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2 The Canadian Statesman, Bowmanville, August 23, 1978 Section Two Editorial Comment)î King Street Takes a Beating Bowmanville's downtown shopping section received another major setback on the weekend when the second major business block fire in recent weeks virtually wiped out the Stedman store on the south side and left other merchants wondering if they'd be next. The town's business people have been having a rough enough time, facing ever increasing opposition from an expanded shopping centre in Oshawa, and this latest tragic and senseless destruction will not help the situation. Many local and area people depended on Stedman's for many of their shopping needs and the gap will be difficult to fill. Sadly, the fire occurred at a time when major renovations and im- provements along King St. are about to begin. Manager Keith Jackson of Stedman's has been one of the principals involved in the planning of that project and we can only hope that his company will now tie in their rebuilding plans and expedite the reconstruction so that it will be carried out and completed in time for the pre-Christmas rush. No information has been received concerning the reconstruction of the Annis pro rty that was burned out a few.weeks ago but, hopefully, that too will be back in operation efore the end of the year. Once again, the sincere thanks of the community must go to the dedicated members of Bowman- ville's fire department who have had a rough couple of weeks lately with calls coming in almost every day and last weekend, almost con- tinuously as accidents, storm damage plus the work of an arsonist kept them busy. On Sunday night, they were on duty all night, aided by volunteers from Newcastle and For the past 10 years, this country's various forms of govern- ment have been on a spending binge that finally has caught up with us. Civil servants have been growing in numbers, in wages and benefits to the point where governments have become one ofthis country's biggest employers. Unfortunately, they come under the heading of non-pro- ductive which means they produce nothing that adds to the country's gross national product. Most of their effort is expended in either collect- ing or distributing taxpayers' mon- ey, research, or some of the other services that governments provide. This, of course, had to come to a hat sooner or later and apparently Prime Minister Trudeau has decid- ed the time for such action was overdue. You'l recall his surprise speech on prime time television a few weeks ago, when without consulting his cabinet, he announced that he would be cutting two and a half billions from the federal government's spending program and would not be increasing the number of civil servants under federal jurisdiction. Since then, the axe has begun to fall on several programs and every department head is searching for ways and means to cut spending. Several projects have already been moth- balled and others are to follow, according to the reports. The interesting part of this current campaign of restriction is that some of those who for years have been screaming for cuts in government spending are now doing an about face and complaining because they may be hurt by the program. NDP leader Ed Broadbent has a point when he claims that the government won't save anything by laying off federal employees who will no longer be needed, because they will merely start drawing unemploy- assistance from Oshawa. Had that aerial ladder not been available, the damage to adjoining buildings could have been much worse. We can only hope that the police will soon catch up with the mischief maker or makers who were respon- sible for several fires in recent weeks. The damage created by such misguided action has already been extensive, leaving the community's citizens fearful and wondering what they can do to protect their property. There's no easy way. Hydro Repairs Costly Those persons who have been opposing the development of nuclear p ower in Canada willhave some new uel for their fires as a result of recent reports related to Ontario Hydro's nuclear reactors. It seems as though tubes located in the heart of seven reactors have not been performing as expected. The tubes circulate heavy water through the reactors and apparently they have been stretching longer and wider with wear-and-tear. While some of the technical details associated with the problem may be a little bewildering, the end resuit of these difficulties is quite simple to grasp. Rebuilding the tubes could cost an estimated half-billion dollars according to one newspaper account. The funds will have to be spent during the 1980's and 1990's. We hope there will not be any more large-scale spending required before all of the bugs are worked out of the system. Otherwise, the coal oil lamp, the wood stove and wax candle will begin looking like more reasonable alternatives. ment insurance or welfare. He conveniently forgets that most of the civil servants, with indexed pensions are tapping the federal treasury for much more each week in wages and benefits than would be paid out by UIC or the welfare agencies. But, his argument is not new. The NDP, not having the responsibility for raising taxes, has always been of the opinion that money grows on trees and is an inexhaustible product. No doubt as more details become available on the cuts, there will be more howling. On Sunday, the president of the Federation of Agriculture voiced his beefs on John Bradshaw's program, claiming that farmers were getting a raw deal in comparison with others. No doubt his points were valid, but we gathered the impression that he was speaking for only one group with a vested interest and there will be others who will follow his lead because nobody likes to lose something they have gained. We are not certain what the political objectives are of the current restraint program. Usually, with an election close at hand, one doesn't expect a government to be launching a major reduction in spending or in hiring because those who are being fired or those who are hurt by the program probably will react by voting against the govern- ing party responsible. If however, such action is followed by a deep cut in income taxes there could be a politically beneficial result at the polls as the general publie realizes that the government is seriously trying to attack the problem. At the moment, it is too early to draw any conclusions. We shall just have to wait and see how sweeping the changes are. But, it is a good start on a much needed plan, and one that is long overdue. Unfortunat- ely most people like Santa Claus much better than Scrooge. Moving Earth Near Marina Sugar, and pc [ Caniadian' Sinumers <ý There's only one thing wrong with this cpuntry - aside from too many politicians, too much winter, too much inflation, too little employ- ment - and that is its summer. A Canadian summer is sneaky, seductive, and even sinister. That may sound like a paradox, when the sky is as blue as John Turner's eyes, day after day, and the sun is as hot as Rene Levesques' tongue, day after day. But it's a fact. Canada's summer is deteriorating, debilitat- ing and eventually destroying our normally sturdy national character. At least it is mine. And as I look about me, I know I'm not alone. During the other seasons, we know where we are - or are not - going. We know where we are at. Through out magnificent autumns, our basic essimism revails. We greet with ittle harsh barks of sardonie laughter, and a knowing wagging of heads, every doomsday prophet, from ancient Indian sages to the Farmers' Almanac, who tells us that it's going to be a long, tough winter. When the first snow flies in November, we are as delighted as a Bible-thumping, soul-saving minister dumped into a community of arant sinners. We start building up our personal library of short stories and novels, entitled such as: "Snow" and "To Build a Fire" and "Lost in the Barrens" and "Christmas Eve at Eighty Below", each designed to make us chuckle as we sit there with the oil furnace wafting up the tropic temperatures from below. For the next four or five months, we spin our wheels on the ice and snuf e through the snow, happy as pi gs in poop, complhmenting each other on the facts that "There's a turrible lotta 'flu around" and that "She's a long ways from over yet", even though it's the end of February and it hasn't snowed for three weeks. From the first of March to the middle of May, regardless of the mist of green sprouting everywhere, the ice gone out of the bay, and the thermometer rising to the gasping point, the boys in the coffee shop an the girls at the hair-dresser's keep reminding each other merrily of the year we had eighteen inches on April 12th, and the time we had a killng frost on the 24th of May. Suddenly it's June. Lilac scent. Strawberries. Flowers popping. Mosquitos humming. Temperatures soaring. But we don't give up. We still know the score. "We'll likely have a cold, wet summer", or "The dam' grass is growin' too fast. Hadda cut her twice this week" or "Too many squirrels. That means a long, hardwinter.". And then, without our even realizing it, we've slid into the miracle of July and August, and our dour national natures are complete- ly fragmented, alienated. We don't know who we are, where we are going, or where we are at. We go to pieces. We forget all about our ten-month love affair with Survival and begin acting as human and normal as those despised Mediterraneans we want to keen out of the country. Elderly gentlemen with legs like grasshoppers and guts hke a member of the Hell's Angels, go sauntering along the beach in shorts and shades, shameless. Grandmothers, who the rest of the year preach probity, purity and good posture, slither into bikinis, grease themselves all over, and lie around like starlets at the Riviera, soaking up the sun and any glances that come their way. Young executives normally suit- ed, shirted and tied, wander about backyard barbecues, corsets abandoned, bare bellies hanging over slovenly shorts, downing gin and tonic as though it were the medicine to end all ailments. Male teenagers suddenly emerge, with more macho than a Mexican, chests bared, shorts cut right back to the pubic hair line, swaggering, bare-footed, constantly brushing or combing their other well-shaped hair, saying in effect, "Here I an, girls. Ain't I gorgeous? Better grab before someone else does." Young ladies who would not be caught dead in anything but jeans the other ten months of the year, stroll down main street in outfits that would have been considered scandalous a couple of decades ago in a hootchi-kootchi show. (If you don't know what that is, ask your dad.) And tiny children are probably the worst, because they don't know or care anything about that Other Ten Months. They go ape, pointing at birds, plucking leaves, chasing squirrels, splashing, running in the sun, and tearing off their clothes the moment no one is looking. I guess we're a bit like the Swedes. They're the most sensual, sun-loving sexy people in the world when they get south of the Straits of Saggerack. The rest of the year, they're too busy committing suicide. We're not much for the latter, we Canadians. At least, not physically. We do it mentally and emotionally. But just the other day, I noticed the acorns falling in great quanti- ties. We all know what that means. All together, now, and let's have some harmony. "It's going to be a LONG, TOUGH WINTER." Have We Gotý a Plane for You? Sometime during the next year, the federal governmenít will tell Canadians which of half-a-dozen new fighter planes we are going to spend $2.5 billion on. But if we think that our Uanad.ian government is making that decision, we're kidding ourselves. The decision about what we get was made for us Canadians, the instant we announced we wanted just one model of fighter, to serve dual requirements in Europe and in North America. The plane will be the F-15 Eagle, made by MeDonnell Douglas, costing somewhere be- tween $18 and $25 million each. We will buy that plane because that's what the United States needs to sell us. The U.S. has chosen the F-15 for its own forces. But even the Pentagon can't afford it any more; its cost to them has soared from $12.8 million each in 1976, to $17.8 in 1978. And it's still going up. The only way the U.S. can bring its own defence expenses within limits is to sell more F-15's to other countries, to make a profit, and to reduce their perplane production and development costs. Armaments expert and author Tom Gervasi summed up the U.S. philosophy: "The F-15 is the aircraft we need, so it had to be offered abroad." That's why President Carter and Defense officials were so anxious to win approval for their sale of 60 F-15's to Saudi Arabia. As it now turns out, the Saudis didn't ask for, and hadn't considered, the F-15. Rather, it was the only plane offered by the U.S. An Air Force Colonel has been quoted: "The F-15 has a cost problem, and it makes sense to amortize the overrun with a big sale to the Saudis." So the Air Force is doing what it can to help McDonnell Douglas market their fighter. Japan has reportedly agreed to take 100 F-15's over the next six years, at approximately $27 million each. Other countries indicated as probable purchasers, for a total export sale of some 400 F-15's, include Australia, Western Germany, France, and - yes - Canada. Because of the Pentagon's own commitment to the F-15, no other U.S. figher stands much of a chance. And the U.S. can apply far more incentives (and clout, if necessary) to our Canadian economy than can the European consortium which is also lobbying for our purchase. Now, the F-15 Eagle is a remarkable fighter plane. Experts describe it as the most sophisticated combat aircraft in the world. It can fly at 2½ times the speed of sound, can carry a stupirying 1oaa or cannon shells, missiles, napalm and turn sharper and climb faster than any other similar plane. But is that what Canada needs? Should we be buying fighters at all? The Rev. Charles Catto, a United Church minister well known in this community who runs a world-wide volunteer program called Operation Beaver, has been crying for action. For the cost of each F-15 Eagle, he points out, we could build up to 1,000 houses. Their construction would create two to three times as many jobs as would result from defence contracts; and they would provide work for the unskilled and semi- skilled, who suffer most from unemployment, rather than for the highly skilled, who are already in short supply. Providing adequate housing at reasonable prices has been demonstrated to produce better health and better educational standards among children, especial- ly among low income and native peoples. Those benefits, and the ouses themselves will surely be useful to Canada for a lot longer than even the most sophisticated fighter aircraft in the world. -Unchurched Editorials Nobody Likes a Scrooge