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The Citizen, 1991-05-22, Page 5THE CITIZEN, WEDNESDAY, MAY 22,1991. PAGE 5. A leader without a country for a country without a leader My deepest feeling is that they are dangerous lunatics to be avoided when possible, and carefully humoured. W. H. Auden on politicians There's no whore like an old whore. B. Mulroney, same subject I wish I could persuade Doc Adams, the old GP on the TV show Gunsmoke to make a house call north of the border. I'd like him to take a look at this pasty, consumptive kid called Canada. If Doc Adams could slap his stethoscope on Canada's rib cage, I think I know what his diagnosis would be. Depression. This country's browned off, brought down and bummed. As usual, it's the political situation. The people we elected to get us out of an earlier mess have created a bigger one. Normally, we would just wait for another election, sling the incompetents out on their duffs and elect someone else, but this time there’s a problem. There is nobody else. Oh, there are other political hopefuls we Morels - a taste treat BY RAYMOND CANON Shortly after arriving in Canada, I recall taking part in a number of outings each spring to look for an illusive delicacy called morels. I was told exactly what they looked like and was assured that, if I found any, I would really be delighted in the succulent taste. Young children are not generally impressed one iota by that kind of talk on the part of adults. I certainly wasn't and for this reason went on the outings with a certain degree of youthful skepticism. For those readers who are not acquainted with morels, let me tell you that they are a type of mushroom but, rather than having a smooth top, they have one that looks like a small ventilation system. They are found in wooded areas in the spring and you have to have a certain amount of luck to find any. You may look for hours without any success but, all of a sudden, you will see a small patch of them. You have hit paydirt! I was lucky fairly early in my morel­ hunting career and so it was that I carted a bag of them home. If I remember correctly, they were cooked in butter with a bit of salt and pepper. I took my first bite with trepidation, ready to spit them out at the first hint of yukkiness. I must confess that I never got to that point. They were nothing short of delicious! I must also confess that I had them but rarely since they were really hard to find. All this remains little more than a pleasant memory of a childhood that at times was filled with anything but pleasant memories. Since that time I have neither seen nor eaten any of them and thus it was with a certain amount of surprise when I recently picked up a magazine and read about morels in neighbouring Michigan. A little village in northern Michigan, called Boyne City, comes to life with a bang each year when the Boyne City National Mushroom Championship lakes place. This is a contest to see who can find the most could vote for. The trouble is, they look just as two-faced, unreliable and all round unworthy as the bozos already aboard the gravy train. Makes you wonder what would happen if a Mister or Ms. Clean, a Political White Knight suddenly showed up on the steps of Parliament Hill. Would Canadians rejoice? Would there be a groundswell movement to get him or her into office? Would the country be racked by a bout of hero worship that would make Trudeaumania look like a historical hiccup? Probably not. White Knights have a notoriously short shelf life. Jimmy Carter washed into the Oval Office on a tidal wave of good will. Alas, he was a little too Christian for the job. When the time came to 'kick butt' he turned the other cheek instead. And became perhaps the most reviled U.S. President in modem history. As a matter of fact there is a world leader wandering around at loose ends right now. He is stateless, condemned to remain semi­ permanently on tour thanks to a Chinese invasion of his country back in 1950. He is the 14th Dalai Lama, the spiritual leader of Tibet. For the past 31 years the Dalai Lama has led a government-in-exile, trying to enlist world support to get his country back. Alas, the Dalai Lama isn’t much of a politician. As a Buddhist, he pursues a simple life, bereft of limousines, servile flunkies or closets full of Gucci loafers. As a morels in the nearby woods. All the looking is not confined to this one contest. It is estimated that there are no less than a half a million people who each spring wander around the woods of northern Michigan to look for the prized morels. When they find them, they can use them not only as we ate them, but also put them into various types of soup or baked with Brie or even stuffed. One renowned chef has expressed the sentiment that they are part of a holy trinity ... caviar, morels and truffles. High praise indeed! The most interesting development in the growth of morels is that the Americans have finally managed to grow the mushrooms commercially but they are guarding with their lives the secret of how they do this. At any rate the company, which is located in Michigan, produces about 150 lbs. of morels each week and needless to say they have no trouble in Old pictures wanted for memorial THE EDITOR, The Blyth Festival is calling on members of its community to check their attics and dust off their old photograph albums in search of historic photos of Blyth Memorial Hall and events that have happened there over the 70 year history since it was built as a tribute to World War I veterans. The photos are needed for a permanent pictorial history display in the lower level of Memorial Hall. The display is being mounted in memory of Evalena Webster, a beloved community volunteer who died last year. It will be paid for through donations to the Evalena Webster Memorial Fund. "Evalena's family looked at different ways to honour her memory and decided that the pictorial history was an appropriate way", says Lynda Lentz, development co-ordinator at the Blyth Festival. People donating photos to the display will have their originals returned to them after man of peace, he's largely useless to international gunrunners and military establishments that like to play power politics using nation-states for dominoes. Is there a powerful army in the Himalayas ready to back the Dalai Lama? No. Does Tibet sit on vast oil reserves? No. So the Dalai Lama roams the world, trying to get help for his country. And everywhere he goes he hears the sound of government doors hissing shut in his face. In England, it was decided it would be 'not right' for the Prime Minister to see him. In Washington, George Bush, who has cut deals with Noriega and Saddam, was still declining meetings with the Buddhist priest as of last month. Needless to say in Ottawa, whence waggeth the Washington tail, the Dalai Lama was likewise cut dead. Mulroney and his minions refused even to acknowledge his visit. The Dalai Lama is undeterred by such shabbiness. He remains cheerful and committed to nonviolence. How does he do it? I don't know, but here's his favourite prayer: For as long as space endures, and for as long as living beings remain; until then may I, too, abide to dispel misery of the world. You won't find the Dalai Lama's name on your next election ballot. But I just may pencil it in on mine. selling them. They even predict that they may soon be able to produce four times as many. The commercial morels are, the company claims, as good as those which grow in the wilds. There is something which interests me. The article which I read states that morels, or at least a first cousin of them, are to be found in Europe where they are also treated as a delicacy. This I can vouch for. The article also goes on to say that they are found all along the Canadian border but they do not mention that they are grown in Canada. I would be interested in hearing from any readers (that is, presuming I have more than one) who could tell me if they are still to be found in southwestern Ontario and whether there have been many attempts on this side of the border to grow them commercially. If so, I would like to set the record straight as far as the writers of the American article are concerned. archival copies are made. The Festival is also interested in any stories or information that may accompany the photos. Photos can be dropped off to Joanne Walters at the Festival's administration office Monday to Friday from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. For more information, contact Joanne at 523-4345. Joanne Walters Blyth Festival. More Letters to the Editor on page 6. Letter from the editor Something's got to give BY KEITH ROULSTON Those truckers' demonstrations caught me last week. I'd promised to take my son, and a friend and his son and daughter to the Blue Jays game in Toronto Monday night and we missed part of the first inning because of the blockade on Highway 401. Wc were already late leaving for the city so when we had to detour out of the way to gel by the blockade of angry truckers, we gave up any hope of getting to the game on time. Still, I can't say I was particularly upset by the truckers* actions. I suppose if I'd actually got caught in the mess and had to sit there for hours, I might have felt differently but I could understand the frustrations of the truckers that drove them to this point. Civil disobedience has never been happily accepted by most Canadians. We're law and order people, generally, but protest seems to be gaining new respectability. Take the truckers for example. They are being asked by their government to do the impossible. Through deregulation the federal and provincial governments (the former Liberal government) expect truckers to be competitive with their American neighbours while at the same time stacking the odds against them with higher taxes and fuel prices. The complaints behind last week's blockades arc hardly new. The truckers had made their unhappiness known months ago with blockades of border bridges. They'd given up those demonstrations when they had been promised action. But the politicians who had promised to help have done nothing and the frustrated truckers last week decided to hit people where it would really hurt, where the politicians in Ottawa and Queen's Park couldn't ignore them: they lied up traffic on Parliament Hill and on the country's busiest highway in Toronto. From most reports, the public was very sympathetic to the truckers even though they suffered because of the demonstrations. It's a lot like the support there was for the Mohawks last summer with their stand-off at Oka. More and more people, normally law-abiding Canadians, can understand why people feel it necessary to take drastic action. I have the feeling we’re going to see a lot more of this kind of thing in the future. The problem is that in a country that prides itself in being a democracy, people are feeling more and more unable to affect changes in their own lives. They feel they are helpless while huge forces, big business and big government, make up the rules. In some cases the government has deliberately changed the rules so people can't pressure government into action. At least part of the reason many people supported Free Trade, for instance, was to prevent a future interventionist Canadian government from bringing in policies like the National Energy Programme or the Foreign Investment Review Agency that would interfere with business. The new National Transportation Act makes it virtually impossible to use public pressure to save a rail line. If you're upset about Canada Post service or the franchising of post offices, your local M.P. is unlikely to be able to help because Canada Post is a crown corporation, beyond the reach of political intervention. Free Trade virtually puls a hall to the welfare state in Canada which makes many Continued on page 6.