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Times-Advocate, 1980-11-19, Page 4By W' Roger Worth Across Canada, people operating independent busi- nesses complain they can't find workers, particularly skilled, trades people.. At the same time, there are 900,000 or so unemployed Canadians. Why does this paradox exist? The basic reason: expen- sive government programs to retrain the jobless have failed badly. Just ask the 56,000 mem- bers of the Canadian Federa- tion of Independent Business. Roger Worth is Director, Public Affairi, Canadian Federation of ' Independent Business, They rate shortages of man- power among their basic problems. Instead of creating simple, on-the-job training schemes, the federal and provincial governments have opted for "institutionalized" programs. This means the politicians can erect educational monuments, proving to voters that they are alive and well and ready to be re-elected. But the system isn't work- ing. As a result, Ottawa has stepped up immigration levels to alleviate skilled manpower shortages, bringing in workers from other countries where trades people receive on-the- job training. It's time Canada's retaining "experts" took a long look at what's happening in the rest of the world. While it may take a while to change the system and develop job-training programs 'that work, it's' worth the effort. One skilled job, for exam- ple, results in the creation of five unskilled jobs. Canada's unemployed de- serve a crack at the jobs that are fast becoming available. Importing more and more skilled manpower from other countries is just not good enough. RSEMNIfleraraCESZY.PM.O.:Wimv.moim Perspectives second fiddle to the refrigerator. However, there are a number of indications that people are indeed reading more and even enjoying it tremendously. Harlequin Romances, publishers of romantic novels with a definite pattern • to their plots, is one of the hottest stocks on the market. Sales are booming for this company. Weekly and daily newspapers are still around, You're looking at one of them right now. Paperbacks and magazines are flourishing. Just take a look at the selection being offered at your local convenience store. People must be buying or the store wouldn't bother carrying them. It isn't just the magazines with the centre-folds that are popular either. There's a wide selection ranging from photography to skiing to "Life in the big cities" magazines. Lastly, I see the volume of books that kids are taking from the school library. They still go through the old favourites - Anne of Green Gables, Black Beauty and Tom Sawyer, but there are • a wealth of other good books out now, well-illustrated and interesting, and the children are moving right through them in a hurry, I'm encouraged by it. Maybe television hasn't been the ruination of the world after all. Mr. Bill Batten: After reading the Exeter T-A of November 12, 1980 I felt I must write you con- cerning what I and several others thought to be a negative and discriminatory comment made about me being a 3 time election loser. Now why did you not remember that both can- didates I challenged in the two previous elections, Boyle and MacGregor, had been going in by acclamation for several years? As a concerned citizen of Exeter I felt it was my duty to challenge these positions. Looking back with pride to some of my achievements on council: - traffic lights at Main and Huron, - anti—burning by-law,. - restoring of old town' hall, just to name a few. Not taking anything away froin Mr. Epp's victory I would like to point out that there can only be one winner. Yours truly, Ben iloogenbOom sweater under, or winter coat with boots? If it were pier- cing cold in the true north, she'd freeze in a french-coat. If it happened to be Indian Summer, she'd swelter in a winter coat. And on, and on, and on. She bought three months supply of meat and it's all in the freezer, so I won't starve. I usual- ly dine on a couple of eggs or some sausage or beans, when she's away. I know, sincerely, that she expects to come home and find the house burned to the ground, and me either in jail or the mental health centre, as we euphemistically call the loony bin nowadays. Migawd, I could get. ready and make a trip to Outer Mongolia with one-tenth of the fluster. But when I think of the phone bills from Moosonee, every night, checking tne, my blood runs cold. lrp9r. 4 Tint1iti*AdY040* t40Ylir tb ar 19,. 1980' SE. IVINQ CANADA'S LIST FAtitM44149 CM34.-4..,'0.W.K.A. PASS ami,A1K. Published by J.W. ody Publicationetinnited WINE EEDY, PUBLISHER Editor — Bill Batton Assistant Editor —.Ross Haugh Advertising Manager .Beckitt Composition Manager — Harry DeVries Business Manager— Dick Jongkind Published Each Wednesday Morning Phone 235-1331 at Exeter, Ontario Second Class Malt times Established 1173 IONA Extra caution, skill Advocate Etoblidlod1881 Registration Number 0386 SUBSCRIPTION RATES;" Canada $14.00 Per Year; USA $35,00 Amolgamatedi,92.4 L' Mainstream .. M Canadja Where are. the workers? Rain, snow or ice covered roads are no fun to tackle if you're a driver, They can throw you for a big loss. Driv- ing in adverse weather requires extra caution and keen driving skills. One of the greatest hazards of driving on wet or snow covered pavement is the lack of traction. There are many things a good driver can do to prepare for the unex- pected stop or the unwanted skid, says the Ontario Safety League. Adjust your speed. On wet pave- ment at 30 km per hour it takes from three to 12 times longer to stop your vehicle than on dry pavement. Get the feel of the road. Oc- casionally, try your brakes or gently press the accelerator while the traffic is light. If the wheels slide or spin, reduce speed, Keep well behind the vehicles ahead. You'll need the extra room in case of an emergency, so increase your following distance. If a skid does occur, turn your Wheel in the direction of the skid in order to head the vehicle back on course. Turn just enough to correct the skid - and be prepared for a second skid in the opposite direction. This takes a lot of practice - practice that we rarely get, So remember, caution is the best defense against adverse weather - in starting as well as stopping. Recognize poor driving conditions and adjust your speed accordingly. "One thing about Canada — even. when it's bad, it's good." Drea capitulates energy costs to industries locating closer to major power sources. So the Catch-22 situation continues. The power plants are built in the coun- try (less concerned environmentalists per square mile to deal with), the power lines are run across good agricultural land and the farmers con- tinue to pay one-third more for their power than their urban counterparts. The matter was brought up at the recent meeting of the Perth Federation of Agriculture with MP Bill Jarvis and MPP Hugh Edighoffer. Mr. Edighoffer said there had been "Great hopes" when the announce- ment, to narrow the gap was made. Since that announcement, nothing has happened. Even the above-mentioned price hike did not address the problem. As Mr. Edighoffer said at the meeting Saturday, he'll just have to "keep hammering away." Mitchell Advocate To beard or not to beard 55 Years Ago Mr Edward G. Kraft of Dashwood, accompanied by his father, Mr. Henry L. Kraft, had a narrow escape from death Saturday when their car dropped twenty feet over an embankment into a creek. Maurice Coates, Elmore Christie and Frank Parsons who went on Harvesters Ex- pedition, returned home Saturday. ' The local platoon that has been training here two nights a week for the past nine weeks under the com- mand of Major W. J. Heaman will finish up this week with a final inspection by General King of London. 30 Years Ago Sixty new houses have been completed or are being built in the RCAF station in Centralia. Mr. Ray Lammie hasbeen appointed postmaster with duties to commence in the new year. J. Grant Mills of Woodham, a student at the University of Western On- tario has been awarded a Huron County bursary. Two car loads of members of the Lebanon Forest League Masons motored to London on Sunday afternoon to present Mr. Thomas Fisher with a fifty year jewel. Mr. Harry Strang is the Ontario wheat growing champion of 1950 with 72 bushels per acre. 25 Years Ago The Bank of Montreal's Exeter branch will soon offer! around the clock banking service, with the installation of night deposit boxes being planned. Mrs. Martha Jacob' will retire December 1 after ser- ving thirteen years as Hammering away Consumer and Commercial Relations Minister Frank Drea has been forced to capitulate on the ques- tion of special occasion permits and the price ceilings on liquor sold at social and non-profit functions. Community groups had complained that the ceilings were cutting their profits and the limit on the number of permits a group could obtain in a year was seriously affecting its fund-raising efforts. It's perhaps a rather sad commen- tary that ethnic, sports, education and community organizations (yes, and even, some religious' groups) have to count on the sale of booze to operate their special projects and programs, but that is quite often the reality of the situation. On April 10 of this year, Premier Bill Davis stated that his government would attempt to lessen the gap between rtiral and urban electricity costs. Two weeks ago, Ontario Hydro an- nounced that it would raise the price of electricity by 11 percent across the board in the new year. No mention was made in the announcement concerning any move to lessen the urban-rural gap, which now stands at 29 per cent. Ontario Hydro justifies the higher rural price for electricity by pointing to the lower customer density. Fewer customers per mile means higher maintenance costs per customer, ac- cording to the Crown corporation. Fewer irate consumers, too, when they're the last ones to get their hydro back after a winter storm. At the same time, Hydro has never given any indication that it will relent in its pricing policy to allow lower By SYD FLETCHER One of the big fears that parents and teachers had when television came along was that we would im- mediately become a nation of non-readers, that people would become totally glued to the tube and that the publishing business would go totally down the drain. Perhaps that is true in some cases. Some people are T.V. addicts. When you go to the house to visit, the T.V. stays on the whole evening. The only time conversation is allowed or encouraged is during the commericals, and even then you end up playing Exeter voters weren't particularly decisive in some of their decisions at the polls last week. Several, major questions remain unanswered. For instance, there was a suggestion during the campaign that candidates with beards would not fair well at the polls and there were some voters who let it be known in no uncertain terms that they would not support a man spor- ting any facial foliage. The results, of course, failed to put the issue to rest. Alvin Epp managed to win the deputy-reeve's post although he hasn't shaven for some time, while Don Cameronlost the mayor's contest and no one will ever know how many votes his beard cost him. Alvin's foliage, of course, leaves lit- tle doubt that he is in fact wearing a beard. There are some questions about Don's. The writer has more than a passing interest in beards, having sported one for over 10 years before it was ran- somed off in a fund-raising drive for the South Huron rec centre building fund. It is a topic on which people have definite opinions. They either like a beard or they don't. Those in the latter category mince no words in telling you. In fact, some of them go out of their way to make their opinions known about that characteristic of another's personal appearance when they wouldn't dream of making reference to other personal matters such as halitosis, a runny nose, waxy ears or a beer belly. Wearing a beard, it seems, puts one in the public domain. While the outcome of the election leaves some doubt regarding beards it may be fair to say it is a handicap for a politician seeking support at the polls. Alvin, of course, was running to It's like being a shipyards worker at the launching of the Titanic. Or an usher at a Hollywood premiere. Or a nurse at the birth of a baby. You are part of it all, but an insignificant one, compared to the central drama. My wife is going all the way to Moosonee to visit her daughter and grandboys for two weeks, and I feel about as important in the entire tour de force as the people mentioned above. I'm quite sure that Scott's preparations for getting to the South Pole didn't cause nearly as much' fuss in Britain as have my wife's for getting to Moosonee, in our house. Mind you, it's not just like jumping on a bus and going to the city for a day or two. Getting to Moosonee is only slightly less difficult than getting to the Galapagos Islands. You can fly, or course, for an arm and leg. It's cheaper to fly to England and back than to Moosonee and back. And to catch your plane, you have to be there at some unearthly hour like 8:30 a.m. That meant, for us, me getting up at 5 a.m., driving 160 miles round trip, and being at work at nine. Or she could take a cab to the airport, for $55.00. Add that to the airfare, going and coming, and you could fly to Hawaii, which would make a lot more sense, this time of year. Or she could go down the night before, spend $35.00 for a hotel room and then take a cab to the airport, for $10.00. Plus a couple of meals. It still comes out to about $55.00. These are some of the alternatives I put forward. I'm no skinflint. But my represent Exeter at county council in Goderich. It may well be that his success was due in no small part to the fact some voters thought beard- wearers should in fact be banished to Goderich. One thing is certain! No one at coun- ty council will mistake him for his predecessor, Harold Patterson. There's a hairy difference! * * * Perhaps one of the most humorous situations surrounding the local elec- tion was regarding the big pitch most candidates made for the senior citizen vote, The need for a nursing home facility in the community was espoused by the majority of those seeking election. The seniors let it be publicly known they were backing candidates who would work towards a nursing home facility in the area. So what happened on election day? Well, apparently about 50 seniors jumped on a bus and headed out for one of their frequent day-trips and only three on board had realized the conflict in the timing to take advantage of the advance poll. There was also a suggestion by one candidate that the rather cool winds on election day had reduced the number of seniors who went to the polls. Hardly a plausible excuse when most candidates offered free rides. The situation should obviously call for a few red faces. Judging from comments from the two mayoralitycandidates, local elec- tors are decisive in one way, and that is in being a little "glad-handing". Based on their reception as they knocked on doors, the two men both visualized excellent support and in the Part of it all wife is, in some respects. When I go to the city alone, I take cabs everywhere. When she goes alone, she takes the sub- way, or walkg. I said, in some respects. She'll save string, bargain for prices in The super- market like an Oriental cook, abhors wastage of three cents worth of food. But then she'll hit me with something that keeps me staggering for a week. One day, when I was a student, and our total income was around $100 a month, she blurted, rather fearfully, I must ad- mit, that she had bought a new sewing machine. There went a month's in- come. It didn't upset me, really, because I've never been much in- terested in money. However, it did plant a little seed of something in my mind, so that, when I came home one day and she announced she'd bought a grand piano, for ap- proximately one year's income, at the time, I was not bowled over, just slight- ly stunned: I digress. Anyway, she wasn't going to pay that kind of money to get to Moosonee and back. The return trip, by air, is just as bad. The blasted plane gets in around 7:30 at night, arid if you'll just turn all the driving time, and cab-fare and stuff around, it's the same deal. Getting this out of the way took about two weeks, as she relentlessly tore apart every suggestion I made. She decided to go by train. This is a little cheaper, but just as complicated. Again, she'd have to go to the city to catch the train, travel overnight, change at Cochrane, spend two'r three hours in that salubrious resort, in the" fall, doing lord-only-knows-what, before boarding the Polar Bear Ex- final analysis both were surprised at the outcome. What appears to be sup- port in a personal encounter with a, can- didate does not always remain in that category in the privacy of the polling booth. However, what is even more dis- heartening is the fact that so many of those who may hint at support for a candidate don't even take the trouble to get out and vote. Exeter had a voter turnout of about 55 percent. The most popular of the candidates in terms of voter support, Lousy Fuller, didn't even receive the support of half the eligible voters. Mayor-elect Bruce Shaw had the sup- port of less than one-third of the eligi- ble voters. Now, if elected officials were to turn that display of apathy around it would create some interesting situations. They could decide that if only half the people are interested in the affairs of the community they could give their duties half the effort or at- tend only half the meetings of deal with half the complaints and problems. Imagine the recepition they'd receive from a ratepayer if they said it was their second complaint of the day and they were only going to deal with half of them and then walked away. As an experiment, elected officials should be given a list of all those who vote and show an' interest in the com- munity. People not on the list would be denied a hearing. Or, if that appears too harsh, perhaps all those who vote should be eligible for a lottery whereby someone wins back his property taxes. That would probably bring them rushing to the polls. press and a journey of anywhere from four to six hours to Moosonee. The Express is probably the last of its kind in Canada. It stops in the mid- dle of nowhere to avoid hitting a moose, to pick up a trapper, or to drop supplies for a prospector. That's why it doesn't run right to the minute. Alternative. The train she's to catch stops at some god-forsaked junction, out in the middle of nowhere, forty miles from here. At 11:30 p.m. That was her final decision. It would save the time and money of going to the city and catching it there. But she didn't want me to drive her, and get home at 1 a.m. She knows how I hate night driving, and' figured I'd go off the road if,she weren't there to shriek, "There's the sign for the tur- noff !" which I had seen five seconds earlier. O.K. Get a cab. 'I'hirty-five bucks. Too much. A week after the final deci- sion, I've hired a student to drive her to the junction. Only fifteen bucks. Then he wanted to take his girlfriend. Then my wife wanted to know if I were coin- ing, to say goodbye at the junction. Holy Old Moses! Or Holy Old Home Week, Those were only the travel details. The others are too 'numerous and mis- cellaneous to mention. She had to iron two weeks supply of efean shirts for me. Had to buy presents for the boys. First presents were useless and I had to take them back, as usual, and get the refund. Should she wear a trench coat with Had he stopped to consider the situation more carefully, Drea would have realized that placing ceilings on the charge for drinks at these funbtions was often not in the interest of the patrons. Presumably, although there are naturally many exceptions, the more that is charged for drinks the better it is in that consumption can be lessened while the sponsors can still make a wider profit margin. The limit placed on the number of permits any group could obtain in a year was not only a problem from their standpoint, but also for the facilities which they rent. Many of the latter are already facing tough times without ad- ding to that by reducing the number of potential renters. matron of the Huron County Home. Harry V. Carling, a former Exeter boy, retired as the Bank of Commerce manager in Windsor after serving the bank for forty- five years, thirty of them in Windsor. 15 Years Ago The township of Stephen and the town of Grand Bend both draw the majority of in- terest in the area elections. Nomination meetings were also held in most of the other municipalties in the Exeter area. Minnie Noakes became the first woman reeve in the ninety year history of Hensall. This coming Sunday will be a special day of reunion at Main street. United Church, as they honor Edna V. (Follick) Hearts, who had taught Sunday School at the church for over fifty-five years. Mrs. Hearts taught her first classes in 1910 and many members of her first class returned to honor her. The reeve and council for Zurich were in by acclama- tion. 10 Years Ago A Santa Claus parade will be held in Exeter for the first time in, several years Saturday afternoon with a good number of floats and entries expected. Police chief Ted Day issued a plea to drivers park- ing behind the Devon Building to stop blocking the sidewalk. Ratepayers in nine district municipalities go to the polls Monday to elect the officials that will be running their municipalities for the next two years. All posts in the Usborne township election were filled with people who were acclaimed. '0,4023&:.ftwik&O., Wk;VVIngatr 4'