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-_ "A Family Tradition for 128 Years". ------ S from our readers Sunday booze a nonsense move To the Editor: The Ontario Progressive Con- servative Party put their stamp of approval on the opening of beer and liquor outlets across 'this province on Sunday, Dec. 24. How many people have been hurt or killed in this province because of this wrong-headed decision? Alcohol abuse is the cause of a large number of family prob- lems including physical abuse, highway fatalities, public dis- turbances and crime. A police officer from a small Ontario city told me that over a two month period, alcohol was involved in every domestic dispute he was called to investigate. Drunken drivers are respon- sible for close to half of the fatal- ities on our highways. Many women and children are physi- cally and sexually abused by men under the influence of alco- ol. Alcohol is the most abused drug in Canada today, costing our nation billions of dollars an- nually in absenteeism from work, health related problems and mental breakdowns. For every women and child who was physically or sexually abused, for every victim of a highway accident, and for every other tragedy that happened in this province as a direct or indi- rect result of the consumption of alcohol purchased on Sunday, Dec. 24, we hold Premier Harris and his party responsible. If this is what we are to expect from the Common Sense Revo- lution, God help us, we are in se- rious trouble indeed. Allowing beer and liquor out- lets to open on Dec. 24 or any other Sunday, doesn't make common sense, it's nonsense. Mr. Harris, I challenge you to apologize to the people of Onta- rio for allowing the beer and lig- uor outlets to be open on Sun- day, and move as quickly as possible to pass legislation that would put a stop to wide open Sunday shopping in this prov- ince. Sincerely, Dave Switzer, CHP President, Frankford lllegal pickets earn no sympathy To the Editor: In 1996 Oshawa can expect il- legal pickets to be set up by ven- tures of CAW and CUPE. My opinion tells me it is wrong holding any city hostage. During the London protest, many innocent people, includ- 'ing students, dependent on pub- lic transit, paid dearly when they shut it down. One single mother with a young family try- ing to stay off welfare could not get to work. Meanwhile an out of town picketer said he made $80,000 this year. Some well-fed, bussed in picketers decided to go Christmas shopping at local malls. Another hilarious exam- ple was, when Board of Educa- tion custodians worked on Sun- day without pay and on their own time, clearing school park- ing lots and sidewalks, and then set up picket lines. The London protest did not shut the whole city down. More than 80 per cent of the secon- dary school teachers did not join their brothers and sisters on the picket lines, but instead went to work. In Windsor, a strong un- ion city, some 85 per cent of call- ers to a local radio show did not support the London Strike. What does that tell us of Lon- don, where just 30 per cent of the work force is unionized? If Sid Ryan, Buzz Hargrove, 'and Gord Wilson, manage to shut Oshawa and our CAW af- filiated transit down, people will not be amused. On Sept. 15, General Motors employees in Oshawa will be in a legal strike position. Moral and financial support will then be needed by those same Gener- al Motors strikers. The public and local businesses might not be sympathetic to them, if Oshawa is held hostage by a possible illegally planned shut- down. May cooler heads prevail. Herman van der Veen, Oshawa Another show added From Page 6 group. The songs they will sing will range from traditional pop- ular repertoire, to musical selections, to romantic ballads, to jazz charts, to country songs and folk selections. The ensem- ble will perform several pieces together, featuring many differ- ent a Cappella styles including spiritual, barbershop, doo-wop, rock, Renaissance and modern pop. The two shows will be Friday, Jan. 26 and Saturday, Jan. 27 at Town Hall 1873 beginning at 8 dd p.m. All the proceeds from the concerts will be directed toward establishing a memorial scho- larship at Port Perry High School to support and encour- age deserving music students in private study. The scholarship will be dedicated to and will be known as the Jean Kennedy Scholarship. Tickets for Friday night are available. at Jayson Callan Music Ltd., Queen Street, Port Perry. Admission is $12 per erson. p Russ Baird, Port Perry by Jeff Mitchell KEEPIN' WARM, ER WHAT? SO THIS IS GLOBAL WARMING: Driving into work this morning, | listened in via the radio to yet another discussion of global warming trends, and their apparent effects on the weather we encounter. The discussion seemed a lot more pertinent this past summer, when the hot and muggy weather seemed to have no end, and even during the fall, when buckets of rain poured from the heavens, threatening to wash us and everything we have built away. But these past few days are a different story. If things are heating up, it ain't too obvious to most of us Canadians, who are shivering through our annual January cold snap. SPEAKING OF COLD SNAPS: Next time somebody whines about how cold it is, tell 'em to buck up and stop snivelling. We're Canadians, dammit, and we're supposed not just to endure this kind of punishment, but to take perverse pleasure in toughing it out. This is Canada. It gets cold here. Deal with it, eh? SPEAKING OF DEALING WITH IT: A few more additions to the ever-growing list of Great Canadian Wintertime Adventures for you: a Fixing the snowmobile, at night, in the dark, with the cold wind sneaking down your coat collar; o Jump-starting your car, : a Haggling with the kids over the television temote on Saturday and Sunday afternoons, when they should be outside in the crisp, clean air, and you have earned the right to lie on the couch and watch NFL playoff games; a Getting out of bed while it's dark and cold outside (and, if the fire's gone out, inside), and a Watching your co-workers drop, one by one, as a result of the latest flu bug to sweep through town. ...Ah, Canada! Ya gotta love it. BUT IS MICKEY OKAY? ...More alarming signs of the times this past week from France, where workers at Disneyland Paris protesting for higher wages tried to force their way into the park, causing a violent clash that injured 14. | Euro Disney spokesperson Goofy was quoted as saying, "Wull, uh, gosh, huh, hyuk, hyuk, hyuk!" NOW THAT'SACCOUNTABILITY: Elsewhere in the news last week was an intriguing story from Poland, where a citizen successfully sued ex-president Lech Walesa for failing to keep an election promise. The man was awarded just over 500 bucks after Walesa failed to deliver on a pledge to grant Poles a piece of state assets. Makes you think, huh? The PM doesn't kill the GST, you sue him. Mike Harris fails to eliminate the deficit, you sue him. Oh, the possibilities. And think what we could do with capital punishment in place... the mind boggles. | by J. Peter Hvidsten BABY IT'S COLD OUTSIDE 8 HAD ENOUGH YET? Winter came early this year and if the past few weeks is any indica- ion of what's to come, we had when will the ice onthe Lake Scugog be safe...? - Butthis year, we had three major snowfalls before Christmas, sending the winter roads budget over the top. Temperatures haven't nudged above freezing in weeks and most households have already used up most oftheir winter heating budget. And the worst is still to come. Typically, January and February are the months when winter really hits this area, so we may as well settle in and brace ourselves for another 10 weeks I U6 ti ii... rll iL hl. a Apparently the light from the lamps, like the sun, can revive our spirits and help us cope better with the long, dark days of winter. se Personally | think all we need right now is a break inthe weather for afew days. Just to see the thin red line of a thermometer str-e-e-e-tchpast O° C... to behold ablue, cloudless sky... to feel the warmth of the afternoon sunon our face. These are justa fe of the things we heed right now. | As Canadians we take great enjoyment in talking " " Ai + uth r-- ok : better keep alogonthe fireand a pair of long-johns atthe bedside. In case you haven'tbeen counting, it's been nine weeks since the first snowfall of the season. That's, more than two months of winter already. In fact, we had six weeks of winter this year before winter offi- cially arrived by the calendar. Compared to winters past, Scugog would justbe settling into it's grip by this time of the year. An aver- age December would have us pondering such things as... will we have snow for Christmas...? or of runny noses, hacking coughs and generally feel- ing a little blue and sluggish. Arecentreport suggests that during the entire month of December, Ontario normally receives just under 80 hours of sunlight and January isn't much better with the sun peeping out from behind gray skies less than 100 hours during the month. They say it's the lack of sunshine that makes us feel lethargic, bored and bitchy during the latter stages of the winter. "Experts" say getting more light "is the answer and suggest sitting under a sunlamp for a few hours a day throughout the winter months. about the weather, so whether it be cold or hot, wet or dry, we'll always find a reason to complain about the weather. That's just our nature. THE LAST WORD: Funny, buteven though Can- adians like to complain about the weather, for the most-part we wouldn'twant to live anywhere else in the world. While we invariably complain about the long, cold winters or hot, dry summers, we're lucky not to have to contend with the floods, earthquakes, tornadoes, hurricanes, mud slides and avalanches experienced every year in otherparts of the world. Butbaby, it sure is cold outside!