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THE WEEKEND OUTLOOK Friday April 1991 11 Peoples Forum More women needed in Labour Movement Dear Editor Recently I have had the op portunity to attend classes at the CAW education centre in Port Elgin to leam about the union movement in general and the Canadian Labour movement in particular To say the least it has been an education Although I feel very positive and even proud about most of what I have learn ed I am concerned about the role of women in the Canadian Labour Movement Women have always played a key role in organizing unions Un fortunately the role of unions themselves have been ignored in our schools let alone the history of working women Women represented 164 of all union members in 1962 this figure had reached 364 in 1966 as an in creasing number of women entered the workforce and asserted their right to organize While women now comprise more than 1 out of 3 unionized workers unfortunately this is not reflected in the number of women in leadership positions In this area at least we can leam a lesson from Norway The Norwegians for example have adopted a bold affirmation action program which has had a dramatic impact on the power structures During the 1960s and numerous womens groups lobbied all political par ties to train select and promote women candidates Womens caucuses within parties became an important source of pressure and are currently a training ground for women interested in politics Because of this pressure in Norways Labour Party adopted a rule that neither males nor females should occupy fewer than of the partys posts in cluding candidacies for local and national offices Today this par ty holds power in Norway with a female prime minister Dr Harlem In addition 8 of 18 cabinet ministers are women We in Canada have many reasons to be both proud and grateful Lets add womens equality to the list Florence Butler Georgetown Ontario Acton Cancer Society Unit grateful Time better spent serving others Dear Editor In last weekends Herald reader Ray Kathwaroon wrote of the need to reform the federal political system I agree with him Reforms are needed so that individual MPs can vote more freely of party position and so that voters feel they have more direct input into the system If were going to have a Serate then it should be elected and democratic We should have laws ensuring a balanced budget integration of all levels of government to avoid waste duplication and inefficien cy and some mechanism whereby people can directly par ticipate in voting on major issues All of these personal beliefs were published and sent to every home in the riding of HaltonPeel by me last December as I asked people for their support At that time Mr responded most bitterly ques tioning my motives and character Fair enough Hes got every right But to tell your readers that I am ignoring constituents com pletely begs a response For the first year of being an MP I responded to his letters with a personal note As his criticism mounted I figured my time was better spent serving others I guess I was right Sincerely Garth Turner MP Dear Sir Spring fashions and flowers fill ed the Acton Legion on March when Elizabeths Fashions and Bridal Boutique and Victoria Lane Childrens Wear presented Spring Fling a benefit for the Canadian Cancer Society On behalf of the Acton Unit of the Canadian Cancer Society I would like to thank all those spon sors who enabled us to raise a healthy start to our cam paign goal of A very special thanks goes to the clothing store owners for their cooperation time and effort in organizing this event and to Designing Ways for their dona tion of flowering shrubs and plants that set the mood for the evening Local merchants from Glenlea Drug Mart Jack Tanners Restaurant Profile Corries Garden Cen tre Tweedle Ds Acton Home Jewelry Acton Pharmacy Blue Springs and Renes Florists Robins Nest Kids Only Design ing Ways Elizabeths and Mary Kay representative Bev Gray are to be recognized for their generous contributions of door prizes which added to the even ings festivities In addition we extend many thanks to the Royal Canadian Legion for the use of their beautiful facilities and the many kindnesses they extend to our unit throughout the year Our mission is to eradicate cancer and enhance the quality of life for the people living with the disease More than 90 of every dollar raised goes to research patient services and public education Every contribution br ings us closer to the time when cancer will be cured For all of you who attended our fashion show your support was appreciated Together we con tinued the progress towards our goal Sincerely Catherine McGillivray Communications Representative Acton Unit Canadian Cancer Society Write us a letter The Herald wants to bur from you If yon have an opinion you want to express or a comment to make send us a letter or drop by tne office Our address is Guelph Street Georgetown Ontario L7G Ail letters must be signed include your address and telephone number for verification The Herald reserves the right to edit let- ten due to space limitations Supreme Court must be consistent Dear Editor An unborn child delivered by caesarean section 3 months before the normal end of gesta tion is a person and a human be ing with all the rights of Canadian law while the same baby if allowed to grow to full term is not human until it has completely left the mothers body This is the ridiculous conclusion of the Supreme Court of this land If not a person and not human then what kind of being is it The deci sion flies in the face of science and common sense by which magical process does the transformation into a human be ing occur when a doctor in tervenes to extract a baby from the womb A reverse argument can also be made If separation from the mother is the only criterion for determining humanity then through abortion we are produc ing 100000 dead human beings per year If we cannot count on the Supreme Court to be consistent with itself reality scientific evidence and common sense how can we trust the whole judicial system Giuseppe Gori Executive Vice President Family Coalition Party of Ontario GST costing taxpayers Dear Editor When Libertarians calculated the cost of putting the GST into place by the government we calculated based on normal business sense that the GST would cost at least million Of course it seems when government is involved that nor mal business sense does not app ly 1 am now tola that the GST has in fact cost taxpayers about million to implement and no doubt this figure is cl No wonder our politicians do not want to tell us about this No wonder the country is in such deep trouble Libertarian Acton Ontario Business community is praised To the Editor The Halton Hills Chamber of Commerce Business of the Year Award is a prestigious one especially if you are the reci pient The Business Community is terrific in the support of the respective awardees This year was no exception It is also an op portunity for those outside our Town to be invited and see what Opinion we are all about Presumably we are a little different in our ap proach than other small towns but when you live here you have a tendency to think were special At least thats my opinion The Chamber members not on ly provide a base for commerce to function in but they have financially supported this town many for a lot of years In addi tion our commercial and in dustrial base provides employ ment to many giving our Town a significant place in Ontario Were proud to be part of the economic and social development of Hills To the businesses and progressive citizens thank you for the recognition Lets con tinue to work together for a positive future Yours very truly Paul Armstrong Georgetown Gallup poll gives Chretien a needed boost OTTAWA The latest Gallup poll on voter intentions couldnt have come at a better time for Liberal Leader Jean Chretien He was in dire need of a boost even if it turns out to be temporary It would by no means be overstating things to say that Liberals have not been happy campers of late Within the last few weeks there have been all sorts of rumblings of discontent the type that would drive a new leader to distraction In fact its difficult to remember the last time there was any memorable good news to come from the Liberal sector of politics Not only did Mr Chre tien and his supporters take a hammering for a wishywashy approach to the gulf crisis but scarcely a day has gone by without other unhappy mutter- There has been a great deal of unhappiness for inslance about the way Mr Chretiens office be ing run and how he is allegedly being stagemanaged by his handlers Some MPs have complained about lack of access to the leader Then there have been all those reports of discord in the field Some Quebec riding association presidents and fundraisers are in the process of quitting The party is having a devil of a time trying to reduce its -million- plus debt And to top it off Mr Chretien has not been attracting rave reviews for his performance as party leader After eight months on the job its obvious that not all the rust has worn off GOOD NEWS So just imagine how the Liberal faithful must have reacted to the latest Gallup showing that for Ihe first time in five months their party is the most popular in the country Even if it turns out to be a tem porary blip its an important development It will be a full month before Dr Gallup does another survey This latest poll showed that Liberal popularity climbed lo per cent from a January level of 31 The big losers were the New Democrats whose heady stan ding of per in January was reduced to This came as a surprise to many particularly those who felt the partys unequivocal op position to Canadian participa tion in the gulf war would attract many new voters Obviously it didnt In Ontario NDP popularity plunged to per cent from last months 56 As for the Tories well its still not champagnepopping time when a governing party stands al 16 per cent But all are relative and just a month ago the Gallup organization informed us that Prime Minister Brian Conservatives were at a dismal per cent No doubt there are some op timistic Tories out there who are saying that on a percentage basis the party has just ex perienced its greatest ever monthtomonth increase in popularity Still leper cent SMALL CHANGE As for the fledgling Reform party its popularity dropped one point to eight per cent And in Quebec the popularity of the separatist Bloc Quebecois went down three points to Actually the Quebec results surprised many Liberals con sidering the unrest that has been reported in the province Their party with 37percent support is by far the most popular The Tories managed to rise five percentage points but still reach- only 22 A senior Liberal official while acknowledging that should be read into a single survey said the timing of this one made it ex traordinary Its no secret that a certain malaise was beginning to take hold he said And its also no secret that Mr Chretien was still being judged rather harshly We desperately needed a kick- start of some kind Mr Chretiens own office along with party headquarters are in the process of being reorganized and the official said the effect of the poll has been nothing short of phenomenal Yesterday the proposed changes were all about getting us out of a slump Today theyre all about maintaining a surging popularity As they so often say in politics timing is everything Today as many as of children with acute leukemia are alive and well years after diagnosis Cancer can be beaten Please support our April campaign