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HomeMy WebLinkAboutZurich Citizens News, 1977-06-29, Page 20Page 4 Citizens News, July 6, 1977 .•111111...__. - "He wants to know, i we're so democratic, how is it you don't have an opposition in Alberta?" ey- There has been a tendency over the years for Canadians to dismiss arguments that we live dangerously beyond our means as abstract sermons that may be true but which require little or no change in our life styles. The fact is that we do and because we do, we are in a serious economic and moral position. We are in the old something -for - nothing syndrome or what might be described as getting someone else to finance our dreams of the good life. It's called plastic money or getting small loans from finance companies to pay the grocery bill. The hard, cold facts are that we have come to the end of the road in our attempts to have the government bankroll us. We have encouraged government spending to jump from 26 percent of the nation's output in the 1950's to 40 per cent today. In cash that means from '. s billion -a -year to $75 billion. It comes right out of the taxpayers pocket, too. But instead of changing attitudes we our;is`i `i:.eans kept demanding more so that government printed more money which merely added to the inflationary spiral. Then still unwilling to live within our means, we tried another tack, borrowing from foreign lenders. In 1975 and 1976 Canada became the world's largest per capita borrower. We didn't just borrow to improve our worn-out manufacturing systems and provide new jobs, we borrow- ed to continue financing consumption. Now the tax load won't bear much more, the Bank of Canada won't print new money and the borrowing has eaten up enormous amounts of money in interest and repayments. Where do we go from here? How do we get more out of our economy than it can provide? Perhaps for a change, we listen, start to live within our means and thereby take the burden off the poor and underprivileged and find again what it means to conserve and save. Compulsory retirement at age 65 is both unfair and wasteful. For employers, the result is a loss of valuable human skills and reservoirs of ex- perience. Also lost are such priceless by- products of longer life as wisdom and the ability to cope with a whole gamut of prac- tical situations. It should not be assumed, of course, that everyone reaching the age of 65 wants to go on working. Others may not be capable of doing an effective job. What, then, are the alternatives to total retirement? Those who have researched this problem are convinced that it can often be solved by redistributing responsibilities to provide enough work for all age groups. In many cases this may call for senior employees to step down or sideways to new positions. Alternatively they may be assigned to part-time work or serve as con- sultants. Thousands of people slated to be axed from their jobs at the prevailing age limit would gladly settle for lower pay. However, if there's no way a person can be retained by his present employer all is not lost. Many gray-haired ex-employees have turned to a second career in a similar or totally different field that might be less demanding. Yet this road, too, can be rough. So far, few firms are willing to give even part-time work to a recent retiree. Because senior workers so obviously deserve fairer treatment, it is to be hoped that the federal government's new Human Rights Act (Bill C-25) will include prohibi- tion of age discrimination. Certainly the future will force a change. Statisticians forecast a sharp rise in the number of senior citizens in Canada over the next 20 years. Thus the national work load will have to be spread over a wider age span. It's not too soon to stop making all 65 -year-olds walk the plank by offering them more enlightened and prac- tical alternatives. FIRST WITH LOCAL NEWS Published Each Wednesday By J.W. Eody Publications Ltd. SNA Member: Canadian Weekly Newspapers Association Ontario Weekly Newspapers Association Manager - Betty O'Brien . News Editor - Cathy McKinley Second Class Mali Registration Number 1385 Subscription Rates: $7.00 per year in advance in Canada $14.00 per year outside Canada Single copies 204 by Cathy McKinley Well, there was a lot of talk last week over how wrong it is to put Canadians and Canadian things down. People were saying we should be proud of the talents we have in our country and to prove it the CBC was going to put on a gala extravaganza three hour television program showing festivities for Canada's Birthday all over the country. No commercials, nothing but Canadian entertainment across the country. Good, I thought. It is about time something like this was done, even though I would rather have seen it with commer- cials as without them the taxpayers pick up the tab, at least it would be Canadian. I put my fears of the workmanship of the CBC behind me, rebuked myself for even dreaming they could botch this one up, and proceeded to watch parts at least of the show. Unfortunately, my instincts concerning the production of the program were only too true. The camera work was rather poor in many cases, but this blamed on the fact there were so many locations that they had to use some of their more inexperienced cameramen somewhere. Then there was the terrible botch at the end. The fireworks were stupendous, the colors magnificent, the music tugged at your heartstrings and made you feel oh so patriotic, and then a beautifully haunting voice began to sing 0 Canada - it was enough to make even the scoffers dab at their eyes, un- til the voice suddenly stopped singing to go "Oh, not yet?" the music stopped dead and from there on in we lost the sound track all together. What was building up to be the en- ding of endings, ended up flat on its face with the comments to be heard a sad sigh and "We did it again." Then to make matters even worse, it turns out the program mentioned every province and territory, except New Brunswick. We're so proud of our country we can't even remember everyone who is in it. Well some people may not like the fact I am criticizing the attempt of the CBC to try and do something special, and they have a good point. It is better to have tried and failed than never to have tried at all and it was rather thrilling to see the midnight sun in Yellowknife and the kids dancing and singing at Ontario Place and the fireworks on Parlia- ment Hill and let's not forget Anne Murray. Yes it was a good try, the best ever, but it still is a little discouraging to think we couldn't even do that right. We may be jinxed or just unlucky, but something is definitely wrong. Even Zurich had its problems celebrating Canada Day. Many of you may not realize it but there was activity for that day by the village council, they planted a beautiful red maple beside the municipal building. The problems began soon after the council and myself arrived. It seems we had no shovel and the village foreman was no where in sight. Undaunted, our reeve jumped in his truck and was off to get a shovel returning in record time. For his efforts he was allowed the honor of turning the sod for the tree planting. Before this however, the council had to decide where the tree should go, not too close to the building, not too close to the road and definitely not in the way of the sidewalk which might someday be built along there. Quite a decision, but it too was made in record time. The digging was on, but the reeve soon retired the shovel to one of the more exuberant members of council as underneath the nice soft sod and topsoil lay heavy gravel and clay. Now this was a problem, what to do with the gravel as obviously it would not do to plant a Canada Day tree with gravel. Undaunted, our council came up with the perfect solu- tion. The gravel seemed to be of good quality, so council used it to fill in a few of the potholes on the side of the road - killing two birds with one stone. Now it became obvious there was going to have to be some 'soil brought in to surround the tree once the tree was planted so our fearless reeve and one other councillor again sailed off to fetch some good clean dirt. Meanwhile, our exuberant t councillor kept digging, p gg g, mostly stones and gravel, until he had a very nice good- sized hole dug. Since the reeve and his helper had not yet returned, a mischievous glint came into the eyes of the two councillors remaining and after placing the tree carefully in the hole, slitting the sides of the container, they began to rapidly backfill the hole with the clay they had 'removed. When the reeve arrived with the dirt, the tree was stan- ding straight in the ground and the two councillors were leaning proudly on shovels. The tree was planted, the new soil was used to build up around it and Canada Day celebrations in Zurich were one good time.