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Section Two Wednesday, October 9,1985 De-indexing Hits Middle Class "The middle class is prepared to make some sacrifices to help the poor, but it will never accept making making sacrifices for the rich." This was one of the comments from Opposition Leader John Turner in a petition currently being circulated throughout Canada. The subject of the petition is the cuts in family allowance benefits announced by the Mulroney government government in the budget of 1985. Partial de-indexing of family allowances allowances and child tax credits would, according to the opposition party, take $15 million from Canadian Canadian families with children in 1985- 86. The following year, the cost would be $40 million. "It is both immoral and inconceivable inconceivable that this government is asking families to make sacrifices while at the same time it can find $1 billion to save Canadian Commercial Commercial Bank depositors of $60,000 and more," said Mr. Turner. Calculations accompanying the petition state that a wage earner in a low-income family will lose $754 more than high income families. And a middle income family would lose three times as much as high income earners. A strong middle class is one of the cornerstones of Canadian ideology. ideology. While we might argue about exactly what constitutes the middle class, the fact remains that this country depends heavily on a large number of wage-earners who receive receive a comfortable salary and who use it to purchase the consumer goods which keep the economy rolling. rolling. That's nota perfect system for the Regulations Would-be councillors, trustees, and hydro electric commissioners should circle Monday, October 21, on their calendars. That date is Nomination Day in the municipality. "I would encourage people to file early and avoid the deadline," said David Oakes, clerk of the Town of Newcastle. He explainecHhat the town hall will be accepting nomination forms between nine a.m. arid five p.m. on Monday, October 21. Papers may also be filed during regular town business hours (8:30 a.m. to 4:30 p.m.) on Thursday, October October 17 and Friday, October 18. Nomination forms may be picked up at the town hall commencing on October 14. Those who have indicated their intentions to stand for office have one day to reconsider their plans. Names may be withdrawn October 22, the day after nominations are filed. But any names still standing after 5 p.m., October 22 will be placed on the ballot. Mr. Oakes explained that candidates candidates need 10 signatures from bona fide voters on their nomination forms. He added that those who sign the forms must be eligible to vote distribution of economic wealth. But it's one which seems to work. Associated with the ideal of a middle middle class lifestyle is a considerable amount of personal freedom and leisure time to pursue special interests. interests. It's a system which seems to give us a measure of political stability unknown in other parts of the world. Countries with some of the worst governments are those which have a large gap betwen the rich and poor. When you have a vast number of "have-nots" and a few wealthy property owners, instability is almost almost guaranteed. Nations which have experimented with eliminating eliminating differences in wealth altogether altogether have also met with very limited limited success. The de-indexing of the family allowance allowance cheques will not, in itself destroy the middle class. Somehow, it will recover from this setback and continue to survive. But as a source of government revenue, revenue, the middle class is not a bottomless bottomless well. Already, it pays a far larger share of income in taxes than the more well-to-do Canadians who can afford tax loopholes and writeoffs. writeoffs. The government should, therefore,act therefore,act with caution whenever it imposes new financial burdens on those Canadians caught in the "middle ground" between affluence affluence and poverty. Continued efforts to chip away at middle income Canadians will lead to a widening of the gap between rich and poor and will turn Canada into a nation of extremes. for Election for the candidate. For example, a separate school supporter would not be permitted to sign the nomination nomination papers of someone running for the public school board. Similarly, Similarly, a Ward Two resident could not sign the nomination forms of a Ward One candidate. To avoid disqualification, candidates candidates are encouraged to have 15 electors sign their nomination papers papers just in. case some names are disqualified. On November 2, there will be an advance poll in each of the three wards. In Bowmanville, there will be a poll at the public library. The Ward Two poll will be at the Hampton Community Hall and there will be a Ward Three booth at the Orono Town Hall. Voters' lists will be available on October 15 and will be revised from October 15 to October 23. Voters should ensure that their names appear appear on the lists. In the upcoming municipal elections, elections, there will be openings in three levels of local government. Town of Newcastle ratepayers will select: a mayor and six councillors; four members of the Newcastle Hydro Electric Commission; six public school trustees and two separate school trustees. Phone Books to Have New Covers A warm sunset on Blueberry Island off the north shore of Georgian Bay is featured on the cover of the 1985 telephone directory for the Regional Municipality of Durham. The picture was taken by photographer photographer Bud Watson of Midland and will be on the cover of all Bell Canada directories in Ontario this year. Orma Lyttle, local Bell manager, said 164,000 copies will be delivered from October 4 to October 17. New portions of the Customer Services section of the introductory pages include: One dealing with equipment and repair options now that customers can rent telephone sets from Bell or purchase them from Bell or another supplier. Diagnostic maintenance charge. This applies if Bell makes a repair visit and no trouble is found with Bell facilities, but the trouble continues continues when customer-owned equipment is reconnected. Single- line customers are advised how they can check whether the trouble is in their own telephones and avoid a possible charge. Anyone who does not receive a copy of the new directory should call the Bell business office after the delivery period. ®1|£ (Eanabfan Statesman 623-3303 (*Ck Ouihem County'» Orest Family Journal Ealabllahed 130 year» aeo In 1IM. Alee Incorporating The Bowmamrllle Newa The Newcaetle Independent The Orono New» Second claee moll nf lalretlon number 1 set Produced every Wednesday by THE JAMES PUBLISHING COMPANY LIMITED ea se King SI. W., Bowmanville, Ontario L1C 3K6 X 1 1 6 V L A JOHN M. JAMES Editor -- Publisher GEO. P. MORRIS Business Mgr. RICHARD A. JAMES Assistant Publisher BRIAN PURDY Advertising Mgr. PETER PARROTT Associate Editor DONALD BISHOP Plant Mgr. AM layouts and composition ol advertisement! produced by the employees ol The Canadian Statesman, The Newcastle Independent and The Jemee Publishing Company Limited are protected by copyright and must not be reproduced without written permission ol Ihe publishers. $15.00 a year -- 6 months MOO strictly In advance foreign -- $50.00 a year Although ovoiy pmcaullon will bn taken to avoid error. The CannUmn Statesman accepts advertising In Its columns on the understanding that It will not be liable for any error In Urn advertisement published hereunder unless a pmol ol such advertisement Is requested in writing by the advertiser and relumed to Tire Canadian Statesman business ullicn duly signed by Ihe advertiser and with such error or corrections plainly noted In writing thoieon. and In that case it any or mi so noted is nol collected by Ihe Canadian Statesman Its liability shall not exceed such g portion ot the entire cost ol such advertislmerit as Ihe space occupied by Ihe noted error hears to the whole space occupied by such mlverlispimnnl Yachting Season Will Soon Be Over SUGAR and SPICE Sleeping in a Box-Car Ry Rill Smiley It's been a long way from there to here. Just forty years ago, l\ was lying on the floor of a box-car in. , north-east Holland, beatén up arid tied up. And half-frozen. Ana half- starved. Today, I'm sitting in a big, brick house, with the furnace pumping away, a refrigerator stuffed with food, and my choice of three soft, warm beds. Forty years seems like eternity if you're a teenager, but they've gone by like the wiriking of an eye, as most old-timers will confirm. Back then, I was tied up because I'd tried to escape. It wasn't pleasant. pleasant. They had no rope, so they tied my wrists and ankles with wire. I was beaten up because I'd managed to pilfer a sandwich, a pipe and tobacco from the guards' overcoat pockets when they weren't looking, and these, along with a foot-long piece of lead pipe, popped out of my battle-dress jacket when the sergeant in charge of the guards gave me a round-house clout on the ear just before escorting me back onto the train headed for Germany. Served me right. I should have ignored all that stuff we were taught in training: "It's an officer's duty to try to escape," and gone quietly off to sit out the war, which I did anyway, in the long run. But the next few weeks weren't pleasant. I couldn't walk, because .mvleit kneecap was kicked out of Kilter. Every bone in my body ached. My face looked like a bowl of borstch, as I discovered when a "friendly" guard let me look in his shaving mirror. Worst of all, there was nothing to read. When I have nothing to read, I start pacing the walls. But I couldn't pace the walls because I was on the floor, and tied up. Anyway, Anyway, the light wasn't so good. One little barred window. Perhaps even the worstest of all was my daily ablutions. And I don't mean washing one's face and arm- pits. I had to be lugged out of the oox-car by a guard, since only one leg was working, helped down the steps, and ushered to the railway bank. Ever try to do your dailies (and I don't mean push-ups), with two hands planted in cinders, one leg stuck straight ahead, the other propping you up, and a guy pointing a revolver at you? It's a wonder I wasn't constipated for life. One day the guard almost shot me. I never understood why. He was a rather decent young chap, about 21, blond, spoke a bit of French, so that we could communicate in a rudimentary way. He was a para trooper who had been wounded in France and seconded 'to the mundane job of guarding Allied prisoners. He hadn't taken part in the kicking and punching at the railway station, for his own reasons. Perhaps pride. He was a soldier, not a member of the Feldgendarmerie. But this day he was out of sorts. Perhaps sick of being a male nurse. His eyes got very blue and very cold, and he cocked his revolver. All I could do was turn the big baby-blues on him and mutely appeal. It worked. He muttered something, probably a curse, bolstered his gun, and shoved me roughly back into the box-car. Why did Hans Schmidt (his real name) not kill me that day? He was fed up with a job on which rations were minimal, comfort almost nonexistent, nonexistent, and duties boring and demeaning. There was another Schmidt in the detail, Alfred. He was a different kettle, though he, too, was a wounded wounded paratrooper. He was as dark as Hans was fair, as sour as Hans was sunny. He would have shot me, in the same mood, and written it off as "killed while attempting to escape." Luck of the draw. Another hairy incident in that October, 40 years ago, was the night the train was attacked by a British fighter-bomber, probably a Mosquito. Mosquito. perhaps even navigated by my old friend Dave McIntosh. I was dozing, on and off (you didn't sleep much, tied up, on the wooden floor of a box-car) when there was a great screeching of brakes, a wild shouting from the guards as they bailed out of the train, then the roar of an engine and the sound of. cannon-fire as the attacker swept up and down the train, strafing. As you can understand, I wasn't hit, and the bums in the aircraft didn't even put the train out of commission, but have you ever seen a man curled up into a shape about the size of a little finger? That was ich. Sorry if I've bored you with these reminiscences. But there are all as clear, or moreso, that what I had for lunch today. Forty years. Time to complete the war, finish university, marriage, children, 11 years as a weekly editor, 23 years as a teacher, a year in The San for non-existent T.B., and 30 years as a columnist. I couldn't hack all that today. But I can go to bed and say, "This beats the hell out of sleeping in a box-car." Byline.. By Peter Parrott This column is being written under the influence influence of drugs--coffee and a cold medication, to be exact. It all started when I caught the cold that's been going around the office for the past week and might even be considered considered the corporate cold bug because so many people have come down with it here. Whenever I get sick, I tend to want to curl up in a corner somewhere and sleep until either I pass away or recover. But, having a considerable considerable amount of work to do Sunday night, I stopped at the local McDonald's for a large helping of coffee on the way home from visiting the in-laws in Oshawa. The coffee seemed to do the job of keeping me awake but it wasn't stopping my head and sinuses from feeling like a clogged eaves- trough. So, I headed for the medicine cabinet and took a certain cold medication available over the counter from most fine drug stores. It was a kind that isn't supposed to make you drowsy, my wife advised. advised. What she didn't say was that it is a mild stimulant. Now, I write this epistle epistle under the combined effects of both. It's past midnight and I feel like I could go without sleep until January. January. I feel as if I could leap small buildings in a single bound and bounce bullets off my chest. All of which is well and good but for the fact that nobody likes to walk around feeling like an alarm clock which has been wound up a few notches too tight. Perhaps some hot milk would put the super-charged nervous system back to normal. Perhaps an hour Of Johnny Carson would pull my mind out of overdrive. And, perhaps, I will resolve not to take cold medicine again. I am sure that my ex perience is by no means unique. For you don't have to be a major league baseball player or some other sports celebrity to testify to the common adage known by all medical professionals: "Every drug, no matter how in- noccuous it may seem, has its side effect. Unless you need them for a bona fide medical problem more serious than a head cold or a touch of the flu, why take them? Durham E. Boundary May Change Durham East's electoral bound- Oshawa would be partially re- aries may take on a completely new look next year, according to MPP Sam Cureatz. Mr. Cureatz said last week that a plan for the redistribution of ridings ridings would take away much of the Durham East area now located in Oshawa. This would allow the creation of an entirely new riding, consisting of Oshawa and Whitby, Mr. Cureatz explained. However, the revising of Ontario's Ontario's electoral maps would also give the Durham East Riding some new territory. The area lost in gained by the addition of land in Port Perry and area. The Town of Newcastle would remain part of Durham East. "I look forward to that redistribution," redistribution," Mr. Cureatz said. He added that he is looking forward to seeing all of the Durham Region represented represented by Progressive Conservative Conservative MPPs in future legislatures. At the moment, members of the Provincial Legislature still have an opportunity to debate the proposed new boundaries. However, by March or April the final decision on the new electoral jurisdictions should be set.