The following text may have been generated by Optical Character Recognition, with varying degrees of accuracy. Reader beware!

. ox 5 kd » we LN TR APF SAYS LA YUN KS SIE A CA SRY SCL Seu NIST ARLE AALS er Ree A TNE LSS FEAR OST CAE NT FRIAR ak XE 40 Sh ACTER EH VA FNS PALS Sie ERRATA FARE Zh 3 RS ares robs wer ELSE ANT PRR ELA it LA AA hs Sly NH YEE AER ESREONS 393 oF 35% EEN DRA NE A a tl ah Fe 2, NRE FARES RIVERO TEEN UTS AT VE BERRA ELAR THEN WAS TA - 4 -- PORT PERRY STAR -- Tuesday July 27, 1982 ditorial comments oB pr 222 % Soluti A) SI TER || BFFs 6% Solution : ve "a 7 ? 77 9% Zz SA oY Z 2 ( 1 Z ar " Z ; ry wv "x, XR The federal government is asking Canadians to adhere to six per cent guidelines when it comes to wage and salary Increases. The major unions in the country have politically told the government what they think of the guide- lines. Some pretty large corporations in this country are also telling the government that they can't live with six per cent either, when it comes to increases 0 )6v?/ be pleased to krow ad ih ts going uP -- 115 gong yo slower £ Span it was!" Coen, an i" SR ra z 2 EN <{ 0 for services provided. X % Air Canada and Bell are both seeking fare and SH service increases substantially higher than six per RX SHY cent, and their argument is precisely that they need SN the additional revenue to cover increasing costs. ak Seems logical enough. But is that not the same a . : chatterbox by John B. McClelland TIMES ARE TOUGH §# If times are tough these days, how come Toronto baseball fans are smiling all the way to the park with the news that beer will soon be sold in the stands? I suspect that once the beer starts to flow in Exhibition Stadium, it will cost about $2 a glass, so that will add to the total price of going to a ball game. Yet, there are predictions that beer sales will be hot. In fact, one Toronto politician said last week that the sale of beer could be the financial catalyst needed to spur the construction of a new domed stadium in that city. The cost of that stadium is estimated at $70 million, but will likely cost more than $100 million jf it is built in the next few years. Yes sir, times are tough. ) How come a movie like E.T. can gross $100 million in ticket sales in North America in just two months, if times are so tough? Of course, the answer is simple enough. When times get tough, people stop buying the big ticket items like houses, cars, appliances and furniture. They forget about that winter vacation in Mexico or Florida, but they sure don't stop spending money on movies and baseball games, going out to dinner or an evening at an expensive watering hole. : There are some businesses which actually flourish during a recession. Owning a baseball team is one, and getting a piece of the beer sales action is another. Seriously, these are not the best examples to use, of course. And make no mistake about it. Times are tough, very tough, for some people. - But somehow, Canada has slipped into a collective malaise. I am convinced things are not as bad as they "appear on the surface. I'm convinced part of the problem is because we believe that times are tough because somebody says they are. What Canadians are neglecting to do during this summer of gloom and doom is make realistic com- parisons to the "tough times" in Canada, apd the really tough times which hundreds of millions of people elsewhere in the world are forced to endure. If Canadians could see beyond their noses to what is happening in so many countries, we might just look on our own problems in a different perspective. And if we even made an objective comparison between 1982 and 1932, when children actually starved to death in Canada, we would find there is no comparison. Sure, we have unemployment today. But we have jobs going begging because nobody wants them. We also have UIC, universal welfare, health care that is virtually free, and so on, and so on. Hell, in 1932, grown men cried when the soup kitchens ran dry and there was none left to feed their kids. If you didn't live through the Great Depression, go and have a good long chat with somebody who did. In 1932, men from all over Canada rode the rails out right now, but not nearly as bad as we want to believe. 'power vacuum of government. west for a chance to harvest wheat by hand, for room and board and $1 a day wages if they were lucky. Many got room and board only. In 1982, tobacco and fruit growers are importing workers from the West Indies by the boat-load because ° Canadians are afraid of the work and would rather sit with their feet up drawing pogey. In 1982 (the worst year in 50, remember) workers at Inco went on strike. They settled so the company would lay them off and they would qualify for UIC. There are all kinds of strike noises in the auto industry for this fall, and every public service union in the country is screaming strike. My point is that all the gloom and doom we hear every minute of every day has become a self-fulfilling prophecy in this country, feeding off itself, a giant snowball that is rolling out of control. We are so caught up in it that Canadians are losing their ability to think straight. It's a vicious circle between business, labour and government, with everyone pointing the finger at the other guy, and nobody with enough gutsto | point the finger-at themselves. « It is high time that somebody broke the psychology of the gloom and doom merrry-go-round. If you want a realistic picture, don't compare 1982 with 1972. Compare it with 1932, or compare life in Canada this summer with life in Beirut, or parts of Africa, India and South America. Wake up to the fact that times may be tight in Canada Canadians are faced with two crucial choices these days. They can either shape up, kick the doom and gloom on their own, or somebody disguised as a friendly politician is going to do it for them with measures that truly will impinge upon our personal and collective freedoms. When the people of a nation become demoralized and depressed, when they lose touch with reality, when they start to believe things that are not true, that nation becomes ripe for the picking by a dictatorship disguised as a savior. . If you say it could never happen in Canada, you're wearing blinkers and ignorant of recent world history. ¢~ The greatest danger from all the gloom and doog is that it will gather so much momentum to literally destroy the country from within. If that happens, there will be no shortage of crack-pots waiting in the wings to fill the 'We have a choice. Either pick up the boot straps ourselves or wallow in self-pity until the bottorn really does fall out and then submit passively to the whims some political wolf in sheep's clothing. * = The psychology must be broken before it is too late. Surely, Canadians are made of tougher stuff. Surely we can turn the economic corner and put some semblance of reality and respectability back into this country. pr argument the unions are putting forward when it comes to wages for its members? They are saying the members need more money because the cost of living, raising a family, of doing business, if you will, is going up just the way costs are going up for corporations. It Is ironic and frightening at the same time. There is an old saying about sauce for the goose ... . But more to the point, the irony shows exactly the prickly position Canada finds itself in at this time, and just how tough it is going to untangle the mess. Guidelines are well and good, but they simply will not work unless applied evenly through the entire economy. Food prices are climbing at a faster rate than six per cent. And as anyone with a family knows, buying food is an important part of the family '"Business" each week. There is a lot of clamour these days for big labour to 'Bite the bullet," and stick to the six per cent restraint figures. One can't help but suspect that both Air Canada and Bell are going to get most if not all of the rate increases they say they need. It's no wonder labour leaders are angry these. days. They simply do not want to be the only fodder in the cannons used by the government to shoot down inflation. : Watch The Kids Last week in Acton, two youngsters drowned within-an hour at the same crowded beach which had lifeguard supervision. The previous week in Toronto, a young girl drowned in"a public swimming pool, her body apparently lay on the bottom of the pool for quite some time while other youngsters frolicked happily " in'the water above. These incidents are a grim reminder to us all that when young children are in or near water, they must be closely watched by their parents (or 'someone with-responsibility) at all times. The beach on Port Perry's lakefront (which Is just about the most popular spot in town during the heat wave) does not have lifeguard supervision. Lake Scugog water is extremely murky, even at shallow depths. It is difficult to believe that a child could drown in water just a foot or two deep. But it can happen, and happen quickly. Experts say that in warm water, a person who does slip beneath the surface may be revived if found within three to four minutes. That is a very short time. When young children are playing or swimming in water, they niljst be watched every second. Port Perrygffas been very fortunate that there has not been a serious incident since the beach was opened here several summers ago. : Parents, babysitters or anyone entrusted with the responsibility of watching young children at the beach must do just that: watch them constantly. Torelax the vigil for even one minute is to invite a tragedy. 2 - RE ----...., srr A M-- el £0 grin atta A A IN NANA As A tin