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

Page THE WEEKEND OUTLOOK Friday April 12 1991 -Editorial- Bandaids no solution I chanced into my favorite watering hole one evening last week and over my usual fare of milk and cookies got into a discussion with a friend about the Western Canadabased Reform Party Aside from occasional caustic comments reserved for this space about politicians and par ty politics I tend to shy away from political discussions when socializing For the most part discussing politics while socializing usually puts a person in a nowin situa tion If you disagree too vehemently about your companions political beliefs or his political philosophy you tend to either end up losing a friend or gaining an enemy Neither happenstance being par ticularly attractive If on the other hand you re main silent or nod your head oc casionally to indicate you are still listening while your companion rambles on about his political preferences all the while seething inside because you total ly disagree with the rhetorical you end up somehow feeling soiled and promise yourself to avoid the person like the proverbial plague should heshe ever again come within hailing distance I feel however the Reform Party is another kettle of fish or more accurately another bushel of wheat and should be inspected with a less than jaundiced eye if only because the party appears to be gaining converts throughout Canada The discussion last week about the Reform Party and its leader Preston Manning wasnt a long one and ended amicably enough Mainly because I expressed the opinion that a supposed political party without any kind of philosophic platform was merely reaping the harvest of Canadians disillusioned with our current crop of socalled political leaders and the political system in general My friend could only counter with Well they the Reform Party couldnt do any worse than the bozos weve got running the country right now End of conversation Ironically a poll released by Gallup this past Thursday ap peared to show that Canadians as a whole are fed up with the bozos at the federal level The poll asked who would make the best Prime Minister Twenty seven per cent chose Liberal leader Jean Chretien per cent chose leader Audrey McLaughlin and only 17 per cent chose our incumbent Prime Minister Brian Mulroney Significantly 23 per cent would have none of the aforementioned as our Prime Minister But what does the Reform Par offer other than a temporary shelter for disaffected voters Its leader Preston Manning is the son of Manning former Alberta Social Credit Premier Manning senior was a right- wing populist whose dreams of strong national Social Credit political party foundered on the rocks of reality He as his son is attempting to do felt a national political base could be establish ed mainly by wooing the disen chanted away from the mainstream federal political par tys Manning senior failed in his quest in the 60s mainly because the stench of political op portunism wafted from the party ranks while the Socreds political platform had enough holes in it to make treading across it quite dangerous Manning junior apparently didnt anything from his fathers failure on the national scene because he is attempting the same magic trick once again with mirrors instead of stance Reform Party wont cam paign in Quebec A broad hint that Quebec is not needed in Canada This move is meant to appease Westerners and other likeminded Englishspeaking Canadians who are fedup with Quebecs demands The Reform Party intends to tighten up immigration laws This is meant to appease those bigoted Canadians who sleep walk on the job all day while com plaining that people of other col ors and races are threatening their livelihood Both populist measures geared to stealing votes These and other regional populist proposals are being toss ed around by Manning and the Reform Party and the disen chanted are lapping it up Change for the sake of change is not the answer to Canadas pro blems Well thoughtout political reforms based on reality does not appear to be the Reform Partys style Bandaids wont cure Canadas political social and economic ills And it appears Bandaids are the only things the Reform Party has to offer As I see it anyway The Halton Hills HERALD Home Newspaper of Halton Hills Established 1 866 A Division of Canadian Newspaper Company Limited 45 Guelph Street Georgetown Ontario L7G 3Z6 K ROBERT Publisher and General Manager 8772201 COLIHOtBSON ROT RISK Sport Edllof Write Ban Hit Boom loppaWM ADVERTISING DAN TAYLOR MANAOER jMniilrwVaMaClacKRotwtaCfilfjTaiw Km Kanoil PRODUCTION AVE HASTINGS HAN ACER SuurHHWInSluRot CLASSIFIED Joan Mannjll CIRCULATION Mark ACCOUNTING Jannla Hiplctivk Accountant and RATES Copy IS- Halton month Canada MS month Wan ft HUM yaw Itm claim on a by Ita aip In IM that pubOjtw ill Oahla tor arialng Ml of win atouni at actually loth III hall bo lot bayard tit an The Cuddly One shows the way P FORGET THE TEARS My bodys the one thing Time stand still That belongs Just to me while people fly by So thats why Ill keep It I can tell youre hunting by the look In your eye By J B Acton if you need to cry HI be there to pat your head MOVING ON Quicksilver beams and forget the tears Of driedup dreams by Sean Davis I offer to you now- A marriage dead Inside your head THE BEST THAT A longforgotten vow YOU CAN BE A future dies A lover cries Its not about weight Another walks away Or getting a date got nothing to do When daydreams fell And tumbled into clay With comparing your looks To the models you see A friendship starts From broken hearts A melody of pain- Your bodys the temple Another face That houses your soul So keeping It fit Rekindle hope again Serves more than one goal ByB Brooke Acton Just when wed begun to despair of politicians ability to do the right thing in a national crisis along comes llona Staller to restore our faith Youre familiar with llona Staller of course Shes the porn star the one who goes by the name of La Cicciolma or The Lit tie Cuddly One who managed to get elected to the Italian parlia a few years back Canadians being a reserved sort of people were naturally a bit taken aback at the notion that the Italians would elect as a Member of Parliament someone whose only apparent talent was disrobing the Italian voter simply scanned the list of can dictates names in the polling booth and reasoned Well since we re bound to end up with a bum anyway Predictably Ms Staller has turned out to be an unorthodox sort of politician Last summer she made headlines by offering to sleep with Saddam Hussein if this would defuse the Gulf Crisis A few months earlier she tually came to Canada and gave a series of performances in strip clubs thus demonstrating a quite unprecedented commit to the principle of full disclosure In any case I should confess that Ms has always been a political hero of mine Question her morals if you like But the fact remains that a politician is seldom less harmful than when disrobing in public Depending on the politician this sort of thing might frighten the horses a little But it wont add a single nickel to the national debt And now Ms Staller has taken an even bolder initiative Just the other day the papers reported Weirs World by Ian Weir Thomson Newt Service that she has resigned her seat atmg this as her personal at tempt to help ease her govern ments current crisis Stop for just a moment and think about this Here is a politi who sees her country in tur moil She asks herself the ques tion what is the single most helpful thing a politician could do at this point in time And she reaches the conclu quit politics By golly what a glorious dent Here in Canada theres already a lot of talk about finding some way to prevent politicians from digging the country into an everdeeper hole in their earnest attempts to help Theres talk about giving voters the right to recall an MP in midterm Basically this is the modern version of tarring and feathering and riding out of town on a rail it achieves the same end although it isnt nearly as much fun Theres even talk of forcing politicians to submit every major policy initiative to a national referendum- Naturally this sounds lovely in theory allow Canadians to reach a national consensus of opinion on such issues as constitutional reform All the same a question needs to be asked does this seem to you to be a country which is currently capable of agreeing on anything Its the sort of thing that makes you remember that the word referendum comes from two Latin roots refer meaning to avoid the decision you were elected to make and dum meaning more or less what It sounds like No forget about referenda and rights of recall Staller The Little Cuddly One has pointed out the best path Just imagine say if the prime minister had awakened one mor rang four years or so ago and said to himself Two paths are open to me On the one hand I could solve all of Canadas constitutional problems forever by inventing something called the Meech Lake Accord On the other hand I could just pursue a rewarding career in showbusiness under the stage name of The Big Perplexed One Oh those roads not taken Write us a letter The Herald wants to hear from you If you have an opinion you waul to express- or a to make send us a letter or drop by the office Our address Is Street Georgetown Ontario MO All letters must be signed Please include your and telephone number for verification The Herald reserves the right to edit letter due to space