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Who can see clearly now Home Newspaper of Halton Hills Established A Division of Canadian Newspapers Company Limited Guelph Street Georgetown L7G Ontario DAVID A BEATTIE Publisher and General Manager BRIAN MacLEOD Editor Phone 877 DANTUIOR Manager Pat I Tilt ltRin 1 Editorial Polls show were fickled If the federal government is looking for a clear signal from Canadians on how to lead the country it s not likelv to get one from the polls At least not from what appears to be a fickled Canadian population which can seem to make Up its mind Canadians if recent polls are to be believed don t want services cut they don want significant increases in taxes but they want to reduce the federal deficit Under such directions from the electorate Finance Minister Michael Wilson is in an unenviable position in deed Recent polls show Canadians don t want a nine per cent Goods and Services Tax In fact 80 per cent of you don t want it But 54 per cent of Canadians say they would accept a seven per cent GST However Canadians are not prepared to accept a tax on groceries to bring that figure down to seven per cent Sounds like a no win situation for Michael Wilson But theres more During the recent round of town hall meetings and in many public discussions previously Halton Peel MP Garth Turner was told by the public to run the country like a business In fact some local businessmen have consistently said politicians would never be able to function in the business world because they can t come close to balancing a budget Yet when the federal government attempts to cut a huge money losing operation like Via rail the government has put more than 5 2 billion into Via since Canadians revolt Sixty per cent of Canadians dont like the Via cut backs Why nof The federal government is simply doing what it s been told to do The bare fact is that in these times of heavily mixed economies governments are in business to take care of money losing functions that private operations wont touch Sure some private enterprises like the American Amtrak have promised to step in and operate some rail lines but its doubtful theyd run an extensive operation like Via which loses money consistently Deficit financing is a fact of life in most western economies and many have flourished under such economic managements since the Second World War Theres no argument however for a massive 30 billion annual debt on which Canada is having a hard time paying interest And the Conservative government helped to slit its own throat by raising the awareness of the national debt during and after the election The PCs ran much of their platform on reducing the deficit Now theyve got to try to solve the problem and they re finding it tough going After electing the government of Prime Minister Brian Mulroney for a second time Canadians still seemed to be a fickled bunch And we continue this lovehate relationship with our leaders That is we love their goals but hate their methods of achieving them If the federal government is committed to bringing the deficit under control recent polls show theyll have to go it alone Thi is liki of fluff in clear though nil like islands in It ith George is one wild of i tin mush Another is id of an jour was general hired l Premier David Peterson Liberal government in 1987 to examine the Ontario educational system specif icallv in terms of dropouts won election as a reform trustee in Thunder Bay on a plat form that essentially parallels Radwanski analysis of what is wrong with the system At base both are calling for a return to democratic education to the imparting of skills and knowledge to all children learning that t occur during the era of do your own thing education This change requires universal standards for what is taught and for tests that should show what students are actually learning Professional educators are resisting such moves which is why it was nice to see both Radwanski and again making their points in the public forum recently was interviewed by the editors of that dehciously ir reverent magazine Theldkr He noted his initial amazement at discovering in another study that the prime complaint of people in business was the education system Some of the most successful in business were saying look I can trust a high school diploma people are coming out of universit who can t gram who can t read anything complex tan t understand win I its saving upon it broad system should prep ire one lift as individual for one own fulfilment prepare one for pro ductive life in the economy and for citizenship tor contributing in to the governance of the nation All this requires demonstrable knowledge skills and affective attributes For 20 years the emphasis has been almost exclusively on affec tive attributes The stated goals have to do with self confidence selfesteem an appreciation of this an awareness of that and that s necessary but it is not suffi cient ONLY THING For years we ve been told that learning to learn is the only thing you need that teachers should simply provide the environ ment the hothouse the incubator there s a lot that kids don t discover by themselves The natural disposition of a child is to read something over twice and say I know it If you do that you will fare on exams If you don write exams you never know what you don know until it comes back to haunt you The way vou learn is reading by asking yourself qucs about what you read copying out the important points by trying to list them from memory by asking a parent friend to quiz you This t come naturallv I technique it has to be taught concluded Dodds took kind I thought down I level in a sut i legislative Ik If one hour devoted mathematics in i w children learn more from their multiplication tables at I correcting their errors until thi get the answers automatically will they learn as much by making pizzas and watching how a piz7d gets cut up into eighths Is it as valuable for children to watch a video novel for two hours on television or would they learn more that we consider important if they spent that time actually reading a novel Is it worth our money to be sen ding a class on a bus to a roller skating rink for a whole afternoon to learn something called socialization skills that particular skill is elusively indefinable The answers are obvious The science of the hard sell The hard bell has come to s quiet introverted science community The sprawling and diverse Na tional Research Council an in stitution even few Ottawans fully understand has opened a marketing office to put more hus tie into its sales operations and find more customers for its products and services The office isn yet fully staffed but the halfdozen that are there have already started ringing in dustry s doorbells seeking out cold hard deals that will bring more cash and business into the establishments numerous labs Were not here to pussyfoot around Were here to make deals said manager Bob of his fledgling marketing services branch Still in the early stages of development the NRC s central marketing group has been on medium to largesized companies that have the interest and financial resources to par in longr term research projects with the agency Hargreaves and his staff have been calling on selected industnes and making sates presentations to industrial associations trying to get the message out the best we can An advertising program is being discussed and a variety promotional material is being prepared A lot of companies don t know what NRC has We have a visibility problem in a sense and we re try ing to correct that he explained So far Hargreaves sales force has been welcomed at the doors they ve gone banging on And early dividends are already in The first deal a collaborative project with a Canadian hi tech firm worth several hundred thousand dollars has been concluded Hargreaves said his group is well on its way to a couple of other contracts with consortia in the resources and industries The NRC last fiveyear plan was aimed at bringing the govern ments lead research agency into closer orbit with the private sector and universities But the need to recover more of the federal money spent on research is also seen as a reason for setting up the marketing group The government isn t investing money in a place like solely out of cultural or philanthropic feelings com mented Either the work is in the public good or it relevant to in The has a complex schedule of fees for the use of its many laboratories services and staff of whom Hargreaves described as very clever people But in many cases the may be willing to share m the costs of a research project he explain ed If we can find companies that have the capability the wish and the enthusiasm to work with us on a reasonably longist scale we can offer them a helluva deal because we are not necessarily driven by the bottom line Any Joint venture with NRC however will require a firm com mitment from the industry part