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Home Newspaper of Halton Hills Established A Division of Canadian Newspapers Company Limited Guelph Street Georgetown 3Z6 Ontario DAVID A BEATTIE Publisher and General Manager DAN TAYLOR Advertising Manager Second Number Polls are little to cheer about MIKE TURNER Editor Phone 8772201 Page THE HERALD Wednesday February 1 More than fair An interesting point was brought up at the recent annual general meeting of the Georgetown Agricultural Society the prospect of an amalgamation between Georgetown and Acton to make one larger fair With a decline in government grants making it more and more difficult for smaller communities to stage a fair it would seem like a logical move Naturally it would be a long and involved process But the concept is a good one There was even mention of investigating the possibility of using Scotsdale Farm as a site for the event And taking it a step farther the concept of a combined fair put on by not only Georgetown and Ac ton but Milton as well was suggested Some at the meeting were of the opinion thaT such a merger would never come about But as Councillor Al Cook put it Thats what they said about the Chambers of Commerce Some wont listen Editors Notebook Mike Turner Herald Editor I try I really try to be a good lawabiding citizen But these days its a little tough especially when youre coping with the perils of the roadways Much attention has been paid to road safety in the past several years and great strides have been made to improve the situation Its unfortunate that several misses bad to occur before asser tive action was initiated but thankfully progress is being made But people out there are making it very difficult Trafalgar Road is a well- travelled stretch of highway not only for the average people but also for the larger rigs Its become accepted as a route for the big wheelers Recently and not for the first time I was making my way up Trafalgar Road after visiting Oakville I wasnt in any particular hurry but at the same time I wasnt dawdling either In all honesty I was travelling at just over the speed limit of kilometres per hour when all of a sudden Well you remember that movie Duel It star red Dennis Weaver as a hapless motorist being stalked by an 18- Now it wasnt all that serious But a big rig came right up behind me and was no more than feet away from the rear bumper of my little Honda for several miles down the road So I thought OK Ill give it a lit tle juice and I sped up to about which by the way is about topend for my Honda The big rig stayed on my tail and eventually on a relatively safe stretch of road he passed mean ing he was going well in excess of kmh As I said this isnt the first time this has happened Im not sure if its just a power thing for the drivers or if theyre paid in such a manner that every second spent on the highway is costly The road safety message is get ting around but its pretty obvious there are some people out there it hasnt reached yet The Progressive Conservatives would do well to refrain from loud cheers over the results of the latest Environics provincial political poll It gave the Liberals support among voters the PCs 34 per cent and the NDP This compares to last provincial poll seven months ago which gave the Liberals per cent the per cent and the PCs 25 per cent Interim Tory Leader Andy Brandt said he was exhilarated by the results the first time in 18 months the Conservatives have secured a secondplace standing in such polls Unfortunately however this latest poll was taken immediately following the federal election in November which likely skewed the results Leader Bob is convinc ed of this Its obviously a reflection of what happened in the federal elec tion he said The federal Tories did much bet ter in Ontario in that election than expected and it is quite possible the high provincial Tory figures are a reflection of their federal cousins success It certainly cant be anything the party has done provincially True it has worked hard both paying down its million debt and attempting to set up a new con stitutional framework to elect a new leader But other polls have shown Brandt is known to less than 30 per cent of voters while Tory policy remains confused and illdefined Queens Park Derek Nelson Thornton New Service For example the Conservatives are against government control of autoinsurance rates yet are in favor of restricting how high rates should be allowed to go Theres not the slightest evidence that Tory attacks on Liberal failures in housing over spending or even health care are seriously affecting Grit standing with the electorate- Even if one believed this November poll the per cent recorded by Premier David Peter sons Liberals is still enough to give them a comfortable majority government FIGHTING FOR SECOND The Tory fight remains with the NDP for second place While support is the lowest the Ontario NDP has registered in more than two years this too is likely tied to the federal election results and therefore inac curate Theres no reason for the New Democrats to have sagged in pro vincial esteem On the other hand Raes com ment on the polls that I think it is probably worse news for Mr Peterson than anyone else were doing fine is more than a little self serving The difficulty both the Tories and face is that they are not doing fine They both have pro blems If the Conservatives remain fuz zy in terms of party image the NDP appears oldfashioned As many commentators have noted over the past decade New Democrats are the reactionaries of today always harkening back to the glory days of pre1973 oil crisis when governments in the western world had oodles of money to spend and politics was simply a matter of divying up income Since the federal election even NDPers have started to ask ques tions about some oldstyle NDP policies such as opposition to deregulation privatization and low marginal taxes But this potential move towards moderation in economic matters is more than balanced by forces pro pelling the toward even more radical policies on the social front These political currents want the party to shift further left on employment equity racial and sexual job quotas pay equity stateapproved pay scales in all jobs housing as a social right stateallocated stateapproved day care and freedom of speech restrictions wherever the thought police detect racism and sex ism This is likely to happen But in an age when leadership is increasingly the voters touchstone when balloting whether it will mean much in terms of polls is questionable Government cheques are always honored By GIL HARDY Ottawa Bureau Thomson Newt Service Jack Weinman remembers the time a farmer from Western Canada walked into the local bank to cash his crop insurance cheques all 22 years worth He was buying a farm says Weinman director of the banking and cash management branch of the Department of Supply and Ser vices the federal department that Issues most government cheques If he had put the money into a bank account he could have bought two farms but be didnt trust the banks Weinman says The real message behind his story Is that governmentissued cheques are always honored regardless of age Ottawa has a record of every cheque issued since Confederation from tax refunds to oldage pension payments Weinmans job Is to keep track of federal payments And if balanc ing your cheque book once a month is an impossible task think of Weinmans responsibilities Each year the government Issues million cheques foi everything from unemployment in surance to CF18 fighter jets The cheques are worth upwards of billion annually Cheques are mailed around the world In fact there are residents of the Soviet Union receiving pen sion cheques from Canada At the end of the 19671988 fiscal year last March 31 there was billion in outstanding uncashed cheques from that 12montb was another in cheques outstanding for S years CHEQUES Every fiscal year any cheques uncashed for a decade are transferred to nontax revenue But that doesnt mean they are worthless Government cheques are never staledated Weinman says We honor them 50 years later But for accounting purposes dont record as an outstanding che que items that are over 10 year old And that can present some special problems for his office Such as the time they were asked by a bank to verify a cheque from government program they knew nothing about The cheque involved payments made in connection with a 1945 Vic tory Bonds program All of a sudden someone turned up with a cheque from this and we didnt know what the hell it was Somebody managed to find a box that showed what was still outstan ding in that program and was able to verify that the cheque hadnt been cashed Weinman says The oldest cheque he has seen was dated Weinman says che ques more than 10 years old are often pension payments squirreled away in cookie jars orshoeboxes by mistrustful seniors Some people just dont bother cashing them A lot of people who grew up in the Depression just dont trust banks and they only cash them when they need them It isnt unusual for someones estate to yield as much as worth of cheques But some day there may be a way of avoiding the problems senior citizens face trying to get to the bank to cash cheques DIRECT DEPOSITS The government and the banking industry are discussing the possibility of direct deposits for a range of social payments such as pensions child allowances unemployment insurance and others The system would be strict ly on a voluntary basis individuals would have to apply to have money deposited directly into their ac counts The demand is there If you nave older parents or relatives trying to get them to the bank is no fun Weinman says The governments major con cern with direct deposits is ensur ing there Is no added cost to people receiving cheques on a regular basis We dont want to get pensioners onto the system and then find out they are open to all kinds of service charges It shouldnt really cost them any more than it does now to cash a cheque which is zero The banks are salivating at the prospect of getting huge sums of money directly deposited Process ing costs are less and the money is there for them to invest profitably Theyve got a cheap source of deposits Weinman says