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Wednesday Oclober 9 the HERALD Opinion Sometimes it doesnt pay to be too honest This weeks offering will be somewhat ruminative in context for various reasons I dont like whats happening in Canada and I feel little if being done to address the concerns of Canadiansthe ones you meet on the street in the grocery the hockey rinks or at the ball diamonds at the beer store or I write what I feel I write this way because this is where I live this is where I have lived and this is where 1 want to live and these are the people I want to live withthe socalled ordinary Canadians Apparently a number of people objected to the column I wrote last week lambasting the boring fur ther discussions that have been suggested concerning the new proposed constitution That is their more so their right Two points hate to tell you guys this but we have a Constitution and if it is so imperfect why did the powersthatbe attempt to ram it down the collective throats of Canadians in the first place Similarly the column appeared on the Opinion Page not the Editorial Page The Editorial Page involves the opinions of the Opinion Page should be self- explanatory Im a Scot by birth but Canadian by choice I grew up in Northern Ontario and most of my buddies were french no not hyphenated governmental- imposed FrenchCanadians just guys who were proud to be Canadians and also I might add damn good friends One of my best friends was Chinese and I didnt need any governmental decree to tell me he was differentBut I loved him as a friend The minor fastball team I played on went to two AllOntario finals and three of our players were native Indians I used to sleep over at their places as a youngster and they were always welcome at the Gibson house My father was a professional soldier with the British army for years and also spent three years in a Japanese prisonerofwar camp He is the author of two books and a number of my views on life and people come from him Be true to yourself and your beliefs he would tell your mistakes and allow other people their mistakesbut only if they will admit them I make no apologies for what I write I am putting my feelings and my beliefs on the line I always felt that honesty was the best policy Perhaps I was wrong As I see it anyway Do we have to hold your hand on election issues Is the Herald providing sufficient coverage of the ongoing municipal election campaign Thats the question a concerned Georgetown resident posed to me last Friday My response was yes however the person remained un convinced He pointed to the Oct2 edition of the Herald as proof that this newspaper could be doing more concerning its local election coverage In the edition of the Herald there was only one election- related story and that dealt with the declaration of incumbent Hydro Commissioner Bill Smith The concerned resident said the inclusion of only one election- related story in this issue when the election is approximately a month away is insufficient He believes there should be more stories and they should be more indepth To justify his position the person points out the Nov 12 election is crucial to the Towns future The newly- elected council will have the power to determine how expected new growth will be accommodated said the gentleman I agree this election is crucial but unlike the gentleman I think the Heralds coverage reflects the upcoming elections importance The Heralds approach to the November election is as follows calls are made to the Towns Clerk Department to find out the most recent declarations Those who have declared are then interviewed concerning several issues including such topics as development the environment and taxes Its through the publication of these interviews the public is in troduced to the candidates and MB Bens Banter by Ben where they stand on the issues People should note weekly election stories have appeared in the Herald for more than a month Electionrelated stories first star ted appearing in the Herald as early as this past summer The question now is could the newspaper provide more indepth coverage In my opinion the extent of in- depth coverage done by the local media depends on the public and the candidates themselves As a reporter I am not going to telephone declared candidates on a weekly basis to hear them rehash what they have already said in an initial interview The election issues have been laid out but none of the candidates have contacted this newspaper to provide up- todate information on any solutions they have to benefit the Town Ive learned there is no com parison between a municipal and a provincial election During last years provincial election campaign the local can didates released press releases on the issues almost daily allowing for more indepth coverage on a range of topics There has been no similar action taken by the local municipal can didates during this election cam paign In an attempt early on in the municipal election campaign to start a debate the Herald ran a feature entitled Yes I Care Through the feature the public was Invited to ask incumbents and new candidates any question The responses were to be published in the Herald However the paper has only received four Yes I Care forms to date from the public While local newspapers are responsible for publishing the positions of candidates the general public and candidates are respon sible for initiating the debate How really valid are our government policies The recent strikes and the high unemployment rate raise the question of the validity of our policies But policies can only be judged within a conceptual framework or a set of values Both seem to be conspicuously absent in Canada In general terms it is totally unacceptable for a developed country to have per cent of its labor force out of work The economic and human costs are much too high We should assume that all factors of our public life would agree that to keep unemployment to the lowest possible level is a priority Unfortunately it does not look that way The surprising fact is that there is strong doctrinal body which provides reliable guidelines for the reduction of unemployment A doctrinal body which is not challenged by any school of economists and has proven cor rect through practice Simply stated unemployment rises when inflation is high and unemployment decreases in a low inflation environment- The argument is eminently technical and it equates labour to all other elements of an economy eg capital raw materials etc High employment rates en courage wage increases which are inflationary With high infla tion we have high interest rates and the collapse of many businesses With the bankrupt cies and the related loss of com petitiveness we have high unemployment To achieve maximum employ ment we have to keep wages low and allow for competition in the labor market This means that unions fighting for job security are in fact impeding competition and while protecting in the short Another View by Carlo Testa term their members are prepar ing the ground for high unemployment The proof is for everybody to be seen in our experience of the past five years The argument may sound callous but unfortunately it has the strength of being valid There is no doubt we need unions Without them capital and management would have unlimited power over labor But the role of the union has to change if they have to be of development and real protec tors of their members It is just such a new policy which has been sadly lacking in the recent strikes which have seen unions behaving in a nar row parochial way ignoring the reality of the nations economy It cannot be said enough that in our times job security is an empty dream The unions should be fighting for protected job- mobility instead of trying to maintain or unnecessary jobs The objective of govern ment capita management and labor are after all the same full employment high consumption healthy economic activity Do not forget that without a work force with a fair amount of disposable income capital or management are not faring too well The con flict between the various actors is often artificially created and a lot of nonsense is produced for short- term political gain Strikes for higher wages in a stagnant economy and per cent unemployment are not only ab surd inflation will eat away the benefit of the payraise in a cou- pleof years but obscene Unions should fight for more equitable ratios between salaries a company chairmans salary of a million dollars per year is equally obscene for better working conditions for decision making powersharing the list is long The union by fighting unreal battles is not being progressive it is in fact archconservative Their leaders will probably vote Reform Party next time around Peoples Forum Duignan responds to senior citizen concerns To The Editor I am writing in response to the letter entitled Senior Citizen Questions NDP Policy Wisdom which appeared in the Peoples section of the September 18th edition of your newspaper The anonymous writer was reply ing to my Queens Park Report of the previous week about the new Ministry of Health Policy for hospital payments As of October 1st will pay per day for highlevel care such as surgery and per day for less intense care The writer questioned my suggestion that those travelling out of the country should purchase private coverage to cover any bills that exceed the new rates He or she apparently has a preexisting medical condition and claimed that all seniors with similar con ditions would now be doomed to internment in Ontario The writer also expressed concerns about the amount of money being spent to ship drug and alcohol abusers to the United States for treatment With respect to the costs of treating substance abusers last year Ontario paid million for 3700 residents to receive ad diction treatment in the United J States about one quarter of the more than 200 million paid to American health care institu tions In order to reduce the number of seeking treatment away from Ontario for substance abuse Health Minister Frances just recently an nounced measures to provide ad diction treatment for about more people in Ontario each year and to help thousands more in crisis situations At a cost of million the expansion of senices in our province will go a long way toward reducing the need for peo- pletoseektreatment elsewhere Regarding the writers pre existing medical condition in formation acquired from an agent at Blue Cross indicates that the company does not refuse to sell insurance to those with pre existing medical conditions The company may however be reluctant to pay for medical treatment where the outcome may have been adequately for- seen as for example when an individual chooses to travel against the advise of his or her doctor and then suffers a massive heart attack while in the United States The Blue Cross represen tative also stated that premium costs are based upon the length of the stay outside the province ana not upon the age of the applicant Not knowing the specific medical history of the anonymous writer I am not sure if the above information ad dresses his or her concerns about preexisting medical conditions but I do know that we cant afford to continue to subsidize the pro fits of US hospitals if we want to preserve medicare and improve health care services in Ontario The writer also mentioned that he or she had written to me earlier in the year about the issue and that I had not yet responded to the concerns outlined in the let ter I try to acknowledge cor respondence within a reasonable length of time but occasionally letters are mislaid I would like to suggest to the writer or to any other constituent who thinks that a letter may have gone astray that he or she follow up with a call to my office so that I can respond to the concern or inquiry Sincerely Noel MPP Halton North The Herald wants to hear from you If you have an opinion you want to express or a comment to make send us a letter or drop by the office Our address Is Guelph Street Georgetown Ontario All letters must be signed Please Include your address and telephone number for verification The Herald reserves the right to edit letters due to space limitations