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editorial poge. Country Dangling As this issue of the Port Perry Star was going to press, the country was dangling on every word and action of Prime Minister Trudeau over when (or. now, even if) we are going to have a national election this summer. Main-streeting through the city of Toronto over the yeekend, Mr. Trudeau almost seemed to be taking some kind of unique pleasure as he glibly deflected reporters' questions on the election date. But by the same token he kept a very high profile by taking in a hockey and a baseball game; something of a rarity forthe Prime Minister who is not known to be very interested in team activities, least of all, sporting events. The pundits, of course, who make their living commenting on issues like this, are coming up with all kinds of explanations about why the PM is procrastinating on the election date. And one reason is an apparent poll conducted by the Liberals which shows that some of the electorate at any rate feels Mr .- Trudeau is indicisive and wishy-washy. While his critics have called him a lot of things over the past decade, the inability to act or make decisions is not a trait that readily comes to mind when one thinks of Pierre Trudeau. Or is it? Maybe the citizens polled who saw him in such a.light recognize that the actions recently by the Prime Minister are just that wishy-washy. If he wants an election this spring or summer, as he led _ the country to believe he does, what is he waiting for? Why hasnt the writ been issued? The Tories are claiming that the procrastination is the result of further polls taken very recently which show the Liberal popularity to be declining in certain key areas of the country like Toronto and southern Ontario. They may very well be right. But meanwhile, the serious problems that have 9 beset Canada are going unattended both in the House" of Commons and in an election campaign in front of the people of this country. The Prime Minister has one of two choices; either set the date for the election and get on with the campaign, or put some real legislation in front of the House in an effort to help put this country back on the right track. The issues are far too serious to leave dangling while the PM tries to make up his mind and the time for action is now. Possibly by the time readers get this issue of the Star, the question will have been answered. smiley BORN TO SOON? About Time The news that Durham Region will be installing a set of traffic signals at the intersection of Queen and Lilla Streets in Port Perry should be welcome by most drivers. The present situation at the four corners is quite simply a major traffic hazard, and the numerous accidents over the past couple of years will attest to that. Since Lilla Street was up-graded it has become a major traffic thoroughfare and the volume of vehicles north and south, especially on the weekends is increasing all the time. The signal lights should help to ease the hazard situation at the intersection. It will however, take some getting used to, particularly for motorists on Queen Street who have never had to stop at the intersection. But since the signals are not expected to go into operation until late June, now is the time to start getting accustom- ed to the idea. Mental Health Week When the word "health" is mentioned, most people automatically think of their physical well being and "good health' usually means a body free from disease. There are any number of steps that a person can take to help ensure a physical state of good health. Often over-looked is the fact that the develop- ment of good emotional and mental health is just as important. With mental health week starting May 1, the Durham branch of the Canadian Mental Health Association says that there are mental exercises an individual can undertake to help cope with pres- sures, anxiety and tension that seem to be a part of our modern life-styles. The theme this year is called "give something of yourself', with the object being that if you help others, you just may be helping yourself at the same time. It sounds like pretty good advice. Mental Health/Durham is the local association and its staff and members are conducting public education campaigns to help citizens maintain their good health. If you feel you have a problem or would like to find out how to better deal with tension, anxiety and stress, it might be worth your while to get in touch with the organization at 728-9931. v 'a 9 There are times when I am convinced that I was born 30 years too soon. One of them occurs when I see the wonderful opportuni- ties for travel that young people have today. They make me pea-green with envy. When you and I were young, Maggie, most of us didn't get much farther than the next town. A minority visited the city occasion- ally, and it was considered a bi whale of a lot of people nevi did g big city in their entire lives™~4nd were no worse off for it, of course. Man, how that has changed. Nowadays, young people go galloping off to the four corners of the earth with no more thought about it than we'd have given to a weekend in the city. They're so blase about it that it's sickening to an old guy like me, who has always yearned to travel, and never had the time or money or freedom to do it. In my day, during the depression, the only people who could afford to travel were the hoboes. They could afford it because they didn't have any money. They rode free on the tops and inside the box-cars of freight trains. And they didn't have any responsibi- lities except the next meal and a place to sleep. Looking back, I was one of the lucky ones. Most of my generation of youth was forced by circumstances to stay home, get any job available, and hang on to it like grim death, never venturing forth on the highroads of life. I was the envy of my class-mates, when, at seventeen, I nabbed a job on the upper lake boats, and could come home TK sve bragging of having been to such bizarre, exotic places as Duluth, Sault Ste. Marie, Detroit, the Lakehead. Today's youngsters would sneer at such bourgeois travels. They exchange anec- dotes about Morocco and Moscow, Athens and Australia, Paris and Port-au-Prince, _ Delhi and Dubrovnik. Fair nauseates me, it does. By the time he was 22, my own son had lived on both coats of Canada, been to Mexico, New Orleans, Texas, Isreal, Ireland and a hundred other places that are just names in an atlas to me. Right now he's in Paraquay, South America, and has visited Argentina and Bolivia. He speaks four languages. I speak one, not too well. My nephews have seen more countries than Chris Columbus or Sir Francis Drake. One's an-airline pilot," and knows Europe, North America and the West Indies the way i know my way to school. Another has worked in the Canadian north, Quebec, the Congo, Jamaica, and is now living in Costa Rica. : My nieces are just as peripatetic. They've been, among them, to the West Coast, France, England, Russia. A four-day trip to New York, for them, is scarcely worth mentioning. Migawd, I'd have given my left eyeball to see New York when I was their age! I thought it was pretty earth-shaking the first time I saw Toronto. ye-e-c-ch! Thousands of university students annually Toronto, take a year off, borrow some money, stuff a packsack and head out for a year of bumming around Europe, the Mediter- ranean, North African, India. Rotten kids! 2 In the last decade, the travel bug has spilled over into the high schools. Some of them are beginning to sound like agencies, with frequent announcements over the P.A. system: "Will the group going to Rome in the winter break please assemble in Room 202 at 3:30 for a lesson in tying your toga." "All those taking the Venezuela trip are requested to see Mr. Vagabond in room 727 at 3:15 today." "Those who are involved in the spring break trip to the Canary Island should have their passports by March 1st." "There will be a meeting today in Room Quatorze for all students going to the Quebec Winter Carnival. No separatists, please." "An urgent meeting will be held today for those who plan to take the London-Paris trip during spring break. All seats are now filled. If enough are interested, we'll hire another plane." : It fairly makes your head swim, especial- ly when your own idea of a trip south is 100 miles to the city for a weekend, a trip west means a visit to great-grandad, and a trip east means you're going to a funeral or a wedding 'among the relatives. Next thing you know, this travel binge will -.bulge over into the elementary school, and great 747-loads of little shavers from Grade Eight will be descending on the unsuspect- ing residents of Hong Kong and Rio de Janeiro. Lord help them. The residents, not the kids. Perhaps this sounds like sour grapes. Well, itis. As Shaw said: '"The trouble with youths that it is wasted on the young." And as Smiley says: "The trouble with travel is that it is wasted on kids who don't know a Grecian urn from an Italian pizza." Oh, it's not that I haven't travelled. I've: been to Great Britain. And spent two years. staggering around in the blackout or wading through the torrential rains of bonnie Scotland. I've been to France. Slept five weeks in a tent in an orchard in Normandy. Been to Belgium. Antwerp; buzzbombs. Know Holland well. Spent two weeks locked in a box-car in a railway siding at Utrecht. Am intimately acquainted with Germany. Was bombed in Braunsweig and Leipzig, and spent a delightful six months in salubrious Pomerania, as guest of the Third Reich. Oh, I've been around all right. somehow it wasn't quite the same. Rattling through Deutschland on a train with a 10-day stubble of beard on your chin and a tag-end of sour black bread stuffed into your battledress blouse is not quite similar to climbing aboard a 747 with your tote-bag and waiting for the stewardess to bring your first meal. Would I trade? Not on your life. 4 But