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Editorial Comment The PM's Mission for Peace ! A lot of skeptics raised their 'eyebrows as Prime Minister Pierre .Trudeau left recently for Europe on a self-proclaimed mission for peace to try and ease the tensions between the world's super powers. As one critic noted, the world could be in worse shape if Pierre does as much for East-West global relations as he has done for relations between eastern and western Canada. Mr. Trudeau is not a popular man on the home front, says The Port Perry Star. In fact, his party has slipped to an all-time low on the opinion polls, and the skeptics also wonder if this trip is not an attempt to bolster public support at home. Be that as it may and putting aside the internal political troubles of the Liberal Party, the Prime Minister's trip abroad is interesting and could prove important. Nobody can argue that East-West global relations have turned sour, almost to the point of perpetual crisis. Trudeau's contention that dialogue is the best way to defuse the crisis is sane and logical. Whether he can rip a page from the late Lester Pearson's book and achieve results as the honest broker between the super-powers remains anyone's guess. This is not the 1950's. The world has changed, Canada's role has changed since the days of Pearson diplomacy, which by the way, won him a Nobel Peace Prize in 1957. Still, Pierre Trudeau does command international attention. He is much more popular and respected outside Canada than he is within this country, especially among the middle powers. More important, some world leader of stature has to step forward and try to initiate a return to or at least controlled insanity in major global affairs. Why not Pierre Trudeau? Certainly, his peace mission got something of a boost last week when U.S. president Ronald Reagan more or less endorsed his efforts. This at. least leaves the door ajar. Trudeau has met with the leaders of five European nations including Britain, France and Germany. He also had an audience with the Pope. It is not unfair to assume that both Washington and the Kremlin will have their ears very close to the diplomatic pipelines, which in itself may offer encouragement. For these reasons we wish the Prime Minister well. Any effort to de-fuse the ongoing crisis on this planet should not be totally ignored. But, so far, his speech on the subject at Montreal on Sunday has barely caused a ripple locally. Let's hope it had a stronger impact elsewhere. No Magic Cure for Problems Results of the most recent Gallup poll on public support for the federal political parties shows the Progressive Conservatives at an all- time high, chiefly at the expense of the Liberal party. The showing of the NDP is even less encouraging for their prospects. A majority of decided voters in Quebec now say they would not vote for a return of the Parti Quebcois in a forthcoming election. According to the Wingham Advance Times, there is a common denominator; discontent across the ■nation with the performance of ■present-day governments as far as the economy is concerned. Although ■most Canadians grumbled unendingly about inflation, they seem even less enamored of the consequences of deflating high prices. Obviously, a great many Canadians believe that a change of government would be the magic formula for a return to "better times". That's exactly what their mothers and fathers though in 1931 when they threw out the Liberal government and waited for the Conservatives under R.B. Bennett to work the miracle which would end the Depression. It proved to be a long wait and it wasn't Bennett who worked the miracle -- it was Adolf Hitler. A new government under Brian Mulroney will be no more successful in its efforts to turn the economy around over night. The ills which we have experienced for the past several years will not yield to magic; they will require time and patience. It is the Canadian people who must affect the cure. It can't be done with screams for ever-higher wages and shorter working hours. Solid, secure and long-lasting prosperity is the prize awarded for old-fashioned industry and sound business management -- both in the corporate field and in the homes of the nation. Yes, we do need new governments. The old ones have held the reins too long. There are too many "good old boys" with their hands out for the rewards of political loyalty. But there is no point in expecting the world to change over night. c Letters to the Editor ) Dear Johnny: Now that the training school property has been sold, we are told "we have missed the boat," apparently, while the Mayor was trying to arrange a deal, council were saying they had no interest in the property. In football this might be called a mix up in the backfield. However, as long as the property was available, there was always a danger that somehow we could become the owners, which, in my opinion, would have been a calamity. A big thank you to the Malaysians and we wish them well. A friend of ours, down east a bit, recently added to his house - a sun room/Florida room. In the roof he used a plastic "bubble" to let the sunshine in and this bubble cost him $150. A friend of ours, up north this time, recently built himself a shower house out in the field behind the garden. In the steep roof facing south he also used a plastic bubble to let the sunshine in and this bubble cost him 50 cents. As he picked up six of them for $3. at an, auction of surplus school equipment, about three years ago. Which reminds me that a chap we knew in Toronto (he was an engineer) said he liked being called in for advice by church groups and school boards - you could sell either of them anything, by the way, there were well over 100 of these bubbles available at that auction. The N/N Bd. of Ed. is, like all other boards, committed to teaching fewer and fewer pupils at more and more cost. With a current budget of 58 million plus, our board is trying to raise a few thousand, by charging for the use of all the empty rooms they are inheriting. The first casualty of the new set up may be the Port Hope Community Services who have been asked to come up "with $200. per month which at this time they do not have. This $2400. yearly is very important to the board as it will go a long way toward offsetting the.yearly raise of $2703. it gave to big chief Doug Sifton whose yearly stipend will now be $68,163. Not exactly small potatoes. Mr. Sifton recently did a report on the state of Canadian education in which he stated that modern education is at least as good as it was 20 or 40 years ago, but it might not look as good because there are too many marginal students in the system. One of the trustees said of the report, "In some cases it won't be read, in other cases it can't be read." This is rather puzzling. If you have read this far you may be interested to know the N/N Board has a slightly lesser chief who draws $62,713.; one at $61,033.; and three lesser chiefs at $60,533. Add a business administrator at $53,550. and our rinky dink school board has seven chiefs drawing more than $50,000. annually. Mr. Sifton, in the report mentioned above, warns against criticizing or attacking the amount of money spent on education, he says new solutions must be found and these answers will cost more and more money. Morgan Qtye (Eanabian Statesman 623-3303 Durham County'» Great Family Journal Eatabllihed 129 year» ago In 1854.' Alio Incorporating TheBowmanvIlleNew» The Newcastle Independent The Orono News Second cl»»» mall registration number 1561 Produced every Wednesday by THE JAMES PUBLISHING COMPANY LIMITED 62-66 King SI, W„ Bowmanvllle, Ontario L1C 3K9 JOHN M. JAMES RICHARD A. JAMES Editor -- Publisher Assistant Publlshoi GEO, P. MORRIS BRIAN PURDY DONALD BISHOP Business Mgr, Advertising Mgr. Plant Mgr, All layout» and composition ol adverlltemenls produced by the employais ol The Canadien Statesman, The Newcastle Independent and The James Publishing Company Limited are protected try copyright and must not be reproduced without written permission ol the publishers. 115.00 a year -- 8 months *8.00 foreign -- *45.00 a year strictly In advance Although every precaution will be taken to avoid error, The Canadian Statesman accepts advertising In Its columns on the understanding that It will not he liable lor any error In the advertisement published hereunder unless a proof ol such advertisement Is requested In writing by the advertiser and returned to The Canadian , Statesman business ofllce duly signed by the advertiser and with such error or corrections plainly noted In writing thereon, and In that case II any error so noted Is not corrected by The Canadian Statesman Ms liability shall not etrceed such a portion ol the entire cost ol such advertisement as the space occupied by the noted error bears to the whole space occupied by such advertisement. First Snowfall on Creek Banks t \ SUGAR and SPICE Torch of Terrorism ^6"A x A few years ago I swore I'd never write another column about Remembrance Remembrance Day. Not only was it hard on me, emotionally, but I felt that if I continued, I'd start falling into cliches, like throwing the torch to the next generation. Well, we didn't throw them the torch to carry high, and Flanders fields are old bones now, but the torch is there -- a different kind. The torch, not of gallantry and defending defending certain ideals, and being prepared to die for them, but the torch of terrorism, vicious hatred of other colors, religions and political political systems, and new wars and slaughter in the paper every day. With another Remembrance Day coming up, I must break my promise. promise. An essay by Canadian Hugh MacLennan, called "Remembrance Day -- 2010 A.D." reread after ten years, brought home to me once again the utter folly of mankind, and his apparent obsession with destroying destroying his own species. Written in the 1950's, the essay is an ironic warning that is just as valid today as when it was written. With prophetic insight, he saw the arms race building until the human race is in the delicate eggshell eggshell it is today: constant escalation of nuclear weapons, paranoid suspicion suspicion of the "enemy", and teeter ing on the tight-rope of oblivion. He forsaw a space war, which is just over the horizon, if something worse doesn't happen first. We hate to think of it. We go right on, grunging around in our own little little world, whining about taxes, beefing about "the government", and stuffing our guts while half the world or more is literally starving. Most of us are not on hard drugs. But most of us are on the soft kind, symbolized by television, which tells us that we'd be happy if we drank this beer, or used that shampoo, shampoo, or used ever-thinner sanitary napkins, or ate Krinkly-Krak for breakfast. All lies, of course. Subtle, Subtle, but lies. And often symbolized by our "leaders", who lie to us until the truth comes up, then lie some more. And do not lead, but follow -- the latest poll. A vote is more important than a good citizen: self-reliant, independent, independent, thinking. Doesn't it turn your guts a bit? It does mine. But, like everyone else, I'm too preoccupied with my busted shoulder, my pension, the constant demands of family, and my own comfort, to face the facts. I remember the first few times I marched in the Legion parade on Remembrance Day. Most of us were in our twenties. We looked with af fectionate condescension on the "old guys" veterans of W.W. I They were in their late 40's and 50's. Now, most of the "old guys" are gone, except for a corporal's guard, and we cocky young strutters are the "old guys". It's depressing, but the word that constantly forms in my mind is WHY? Why did millions of young men go through the gruesome, bloody, insane insane danse macabre of World War I? Correction: millions of them did not "go through" it. They left then- bones and pus and blood in little foreign places with funny names. And they left nations of weeping women and children. Of course, they died to save democracy. democracy. That's what it said. Or, perhaps, because they followed the leadership of senile and/or stupid leaders, who thought little of killing 100,000 men to gain a few hundred yards of mud. Why did millions of young men, only two decades later, do it all over again? Of course, they were fighting for freedom from dictatorship, for "our way of life". Same old crap. What was accomplished in two world wars? Tens of millions killed, and the second time around, many of them civilians. It kept down the surplus popula- J tion, of course. And the tremendous damage to property kept our Western Western factories humming after each war, replacing what had been destroyed. destroyed. Is that what it was all about? Have brutality, torture, bloodshed taught mankind any sort of lesson? Obviously not. Korea, Viet Nam, the Middle East, Africa, India, South and Central America, have spawned more killing, more torture, more bloodshed, more two- bit dictators. I don't care how right-wing or rednecked rednecked you are. Don't laugh at the peace marches. They seem to be the only thing, however, incoherent and ineffective, that suggest any sanity in the modern world. I take nothing from the dead of tliose wars. In the first one, they were my uncles. In the second, they were my comrades. I have a lifelong admiration, even love for them. They really believed in what they were dying for. Let them rest in peace. But from their grumbling graves, as they look down, or up, at the insanity insanity of today's arms race, the blind violence, cruelty and viciousness viciousness of the world they were "saving", "saving", I can hear one question, loud and clear. WHY? 140 Ontario St. Bowmanvllle Nov. 12,1983, Dear John; Well, John, I attended the last G.P.A. meeting, and after noticing that my letter reprinted reprinted on the agenda, not only reduced ip size (for some reason) but it also was not listed as correspondence as in my opinion, a letter to council should be. After going through the agenda, lo and behold, I find it listed as other business in camera. Now, I have to say to myself why is it not listed as correspondence and why has it been reduced in size and why is it going to be heard in camera? If it is confidential then why was it printed on the agenda? Why was it reduced in size? I was able to gel it on one sheet and when they reduced reduced it there was a good three inches of paper left. Oh, well, maybe it had something to do with the contents, Since my letter appeared last week, some people have called to question the BONUS system and I guess I forgot to tell you that the bonus is paid every six months not yearly. In other words, as 1 understand, understand, if you were a Non Union employee and you did a good job for six months you could receive a bonus of up to $250 and if you did another good job for the next six months further consideration would be given up to another $250. Most people who work for an employer employer must do a good job for their salary or they are replaced, replaced, It reminds me of the ad on T.V. that says "Only in Canada, Pity" and I say only in the Town of Newcastle. "Shame." Getting back to my letter to the Mayor and Council they passed a motion after I left to turn it over lo the administrator administrator for a report and the following following is what you might expect in reply. Bonus: Yes, a bonus was paid after Mr. Smith left even though the employee was on leave for approximately five months and was turned down by Mr. Smith as not applicable, applicable, Vacation: Yes a week's vacation is classed as five working days even though one might have taken more. Hours of Work: This matter will or should be looked at also and you know John that if you had a person working for you who was absent from the office one sixth of their time, 1 am sure that you would wonder how much do we really need that person? Well, I can't bring you up to date any further but when I receive a written reply I will advise you of same. In closing, I also hope that the council will explain why die letter was listed as other business and not as correspondence correspondence and why it was listed to go into camera and then after I left they handled it in open Council. "Only in Bowman- ville You Say. Shame." Yours truly Ken Hooper Bow. and Ncwc, An open letter to the Mayor and council of the Town of Newcastle, It has been 10 years since the Region of Durham and the Town of Newcastle were formed. I believe that the people were sold a bill of goods on this concept of government. government. We were told that one of the aims of this type of government government was lo equalize services across the region, In my opinion aller 10years, it has been equalized taxes, hut not services. There are terrible financial inequities inequities now compared to It) years ago. Garbage disposal, disposal, hydro, fire insurance, insurance, just to name a few. The people in rural areas of former Clarke Twp. pay up to twice as much for garbage garbage disposal, hydro a third more than their counterparts counterparts in urban areas. Fire insurance, if you arc unlucky unlucky enough to live more than five miles from a fire hall, would cost you roughly a third more. All the services services arc cheaper for our counterparts in urban areas, yet we pay the same taxes. This costs us several hundred dollars more per year. We should look to our neighbors to the cast in Hope Twp., excluding school board. We pay twice as much in local and regional regional taxes as our neighbors in Hope Twp. and I do not believe we receive any more services. I am asking our council, are they going to try to equalize some of these inequities inequities for the rural people in the Town of Newcastle? Newcastle? If not, please take us out of regional government. Yours truly, George Cameron It,It. 2 Newcastle, Ontario BOA 1110 Sir: An article in your paper regarding the tunnel under No. 57 highway and the placing placing of a guard there at taxpayers' taxpayers' expense is ridiculous. Apparently some older students students are frightening the younger ones, and it was felt a guard was necessary, by one person. I agree pupils should be able to travel to school in safety, but what happens before and after leaving the tunnel? Does the bully ever stop? I think not. Do students not get bullied in playgrounds, etc? Let's be realistic about this. If someone is threatening the younger students, have the parents of the ones involved consulted the parents of the ones doing the bullying? Do the people know how long this tunnel is - well, it is about 60 feet X 10 feel X 7 feet high - that's all. It used to have lights Inside until someone tore them out. People lake their dogs there and let them crap in the tunnel and on the walking surface. Paper is often strewn all over the place, In short, the people who use it don't seem to know how to look after it. Cars sometimes use it, often used hyskidoos in the winter, packing packing the drifting snow into pure ice. The tunnel should be closed up - a walkway built on the south side of No. 57 near the fence - that would eliminate a host of problems. If that is not done, the maintenance costs of the tunnel and walkway should be borne by the people in the adjacent subdivisions, not the entire taxpayer who does not even know where the tunnel is. If our students arc being bothered by someone, correct the problem in the proper way. G. Verney Sick Room Equipment Loan Service