they?' re often confusing, sometimes and often lead to promises that to live up ,to. Politicians often rows in the heat of a campaign out issues that whirl about E INFORMATION, BACKGROUND AND OPINION HERE IN HURON Dzus claimed that the West and Waterloo Street location suits the housing action committee best. The two corner lots were formally occupied by a gas station and the A and P store, Since the committee is opting for a two-storey developmeht, they will Dzus said that the housing action committee had a preference to building near the core area and believed that in that case a two-storey structure would best compliment the surroundings. OHC architects looked at the possibility of erecting a two-storey building on require a larger lot. Although the town smaller lots, attempting to achieve 50 already has an option on the parcel of units on• smaller lot alternatives. land an additional three lots facing Erecting a building that complements Lighthouse Street would have to be the area is of vital' concern to the com- secured to house the project. Those three mittee to avord objections that may. lots are also owned by the same real result in an Ontario Municipal Board estate company which the .committee hearing on rezoning which would must negotiate with. postpone the construction for months. AFTER Dzus is concerned about delaying the project that has been in the working stage for nearly two years but the delay caused by the site location disagreement with OHC has become a major one. OHC would rather that the committee select a Bennett Street site that may be less costly. " Cost is another major disagreement between the two groups. 1:)zus estimated that the project could cost as much as $200,000 and he is hoping that OHC would pick up $194,000 of the tab, or $3,000 per unit: At a previous committee meeting, OHC representative Sidney Kaye said that OHC would not consider paying more than $1,500 per unit. However last Thursday, Miro Nestor, OHV architect said that the committee could safely expect as much as $1,800 per unit. The committee agreed on the core area site knowing that it would cost more, Committee member Gerry Ginn said 'that it was a one time project and was worth the extra money to build it in the right place rather than the wrong place. Dzus echoed his sentiments saying the primary objective was to meet the needs of the senior citizens. • PROVINCIAL POINTS dizzily in their political brains. The issues in this election are common ones in our economically troubled times. Unemployment, inflation, government spending, health and education costs, preservation of farmland, environment and resource management, property and income tax reforms and a com- mitment to new energy sources. But this election took on some new down -to -the -wire, end of the campaign strategies or variables on the old issues. It seems the NDP government in British Columbia, and their performance or lack of it in that province is worth, considering when voting in Ontario. ie t report indicates that guns are increasingly common in homes, ey conducted by Statistics laims there are at least 5.3 ousehold firearms in Canada uded approximately 292,000 . In a survey that was con- st August, Statistics Canada a bulletin that ' about 146 s in every 1,000 are gun owners erage owner has two guns, gun owners, 75 per cent of the are owned for hunting. 12.3 per s of two rival Puerto Rico ngs turned the streets of into riotous turbulence' night, a night which is now tnpared to the explosive hat existed during the 1968 c convention. between members of the two t gangs at a park celebration night of fighting, looting and at resulted in the death of two ft 70 others injured and police that 120 were in custody. At of the disturbance Saturday sands of atone and beer can emonstrators, moat of whom Tory campaign organizers were able to assemble. a group of disgruntled B.C. residents who would openly disvow any knowledge that the NDP party exists. Premier William Davis has promised Ontarians just about everything except a car in every garage. In his Charter he has promised 100,000 jobs ,each year for the next decade, which will not cost a cent, a continued fight against inflation, 900,000 new housing starts in the next decade, encouraged fair profit and growth in the private sector of our economy and so on. While Davis has promised a smooth ride with the PC's he is openly criticising the NDP who are in turn openly criticising the Conservatives. In fact everyone is openly critical of everyone else and no-one picks on Stuart Smith, leader of the Liberals. Smith and his party have been written off and there may he proper justification for that, but people have done strange things at the polls. Now hack to the issues. Lewis claims that the need for an election is still an issue, which it may well be to some voters, but probably the most hotly contested issueof the campaign is unemployment. They can talk about business, housing, property and income CANADA IN SEVEN cent for target shooting, 10.8 for collection purposes and 5.4 for protection and unstated purposes. The cost of the survey was , $90,000 and was com- missioned by the solicitor -general's department to help map gun control legislation. Legislation is now before the Com- mons justice committee and includes tighter restrictions on handguns and a certificate requirement for people who want to buy rifles or shotguns. The 5.3 million privately owned firearms in- clude: 3.058 million rifles and 1.,728 million shotguns. Ownership per1,000 persons aged 15 and over is highest on the Prairies (990) and in the Atlantic Provinces (410) and lowest in Quebec (190) and Ontario (257). The figure in the province of British Columbia is 373. When guns owned by police and military forces, prisons and other such institutions as well as retailers. manufacturers and import exporters are counted, the total number of firearms in Canada swells to somewhere between six and 10 million. Forty-five per cent of the estimated 2.5 million private gun owners were aged 25- 44, 38 per cent were 45 or older and seven per cent were aged 15 to 19. Only five per cent of gun owners were female, hut among gun users the female percentage was higher. Gun use was also higher than gun ownership in the teenage bracket, where 15 per cent had used a gun during the previous year. Eighty per cent of Quebec owners said they used their guns for hunting. This reason was given by 78.5 per cent of Atlantic region owners, 69 per cent of WORLDWEEK were demanding Puerto-Rican_._ir '. Among the more than 70 that were injured were 38 policemen and three firemen but most were treated at hospitals and later released.. The disturbance on *Saturday, which at 97 degrees was the hottest day of the year in Chicago, was -followed by hours of bombing at city hall in which no one was hurt and came just three days before -Chicago holds a special mayoral election to replace the late Richard Daley. The responsibility for the blast, just down the hall from the office of acting mayor Michael Bilandic was im- mediately claimed by a militant group that advocates Puerto Rican in - dependance from the United States, forced more than 200 policemen to with- draw for reinforcements and prevented fire trucks frim reaching a burning three-story building. . Police were finally able to restore calm around midnight after club swinging officers backed by mounted police invaded the crowds. After a pre- dawn rain dampened the smoldering embers; only litter, the burnt out building, stores with windows smashed and wrecked cars remained as remin- ders of the havoc in the Humboldt Park area on the northwest side of the city. • dependance. Authorities estimated that up to 3,000 persons were involved in the disturbance which followed a parade marking the independa nee of Puerto Rico from Spain. Seventeen police vehicles were damaged, including two set afire by vandals. Officials had no dollar estimate of the damage. Police First Deputy Supt. Carl Dobrich said police ,were investigating the possibility that the disturbance may have been touched off by gang rivalry that left Rafael Cruz, 25 and Julio Osorio, 26, dead of gunshot wounds. Witnesses and police said trouble tax, education and health costs but if you don't have a job first then those issues mean little. It ,is difficult enough for voters to recognize issues let alone offer solutions. Thais why we put our trust in politicians. They contrive issues and attempt to solve them. Just to support that theory, when Canadians were asked what was the hest thing to do to handle the unemployment problem, the largest group,,31 per cent, were unable to say. The most frequently mentioned suggestion made by 20 per cent was to tighten or eliminate unemployment insurance and welfare payments and those in Ontario and on the Prairies and 62 per cent in British Columbia. More than 18 per cent of 13,C., owners said they used their guns for target shooting. in Quebec and the Atlantic Provinces fewer than nine per cent of owners went in for target shoots. The high for collectors was 14 per cent in British Columbia, while the low was. about seven per cent in Quebec. On the- Prairies, hePrairies, 7.1 per cent said they owned guns for protection and other unstated reasons while the low percentage for this erupted in the late afternoon when Osorio shot Cruz as the Latin Kings and the rival Spanish Cobras were celebrating in the park following the parade. psorio was shot by police when he fired at the officers. Witnesses said that as police were taking another suspect in the gang shooting to a patrol wagon he began resisting. Efforts to subdue him angered picnickers who had come to the park following the parade and they began hurling objects. Supf. Dobrich said that as far as he knew one Puerto Rican shot and hit another and then began shooting at The committee then agreed to ask OH C for the maximum $3,000 assistance per unit and then Dzus stated that the next major hurdle was to come to terms with the OHC on the cost sharing of the land price before construction could begin. Nestor warned committee members that if the project was delayed another month construction would not likely start before winter and the project could become more costly due to a one per cent inflation rise in the construction in- dustry, make people take any job, available. Most thought that people were too choosy, Other suggestions were to create more jobs, develop housing, expand the LIP program and promote the private sector of the economy. Five per cent suggested that the government restrict immigration and keep jobs available for Canadians. Among the many other solutions of- fered by Canadians in the interview were to cut salaries, lower taxes, employ men before women, lower the retirement age, put more people in the military and develop the North. Well maybe we are better off leaving the solutions to the politicians. reason was 3.4 in the Atlantic Provinces. Two-thirds of the answerers indicated they had received some• formal training in gun use. The others reported informal instruction from parents, friends or hooks, The commons justice committee was told last week the government estimates it will raise $4.4 million 0jn $10 fees for firearms acquisition certificates in the first year the proposed law comes into operation. The figure is estimated on the sale of 440.000 firearms. police who first came to the scene. The police returned the fire and the people just got out of hand after that. Some authorities estimated that up to 3.000 persons were involved in the disturbance at Humboldt Park following the independence parade. At the height of the demonstration buildings were set on fire, cars were overturned and even police vehicles were set afire. On Sunday, helmeted police were still patrolling the area, where eight stores - were looted and two building* were burned. , f4