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TOE HERALD JrnmiMy Opinion- Willow Park residents deserve a reprieve Halton Hills community has a chance to start off 1991 on a charitable note The residents of Norvals Willow Park will literally be out on the streets this spring unless they can find a new site to locate their mobile homes The Ontario Municipal Board has ruled the residents cant relocate to the NorHalton Trailer Park just south of Acton They must vacate Willow Park by the end of May because the land has been expropriated by the Credit Valley Conservation Authority The CVCA ex propriated the land because its in the Credit River Fioodplain Unless a property owner ap plies to the Town to have their land open to mobile home use the people will be forced to find other types of or leave Halton Hills to maintain the same way of life According to Town mayor Miller the NorHalton Trailer Park was the residents last chance An exhaustive search of the town turned up no alter natives said the Mayor in a re cent interview Mayor Miller ex plained in a lot of cases applica tions werent made because the landowners or their neighbors didnt like trailer parks No one can say for sure why people dont like trailer parks park residents prefer the term mobile home park but at least one resident Roger guesses the reason is based more on misperception than reality The general public stigmatizes mobile homeowners says Mr Bens Banter By Ben Dummett Perryman In other words people consider this type of homeowner as a constant partier This perception simply isnt true Ive met with several mobile homeowners while work with the Herald and Ive learned they are no different than other people except they choose to live m mobile homes They have jobs children and yes like everybody else the occasional party People might question it Willow Park residents are no dif ferent why dont they choose to live in more normal housing The answer comes down to nothing more than personal preference and affordability A lot of young families live m the park because mobile homes pro vide an affordable means of ownership an aspiration shared by many new families Those who have property that may be suitable for the mobile homes but are caught up in the stigma of mobile homeowners should take the time to visit the park and talk with the people Im sure they would come away pleasantly surprised I encourage the neighbors of any interested property owner to do likewise Just as the Halton Hills com munity should rally to support the residents of Willow Park so to should the Credit Valley Con servation Authority If the residents need more time than currently alloted to rind a new location then an extension should be granted I realize the authority is worried that the possibility of flooding in the park presents a real danger to the residents but surely some sort of temporary precautions could be made giving the people the extra time they may need Canada providing entertainment for alien observers OTTAWA An observer from outer space could get a good deal on entertainment these days by training a high powered telescope on Canada The frenzy of confused dismayed and hostile consumers trying to figure out just what new sales tax means might be as hilarious to an alien as a Hollywood high speed chase through an outdoor fruit and vegetable market Here for example we have a throng of auto dealers urging customers to take advantage of the great price reductions ailable after removal of the old federal sales tax and the imposi tion of the GST These incidentally are the same sellers who offered terrific bargains to the same clients through an array of dis counts rebates and low interest payments This time of course they really mean it Over there are big department stores offering GST free sales in January on clothing and shoes two items not hit by the old sales tax as they try to offload items that werent snapped up in the preChnstmas and Boxing Day bonanzas Then theres the outbreak of GST flu One report said half the clerks in one Canada Post office called in sick because they couldnt bear facing grumbling customers who now have to pay the GST on postage Cash registers were indisposed as well At least one Ottawa can store didnt open Jan 2 because it wasnt set up yet to deal with the GST COFFEE DILEMMA Even the morning cup of coffee posed fiscal uncertainties My preferred purveyor charge no GST on the cuppa and muffin at least until cash registers are set up A closer but less favored cof fee shop charged the tax from Jan How about those consumer defenders laughingly referred to as the GST police The Consumer Information Of fice handled calls on Day One of the GST including com Vic Parsons Ottawi Bureau TMratMHt Unto plaints and queries from befuddl ed shoppers But the powerless protectors of purchasers have added to the confusion themselves In its Con sumer Guide released last fall the office fearlessly predicted a 1 7 per cent drop in gasoline prices per litre It turns out the office figured wrongly and it later admitted prices would rise instead By the reckoning in the guide the neighborhood PetroCanada should have dropped its regular unleaded gas to cents a litre on Jan 1 from the 66 9 cents that applied on Dec Unfortunate ly the price rose to 67 cents The tax turmoil has entered the realm of daily newspapers too An office colleague was charged tax included for his three regular dailies on Wednesday On Thursday it was Buy Ottawas two daily papers and you are zapped with the GST on one and nothing on the second One national business paper has doubled the price if you buy it from a street comer box but only increased home delivery rates by the GST rate Consider troubled Albertans who before Jan didnt know such a beast as retail sales tax existed For the first time they are confronted by a visible tax Its cold comfort in chilly times that as government politicians hasten to explain they were pay a hidden levy before And what of Quebecers who now see their harmonized pro vincial sales tax applied to a range of items notably clothing and furniture that werent hit before Worse the provincial bite is compounded on the new GST giving the Quebec govern ment a 1 windfall Perhaps all this flutter is in evitable with any new tax In time well grow accustomed to its ugly face and it will be an ex pected part of life as it is in another countries Hopefully anomalies will be corrected and bizarre discrepancies resolved Who knows We might even become less vigilant about the truly frightening potential of the GST that governments may see seven per cent as merely a star ting point for milking of tax payers Our national leaders have pro mised no increases the life of this government Indeed Prime Minister Brian Mulroney even said in one year end interview Ot tawa might cut the rate im mediately if it collects too much If tax history is the same on other planets as on Spaceship Earth no doubt that line brought a smile to the green lips of our space observer Not an easy time to be in politics As public cynicism toward governments not to mention the people who run them reaches record heights its little wonder that politicians point accusing fingers at the media Not that it does them much good Complaining about the way the media behave has never been a winning endeavor Its regard ed as simple carping Yet the do have a valid point There is little doubt that we in the media tend on balance to convey a negative view of politicians particularly those in government Just glance back at 1990 There was the whole Meech Lake fiasco that resulted in most participants particularly Prime Minister Brian being labelled as backroom manipulators From a purely political viewpoint it was a devastating exercise And it hasn ended yet Even those cusations we ve heard against the CBC about its alleged bias in favor of the accord managed to throw more cynicism in the direc tion of politicians The Meech business alone or at least the coverage of it pro bably played a large role in reducing the publics trust in our system of government One year end poll indicated that only per cent of Canadians were satisified with the system That same poll showed that per cent of respondents think government is less effective than five years ago And per cent said they have a more un favorable view of politicians than they did five or years ago Even forgetting for the moment the results dont come as a shock The publicity generated by politicians In the last year would add a healthy dose of cynicism to anyone s thought processes What about the Oka crisis That was clearly a nowinner for either the federal or Quebec government or anyone within those governments Whether all the negative media coverage was justified is a separate question the point is it happened Then there was the goods and services tax the ludicrous sideshow in the Senate the and contradictions over the purpose of the tax and finally its messy implementation Try to think of one politician who emerged from that with added Brownie points We can certainly discount the eight new senators who were ap pointed for the express purpose of ramming the GST through the red chamber On general economic matters there was scarcely a day without critical comments in newspapers and on television The govern ments interest rate policy alone generated enough negative ink to float the Titanic Finance Minister Michael Wilson could have saved himself and the government a month of rassment by merely admitting we were into a recession More cynicism created Why our politicians were even criticized for their Christmas messages And there were several disapproving columns about the photographs on some Stewart MacLeod Ottawa TtofflMnNoH MPs Christmas cards NEVER ENDS There is no need to remind everyone what happened to On tano premier David Peterson when he was perceived to be op portunistic in calling an necessary election He took a journalistic hammering for what became a losing exercise In fact Its not easy to think of any major government initiative that attracted acclaim It wasnt the long awaited Green Paper on the environment Even cartoons about our politi cians seem to be taking on a sharper sometimes nastier edge Whether present day politi cians deserve all the criticism is open to debate But there is little doubt that the thrust of jour nalism has changed dramatically in the last decade In Ottawa for instance membership in the Parliamentary Press Gallery has quadrupled with a higher pro portion of columnists and com who freely offer opi nions Even hard news reporters have become more opinionated in their writing Its easier to be negative par ticularly with the benefit of hind sight Mr Mulroney said not along ago that protesters on Parha ment Hill get more favorable coverage than he does And Liberal Leader Jean Chretien has been stunned by the criticism he has absorbed at the hands of the Quebec media It is more than I expected he said Overall its not likely to get better With media outlets pro liferating particularly all- news television every political move is subjected to increasing scrutiny There simply arent enough important facts to go around And thats probably why weve seen two separate columns about the ugliness of the Governor Generals dog No regardless of per formances these are not easy times to be in politics Berrys World As the politicians say your negatives are very hlghl