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Happy First Birthday Hello! My name is .Michael Murphy. Murphy. I turned one year old on October October 7th, 1988. My very proud mommy and daddy are Garry and Judy. - My grandpa and grandmas are Keith and Marie West of Orono and Maureen Murphy of Bowman ville. A special "hi" to my great grandmother grandmother Maggie Morris of Bowman- ville. Letter to the editor Dear Editor: Rural Po$t Offices Where do our candidates stand on this important election issue? Although free trade and the environment environment may be the 'glamour issues' of this federal election campaign, campaign, we in rural Canada are also concerned about many other things affecting the quality of our lives. This includes the loss of federally- operated post offices in our towns and villages. Well over 200 post office (144 in Ontario and Quebec alone) have been shut down and/or privatized in the two years since Canada Post introduced its 10 year Corporate Plan in 1986. The remaining 4900 are slated to go in eight years unless the plan is stopped. This will , ultimately mean the loss of over 10,000 decently-paying jobs in rural 1 Canada, 83 percent of which are now held by women. And it will also mean the loss of an institution which makes a vital contribution to the social and economic well-being of our communities. Canada Post says it is not abandoning abandoning rural Canada, but 'improving* 'improving* service. But the real story is now being told by 'privatized' Retail Postal Outlet operators like Randy Arcand, a grocery store owner from Celista, British Columbia, Columbia, who says: "It (the Retail Postal Outlet) is a lose-lose situation for, us, and if we had to do this all over again, we wouldn't. Not for a mere, $600-$700 per month and all the hassles and responsibilities...We need rural postmasters reinstated! " Here's what Peter Archer, owner of Archer's General Store in Blue Ridge, Alberta writes, in a letter to Canada Post: "As a businessman, I can conclude that under the present, arrangement, a Retail Postal Outlet is not a profitable venture, no matter matter what size of town is involved, and could never be so. Considering the hours involved, the heating and lighting, employed labour costs, and other overhead costs, the area in the store would yield greater profit profit by expanding our grocery stocks." ' If people like Archer and Arcand abandon the Retail Postal Outlet, as they would like to do, what's next for their towns? Already places like Morewood, Ontario and Warspite, Alberta have each had three Retail Postal Outlet operators because of serious dissatisfaction with the Canada Post contract. Through Retail Postal Outlets, Canada Post is trying to provide postal service for, about one fifth the cost of a regular post office. Hundreds of business people across Canada are saying "N»! It can't be done." And if the business people say no, then the community is the real loser, because post office counter service moves right out of town, and the people are left with green boxes or superboxes for their incoming mail. Rural Canadians deserve better than this. The question is: Where does each of the candidates in this riding stand on the post office issue? What will they and their party party do, if elected, to stop these closures? Yours sincerely, Carole Boyd Orono, Ontario Letter to the editor As Canadians prepare for this critical election we are faced with a fundamental choice in direction. Do we choose to restore our balance with the natural world, or are we going to commit our future to the .powerful stimulant of market economics. From the perspective of this writer, we cannot do both. The following analogy will explain why. in many respects, the growth of a ■society follows the patterns of growth of a single human individual. individual. And growing is very im portant to us as children since we cannot function effectively without a full sized body. However, somewhere in our late teens our physical growth stops. Any additional additional muscle we grow or reserves of calories we might accumulate after age 20 is insignificant in comparison to the successive doublings of childhood. This is a good thing since we couldn't survive many more doublings in our basic size. Similarly, a few hundred years ago we discovered that industrial production could be done by machines powered Irom inanimate energy sources. By re-investing the profits in more of lhe samc * thc e, ~ fects could be mu^'P*' 6 ^ ant * our material growth was .stimulated dramatically. This procedure has produced a miracle °f abundance and it is no wonder many people see it as the utlimate good for ■'Ociety. The size of our economic activity has doubled and doubled again ever since. This has always seemed for the better, until now as a new element element enters the picture. Today our societies are so big and so powerful that we are overwhelming the life supporting processes of our planet. Our waters are increasingly polluted, the atmosphere is changing changing with potentially disastrous results, forests and the fertility of agricultural land are disappearing at an alarming rate. How many more doublings of economic activity can we survive? The complexity of the situation is further clarified with the analogy. * When we achieve mature size as individuals, individuals, we don't stop growing, we just change the nature of our growth. We learn to use what we have in more and more effective ways, by developing our understanding understanding and skills. It can be the same with society. When you hear that we must control growth, it doesn't mean stagnation, just that our planet can only tolerate a certain amount of humanitys material activities. activities. Further development must be sustainable within that capacity. How does this relate to the Canada - U.S. Trade Deal? Market economics is like the growth hormone produced by children. The Deal is a major commitment, commitment, binding us to follow the United States in their faith that economic growth comes first and all else will follow. Unfortunately, even with supply lines to extract resources from much of the world, the U.S. has lost its economic vitality. vitality. They are very much in favour of the Trade Deal because it will give their powerful industrial system ac- Oroim Wvt-kl> limes, Wednesday, November 9, 1988-3 Orono Figure Skating Club news report by Lynne Lemieux in the Hamilton-Stoney Creek Invitational Invitational held in Hamilton. Orono club members one prepar- • The juniors in Canskate are pro- ing for upcoming skating competi- gressing well. Last week the follow- tions. On November 4th, Melissa ing children passed badges: Jilliari Colville and Melanie Lemieux par- Lemieux - Novice I, Lee Robb, ticipated in the "Cobourg Skate." j 0( jy Marleaü and Jackie Bull - In Ottawa from November 16th - Elementary, Kurtis Szytnczak and 20th the Eastern Ontario Sectionals Michelle Pare - Beginners. Con- will be held. The Orono club will be gratulations! represented by Tanya Clemens, Our first cheese drive appears to Briar Ransberry and Tracy Eames. have been quite successful. Thank We wish all the girls well. On Oc- you to, everyone for their efforts tober 29th Melissa Allin took part with this fundraiser. please keep November 19th open to attend the Orono Figure Skating cess to another half continent of Club Dance. Come out, have a resources with which to continue sood time and support your club, their material growth. For this reason alone we would do the U.S. and the world as a whole a favour by saying no to the Trade Deal. Otherwise they would not face up to the limits of the Earth for another decade or two, and by then it could well be too late ' to reverse the degradation of the world's environment, environment, Canada is in a position to choose. Do we support the goal of sustaining sustaining the environment, or do we support support growth for 1 growths sake? The time to decide is November 21. Mike Nickerson Merrickvill'e, Ontario r ? Excavating Contractors • 'FRASER- MACK LIMITED ALL TYPES OF EXCAVATING I Back-Filling and Grading - Trenching contact MIKE SAWYER Business Phone 416-683-4212 Home Phone 983-9837 M m HAL MCKNIGHT Mayor ELECT' ROSS STEVENSON PROGRESSIVE CONSERVATIVE Get the FACTS not the fiction of Free Trgde • Free and secure access to the U.S. market provided by the Auto Pact remains in tact • Nothing in the Free f rade agreement aàverseley affects any social program Don't let opposition scare tactics determine your vote Get the FACTS not the fiction about Free Trade Contact Progressive Conservative Campaign Offices CAMPAIGN OFFICES Clarke-Newcastle Electors , . Call 623-8749 , Authorized by D. Berry, Official Agent for Ross Stevenson SUM