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EE ea 4 -- PORT PERRY STAR -- Tuesday, November 29, 1988 Editorial Comments A MESSAGE : So the federal election is over. The Conservatives have their majority and Prime Minister Brian Mulroney has promised that the free trade agreement will be the first order of business when Parliamentarians get back to work December 12. Looking at the overall riding by riding results from across Canada, one can't help but be struck by two things: the number of parties that contested this election, and the in-roads that one of those parties made in nu- merous ridings. There were 13 parties fieldin candidates, not in eve- i) riding, of course. There were Rhinos and Communists, reens and Libertarians, a party simply called Reform; another called the Confederation of egions, and one ato) the Party for Commonwealth-Republic (whatever atis). Some of these so-called fringe parties take them- selves very Sofioisiy Others, like the Rhinos, are com- pletely off the wall. it was the Rhino Party, for example, that ran a candidate by the name of John & Tumer in the same riding as Liberal leader John N. Turner. And the Rhinos prefsosay a great solution for the acid rain prob- lem: collect it in buckets and sell it as paint thinner. Comic relief, possibly. But the Canadian people for the most part didn't take the Rhinos seriously, nor did they take the other fringies very seriously, either. Except for the Christian Heritage Party.. The CHP did not elect any members to Parliament. But looking careful- ly at the riding by riding vote totals, especially in Ontario, we see this party collecting anywhere from ,000 to just over 4100 votes, miles behind the so-called main stream parties, but miles ahead of the other fringe groups like the Libertarians or the Communists. In fact, for a party that was just formed two years ago, has little profile in leadership, did little national advertis- ing via television, the CHP vote totals were quite remark- able. In the riding of Durham, CHP candidate John Kuipers polled 1665 votes. He started his campaign late, and was hampered in the campaign with a bad case of the flu. But he said he wasn't unhappy with his totals. It is fair to say that the CHP likely would have done much better had the campaign not centered almost total- ly around one issue: free trade. The CHP, by the way, essentially supports free trade. But the Party aiso takes strong positions on what CHP lit- erature refers to as "moral matters," such issues as abor- tion, pornography, capital punishment, homsexuality. In brief, thé CHP is totally opposed to abortion, fa- vours capital punishment for certain crimes, wants tough- er laws against the distribution of pornography; and wants no special rights or laws for what it calls "sexually aberrant individuals or groups." The fact that a party in its infancy could wage a cam- paign in which one issue dominates and still poll in ex- cess of 100,000 votes across the nation tells us some- (Turn to page 6) VY cup RUNNETH OVER / PET Port Perry STAR 235 QUEEN STREET - PORT PERRY, ONTARIO Phone 985-7383 P.O. Box 90 LOB 1NO J. PETER HVIDSTEN Member of the Publisher Canadian Community Newspaper Association vertis -and Ontario Community Newspaper Association Ad ing Manager Published every Tuesday by the Port Perry Star Co. Ltd., Port Perry, Ontario. J.B. McCLELLAND Editor Authorized as second ass mail by the Post Office Department, O awa, and for cash Joh OLLIFFE payment of postage in cash. News eatures Second Class Mail Registration Number 0265 » NF) . A . 4 (ei) " Subscription Rate: In Canada $20.00 per year. Rg SF Elsewhere $60.00 per year. Single Copy 59 © COPYRIGHT -- All layout and composition of advertisements produced by the adver- tising department of the Port Perry Star Company Limited are protected under copyright and may not be reproduced without the written permission of the publisher. =] -- Chatterbox by CATHY OLLIFEE ELECTION NIGHT FREEBIES The elections, oh yes, are over. Praise the Lord for small miracles. Let me tell ya, nothing whomps a reporter harder than covering election night, and hav- ing two in a row this year was a real nightmare. On municipal election night, Pete, John and | worked from 8 a.m. Monday to nearly 4 a.m. Tuesday, making sure Scugog readers would have election results in Tuesday's paper. As you can imagine, we all got a little punchy in the wee hours, and a few mistakes were made. But before you complain about the mis- takes, you should try writing political stuff at 2 a.m. | mean, writing politics is hard enough when you're well-rested, never mind when you're so tired you can barely see straight. Covering the municipal election was all the more horrible because there were no free- bies. No freebies at all. No fancy little sand- wiches, no champagne, not even any coffee. The Latcham Centre, Scugog's official polling centre, was devoid of even soda pop. Man oh, man, we spent three hours in that place, and it might as well have been the Sa- arah desert. if a church group or service club had set up a coffee machine and sold sandwiches, it would have made a potful of money on election night. Three years from now, if nobody else does it, | just might set up a gut truck outside the doors and rake in enough spare change to take me and my beloved somewhere warm for Christmas. Last Monday, federal election night, wasn't nearly as bad for reporters as the municipal election. First of all, we knew who the winners were by 9.30 p.m. I mean, both the Liberal and NDP candidates had given concession speeches by 10 o'clock--the Tories were gloating by 10:30, and we were out of the Star office by 1 a.m. | even managed to drive home that night without falling asleep at the wheel. But the best thing about covering a federal (and a provincial) election is the FREEBIES. That's right, FOOD. Those bigtime political parties really know how to look after a hungry reporter--even if the coffee machines and the buffets are, in actuality, set up for party faith- ful. However, some parties look after your stom- ach better than others. So in the interests of starving reporters everywhere, and for those people who want to join a political party but aren't sure who has the best food (an impor- tant part of choosing your political a legiance), I've done a little research into who puts on the best spread. This year, Pete covered the NDP on elec- tion night, | was with the Liberals (both head- Quaners were located in Oshawa), and John B. stayed close to the Conservatives in Port erry. Pete had the worst luck as far as freebies were concerned. At NDP headquarters, coffee was the real staple of the evening. Pete, who drinks his java black, wasn't observant enough to notice whether it was served with real cream, milk or powdered stuff. Beer and wine was also avail- able, he says, but he's not sure if it was free (he claims he didn't partake). As for food, the only sustenance Pete saw was a pizza box, empty except for one lonely slice. Slim pickings, to be sure. While Pete was starving with the NDP's, | was faring much better at Liberal headquar- ters. | arrived the same time as the caterers, who brought in tray after tray of fancy sand- wiches, mostly egg salad and some unidenti- fied meat spread. | didn't see any pickles, however. Coffee was surprisingly good, and | had my choice of real cream, 2% milk and the pow- dered stuff. They even had Sweet 'n Low in the little pink els, as well as sugar. Next to the coffee were several tins of those expen- sive Dutch shortbread cookies. A lot of folks were walking around with La- batt's Blue, but | was negligent in my duties and didn't ask if it was free. | also didn't imbibe as | have a hard enough time writing election stories cold sober. John B. had the best pick of freebies with the Conservatives. Boy, do those Tories know how to throw a party. The Catholic hall had a buffet table as long as Brian Mulroney's victory speech, and it was virtually overflowing with trays groaning with expensive cold cuts--roast beef, lean ham, and a myriad of other meats. Huge bushel basket sized containers housed a wide selec- tion of bread and buns (plain, cheese and on- ion). What's more, there were several trays of sweet pickles and a mammoth bowl full of nothing but olives. Mustard jars, real butter, napkins, plates and real silverware rounded out this feast of kings.And oh yeah, there was plenty of free coffee, but the Tories were charging for the beer and wine everyone seemed to be enjoying (everyone but us). After me and Pete left Oshawa, we decided (Turn to page 6)