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the HERALD- Page 10 Editorial Friday July 19 1991 Home Newspaper of Hills Established 1666 A Division of Canadian Newspaper Company Limited Guelph Street Georgetown Ontario K ROBERT MALCOLMSON Publisher and General Manager 8772201 COUN GIBSON Managing Editor ADVERTISING- DAN TAYLOR Manager HATES Cop Kalian ill GST and Provincial on all original nnra and rial by Ita and a nawipapar National MfKi as Tot on to Ontario M1H now Calhcart St Montr Quboc TIM Inopueltahai ahall not tilling out of afrora In adrattlM- mania amount paid IMa aelualrf occuplad by lhat portion adntllaanvani In lha at rot occurred It lt Ha ami Travelling in Britain a Weenie experience If you want to remind yourself of what a weenie youre truly capable of being theres nothing quite like renting a car and driv ing the length and breadth of Bri tain Trust me Im an expert I did it last week As youll have gathered Ive just returned from a trip abroad Its too bad you couldnt drop over some evening and I could spend a few hours telling you all about it I could describe the marvellous week the three of us the Love of My Life and I and our Great and Good Friend spent in London We went to the British Museum the Wellington pub the National Gallery the Wellington pub St Pauls Cathedral the Wellington pub nine plays and the Wellington pub I could show you some photographs Theres a nice photo of the Love of My Life at Abbey and a splendid shot of my jaw striking the recep tion desk at a hotel in Monmouth upon discovering that the laundry service had just cost me 17 pounds But for the moment lets just stick with the driving tour If youve ever done this sort of thing youll know there are two questions you must ask yourself when you decide to rent a car in London You ask how on earth do I get OUT of London considering that this is a city of four trillion cars all driving at breakneck speed on the wrong side of the road And you ask why dont I aban don the whole idea and just stay in the Wellington pub I toyed briefly with the notion of renting a car from a nice establishment in central London whose brochures promised theyd provide a navigator to guide you out of the city This was a comforting thought except the plan had one fatal flaw There was no mention of a navigator whod get you back IN TO London I suddenly had a vision of a car rental business with a fleet of automobiles of which are being driven by North Americans who have been lost out near Shepherds Bush since Id driven in England once before years earlier and so I bravely told myself that Id regain the knack in no time And indeed it turned out to be just like learning to ride a bicy cle Off a cliff The first thing you recall is that all the instruments in a British car are on the wrong side Every time you shift into first youre in reverse and the windshield wipers come on when you signal a turn You rediscover that everyone drives kph on the main motorways They slow down to 120 on the side roads mainly because these are just wide enough for two sheep to walk abreast providing theyre anorexic Best of all you rediscover the roundabouts Roundabouts would have been invented by Dante if hed gotten round to describing the Tenth Cir cle of the Inferno Theyre marvellous devices at which cars arrive from four or five different directions whiz round and zoom off in four or five new ones I was a bit panicked by the roundabouts until I remembered that they must simply be treated as a religious experience Just signal your intention aim the car and trust in Providence Off you go knuckles white windshield wipers flapping mad ly trying to remember the words to the TwentyThird Psalm Still I have some marvellous memories of the drive through Wales and Scotland There was the look on the face of the cyclist whom I actually managed to miss coming round a blind corner near Chepstow There was the stirring howl from the oncoming driver in Ayreshire who had just discovered that one of us seemed to be on the wrong side of the road Quite splendid And you remember what stoic Britons have aways done in such situa tions Just close your eyes and think of the Wellington pub Vh iH MSB i OF SHMM6 Poets Corner A Misty Morn As the dawning sun Slowly swallows the fog That has covered the night Like a greedy dog The outline of trees Begin to take form And their leaves sing out morn Breaking the dawn With ah early flight A flock of gulls Throw off the night And as I stand In awe Whilst nature awakens I feel Gods hand And my soul is shaken James Turner Georgetown A Thought Sitting In a dining chair Looking out at haze filled air Through screen and glass Whilst gulls do make a sudden pass A thought didst cross my relax ed mind A temperance kind And ah I thought I should but lend an ear To sec what may that 4 could hear So that way hut I did meet With fiery eyes and passions heat The Inner self that hides so well And holds me up from hell James Turner Georgetown Peoples Forum Not forgotten Dear Editor In response to the letter of Wed July 10 How Soon We Forget The Forgotten Few I would like Shell and all Legion members to know how sorry I am for not inviting the Color Party to come on stage The Legion men and women have always been ready to help us on Canada Day and we are very grateful to you You should never be forgotten This was an oversight on my part and it is my deepest wish you never be forgotten again Thank you for reminding us all Fowler Chairmen Canada Day Pioneer praise Dear Editor Last month the Annual Pioneer Days took place in Downtown Georgetown From the com ments we have received we know that this was a most suc cessful event and a good time war had by all We take this opportunity to ex press a sincere thank you to the many volunteers who par ticipated in this event and to the public at large for supporting us BIA Board of Management and the Pioneer Days Committee One voice in Quebec speaks out Its perhaps not so surprising but there is a certain irony in the fact that the only French- speaking voice one hears against Quebecs controversial language laws is that of Lucien Bouchard Hes the archnationalist the man who left the cabinet over the Meech affair and now heads the Bloc Quebecois The Blocs sole platform is the in dependence of Quebec But as suggested its not so surprising that Mr Bouchard a former environment minister should be the one to criticize the language laws Only an in dividual whose separatist creden tials are beyond question can af ford the luxury of doing somethinglikethis Most other Quebec politicians regardless of party affiliation are too concerned about their na tionalist reputations to risk criticizing the laws that prohibit English on outdoor signs Mr Bouchards reputation would not be at risk even if he suggested the Queen for lieutenantgovernor of Quebec Thats why he didnt seem the least bit uncomfortable or hesi tant when he said hes not happy with Bill 178 the sign law I am not big on preventing English from being used he a few weeks ago MAKES SENSE Mr Bouchard who realizes the importance of maintaining a strong anglophone community in an independent Quebec no doubt had some political motivation for saying what he did Nonetheless he also makes a great deal of Ottawa Bureau by Stewart MacLeod Since he made the comment weve had that provincial govern ment report from Claude Ryan the minister responsible for language laws which reveals that French is doing just fine thank you All this talk we hear about French being in danger of extinc tion in Quebec would seem to be just that talk The fact is the language is prospering What the Ryan report tells us among many other things is that the percentage of who claim French as their mother tongue actually rose between 1971 and 1986 to per cent from Another set of statistics shows that between and 1986 Quebecs Englishspeaking population declined to 103 per Still another chart informs us that back in the percentage of managers in Quebec who claimed French as their mother tongue was By this percentage had climbed to In 1961 per cent of Quebecers worked for enter prises controlled by fran cophones By 1987 this percen tage had risen to ANGLOS DOWN We also learned that in only per cent of anglophones were bilingual Fifteen years later this had climbed to 537 per cent The report also indicates with crystal clarity the impact of restrictions on who qualify for Englishlanguage education In there were from people attending anglophone schools compared with about 100000 now The laws requiring the children of immigrants to be educated in French have also had the desired effect The percentage of those of neither French nor English extraction who spoke French in 1971 was 331 Now it is per cent In the last years the number of Englishlanguage radio sta tions in Quebec has declined to 11 from In the same period Frenchlanguage stations rose to from All in all French seems very secure in the province secure enough to withstand the threat of English signs on some Montreal storefronts But you certainly dont hear many voices outside the Quebec anglophone community who dare suggest a repeal of the language laws The one exception has been Mr Bouchard And wouldnt it be if we had to await the arrival of a separatist government or even a separate Quebec before the word stop can be put on traffic signs in the province