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4 -- PORT PERRY STAR -- Tuesday, April 9, 1985 editorial co Rt ONT i I IE Re I; EE 4 ini ie i Pasi aii ire a vo cnt ane condi ae Putting Lid On Ontario premier Frank Miller left himself open for criticism last week when he decided not to participate in a televised debate with Liberal leader David Peterson and Bob Rae of the New Democrats. Miller's reasoning was that such a debate is not the best kind of vehicle for him to get his message.to the . people of Ontario. On that point, we have to agree with him. TV debates between political leaders during an elec- tion campaign are disappointments at best: too struc- tured, prone to technical difficulties and sometimes degenerating into nothing more than shouting matches. Still, despite all the flaws in the vehicle and the fact the public seems to have a ho-hum attitude towards debates on TV (especially if Dynasty is airing on another channel) Miller probably would have made the better decision had he accepted the invitation to slug it out ver- bally on the air with Peterson and Rae. His refusal addéd more ammunition to critics who say that Miller is being carefully stage-managed by his "*handlers" during this campaign. The critics say Miller is being steered away from the media in particular so that he won't have to come up with the right answer to a tough question. The critics say Miller's *'handlers" fear most the so-called big gaffe, a blunder of major propor- tions that could dog the candidate the rest of the campaign. Nothing wrong with that. But we can't figure out what all this has to do with the refusal to take part in a very structured, formal and controlled television debate. Aside from the fact that Miller may not be pressed to come up with answers to some hard questions (the acid rain problem and the full funding plan for Catholic High Schools are just two such thorny issues, not to men- tion quotas on foreign cars and a pending hike in gasoline atthe pumps) we are concerned about this so- called "stage management' of political candidates. There were hints of it in the last federal campaign when Brian Mulroney and John Turner both suddenly became less accessible to the media covering the campaign. The cut and thrust of an important press conference is often the very best way to get an understanding about how a candidate really feels about the issue. Mr. Miller is being taken out of this kind of situation. it makes for a dull campaign and leaves the impres- sion that a candidate would just as soon not bother answering the tough ones, the ones the people would like answered.' Good Concept A steering committee has been set up to examine the feasibility of adding a banquet hall to the Scugog Arena. If some regular readers of the Star are wondering why they haven't seen any reports about this in the news columns of this paper recently, the answer is frankly, there has been little or nothing to report. The committee was apparently ready to use the ser- vice club fellowship night last week as a kind of kick-off, to run the concept past service club members and get a feeling of what kind of support they might be prepared to give such a project." That did not take place and the reason given was that preliminary sketches, designs and other hard infor- mation was simply not available last week. Fair enough. Better to have all the info and data at your fingertips when dealing with a project such as this. The concept is that this community has giwrto the point where it needs a large, fully equipped facility for banquets, meetings, wedding receptions and so on; large enough to accommodate 300 or 350 people. The largest available banquet hall in the community now seats about 200 people for dinner comfortably. The concept is a good one. Scugog is a growing and flourishing community. Such a facility would no doubt get a lot of use. And the idea of locating it as part of the Arena is also reasonable as many functions could be integrated. ' The obvious question now is how much will such a facility cost, and where will the money come from. We understand the steering committee is working on that question and after meetings with the Arena Board and service clubs in the near future, will have some answers. We wish the committee wei as it begins what could very well be a long term project. The concept is a wor- thy one and deserving wide-spread community support, if it proves to be feasible and workable. [= ba WMWMVALDD OI £3 AON chatterbox by John B. McClelland THE SILLY SEASON "Jay's juggernaut eager for action." That was the banner headline that screamed across "the top of the sports pages of one of Toronto's daily papers Monday morning. Monday, of course, was the start of the baseball season, the real thing, and in case you've been aslee for the past six weeks, the Toronto media have all bu assured the Blue Jays a world championship some time in October. : 0.K., the Jays do have an impressive line-up, they've plugged the gaps in the bull-pen and had the best record of any team on the Grapefruit circuit. But juggernaut? Goodness gracious. Websters defines juggernaut this way: "a massive inexorable force or object that crushes whatever is in its path." The word is commonly used in a military connota- tion, like when the Nazi Panzers rolled over the Polish Cavalry in the opening days of World War 2. The Jays as a juggernaut? Hmmmmm, | thought to myself. I wonder if Sparky Anderson saw the headline. It doesn't matter. The silly season has arrived, and who can blame the Toronto sports media for feeling a tad optimistic about the Jays. After all, the scribes and mike boys just suffered through 80 games with the Maple Leafs and that is enough to make anyone feel a little light-headed. So with the Leafs gone (thankfully), all eyes in the Little Apple of Hogtown on the Humber turn to that other group of boys in blue. As for myself, I would hate to throw cold water on anyone's dream, but I prefer to wait until October 1. That's the day the Jays start a three game series with the Tigers in Motown, and they return to beautiful Ex- hibition Stadium on October 4 to finish up the season with a three day home stand against Yogi and the Yankees. We'll see then if the juggernaut proved to be an in- exorable force, or whether it ground to a halt somewhere between KC and Baltimore, in the dog days of August. Sure, you have to like the Jays' chances. I won't deny that, but for goodness sakes there is the little mat- ter of 162 games to be played over the next six months. And seems to me that about six months ago, there were all kinds of optimistic reports that the Leafs would at least make the playoffs this spring. Not so, of course, and the fall to the depths of despair was all the harder to take Frankly, I'm not very excited about the Jays right now First of all, I hate baseball in April. I wouldn't go near Exhibition Stadium this month for anything. The weather can be murder. The team opens at home on Aoril 16 and don't bet against snow. Baseball is a warm weather sport, shirtsleeves under a burning hot sun, a muggy summer's evening when the moths gather by the thousands around the light standards. The game wasn't meant to be played in Toronto in April in a stadium hard by.the shores of Lake Ontario. ' And besides, the Stanley Cup playoffs are just get- ting underway and that's where my attention will be for the next few weeks. April is the month to see the best hockey of the season, not the time to be thinking about Dave Stieb's ERA or Willie Upshaw's batting average. I fear, however, that the Toronto media, going all ga-ga over the Jays will bury the hockey stories back with the cross-word puzzles. GOOD LUCK Speaking of hockey, the local Port Perry Bantams have a chance to bring home an all-Ontario A champion- ship. The team has a 3-2 lead in the series with Six Nations. I've seen the three home games in this series and frankly, I've been impressed. The game Sunday after- noon was a most intense, exciting and hard hitting af- fairs. It's sometimes difficult to believe these are boys 13 and 14 years of age. The skill level is very high and anyone who thinks Canada can't turn out skaters the - way the Europeans can hasn't been inside an arena lately. The Port Perry Atoms are also in the hunt for an Eastern Ontario championship, but trailing a big tough Napanee squad 3-1, they have their work cut out for themselves. The fact that both the Atoms and the Bantams have advanced this far is a credit to the players, their coaches and the local association. Sure, it would be nice to bring a championship to Port Perry, but win or lose, those youngsters can hold their heads up. Not too many years ago, hockey in this country seemed to be going through some rough times, due mostly to the way the game was being played in the NHL. The mid-seventies has been referred to as the era of the goon: the guy who couldn't skate from one blue line to another, but was adept at dropping the gloves and pounding a tattoo on the head of anyone who cross- ed his path. There are still a few around, but thankfully for the most part, the emphasis these days is on speed and skills. T hope it doesn't change. Even though there are a lot of Europeans and Americans playing the game at the pro level, the sports remains a uniquely Canadian phenomena; somthing that sets us apart and at the same time glues most Cana- (Turn to page 6)