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VIEWPOINT by John B. McClelland ws Scugog Citizen -- Tuesday, November 28, 1995 -- 9 LETTERS TO EDITOR SOME PROTEST Somebody once wrote "beware he who doth protest too much" (or words to that affect. That quote for some strange my head when I read that former laun¢hed a $50 million suit against the federal government and the RCMP. As you are probably aware, Mulroney is claiming he was slandered, his reputation damaged by the conténts of a letter written by the federal justice department to Swiss banking authorities which alleges he received $5 million from a French company in the sale of airplanes to Air Canada. Mulroney, speaking through his lawyers, absolutely and categorically denies he ever received any kind of "payment" from anybody, and denies that he has ever had a'Swiss bank account. | Now, $50 million is a fair chunk of (| change for the taxpayers of Canada to haye to fork over, shodld the ex- Prime Minister win his case in court. Of course, he won't personally accept the entire amount--just half--with the other half donated to some un-named charity. ~ Why would Mulroney want to pehalize the hard working people of Canada to the tune of $50 million-- at a time when the fedéral government is broke. If he should win his case and convince a judge that his reputation was indeed maliciously maligned by the federal police and 'department of justice, why would he not settle for a public apology to be published prominently in 20 or 30 influential newspapers around the globe? ! What will Mulron®y's reputation be worth with the little folk of this country if he wins this case and hits them for $50 million of their own money? Just wondering. SURPRISE, SURPRISE To the surprise of nobody in this fair land, Lucien Bouchard will be taking over the leddership of the Parti Quebecois. I assume this means he will have to give up his job as leader of the Bloc Quebecois. But with good old Lucien, who knows. The guy has worn, more political hats in the last few years than any other person ip Canadian history. I'm sure if there was some way he could lead the PQ and at the same time hang on to leadership of the Bloc, he would not hesitate for a moment. 1 reason, immediately jumped into Prime Minister Brian Mulroney has + Bouchard, true to form, says he will call an election in Quebec and following that will call another referendum. (Again, surprise, surprise). But first he's going to try to shore up the ailing economy in la belle province. ' i That may be his toughest46b if the news that CP will be leaving Montreal for .Calgary is any indication of the how corporate Candda feels about the politica)" 'machinations engineered in' Quebec by Bouchard et al. ! However, Bouchard may end up working at cross pyrposes in trying to improve the economy of Quebec while at the same time trying to muster enough support in a referendum to leave confederation. I suspect that if the Quebec economy improves (more jobs, more investment etc.) this will go a long way in taking separation off the minds of a lot of people. Revolutions are always tougher to forment when the common folk have a steady pay cheque and they can see a brighter future down the road for their kids. THE GUN BILL So, the Senate caved last week and agreed to pass the controversial legislation that has raised theire of so many law abiding gun owners in this country. Gun owners have promised to vent their anger against the Liberals in the next election. Ig will be interesting to watch the fall-out in our riding of Durham where Liberal MP Alex Shepherd was a less than enthusiastic supporter of Allan | Rock's bill. The government claims setting up national gun registry for shotguns and rifles will cost under $100 million. Opponents say the cost will be five times that amount at least. The real figure is probably somewhere in the middle. In any event] this national registry is going to take a lot of money out of the economy---money that otherwise would be spent on goods and services. And this for a registry that will at best have a marginal impact on violent crime. A lot of Liberals are going to see some old chickens come home to roost over this bill, even for Mr. Shepherd in Durham riding. IN CLOSING Yours truly messed up the wording under a photo in last week's Citizen. A new game called Table Talk was incorrectly identified. My apologies to Marlyn Ri at The Genuine Article on Queen Street, where Table Talk is sold exglusivély in Port Perry. > 'Federal Liberals should give us more say in running Canada "To the Editor; On June 8, 1994, around the time that Jean Chretien was boasting in public that he was not giving the Quebec question five minutes' worth of thought, Reform Party Leader Preston Manning , with true vision, wrote a public letter to Jean Chretien in which he asked 20 questions on Quebec that he wanted everyone to think about. He wanted to know, for example, 'whether Canadian passports would be granted to citizens of a foreign Quebec, or whether Quebec could use the Canadian dollar, and who would negotiate with an independent Quebec. In short he wanted to know the conditions Quebecers had to meet before separating. His questions were ignored. Because Jean Chretien, just like the captain of the Titanic, didn't foresee any danger and believed his ship 'of state to be unsinkable. He really believed he was the only one who understood Quebec and didn't intend to tolerate any interference from non- Quebecer Manning. ) Now we know that Jean Chretien didn't understand his fellow Quebecers; even his own Quebec riding voted Yes. And, we also know that many Quebecers believed # they could retain their Canadian passport. and dollar, just as Manning mentioned in his letter. As a result they voted Yes. If Jean Chretien had been working for a private company he would have been fired already. However, under our obsolete so-called democratjc system he is untouchable. Liberal MPs are like puppets on a string, ipulated by the Prime Minister, and have now started - as on command - to attack the Reform Party to cover up for the Prime Minister's failure to foresee and act early. Instead of creating national unity they are now - 2 Hino disunity klesslv shouti y words like "racist" and "anti-federalist". Typical is Durham MP Alex Shepherd. In his last Report from Parliament Hill he attacked the Reform Party for lack of vision and not being a national party. It's strange to hear this from a political party that nearly lost Quebec and only received 43% of the vote during the last election. This 43% minority is now arrogantly ruling the 53% majority that voted against them. However, that doesn't seem to bother Alex Shepherd and why should it? He only won with 37% and is now in Ottawa pretending to represent this 63% majority that voted against him. "Maybe, if Jean Chretien and Alex Shepherd corrected our electoral system, made the Senate an elected body, allowed more free votes in Parliament, and gave ' Canadians a greater say in the running of their own country, maybe then Quebecers would have more respect for Canada and might prefer to stay with us. All these measures don't require constitutional change, only the will to do the right thing! However, to implement them Jean Chretien would have to sacrifice some of his power to reward his buddies and distribute outrageous pensions. Realizing this, we should be ready for growing disunity and name-calling in Ottawa. Sincerely, Evert Vroegh Ld Hampton, Ontario Avian Ran says sorry To the Editor; (if he thinks I should publicly apologize.) ' Re: my open fax in letters page of Nov. 21 Scugog Citizen I guess a crusader who leads with his chin: should switch once in a while, to a padded cheek. Anyway, I'm in receipt of a couple of phone calls from M.P. Alex Shepherd and his charming secretary (would that we could attract her as a Group exec.). Seems that I faxed over some ten documents that they may see where I asked for a reply from that office. Horrors. I concede that I did not ask for his reply: and miscued in naive belief that 'interest' wouldn't require asking. Had I asked dhtright, his proud record of 'replying' within ten days: would not have suffered jeopardy. My sincere apology Sir. Avian Ron Ward Janetville, Ontario Labour gambling with rights To the Editor; ' The gamble by Buzz Hargrove and labour leaders to shut down cities and plants in Ontario with rotating wildcats, including Oshawa General Motors plants and hospitals is asinine. It is illegal, and could cost the ones wildeatting and others their jobs. It would * then be used as a bargaining tool, to get their jobs back at contract time. We have seen this happen so many times before. By keeping the cards closer to your chest at contract time you are not jeopardizing the union members bargaining potentials. "Herman van der Veen Local 222, retiree, Oshawa Letter policy The Scugog Citizen welcomes letters to the Editor on just about any topic, local, national or international in scope, Our policy is to insist that the writer of the letter allow his or her name to appear with the letter, however, we will make exceptions in certain circumstances. Deadline for letters is Mo#tlay at noon. You can mail to 54 Water St., Port Perry, LOL 1J2, or fax to 985-1410. Union leaders are 'promoting violence' To the Editor; Have union but we have to take the bad, with spent thousands of dollars to hire f Jessewackson, and activists from I am concerned, many of our way they are today. | Do not let a few hotheads who leaders gone berserk? Our union leaders in local 222 in Oshawa, and Buzz Hargrove, Syd Ryan, Gord Wilson and others are promoting violence, illegal strikes, and confrontations across Ontario. The people democratically elected the Harris government, who knew beforehand what his program was gding to be. Now he is carrying out 'thoge promises. I do not like some of\them either, the good. Other provinces and the federal Government are also trying to cut the deficit. Quebec will be-the next province having to bite the bullet. Having our Union Leaders + advocating anarchy and chaos in the streets over the next four years is disgusting. They are in the same league as Lucien Bouchard by keeping the! province in a state of turmoil. The O.F.L. Convention in Torontb was a disgrace as they the USA to promote the NDP. I wonder, if Jesse Jackson'even knows what the NDP stands for! We have good speak r own country. For example, Stephen Lewis is one of the very few who can keep an audience spellbound, and is an avid NDPer. It would not cost an arm and a leg in U.S. money given to Jackson. However, what the heck, our union dues paid the shot. [ sisters and brothers are going to get suspended or fired, if activists and agitators keep them from entering their workplaces, when the city of London is shut down on December 11 this year. Union Leaders may call it a protest, but it will be a wildcat strike, as these brothers and sisters have signed agreements between their Union and their Employers to honour. It took many sacrifices and many years for unions to be recognized the want to save face, destroy the Union's good name. When they sign agreements, we strive to make companies live by it. We have to make sure we do the same. Do not let our leaders give ug a tarnished image. When asked to wildcat, even for a day, "say no I won't go, as it is illegal." Harold Reid Whitby