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Times-Advocate, 1985-05-01, Page 4Page 4 r., 1 Times -Advocate, May 1, 1985 Times Established 1873 Advocate Established 1881 Amalgamated 1924 dvocate Published Each Wednesday Morning at Exeter, Ontario, NOM ISO Second Class Mail Registration Number 0386. - Phone 519-235-1331 CNA LORNE ELM Publisher JIM BECKETT Advertising Manager BILL BATTEN Editor HARRY DEVRIES Composition Manager ROSS HAUGH Assistant Editor DICK JONGKIND Business Manager SUBSCRIPTION RATES: Canada: $23.00 Per year; U.S.A. $60.00 C.W.N.A., O.C.N.A. CLASS 'A' • This time..it is time • The politicians have now a eir say and it's up to the voters of Ontario to decide which of the parties and can- didates will lead the affairs of the province. Past experience would suggest that the decision will be to stick with the Tories for yet another term. They've been ensconced in office for the past 42 years, despite the periodic pleas of the opposition that it is time for a change. Those words have been ignored in the past, but there are many valid reasons why they should be heeded in the May 2 voting and the Tories should be replaced by the Liberals. First, and perhaps foremost, is the fact that the Liberals be given an opportunity to rule for the very salva- tion of the present party system by which our democratic society exists. Repeated failure of the electorate to support any but one party greatly diminishes the safety factor of the system. It deteriorates to a quasi- dictatorial system when one party ap- pears to have the divine right to power and another is repeatedly hand- ed the role of loser and shunted to a perennial position in the opposition. . If the democratic system was above and beyond favoritism and other factors of ill -repute, there would be fewer dangers involved with the current situation. However, politics is a game played by humans and therefore suffers from the foibles of those humans. It is rife with favoritism, patronage and periodic misuse of power. By failing to scold the government at the election box, Ontario voters condone such action, and at the same time, make it difficult for opposition parties to draw the support they need in our system because people realize that it is to their personal benefit to be a Tory and at least stand a chance • of enjoying the benefits of the pork - barrel politics which thrive in Ontario. While Ontario has not suffered seriously under the reign of power of the Tories, it must be asked if the pro- vince has in -fact attained the position in which its valuable natur41 and human resources should place it. Notwithstanding the national and international pressures by which it is affected, Ontario has a serious . economic problem, best indicated by the thousands of young people who see no future in it for themselves at the present or the immediate future. • Promises of programs to correct the situation may appear valid, but the Tories can not escape the truth that their remedial action should have been taken long before any election call if they were sincerely interested in the hordes of unemployed young people, and not merely in continuing their own power chain. Election promises to help the agricultural sector from their current plight are in the same category as are measures to give better protection to the environment. - The integrity of the government is suspect when such actions stem only from election pressures. In essence they've failed to accept the challenge of the mandate given at the last elec- tion until such time as they see it as a benefit in their bid for yet another mandate. That type of government is not good enough for Ontario and voters should take the opportunity to express that feeling at the polls. Such a decision is made easier in Huron -Middlesex where the Liberals are represented by Jack Riddell. He's served the riding and province well from the opposition benches and there is every reason to assume he would be capable of representing the electorate equally well in a Liberal government. Not bad up over As most readers will know. assistant editor Ross Ilaugh and wife Irene are holidaying in Australia and New Zealand these days. The harried reporting staff have been anxiously awaiting his return. but judging from (he con- tents of a recent letter received. he won't he much good to us for some time after his return as he'll have to rest up from his hec- tic schedule. His system has apparently ad- justed well to the climate of Australia and the time change. He notes he's waking up at 3:00 a.m. every morning. That's noon here in Canada, so his regular schedule has been unaffected From what one can ascertain from his letter, he and ir•ene hate - been treated most royally and have responded in kind by being guest speakers at various events and visiting schools to tell the kids there about this part of the world. in an apparent effort to make us all feel badly. his letter was'n- terspersed with several references to warm temperatures being enjoyed down under. No doubt he thought the men tion of 30 -degree readings would make us very envious as he thought about those cold. miserable April days back in South Huron. Well let him enjoy the oneup- manship for now, but will delight in advising him that we too were enjoying the same type of weather while he was searching or kangaroos. No doubt his tales will prompt some others to consider a trip to Batt'n Around ...with The tditor the other side of the world. although it is interesting to note that Australia.and New Zealand have been among the more popular destinations for area residents in the past few months. A large contingent of Thames Road folk were there for a wed- ding (his past Minter and a cou- ple of others look the jaunt to par- 1ic'ipare in a hall tournament. When the ..vriter gets around to visiting all the Exeter namesakes in the world. Australia will be on the list. That. however, is very much in the tentative planning stage at the present time. * With work expected to com- either Serving South Huron, North Middlesex & North Lambton Since 1873 Published by J.W. Eedy Publications Limited mence soon on Exeter's new nur- sing home facility, the area is ex- periencing considerable building activity and the south end of Ex- eter is undergoing a major change as the new homes of the Pentecostal Tabernacle and Huron Motor Products emerge from the ground. While it is most encouraging to see this new growth. it should be recognised (hat it creates new problems warranting some recognition so they can be overcome. With the major expansion at the south entrance to the town. it is not too early for t sborne Township officials to recognize that some traffic problems %t•ill be created. , Some consideration should be given to extending the width of Highway 4 to allow for turn lanes into the establishments to avoid the rear -end collisions which nor- mally arise from such situation. The traffic flow into the church should get special consideration. in view of the Targe number of vehicles which arrive and depart at relatively brief periods. Let's not wait until some disastrous accident to take the necessary steps to make the in- creased traffic flow as safe as possible. C•frton, Brian ---n obligation"-- "Wow, they're beautiful — I'll buy 'em." Stepping on toes Don't you get a little tired of the touchiness of modern society in which, no matter where you step, It's on somebody's toes, no mat- ter what you say or write, it's a slur on someone's background, color, creed or convinctions? , About the only areas left in which one may chance a remark without fear of inflicting a wound are politics and sex. It's extremely difficult to inflict even a bruise on a politician. Ile must have a fat ego in the first place, and he quickly acquires a brass hide to go with it. Add an ability to talk out of both sides of the mouth at once, and a certain skill in straddling fences, and you have cabinet material. In the field of sex, there don't seem to be any limits any more to what can be said, presented or simulated. Movies, magazines and theatres, club us over the head with raw. unembellished_ sex, or seek to titillate the spook in each of us with highly - embellished, freaky sex until the whole once -exciting subject has become a crashing bore. Aside from sex and politics then there is scarcely an aspect of the human scene where even angels fear to tread, lest they step on someone's sensibilities. Ethnic jokes are out, black is beautiful, gefilte fish is glorious. Rhodesia is rotten, poor people are more noble ttian rich people, gay is gorgeous. and the only yea! sin is to be old. Lord forbid that we should ever go hack to the days when a Catholic was a "mirk" or a "dogan," a black person was a "nigger." an Italian was a "wop." a Chinese was a "chink." and so on. Hut I do get heartily sick of a society in which you have to tippy -toe all the time for fear of offending some touchy minority. or trespassing inadvertently on someone's weird religious affiliations. We are developing into a socie- ty with a snobbish sort of reverse prejudice in which everybody is leaning over backwards in order to appear not even to be breathing on anyone else. As a result, we are losing much of that good old Canadian crustiness and turning into a na- tion of nice nellies in whose mouths margarine wouldn't melt. Even our media reflect this trend in our society. With few ex- ceptions, our newspapers are as bland as blanc mange. The let - Sugar & Spice Dispensed by Smiley ters to the editor have more bite. and are often better written, than the -editorials. Our magazines are either tiresomely "liberal" or narrow- ly nationalistic, or both. Tied in tight bundles, they make better firewood than they do reading matter. Television and radio news reporting. most of it culled from the late editions of newspapers. is incredibly unimaginative and repetitious. TV programs, on the whole, are pure pap, offensive by being so inoffensive. Public figures are so frighten- ed of offending somebody or los- ing a few votes, that their public utterances come out as mush wrapped in marshmallow. What this country, and this society, need is a good dash of cold water from somewhere. to wake us from our mind -numbing. paralyzing "niceness." We need a Bob Edwards or a Grattan O'Leary to jolt us with some honest vituperation, some colorful namecalling, some hard facts, and some common sense. We need some politicians with guts, who don't give a diddle for the popularity polls, and who would give us the facts of life without any sugar coating. We need some educators with backbone to tell the people who claim that Huckleberry Finn is racist and The Merchant of Venice is anti-semitic and Catch-22 is dirty and The Diviners is disgusting, to go fly a kite. We need about 10,000 fewer smart -ass commentators on what is wrong with this country. and a few hundred honest men or women to tell us what is right with it. We need far • fewer "reasonable" people and a heck of a lot more "unreasonable" people, who would refuse to ac- cept something just because it's always been done that way, -or so- meone might he- upset if things were changed. We need some thundering editorials, some pulpits pounded, some stiff jail sentences for racism, some honesty in high places. We certainly don't need a "good war" or a "good depres- sion" to make Canadians stop whining and bitching and mealy - mouthing, but we certainly need a "good" something to .turn us hack into the sturdy, in- dividualistic people we used to be. 1 haven't the answers. I'm no prophet- Rut I'm sick to the ears of a society that thinks: old peo- ple are a nuisance: young people are never a nuisance: super- markets are sexy: social workers can make miracles; and everybody is as good as everybody else. Perhaps if you agree with me to some extent. you would enjoy reading The Golden Age of R.S. by Fred C. Dobbs. It's rambling and it's coarse in spots. but it's right on. Just wait and see it's so gexxl to know that the big oil companies truly have the public's interests at heart. Oh t had my doubts at first. 1 thought when they raised the gas prices to five times what they were ten years ago that they were out to skin the consumers a little. 1 even thought that he they were working together at times. Not a lot mind you. but when the prices on a Sunoco station on one corner. the Petro -Canada on the opposite corner and the Esso down, the street were all within one tenth of a cent, all withal fif- teen minutes of each other every morning 1 very unfairly accused them of a little collusion. You know, price-fixing or something like that. But i think i was just a little hard on those fellows. When it comes down to the real crunch of doing what's best for the country the ones that are making the deci- sions will honestly give it their best shot. You just have to listen to their advertising on TV and read the papers to understand that these By the Way by Syd Fletcher companies are only taking the government handouts and tax breaks because they want to develop the country's resources, create jobs, and 'make Canada the true giant of the petroleum world.' . Only by us working together 'hand in hand' can we achieve this true greatness. When you buy Petro -Canada's products you're helping Cana- dians. 11's the old 'all for one and one for all theme that sets their policies. To think that 1 actually'diet- ed that they were in it to slake every cent they could out of us for their stockholders. To think that 1 considered them as not being on the side of the average ('anadian: 1 tell you. i feel a whole tot bet- ter about paying $2.39 a gallon Ior my gas since Ivy he'ar'd how we're all helping out by doing our little bit. Why i het those com- panies will he so proud and pleas- ed about the say the country's resources have been putt into cir- culation for us that they'11 turn right around and give us each and every one a nig bonus for con- tributing so much to that development. Just you wait and see.