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Times-Advocate, 1982-03-31, Page 4Peas 4 6 Tinws-Advecote, March 31, 1982 1114W4 Imes - Times Established 1873 Advocate Established 1881 Amalgamated 1924 1 1 SUBSCRIPTION RATES: 44 Canada $20.00 Pei;year: U.S.A. $55.00 i . - • C.W.N.A., 0.C.N.A. CLASS 'A' and `ABS',' '-..t.-Art,:*4fittrIrimawta--,.,A.44-wp'!„- • dvocate Serving South Huron, North Middlesex & North Lambton Since, 1873 Published by J.W. Eedy Publications Limited LORNE EEDY •Publisher JIM BECKETT Ad‘ertising &tanager Bill BATTEN ROSS HAUGH Editor Assistant Editor HARR\ DEVRIES Composition Manager DICK JONGKIND Business Manager Published Each Wednesday Morning at Exeter, Ontario Second Class Mail Registration Number 0386. Phone 235-1331 ?4,41214 Can't be put in limbo One of the unfortunate victims of inflation and un- their toll and it often increases as research dollars ions w ch depend on public donations to carry on their work. While government support is received by many of - these groups, the majority have to rely on public can - favorable economic times are the charitable organiza- become scarce. On the eve of the annual cancer canvass, it is im- perative that people realize that the fight can not be put into limbo. Too many lives are at stake. Everyone must somehow reach a little deeper to vasses to meet their needs and they are often forced do his/her part and those who can, should consider to make cutbacks as those campaign dollars dwindle. picking up some of the slack that will be created by At the same time, the dreaded diseases which the the fact that some will not be able to give as much this - groups attempt to fight, are not affected by inflation year. Orunfavorable economic times. They continue to take The fight is 'on your behalf. Under the gun - Canada's bankers are under the gun, and it's cars, is difficult, says the CFIB. perhaps important that the House of Commons Nevertheless, the banks would be forced to.lay the Finance Committee hold an inquiry into bank profits, statistics on the line during such an inquiry and there says the Canadian FederationofIndependentBusiness would undoubtedly be tough questions on the reason (CFIB). for interest rate spreads that are higher than average. And the reason for an increase to 24 percent in credit card rates --when the cost of money is markedly lower than it was even six months ago-- would probably be on the -agenda. There's no question, the banks are vulnerable, and easy marks for their opponents. Yet it should be remembered that Canada's banking system is indeed more solid than that in the United States, and that has been one stable factor in our unstable mammy. If the Like the oil industry before them, the banks seem government ever got too rough, the repercussions on to believe that advertising can win converts to their international money markets would be felt . . side. But it's gomg_tojig,itoiug4Adding. 4.;‘ an,bpi& di it. Convincing people of the worthiness of such a An honest inquiry could be good for everyone, cause when the same institution is forced to deal with assuming that open-minded politicians are prepared - foreclosures on businesses, homes, farms, and even to be fair and objective, says the'CFIB. The problem, of course, is that in recent years the banks have been chalking up staggering profit in- creases, while the rest of the nation has been biting the bullet during a difficult economic period. To thepublic, it appears that everyone is hurting, except the banks. The banks say this isn't so, but it's perhaps suggestive that the bankers are running a million dollar adver- -1 Using campaign to explain their position to the public. Reform is needed It was refreshing to .see our petulant represen- tatives in Ottawa end their silly fracas and decide to return to work. While the contentious legislation is sliced into manageable portions, we hope the true lesson of the bell -ringing episode is not lost, namely that there is a pressing need for parliamentary reform. . Observers watching the Canadian constitution flow The ranks If the Ontariogovernment followed the policies of their federal cohorts. the number of civil servants in this province would. be drastically reduced with gr6at savings. to the taxpayers. In a move that was supported all the way up to the PrimeMinister, a federal civil servant was recently removed from his position because he was leading a. stubborn fight ``opposing the move to metric. While not being directly involved with the department in charge of that costly conversion project that continues to draw the ire of thousands of citizens. the government argued that no civil servant had the right to speak out against the policies of his employer. There has been considerable debate about the principle involved in that. government decision and news items of late indicate that if it is adopted bv the provincial government. there would be a great number of heads rolling in the On- tario civil service. Just last week an item of particular in- terest to farmers in this area indicated that the ministry of agriculture and food were at odds with Ontario Hydro over the selection of a new power line that would run through Huron and Middlesex to con- nect the Bruce Nuclear PoV.-er Develop ment to London. • Deputy minister Duncan Allen called the route chosen by Hydro the "worst possible" choice. If carried to its natural conclusion. the Consolidated Hearings Board should pro- ve one side correct and the other wrong. When that is done. it should follow that the members on the losing side should pay the price of their poor effort and he given their walking papers or handed job demo- tions. althOugh unfortunately the usual practice is to let them take their lumps and go merrily on their way to perpetrate through the British parliament have remarked several times how opposition and government members are able to fulfill their obligations with dignity. The interruption of parliament this month was a reminder of the reform needed here. It is ironic that, at a time when Canada is sever- ing its final ties with Britain, we realize how much there is to learn, what traditions we should inherit. may soon be trimmed similar errors in future projects. There's another internal debate fester- ing between the brains in government circles and that also involves Ontario Hydro. While they've been saying that power from the Buce has to be transported to meet the increasing needs of homeowners • BATT'N AROUND with the editor who have been gettin2 off oil heat. another government group ;ast week suggested thay hydro wasnot the best alternative to oil. The Ontario ministry of energyclaims that a recent study they completed pro ves that natural gas is the cheapest home heating fuel and could save the average Ontario homeowner almost 85.000 over the next 15 years if he converts from oil. Natural gas conversion would be almost S2.000 less expensive over 15 years than conversion to electrical heating, the ministry report states. Based on that study. the need for addi- tional electrical power may be ques- tionable and perhaps the ministry of energy should get more involved in the current power line transmission hearings to give their projection on the need for get. ting more power out of the Bruce plant. At any rate, there appears to be a number of government employees at odds with each other these days and their credibility is suspect. This week's tip of the old chapeau tor an almost indefinable category has to go to the professors at the University of Western Ontario who are asking that tui- tion be waived for themselves and their families at the university. . "ft seems to me that if we are .academics: then we should be interested in education for our families," claimed one professor, whose identity should be protected to save him from the gall of that sta tement. In case he hasn't noticed, the majority of students passing through his courses are from homes of other than academics and just as interested in an education. Carried to its natural conclusion, the suggestion has all sorts of ramifications, not .the least of which is people choosing vocations that would ensure them the most profitable perks available. • Auto workers would expect to get their choice free from the assembly line, civil servants would be excused from paying taxes and the biggest rush would be to secure jobs in financial institutions where one could dip into the till at will. The suggestion of the university pro- fessors is not without precedent, of course. There are many positions which offer some amenities such as travel passes for railway and airline employees and even the editor of the local newspaper is excused from paying an . annual subscription rate. In fact there is. even precedent for the professors in their own field. Apparently nine of the 16 degree -granting institutions in Ontario waive tuitions for faculty members. It is interesting to note, that most of the freebies come from employers who get the major share of their revenue from taxpayers. But then. bet you knew that all along! Maligned for good reason March is the most glimmering of belief when I look at the Pisces, born late Feb. They are up -and - downers, temperamental, sensitive, all mixed up, crazy. That is a pretty ac- curate description of my wife, daughter, aunt, and late mother-in-law. March, of course, in- cludes the equinox, March maligned month in Canada, and with good reason. You can start off somewhere' in brilliant • sunshine, and come home • in a towering blizzard. • It is the month when mud and slush rule supreme, when you go out without your overcoat and a cutting wind gives you pneumonia, when the bit- terest lees of winter (and they're some hitter) have 'to be drunk. And, of course, it comes just before April, in which, • if you have not succumb- ed to the March winds, you will to the . April winds (showers my foot). I've been out fishing in April and had my hands freeze to the pole, the pole freeze to the line, the line freeze to the ice, and nothing freeze to the hook. But this is Canadian spring, remember? March. The Romans knew about it. Julius Caesar was warned by a blind soothsayer, • "Beware the Ides of March." He didhl, and a gang of his fellow -senators (probably Progressive - Conservatives) daggered him to death. Keep your head up, Joe Clark as well and yOur eye on -the ball. Puck? March is the month when I have to pay for all the February birthday presents of the women in my family. There were once four of them, all born in the last week of Feb. I wonder what was going on in June, all those years ago? I don't care a fig for astrology, but I have a minded Much. You can't really knock Easter. But the doctor or lawyer • or plumber, or TV repair- man who blew a couple of weeks in Spain back in January is furious about the March Break. This is chiefly the fault of young teachers, who, with mor- tgages, young children, • Sugar • and Spice Dispensed By Smiley 21, when the days are sup- posed to begin getting longer than the nights. And about time. We southern Canadians are not Inuit or Greenlanders. We can't cope with six months of long nights and short days. All that sex. We don't suicide much. We just do other equally insane things: buy something we can't af- ford; start an affair; go skiing'in a blizzard; buy a snowmobile and break a leg trying it out; have heart attacks while trying to sweep a stone across ice into a little circle; fly off to Jamaica or Hawaii and . get mugged on the main street. March is a time when teachers enjoy being teachers, and everybody else indulges their inborn hatred of teachers. Cause of this is the "March Break". A week's holiday. It used to be the Easter Holidays, and nobody and other albatrosses, go winging off, existentially, to BarbOos or Bahamas or New Orleans. And the fault is shared by students, who fly away to Florida or California, or a week in London or Paris, aparently having dug about a thousand bucks out of a snowbank. We older teachers hate the villains just as much • as the general public does. We have raised our in- come to. the point where we can't afford a holiday,. because of the finance minister. We have raised our children to the point where a typical March Break consistsof going and seeing them, and our grandchildren, and usual- ly forking out some finan- cial assistance somewhere during the t break. Break comes to mean broke. Yes, I'm creeping up on the most insidious, and totally damaging, of the black marks that March t puts up on the calendar, and in our national psyche: The Boogey-man in Ottawa. • Lucky is he/she who has an ordinary job, income detached at the source. Fill out a' simple form, • send it in, thumb your nose, and get on with living. Woe is he/she who has a business, a second source of income, a working wife/husband, kids at • school or a tendency to larceny. The latter condition • means hours and hours of poring over murky income tax "information" forms. Filling in this, rubbing out that, starting all over again when an extra T-5 pops out of the garbage bag, swearingatyour mate because you've made an error in arithmetic, sen- ding off a cheque to a com- puter, and waiting, in fear and trembling, for the let- ter that tells you that you owe another $674, and -doesn't tell you why. Last year, the Feds took more than one dollar out of every four dollars. Add to that gas tax, sales tax, municipal taxes, and all my bad habits, and there was barely enough to put bread on the table. This year, it's a nightmare. Nobody seems to know which taxes that monk, MacEachin, is go- ing to enforce or welsh on. To add an extra bit of itillation, there's talk of a teachers' strike on our area No wonder April 1st is April Fool's Day. March Break. March broke. And he same to you. • A spirit of helpfulness Last week I talked about the volunteer firemen and some of their training procedures. When I was a youngster it seemed that whenever the local fire alarm went off that half of the town would jump in their cars to follow the fire rigs out to • the excitement of a barn burning down. . • The firemen usually tried to discourage this practice but in one case • that I remember the siren kept going on and on. As people came down to the station out of curiosity, they were referred t� a farm about four miles out of town. A little child had had begun to walk down the long rows of corn, no Perspectives By Syd Fletcher been lost in a cornfield. By the time I got there, the volunteers, about 200 strong by now, had walk- ed through the icy waters of the barnyard pond and small job when you con- sider the field was over 200 acres. Before we knew it, it was dark out, and the child, a little two year old boy, was still missing. A misty rain set in making the corn leaves sopping wet, slapping you in the face as you trudged down the rows. Then the cry went up; the lad had been found. He had walked over a mile back to the bush, got tired and had fallen asleep in a small hollow. That was why the first wave of sear- chers had missed him. It's good to know that if one needs help that in a small community there is a spirit of helpfulness and good neighbouring that will respond to such an emergency.