The Citizen, 1987-04-08, Page 4PAGE 4. THE CITIZEN, WEDNESDAY, APRIL 8, 1987.
Opinion
Upping the ante
All across Huron county in the next week or so, municipal
councils willbemeetingtotrytosetthe 1987 mill rate. They will
do so knowing they already face huge increases in levies from
the county level and the board of education and if they hope to
keep the tax increase to a reasonable level, they’re going to
have to cut local programs.
It’s not a new problem. The school board and the county
council, are able to say what they want to get and to leave it to
the local councillors to be the dirty dogs who have to raise taxes.
What is new is the fact that the levy increases come at a time
when inflation is at its lowest point in years and the local
economy is in its worst shape in years.
It was perhaps understandable that during those times of
high inflation, when large wage and salary increases were
necessary, the senior levels hit the municipalities with large
requests. But inflation is low and still the levy increases remain
high: in the case of the board of education about double the
inflation rate. If this is what happens in low inflation, what will
happen if we get hit with another round of high inflation?
In addition, unlike many urban parts of the province, Huron
county is not in an economic boom. Dependent as we are on the
farm economy and with world-wide price declines in many
agricultural commodity prices, we just don’t have the increases
in income to support these demands.
The senior governments are able to drop the problem of
finding the money in the laps of the municipal councillors. It is
the councillors who have to struggle to set a mill rate that won’t
get them lynched by the local ratepayers. In attempting to do
so, many times they have cut programs in their own
communities. Councils have faced this dilemma for years now.
It’s about time the provincial government took a new look at
the funding of school boards and county governments to find a
way of making them responsible for raising their own money,
not just dropping a bill on the municipalities and running for
cover.
What about
the deficit?
Larry Grossman, Ontario Conservative Party leader
evidently thinks he’s latched onto an issue that could tomahawk
the high-flying Liberals on the road to an Ontario election.
The airwaves were saturated last week with advertisements
in which Mr. Grossman talked about the windfall of tax money
Ontario has because of the booming economy in most of the
province. He said his party has been asking the government to
give the money back to the people through lower taxes.
Whatever happened to the Conservatives as the party of
fiscal responsibility? Whatever happened to the worry about
lowering the deficit? What ever happened to the idea of putting
away money in good times for the rainy day expected around the
corner?
If the government has extra money now, let’s pay off the
deficit so that if times do turn bad it can stimulate the economy
by deficit spending. There is nothing wrong with government
deficits if they are accumulated during poor times to stimulate
growth then paid off during good times.
The problem with politicians like Mr. Grossman is that they
want to be goodguys all the time, spending money when they
don’t have it when times are tough and giving tax rebates when
times are good. It may make for good politics but it makes for
bad government.
The British can
teach us lessons
Canadians have always tended to think that the British are
just a little more civilized than we in the new world. Last week
they proved it again when British M.P.s voted by a wide
majority not to reinstate the death penalty.
Not that the feeling is unanimous. Surveys in Britian show,
just as they do in Canada, that a large number of people want
the death penalty brought back (70 per cent in Britain).
In addition, Britain, as Canada, is ruled by a government that
has shown many of the same right-wing tendencies that
brought the death penalty back in the U.S.
Hopefully the British decision, along with statistics that
showmurdersdroppedby 20percentlastyear, may make
Canadian MPs reconsider what seems a sure move toward
bringing back execution as a method of punishment.
BY RAYMOND CANON
If you have ever studied the
Merchant of Venice in school, you
will be aware of the general
interpretation put on the role of
Shylock in this famous Shakes
pearean play.
For those of you who did not
study it or whose memory of it has
faded with the years, let me remind
you that Shylock was the Jewish
moneylender who had the audacity
to demand a pound of flesh as
collateral for a loan. This horrible
act so moved Portia, the woman
lawyer in the play, to recite one of
the most famous speeches in all of
Shakespeare, one that starts about
thequality of mercy which is not
strained and which droppeth as the
gentle rain from heaven upon the
earth beneath etc. etc. I think 1 had
to memorize it somehwere along
the line and 1 am sure that
countless others have had to do the
same thing.
I have always felt that Shylock
has been on the receiving end of
what is known as a bad press.
There was obviously some anti
semitism then as now and it was
fashionable to see Shylock and his
like as money-grabbing, stingy,
demanding usurious rates of inter
est and similar dastardly deeds on
the poor unsuspecting Italians in
Venice. My own feelings that
Shylock just was using the verna
cular of the time in expressing
himself. After all, the normal
procedure then was to get rid of
somebody you didn’t like. Lucretia
Borgia, who must have given rise
to the frequently heard statement
that the female of the species is
deadlier than the male, used to
“rub out’’ people whom she
disliked by poisoning them and
many is the person of that age
whose life came to a sudden and
untimely end.
Therefore, tolumberpoor old
Shylock with these accusations of
abominable behavior is unfair. If
he was still living, it attests to the
fact that he had considerable skills
as a money lender and these people
were, after all, the bankers of the
Middle Ages. They had to be good
just to stay alive. For this reason 1
was quite pleased when the last
time I saw the Merchant of Venice
at Stratford, Shylock was given a
much more sympathetic portrayal.
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About time!
Now, I’m not going to leave old
Shylock there. You may be inter
ested to know that a great many of
our banking and accounting proce
dures came out of Italy in the
Middle Ages. Don’t forget that this
was the era of the city states when
places such as Venice, Genoa,
Milano and the like were centers of
commerce and it is not surprising
that it was from this area that
Marco Polo set sail on his trip to the
Far East. So Shylock was very
much a part of the scene and
therein lies a tale.
Banking was still rather primi
tive at that time and so, whenever
anybody came into Shylock’s place
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