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The Citizen, 1990-05-23, Page 4PAGE 4. THE CITIZEN, WEDNESDAY, MAY 23, 1990. Editorials Alternative thinking A current study being undertaken by Women Today in Huron County shows the kind of innovative thinking that is needed to solve the problems of the county. Thestudy,fundedthroughCanadaEmployment, will research the possibility of setting up a regulated private home day care system in the county, a system where children would be looked after in private homes but with some standards set. Women Today points out that Huron has some unique problems in providing daycare. The population is spread out across the large county and it’s difficult for parents to drive the long distances to the three registered day care centres. With many farm wives working children are often left with fathers to try to look after them while farm work goes on. Yet there is definitely a need for day care. As more and more women have to work they need places where their children can be looked after in safety. While the huge majority of people looking after children in private homes are trustworthy, it takes only one or two careless or dangerous caretakers to ruin lives. Yet the alternative of enough subsidized day care centres to serve everybody who needs it, is too expensive for us to afford, no matter how much many people may feel this is the only acceptable alternative. With local provincial, federal and school board taxes all climbing out of sight, there is a limit to what taxpayers can pay. Maybe in the long run the Women Today study will show the idea of regulated home day care is unworkable but in the meantime, it’s the kind of innovative thinking that is needed. Sense of purpose needed Some leader in Canada has got to give the country a reason for going on before people decide it’s just more trouble keeping the country together than it is to let it break apart. The current federal government under Brian Mulroney may have legitimate aims of trying to balance the budget and reduce the level of government in our lives, but those are not exactly goals that give people a sense of purpose. Let’s face it, if a couple went to the marriage counsellor to try to save their marriage, he would hardly advise them to go home and do their income tax and balance the cheque book as a way to get them back together. There have been those who have evoked dreams that have given Canadians a sense of mission. John A. MacDonald had the national dream of the railway from coast to coast. John Diefenbaker galvanized Canadians with a sense of purpose when he proposed to develop the north. Pierre Trudeau’s “Just Society’’ gave Canadians a sense of building a more equitable country. Some of these dreams have not been particularly successful in the long run, others brought turmoil in the accomplishing of the dream but they all gave Canadians a sense they could have a better land. When a country is in danger of pulling itself apart, some exciting vision is needed that all can unite around. In some countries this is a war. The Falklands War, for instance, revitalized the popularity of British Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher and led her back into power for another lOyears. (Meanwhile it destroyed the government of Argentina which started the war.) While Canadians would hardly appreciateawar, they do need some cause, outside the current petty bickering, that everybody can unite behind. The problem is that there is only one cause of that kind at present in the country, the cause of independence in Quebec. Quebecers are being told by nationalists, many within the federal Conservative cabinet, that ultimately independence is the solution to everything that ails their province. Even the national debt or problems of medicare will be better if the province just separates. What other goal as exciting is being offered by those who want Quebec to stay in Canada? If you were a Quebecer, steeped in the knowledge of prejudice and discrimination for more than a century, remembering the days when your people couldn’t even communicate with their federal government in their own language, unsure that Canadians really want youtobepart of their count rywiththe fl agrantinsults of “English only” resolutions by town after town across Ontario, why would you want to stay in Canada? We have become so inward looking with the Meech Lake dispute andtheFreeTradedebateandworriesoverthedeficit that there is no sense of enjoyment of being Canadians, no sense there there is a real goal other than survival. Giving a country a sense of mission is one of the responsibilities of leaders. Today the only leaders giving that sense are Quebec nationalists. If federal leaders don’t capture the imagination of Canadians soon, there may not be a Canada to worry about much longer. Ey the stream Mabel’s Grill 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 So­ ciety. Since not just everyone can partake of these deliberations we will report the activities from time to time. MONDAY: Tim O’Grady got fooled this morning. He took a look around Mabel’s when he came in and couldn’t see Ward Black anywhere so he made a bet. “I’ll pay for the coffee of anybody in the place who can tell me the name of the new Ontario Conservative lea­ der," he said. He was doing fine, it hadn’t cost him a single cup until Ward returned from the washroom. The good Tory only had to think twice before he could remember. TUESDAY: Julia Flint said Canada must really be as good a friend of the U.S. as Brian Mulroney is always assuring George Bush and Ronald Reagan we are. “I mean down in Florida the U.S. is spend­ ing millions to send American television into Cuba so Cubans can get the urge to be more like Americans just like the Eastern Europeans did before they threw out the communists. Cuba, though is blocking the signals. But here in Canada,’’ Julia says, “we not only welcome the U.S. shows telling us we should live more like Americans but now our government is telling cable operators they have to pay $30 million to Americans for the privilege of brainwashing us.” WEDNESDAY: Ward was giving Hank Stokes a hard time about an article in the paper that says farmers are contributing to the global warming problem. “Yeh Yeh,” said Hank, “I’ve heard it all before. If my cows didn’t fart there wouldn’t be as much methane and the world would be a safer place to be.” Does that mean, Billie Bean wondered, that bean farmers are just as guilty because they sell beans to humans who fill the air with methane? Actually, Ward said, he thought the farmers’ greatest contribution to global warming might be all the hot air they use up complaining about how hard times are. THURSDAY: Well, Billie Bean said this morning, you’ve got to give the Mulroney government credit for nerve. First they take away the subsidies to Via Rail so that more people have to drive their cars to get anywhere and now they want to put tolls on the highways so people will have to pay to drive their cars. “I don’t mind so much if the politicians have to pay the tolls themselves,” Hank said, “not their chauffeurs or not the taxpayer. ’ ’ “Heck if they did that the cabinet ministers would just travel in helicopters,” Tim said. “Well,” said Julia, “they’ve taxed reading and they’ve taxed funerals and they’re even going to tax sex with prostitutes so there aren’t many things left. They’ll have to find a way to tax walking next. FRIDAY: Hank was bemoaning the way his Blue Jays have been playing lately, losing game after game. Well, said Tim, they say baseball is a game of concentration. Batters claim if they concentrate hard enough they can even see which way the ball is spinning. Pitchers have to concentrate on the cat­ cher’s mitt. “But how the heck do you expect them to concentrate if they’re worried they might be missing something a lot more interesting in the hotel room win­ dow behind them.” He was chuck­ ling over the story about the incident Tuesday night where a man and woman made love in the window of one of the hotel rooms overlooking the playing field at the Skydome. The Citizen P.O. Box 429, BLYTH, Ont. NOM 1H0 P.O. Box 152, BRUSSELS, Ont. NOG 1H0 The Citizen is published weekly in Brussels, Ontario by North Huron Publishing Company Inc. Subscriptions are payable in advance at a rate of $19.00/yr. [$40.00 Foreign]. Advertising is accepted on the condition that in the event of a typographical error, only that portion of the advertisment will be credited. Advertising Deadlines: Monday. 2 p.m. - Brussels; Monday, 4 p.m. - Blyth We are not responsible for unsolicited newscripts or photographs. Contents of The Citizen are g. Copyright. Serving Brussels, Blyth, Auburn, Belgrave, Ethel, Londesborough, Walton and surrounding townships. Phone 523-4792 Phone 887-9114 Editor & Publisher, Keith Roulston Advertising Manager, Dave Williams Production Manager, Jill Roulston Second Class Mail Registration No. 6968