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HomeMy WebLinkAboutThe Goderich Signal-Star, 1978-05-18, Page 5-11 lie sijkes v. Well, the inhabitants of the land off true north strong and free finally got something definite from our Prime Minister. ° Sort of. What we know for certain now is that there will not be an election this sum- mer. Prime Minister Trudeau was forced to make the announcement about the election in the House of Commons last week since the Chief Electoral Office requires 58-60 days to prepare for an election. If it was to be held in July, the Electoral Officer needed a word from the PM to get ready. So the PM finally dropped the bom- bshell and the announcement ended months of speculation on the part of opposition members and any Canadian possessing a finely honed political acumen would .have set his mother-in- ln ' thrrr would h ' 'r' hon, rinrtinn It seemed like a sure bet. Even the country's postal workers talked openly about a strike and their activities are generally an accurate barometer in measuring major political activity. But not so friends. The election issue was the biggest political non-event of the year, at least according to NDP leader Ed Broadbent. And you can't help but agree that it was a let down. While employment hovers around the million mark and our dollar plummets to depths unknown, what we really needed was to spend millions of dollars on an election. Since the politicians and the Canadian electorate were hyped for an election and the PM's retreat has had some serious ramifications on the Canadian political spectrum. All across the nation party association members have staged their nomination GODERICH SIGNAL -STAR, THURSDAY, MAY 18, 1978—PAGE 5 meetings, candidates have been elected, signs have been painted, buttons have been handed out and candidates have taken a firm grip on the hands of the electorate in the acceptable vote wooing procedure. Only to be let down. Now with no election until the fall, at the earliest and more likely next spring, there are some interesting com- plications. What will become of the nation's writers, a rather downtrodden lot, who produce reams of speeches filled with empty promises of full enfployment, a strong dollar, responsible government and a unified nation? What are these scribes to do now, when they were poised at the pen and ready to inscribe a small token of witticism on a campaign button with one deft stroke? The nation will just have to wait in suspense until the campaign writers are set loose on the electorate, Sure it's disappointing. Most of the fun off an election is the campaign slogans produced by political hacks in dingy smoke-filled rooms that read: Stanfield Gives You More Support, Joe Who and other great stuff like that. And political hopefuls across the country will just have to stash away that campaign speech, written by their daughter-in-law who is a school teacher you know, until the PM decides his party is popular again. And we will just have to wait for those all-important promulgations from op- position leaders who will divulge their secret for cutting personal income tax and reaching, full employment while balancing the budget on a simple little formula that no one ever thought of before. I think I can wait. THE WEEK AFTE INFORMATION, BACKGROUND AND OPINION The president of the Ontario Medical Association,. Dr. Lazarus Loeb,.said that. doctors will not tolerate government intervention with their basic right to opt out of the Ontario Health Insurance Plan. Since the 0HIP program began, about 88 percent of Ontario doctors have participated. But recently there has been widespread rumors that many doctors are dissatisfied with their reimbursement from OHIP for their services and will opt out Of the program. Patients who deal with doctors who do not subscribe to OHIP must pay the •balance of the bill that OHIP will not PROVINCIAL POINTS cover. If a doctor, who opts out of O.HIP, charges $50 for services and OHIP covers $30 then the patient must pay $20 out of his own pocket. Loeb told the OMA council that it was difficult to assess the number of doctors who would opt out of OHIP or in what regions they may be. But he did say that the doctors would resist any attempt made by the government to force the doctors to stay in. Loeb called it a form of civil conscription to 0IIIP. "To us and members of the public this would be a most repugnant act. No other group in society has ever been forced into government service in peacetime." Loeb said. Loeb claimed .,that if there was a conflict between the doctor's right to opt out and patient's access to care, the OMA would work with government to find ways to protect those who need protection, such as the aged and th.e handicapped. The council also passed a resolution reaffirming the OMA's policy to promote opting out among its members. Just one month ago, Ontario Health Minister Dennis Timbrell said he had no in- dication the OMA would promote opting out. Dr. Edward M.oran of Scarborough, OMA general secretary, said the OMA has always been in favor of doctors dealing directly with patients for billing, but the association would not pressure doctors to opt out. Moran added that it was the right of each doctor to determine his remuneration. However, this month doctors are receiving conflicting information on how to bill OHIP. In previous years, the OMA and the ministry have agreed on a fee schedule to take effect May 1, of. which OHIP paid 90 percent. Doctors who have participated in the plan had accepted the 90 percent as full payment. Patients who do not subscribe to OHIP have been reimbursed for the 90 percent and paid their doctors an amount set by the doctor. . In negotiations this year, the OMA and the health ministry could not come tp terms on a fee schedule so the Ministry will publish its own schedule. Without a new schedule, the ministry has told doctors to bill on the basis of the 1977 schedule and said the OHIP com- puter will reimburse doctors according to the new fee schedule, which hasn't It was reported to the association that been published, which will give doctors a the public complains more about poor 6.25 percent increase over last year. communication and service than quality Peter Fraser, the OMA's director of of care. financial services, told h s fellow council members to bill OHIP On the basis of the 1978 schedule set by the OMA, which represents an overall 36 -percent in- crease. Meanwhile the president" " of the Canadian Medical Association said that patients have a right to information about their disease and its treatment and that it was up to doctors to keep them informed. Well, the waiting game is over for the time being. Prime Minister Trudeau announced last week that he will post- pone a general election until the fall or the spring of 1979. Most of the MPs in the Liberal caucus were prepared and eager for an election but Trudeau heeded the warning of the public opinion polls in delaying the election. Although he gave different ex- planations in the House of Commons and at the weekly press conference, the main reason for the cancellation was that Trudeau probably didn't think the Liberals could win at this time. CANADA IN SEVEN Their popularity has been kicked in somewhat after recent Gallup polls indicate that the Liberals and Con- servatives each have 41 percent of the popular vote. In the past few months the Conservatives gained four percentage points at the expense of the Liberals and three at the expense of the NDP. Trudeau told reporters that he said he didn't feel he had to call an election last fall when he was ahead in the polls and therefore doesn't feel obliged now when the polls are less favorable. The election fever and speculation that has dominated political and parliamentary activity in Ottawa for weeks came to an abrupt end when Trudeau rose in the Commons and told the Opposition it had been so co- operative that he wished to see the work of the current session'- of Parliament continue. Trudeau said •he believed the people want his Government to provide some remedies for the problems in the economy and with national unity rather than go to the polls. The opposition reaction was summed up by retiring Conservative • MP Heath Macquarrie, who said to Trudeau, "you don't put running shoes on cold feet." Opposition leader Joe Clark challenged Trudeau's 'reasoning and said Canadians wanted an election but that Trudeau decided it was not in the best interest of the Liberal Party. Clark refused to talk to reporters outside the House saying he would not comment on a non-event. He later gave a statement saying that Canada could not afford a six-month stall while Trudeau sorted out his political priorities. New Democratic Party leader, Ed Broadbent, said it was clear that the public wanted an election. He added that he had never seen Trudeau so defensive • • and was personally disappointed that he had to back down. But Trudeau joked with the NDP leader in the House saying there was even more of a feeling of relief in Broadbent's party at the decision, a direct reference to the NDP's three- point..drop in,the recent Gallup poll to 14 percent of the popular vote. Trudeau had to make an an- _nounce.m.en.t ....this week _it .he_. were... planning to call a July 10 election because the '.Chief Electoral Officer requires 58-60 days to prepare for a general election. His decision to put off an election until the fall or next spring means that he is breaking with the Canadian tradition of a four-year term between elections although a Prime Minister can wait five years before dissolving Parliament. Only three non -wartime governments have extended the four-year governing period and one of them was Trudeau's first Government elected in June 1968. Tru.deau..also_att.empted to discourage speculation about a fall election and said he wished everyone would just forget about the election until Parliament is dissolved. `4141 V Vi David Berkowitz, the 24 year old ex - postal worker, who admitted to the killing of six young New Yorkers also revealed in court last week that he is the Phantom of the Bronx who set 2,000 fires in the city over a four-year period. Bronx District Att -1rney Mario Merola shocked spectators at the Berkowitz trial last week by revealing that the self- confessed Son of Sam killer, recorded 1,400 of the fires in meticulously kept diary from 1973 ';1 his arrest last August. Berkowitz noted in the diary the location of each fire, the number of the fire -alarm box, the number of fire trucks WORiL.DWEEK at the scene and even the weather. The attorney said the diary showed that, Berkowitz was either a chronic pyromaniac and arsonist or a fire -buff who enjoyed reporting fires. Merola claimed the arson issue presented all kinds of problems in the case against Berkowitz who has also admitted to being the .44 calibre killer who murdered five young women and a young man and wounded seven others in a year-long reign of terror. Merola said the crown must now ascertain whether the fires took place, what damage was done, whether anyone was injured and whether anyone else was arrested for setting the fires. Merola added that it would take a• 12 - man arson squad weeks to unravel the information. Berkowitz recorded the fires in a diary that had been laying in the New York City police department's property office since he was arrested at his Yonkers apartment. The district attorney said they knew nothing about the fires until Berkowitz's lawyer called and said he would also plead guilty to the fires. After reading the diary the district attorney was convinced that the fires were authentic. The fires were set in every borough in New York except Staten Island. About 80 per cent of the fires were set in the Bronx where Berkowitz grew up and many others took place near the sites of the murders in Queens and Brooklyn. A Merola aide said that Berkowitz set fire to vacant buildings, nursing homes, abandoned automobiles, luxury cars, mattresses and anything that would burn. Most of the fires were minor ones with little chance of injury or death. Berkowitz was reported to have adopted the name Phantom of the Bronx when he called police or fire depart- ments about the fires. Last week's hearing took place amid tight security in Brooklyn State Supreme Court, a few blocks from the 84th Precinct where Berkowitz was booked for the murder of Stacy Moskowitz, 20, last summer. In eourt there was no mention of the demons which Berkowitz had claimed drove him to the murder. Instead there was testimony that the Son of Sam killer had become a born-again Christian in prison and even had ambitions to preach the gospel as a Pentecostal minister in jail. This was reported to be the main reason why Berkowitz refused last- minute attempts by his attorneys to get him to plead not guilty due to insanity to the murders. Sentencing will be May 22, and the maximum sentence in New York State is 25 years to life. Berkowitz' other victims were Donna Lauria, 18; Christine Freund, 26; Virginia Voskerichian, 19; Valentina Suriani, 18; and Alexander Esau, 20. Berkowitz was expressionless at the hearing and when asked if he wanted to hurt one of his victims he replied: "No I wanted to kill her." Relatives and friends of Berkowitz victims wept in the courtroom and most agreed that any sentencing he receives would not atone for the killings. The discovery of a tribe of cave dwellers in the Phillipines recently has got some scientists fogging their microscopes with theprospects of unearthing some mysteries of life without the comforts of modern technology. The people, about 30 families, were discovered living in a series of caves lining the crater of a dormant volcano. The people were living off the land growing basic foods in a cleared area of jungle and were using a nearby river as a source of water. The discovery has been termed by some as a saving grace for the people who knew nothing of air travel, space exploration, television, electricity, telephones, football games, Stanley Cup finals or taxes. Life was little more than digging up a small path of,earth to keep the wife and kids in sweet potatoes, washing the loin cloth and catching some rays. A scientific exploration hacked its way through dense jungle over mountainous terrain and cut a trail through virgin land to find the tribe which, until now, was legend. The discovery prompted the governor of the Phillipines to board his private helicopter and drop in. on the tribe. The first order of business may be to use some taxpayers' money to allow the primitive tribe to do some catching up. Maybe some low cost housing developments, underwritten by the government of course. A road will have to be put through to the cave dweller neighborhood to allow materials to be taken in for the housing projects. Once the road is completed perhaps a heads up finance company will open a branch office to offer the 30 -families low cost loans to buy that car they never knew they needed but now can afford. But where can they buy a car: Never fear an announcement from the government recently detailed a' business incentive program available to energetic individuals willing to sacrifice life in the city for life in a cave. The government will grant an interest-free loan payable in 99 years to the man, woman or child wanting to open a car dealership in a remote area of the Phillipines. Now that we've got them on wheels and in homes we can sell them Some electricity. For the low, low price of $138 a month the government will string some hydro lines to their doorsteps and keep them in hot water, hot sweet potatoes for supper and bug zappers for those backyard barbecues with the cheapest source of energy known to man. But wait, We've got the hydro in and all we can see are electrical outlets with nu -plugs in them. Ah, there's the answer coming down the new road. A truckload of modern conveniences. Toasters, televisions and washers and dryers to keep the ladies from hours of work rubbing loin cloths on river rocks. We've got hamburg makers, popcorn makers, electric shavers, electric toothbrushes .and a variety of other essentials that will be necessary to keep the cave dwellers presentable for the tourists. Now we've got them all set up and we send them a bill. When the bill isn't paid a government investigator discovers that no money has been sent to the capital because the people can't read. No problem. AV little concrete, some textbooks and a couple of teachers and we've got a school. But wait th'ere's still no money. The cave people have no jobs. Ah but the government isn't through yet. The minister of agriculture announced a plan that will increase the sweet potato ex- ports 9,000 percent and to meet that order the cave dwellers will be given low cost loans to clear jungle and move the sweet potato fields out into virgin lands. Okay there you go cave dwellers, you're civilized. What do you mean you're going on strike? Sweet potato prices are too low? Education taxes ,are top high? The government houses don't have saunas? We can put you back in the caves again you know. Oh you know that. jeff: ddon