The Citizen, 1987-09-23, Page 4PAGE 4. THE CITIZEN, WEDNESDAY, SEPTEMBER 23, 1987.
Opinion
Who's running
the post office?
Sometime next week the battle to see whorunsthe post
office, Canada Post management or the Canadian Union of
Postal Workers will result in a strike. The public can be excused
if it says neither one of them can run things worth a darn.
There’s little question that Canada Post management,
backed by the federal government, and supported by a large
part of the Canadian public, is out to cut the union down to size.
The idea is that more and more jobs should be dished out to
franchises and other private enterprise operations at lower
than union salaries. The post office sees this as the only way the
post office can expand and make money. It not so coincidentally
will cut down the strength of the union and weaken its hold on
mail delivery.
The union has its own dream of a better future: a post office
thatalsosells many goods through catalogue operations and is,
of course, manned by unionized workers.
If either side had proved in the past it could do a good job the
public might be more willing to listen. But it’s hard to know for
sure just who is most to blame for the current poor state of mail
delivery in Canada. The union takes most of the blame from the
public because of its arrogant leader, Jean Claude Parrott,
because of the inconvenience of seemingly constant strikes in
the 1970’s, from the escalating salaries for what seem like
unskilled jobs.
Yet it is Canada Post management which created many of the
horrible working conditions that caused the workers to become
somilitant. ItwasCanadaPostthatwassofoolish tobuild super
sorting centres that meant most of the mail in the country went
through a few massive plants and thus made the entire system
hostage to discontented workers who would throw up a picket
line and shut down an entire nation’s mail.
It is Canada Post, back by the government, that seems to
think less is more: that cutting back and cutting back and
cutting back service will somehow make the post office more
efficient and make money. Saturday mail service died.
Door-to-door mail delivery in many new areas of the cities was
abandoned in favour of “super” mail boxes. Some rural post
offices closed and rumours continue to circulate about the
future of small town post offices and rural mail delivery.
Contrast the Canadian system to Britain where the post office
makes money and still provides twice-a-day, door-to-door
delivery.
Yes this is a difficult country in which to operate a post office
but if some good common sense was used by both management
and unions, we would certainly have better mail service than we
have. It’s toe bad there wasn’t some way for the public to strike
against both unions and management of this messed-up affair
called Canada Post.
The secret of our success
Correspondents for the Soviet newspaper Pravda, according
to a report by Southam News last week, made a startling
discovery when they came toCanada recently to find the reason
why Canadian farmers are so successful in feeding their people
without waste. It was simple, hard work.
The Soviets were surprised to see how little waste there is in
Canada while in Russia a good deal of food rots before it can ever
reach the consumer. While the Soviet Union has the resources
of a whole state and dedicated long-term plans to deliver more
food to its consumers and a huge landmass often with very good
land and superior growing climate, it is Canadian consumers
who eat the best, thanks to the hard work and good
management of individual farm families.
There’s a lesson to be learned here and it’s not just about the
inefficiencies of the Communist system. The lesson is, first,
that we Canadians should be very thankful for the thousands of
farm families who work from dawn to dusk (and often past dusk)
to put a bountiful and inexpensive supply of food on our table.
The second lesson, even more important, is the importance
of individual enterprise in making food production work. Those
who would see Canada move to a system where large corporate
farms or franchised farm systems predominate should relaize
that it is people working for themselves, caring about the
efficiency of each step of the farm operation who give us one of
the best food-producing systems in the world.
In the Soviet Union, communal farm workers put in their
hours and go home. It isn’t up to them to worry about what
happens when they’re off the job. But what’s so different from
that on big corporate farms that could happen here? Can we
really expect workers on large corporate farms, working their
40-hour weeks, to take the same interest as today’s family
farmer does?
The family farm has proved itself the most efficient way in the
world to produce food. If we don't protect it. we will pay the
price in the future.
Th.e International
Scene
I
BY RAYMOND CANON
Ever since I got hooked as a
student in Switzerland on the
writingsofthe British historian
Arnold Toynbee, I have tended to
take an overview of history.
For one thing it provides ample
evidence that history does, in fact,
repeat itself and that, if we do not
wanttolearnthe lessons that all
that teaches, we have only our
selves to blame. At any rate I have
been looking at the progress of
Communism in the Soviet Union
since the time that Lenin succeed
ed, somewhat to his surprise, I
think, in imposing the first Com
munist government the world had
ever seen. Karl Marx had been
long dead and I am not so sure that
he would have approved anyway of
everything that was done in his
name.
Remember that at the time of
Lenin and especially Stalin, since
the latter was there right at the
beginning, the Soviet Union could
be considered as the most totalitar-
ian of countries. I would hate to
think of how many million people
were put to death or died in the
process of establishing Commun
ism in that country; one has only to
think of the blood-baths of the
1930’s when Stalin liquidated
about half of the officers of the
Soviet army because he thought
they were or might be plotting
against him. Just to survive that
era was certainly an accomplish
ment.
However, if you take a look at
what has happened since that time
in Russia, you will find that the
government has been moving
away from the radical left ano in a
rightward direction. Stalin got rid
of his enemies by having them
killed and there is a rather large
school of thought that maintains
that the Soviet dictator did not die
a natural death; he passed on to his
“reward” through the medium of
lead poisoning.
However Stalin is the last Soviet
leader to get rid of his enemies in
that way or even to die might be
considered to be a violent death.
Krushchev, his successor, moved
away from the Stalinist excesses
and, although he was kicked out for
making some bad decisions, it is
noteworthy that he was not
liquidated. He was allowed to
reitre to a dacha where he could do
no harm and eventually died a
natural death.
Onemovethatlfound signifi
cant was what happened to Stalin’s
body. When I was in Moscow, both
Lenin and Stalin had been mummi
fied and were lying in state right in
front of the Kremlin. Krushchev
eventually saw to it that Stalin’s
body was removed from its honour
ed position and buried in a rather
remote grave. His excesses, it
seems, were too much for most
Russians even to think about.
Brezhnev continued the trend
started by Krushchev and, if Nikita
was guilty of making some bad
blunders, Brezhnev made up for
that by making as few decisions as
possible that might rock the boat.
The status quo had to be maintain
ed and Leonid Brezhnev saw to it
Continued on page 28
[Published by North Huron Publishing Company 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 2p.m. in Brussels; 4p.m. in Blyth
Editor and Publisher: Keith Roulston
Advertising Manager: JaniceGibson
Production and Office Manager: Jill Roulston
Second Class Mail Registration No. 6968