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The Citizen, 1986-12-10, Page 4PAGE 4. THE CITIZEN, WEDNESDAY, DECEMBER 10, 1986. Editorials There are 282 geographical constituencies represented in the House of Commons in Ottawa but it is often the constituencies that have no geographical designation that have the greatest influence on government policy. Various lobby groups from farm organizations to the women’s movement to the labour unions are regularly exerting power on the government to get policies changed to suit the needs of their membership. With the Brian Mulroney government, however, it has become evident that there is one constituency that dominates government action: big business. The vast majority of policies adopted by this government has been directed to the business constituency. It is big business that most wants free trade, for instance because it is only big business that is in a position to go after new markets in the United States. Small businesses, on the other hand, are more vulnerable to the influx of cheap goods from gigantic U.S. companies. Privatization has allowed big business to pick up former government companies which have been built up through years of investment of taxpayer dollars, at fire sale prices. The government could have chosen to do as other Canadian governments have done before and give shares to all taxpayers, to let them sell them or keep them as they saw fit. Instead the Progressive Conservatives took the easy route to sell off the companies to big business. The obsession with deficit cutting is spurred on by pressure from big business as well. While most of us can agree with the desire to cut the deficit, a look at the directions the cuts have taken shows who’s calling the shots. Social programs get cut, for instance, but government spending on the military increases. Now come the recommendations of the Forget Commission on reforming the unemployment insurance with recommenda­ tions so pro-business that even the government may flinch at trying to get the whole package of reforms accepted. The main effect of the reforms would be to reduce the cost of Good buddies he world view from Mabel’s Grill unemployment insurance to business while creating a large pool of unemployed workers who have so little money to live on they’ll be happier to work for less. Yet in many ways, it is big business, not the workers who gain most from unemployment insurance. If not for unemployment insurance, for instance, would auto companies be so ready to lay workers off while plants are retooled for the new model year? If we didn’t have unemployment insurance, would Canadian corporations be forced to become more like Japanese companies that provide jobs for life? There is a solid case to be made that over the last few decades the pendulum had swung to the left so far that business, which provides more of the productive jobs, had suffered. Some rebalancing was needed. The present government, however, seems to have its agenda set by big business and the rest of us, taxpayers, consumers, workers and small businesspeople are not having policies set in our interests. Fair compromise needed There are times when two rights can make a wrong and such seems to be the case in the controversy over the federal government’s bill that would restore patent rights to large drug companies. The government may find itself politically wrong for doing what it thinks is morally right. It has run into a buzz-saw of opposition from everybody from the provincial governments, which see the cost of their drug plans soaring, to senior citizens groups. There is no doubt that sooner or later restoring full patent protection to the inventors of drugs will mean higher prices for drugs. But we Canadians have had our cheaper drugs by being leaches. We’ve been able to insist generic drugs companies could use a patent by paying a small licence fee because the large multinational drug companies still made large profits in other countries in the world. We’ve had the best of both worlds. The drug companies have continued their research on new drugs, continued the extensive and expensive testing of those drugs to make sure they’re safe, then we’ve taken those drugs and made them available to other drug manufacturers who have done no research but who will provide the drugs cheaper. Put yourself in the place of the inventor of a drug (or anything else if you wish). Would you spend years developing a new product, risking time and huge amounts of money if you thought somebody could come along and take it all away from you as soon as you got in a position you could harvest the rewards for your work? On the other hand, there is something distasteful about companies that make huge profits from the misfortune of others. If, for instance, someone is dependent for their life on a drug you have invented, you have them over a barrel. There can be little bargaining over the price. The fact that prices for brand-name drugs are sometimes three and four times as much as generic copies shows that the profit level of the multinational drug firms is huge. Somewhere between the right of the drug company to be rewarded fairly for its long years of research and development and the right of the public to get needed drugs at a reasonable price there should be room for compromise. Perhaps the government should be using this opportunity to bargain with the multinationals to get fairer prices before rightly giving them better patent protection. There are people who will tell you that the important decisions in town are made down at the town hall. People in the know, however know that the real debates, the real wisdom reside down at Mabel’s Grill where the greatest minds in the town (if not in the country) gather for morning coffee break, otherwise known as the Round Table Debating and Filibustering Society. Since notjust everyone can partake of these deliberations we will report the activities from time to time. MONDAY: Tim O’Grady was saying this morning he won’t be in for tomorrow’ s session. He ’ s going to be in small claims court trying to collect a bill from a client who won’t pay his bill. Hank Stokes told Tim he must have a nickel and dime lawyer compared to Eddie Greenspan if he was going to small claims court. Eddie’s in the Supreme Court of Ontario in his squabble with Helmut Buxbaum over his legal bill for defending Buxbaum. Bux- baum's already paid $1.1 million but apparently the bill is $1.4 million. Ward Black figured with legal bills like that he’ll just have to go on living with his wife. Billie Bean says all that and the guy didn’t even get off. How much would it have cost him if he’d got off, he wondered. Hank said he read it would have meant an extra pay­ ment of $250,000 if Greenspan got him off. Julia Flint said there obviously aren’t any laws against extra billing for lawyers. Ward says it sure goes to prove all those people were wrong when they said crime doesn’t pay. It may not pay the guy who commits the crime but it sure pays for the people who try to get him off. TUESDAY: Julia was saying this morning that she sure hopes this business of Sunday store openings doesn’t catch on around here. She sure wasn’t looking forward to working on Sundays she said. Hank Stokes said he was against working on Sunday too and he’d been trying to convince his cattle and pigs for years that they should gowithouteatingormessing up the barn on Sundays but they just aren’t very co-operative. WEDNESDAY: Ward was saying that after seeing the trouble Owen Sound has got itself into, he doesn ’ t think our council is going to getintoprintingitsown money. Seems the O.P.P. anti-rackets squad are looking into the money the city printed for its homecoming celebration because they’re worri­ ed the bills might look too much like real money. Billie said he wasn’t even sure what real money looked like anymore with all those wash­ ed-out rags they’ve been bringing out lately. Ward said they should be able to tell the difference because these were $3 bills. Billie figured that meant it was worth about as much asa$l billwas about five years ago. Hank said he couldn’t figure out why they wanted to print their own money in the first place but Ward [640523Ontario Inc.] Serving Brussels, Blyth, Auburn, Belgrave, Ethel, Londesborough, Walton and surrounding townships. Published weekly in Brussels, Ontario P.O. Box 152 P.O. Box429, Brussels, Ont. Blyth, Ont. N0G1H0 N0M1H0 887-9114 523-4792 Subscription price: $15.00; $35.00foreign. Advertising and news deadline: Monday 2d.m. in Brussels; 4p.m. In Blyth Editor and Publisher: Keith Roulston Advertising Manager: Beverley A. Brown Production and Office Manager: Jill Roulston Second Class Mail Registration No. 6968 z explained that they sold the bills for $3.50 Canadian but they could only use them as $3 when they bought things in a store. “Heck,” says Hank, “the cops shouldn’ve be worried they’re too much like Canadian money then. Sounds more like U.S. money to me.” THURSDAY: Billie was talking about Ken Keyes getting charged with drinking in a place other than his residence because he had some drinks on an O.P.P. patrol boat last summer. He hoped the cops weren’t going to crack down too much he said or his entire oldtimers hockey team would be in trouble most of the time. Billie said it sure didn’t say much about the investigative abilities of the O.P.P. if they could have a guy drinking right on their own boat but they didn’t get around to charging him until six months later. “Now take it easy on the cops,’’ Ward said. * ‘I mean unless they actually saw him drinking it’s pretty hard to tell a drunk from a Liberal.”