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The Brussels Post, 1978-11-29, Page 227.7: Ii 1' WEDNESDAY,, NOVEMBER 29, 1978 Serving Brussels and the surrounding community. Published each Wednesday afternoon at Brussels, Ontario By McLean Bros, Publishers. Limited Evelyn Kennedy - Editor , Pat Langlois - Advertising Member Canadian Community Newspaper Association and Ontario Weekly Newspaper Association Subscriptions (in advance) Canada $9.00 a Year. Others $17.00 a Year. Single CoPieS 20 cents each. A Ana gBrus6e1g. Post Support our teams In news on the sports page of the Post it is reported that one of the young Brussels hockey teams lost to the opposing team in play last week and this was due perhaps to the lack of spectator support. The village of Brussels is obviously interested in sports judging by the number of teams and number of sports going on here. But in order to make those sports more enjoyable, especially for the young players it wold be good to have some cheering support from parents, friends, and relatives. Having somebody out there cheering them on is a good incentive for better competition from the. teams both the young and old. Victory is not as sweet when there's not one out there to share in that victory with you. Brussels residents have been doing a good job of getting out and participating in sports activities but some more cheering from the sidelines is needed. So, Brussels get out and support your teams. CARE FOR SOME TEA, LADIES? Mrs. Betty Campbell of the Brussels UCW was one of the helpers who served tea when the organization held its bake sale and bazaar on Saturday. Z . O 0. LLI 2 a NAME ADDRESS AGE PHONE Enter the Post's colouring contest. See Page 1 for rules Behind the scenes by Keith Roulston More change more of the same We live in a time of greater change than ever in history but it seems moreand more work is going into maintaining the status quo. Maintaining the status quo, that is in a way that benefits those who have 'the power in our modern world. We see an example of this this week where Ontario Finance Minister Frank Miller is. crying hard times for Ontario at the federal-provincial confer- ence. The province of Ontario has, for the biggest part of the 111 years since Confederation, been the fat cat of Canada. While some of us in some areas of the province might argue that the riches haven't exactly come our way, the province as a whole has done well. We had the resources, the cheap power to manufacture the resources, the population base to provide ready markets and we were close to the American border to be able to take advantage of their large markets. What's more, and this is the thing that has badly divided the country, the people in control in Ontario set the rules for the rest of the country to make Ontario even richer than it would have been if it only depended on its resources. The freight rate system, for instance, has been a thorn in the side of westerners for years, providing cheap rates, to take raw materials out of the west to Ontario to be manufactured but charging high rates to take the manufac- tured goods, back. But now the tide is starting to turn. The increased cost, of energy and the plentiful supply in the west, particularly Alberta is shifting the power base of the country out of downtown Toronto into Calgary and Edmonton. Now when the shift of power from Montreal to Toronto took place you didn't find the Ontario government complaining or saying that something should be done to keep things the same. That Was looked on as a natural progression. Too bad perhaps for the poor people of Montreal but those were the breaks. But now, when the power is leaving Ontario for Alberta, well something Must be done. Alberta should , share the wealth by spreading the profits around. Alberta should stop giving tax incentives to lure petroleum refiners out Of Ontario and into the West. Hog Wash, Mt. Miller. The best thing that can happen to this country is a more even distribution of power arid riches. I don't think Ontario! is going to become beggared in the near future. The idiot professriiiwirii claimed the other day that Ontario is joining the have.riot provinces in Canada must have been thought pretty hilarious down in Newfoundland and New Brunswick. We've still 'got enough advan- tages that we're not about to suffer too much. It isn't the first time that protecting the status quo has had such a high priority but it is the first time when the Ontario government and the Toronto business community has ,seen the odds stacked against them. When the farm population in Ontario was being wiped out due to the increased industrialization of the province and the reduced returns to farmers for their goods, government and big business leaders looked on it as a natural occurence. When costs for operating transportation systems such as the railways in rural areas mounted government leaders said we couldn't afford to subsidize these any longer. The cost of transportation is one of the factors that has always helped build the industrial sections of Toronto, Kitchener-waterloo, Hamilton, and other cities in the highly industrialized Golden Horseshoe area of the province. No one has suggested trying to even out development by evening out the cost of transportation across the. province. But take a look on the other hand at the cost of electricity. Electricity, is an even more major factor in, industrial costs these days than transportation. Yet nearly all electricity being developed these days is far away from the cities where is is eventually to be used. If electricity costs werejudged on the same basis as transport- ation it would be far cheaper to have power for industry near hydro-electric generators in Northern Ontario or beside the Bruce nuclear plant in Kincardine or Port Elgin. But when it comes to power the rules are changed. Suddenly it is important that electricity costs are evened out across the province. Thus industries can still locate in Toronto and be subsidized to stay there by those people closer to the power plants who have to pay more than their true share of costs for electrieity, The fact is that the rules Of the game are constantly changed by the people in power, including the government, for the benefit of those in power. Fortunately for the country, the Toronto power brokers haiie come up against ari opponent that doesn't have to play by the rules of the powet brokers: We in the rural areas of Ontario have never had the power to change the rules to our own benefit. Preinier Lougheed and the new business elite of Alberta do. Things are going to change no matter what Mr. Miller wants.