The following text may have been generated by Optical Character Recognition, with varying degrees of accuracy. Reader beware!

SECTION TWO WEDNESDAY, MAY 15,1991 W Canadian statesman Durham Region's Great Family Journal Established 137 years ago in 1854 Also Incorporating The Bowmanville News The Newcastle Independent The Orono News j Second Class mail registration number 1561 Produced weekly by Jsmee Publishing Company Limited 62 King Street West, Bowmanville, Ontario L1C 3K9 416-623-3303 (J^IA Fax 416-623-6161 John M. James Editor - Publisher Richard A. James Associate Publisher Peter Parrott Brian Purdy Donald Bishop Associate Editor Advertising Mgr. Plant Mgr. All layouts and composition of advertisements produced by the employees of James Publishing Company Limited are protected by copyright and may not be reproduced without the permission of the publisher. Although iwy precaution will be taken to avoid error, The Canadian Stateeman accept» advertising In Its column» on the understanding that 1 WHI not be liable lor any error In the advertisement published hereunder unlee» a prod o< such advertisement Is requested In writing by the advertiser and returned to The Canadian Statesmen business otflce duly signed by the ratvertlser uid with such error or corrections plainly noted In writing thereon, and In that case If any error so noted Is not corrected by The Canadian Statesman Ms lability ahal not exceed such a portion of the entire cost of such advertisement ae the apace occupied by the noted error bears to the whole space occupied by such advertisement. Council Out of Line in Sale of Museum Items One of the more colorful elected officials officials who served on Newcastle Council about a decade ago used to say "There's no point in buying a dog and doing the barking yourself. He would make that observation whenever he felt that council was unduly unduly meddling into affairs which it had delegated to its staff or appointed officials. . Then, as now, town council sometimes sometimes had a tendency to meddle. And sometimes it needs to be taken to task for interfering in matters which are not really its own business. The tempest in a teacup related to . the sale of surplus items from the museum museum collection is one example of elected elected officials "buying a dog and then doing doing the barking themselves." Town Council appoints a museum board to operate the Bowmanville Museum Museum and the board then hires staff to look after day-to-day operations. The Bowmanville Museum recently decided to hold an auction to dispose of items that it no longer required. It seemed to us that the proposal was a reasonable one and that there was no intent by the museum to give away the municipality's "crown jewels."- jewels."- You wouldn't think town council would get all that worried about the proposal. And yet, the local elected officials wasted no time in wading into the issue. issue. They made pronouncements. They gave orders. And they were out of line. r Town councillors were afraid that somebody would be offended if they had made a donation to the museum and then discovered that this very item was on the auction block. In an election year, one supposes that people on town council have to be mindful of this possibility. But, the fact of the matter is that the Bowmanville Museum is legally entitled to do whatever it wants with the property that it owns. If somebody has donated an object to the museum and there are no strings attached, then the museum is legally entitled to use that item in the way in which it sees fit. For example, it might have two identical objects and it might want to sell one to another collection in order to buy another item that it lacks. Or, if it wishes to get rid of surplus materials, it should be entitled to do so. If you sell your house, you have no legal right to come back 10 years later and teU the new owners what they must do with the building or who they can sell it to. And the same holds true with items donated to the museum. Recently, staff of The James Publishing Publishing Company found a number of items of historic interest while cleaning cleaning out an old attic. These included old newspapers, books, and some furniture. furniture. Frankly, we kept those things that we were interested in. And the others, we donated to the museum for its purposes. purposes. Now that we have made this donation, donation, we certainly don't expect to have control over the things we gave away. The museum can keep them, sell them, or dispose of them in the landfill site if that's what it deems best. And who is more qualified than the museum to decide what is historically significant and what is not? Who is better able to judge what is a local treasure and must be kept and what is of lesser importance? We should add that the Bowmanville Bowmanville Museum agreed that wherever possible, it would contact original donors donors and give them the right to take back their artifacts if they wished to do so. In this respect, the museum is certainly going above and beyond the call of duty in its attempts to ensure that there will be no hard feelings as a result of its decision to dispose of certain certain items. Some members of town council are apparently of the opinion that objects from the museum collection should be offered to descendants of the original donors if the donors are deceased or . cannot be located This, of course, would create a real legal and ethical quagmire which the muséum should avoid at all costs. For it should not be given the responsibility responsibility of deciding which branch of a family ought to have possession of an item owned by an ancestor. The museum might, for example, return an artifact to a cousin, only to discover that a nephew argues that he has greater claim to that object. If the Bowmanville Museum were to follow the philosophy of Newcastle Council, it would not be a museum but a kind of "Fibber McGee's closet" which contains a little bit of everything. everything. And the condition of some items in tne collection would, undoubtedly deteriorate if they are not adequately stored. The long and the short of it is that Newcastle. Council should devote itself to matters such as community services, services, rezoning, fire protection, and public works. Although it technically may control the operation of the museums, the fact of the matter is that the running of these facilities has been delegated to non-profit boards. They should be allowed allowed to do their work. "Johnny" Appleseed Honored at Banquet There was some serious discussion about the future of Canada last week during the tribute dinner held for Statesman Editor/Publisher John James. Both guest speaker Eugene Whelan and guest of honor, John James, spoke of the need for Canadians to not just take from their country but to give something in return. And that's a timely message in these days when Canadians hold the government in such low esteem, yet tail to realize that the government is, in fact, ourselves. But the tribute dinner was not without its moments of levity. The guest speaker had done his homework well, And, from an edition of Hansard dated June 13, 1950, he produced excerpts excerpts from several speeches by John M. James, MP. We are re-printing excerpts from one of them here. The honorable members members were discussing matters pertaining pertaining to agriculture and the topic of apples apples came up. The speech in question went something like this. "For a few moments, I would like to deal with the importance of the apple in the development of the world. Even in the beginning there were apples, and poor Eve fell victim to their irresistible irresistible charm. She knew that the McIntosh red upon which she gazed would have a flavor incomparable among fruits of the earth. She knew that one bite from the apple would make her healthy and wise. Could the devil have tempted her with a sheaf of western wheat, a bunch of grapes, a gold nugget, or a B.C. fir? No; it had to be that most attractive of all things, the apple. The great law of gravitation was also discovered because of the apple; for when Newton sat under the trees in his orchard and saw one of those apples apples fall he began to wonder why the apple did not fall upward. Could he have discovered the law of gravitation by looking at a Prince Edward Island potato or the iron ore of Labrador? Now you and I must admit that the apple falling on Newton's head was of great importance in the progress of our world. In national affairs, the apple plays a great part. If you visit a certain town in Italy, you will find a most delightful little chapel erected in honor or William William Tell, who won his greatest fame because he shot an apple from his son's head. He never could have shot a grape, or a Winnipeg goldeye; therefore, therefore, the apple all the way round, religion, religion, science, sport and in every other particular, is the greatest of fruits, and we owe it an immense debt of gratitude." The remarks concluded in a more serious vein, with discussions about problems that faced apple growers of the day. But we hope the above passage gives you some idea of the general flavor flavor of the speech. How do you like them apples? Political Terms for Beginners... One of the most ingenious ingenious inventions of this millennium millennium _ undoubtedly is the parking lot. The need for such a thing most likely can be traced back centuries. The Romans needed some place to park their chariots and cowpeople needed some stationary place to tie their horses just as we need some place to rest our autos. We could jiark our cars on. boulevards, but that would ruin the grass. Hence, in our infinite wisdom, we take green space, pave over it and create an area to park cars. Progress, of course, requires requires some sacrifices now and then and parking parking lots could be considered considered such a sacrifice. But the existence of such a facility comes with a financial cost as well. Once a parking lot has been established, it has to be maintained. Lines have to be drawn to indicate where cars may park. The paved area has to be cleared of snow in the winter and kept free from litter during during the drier months. Parking meters were invented to make people pay to park to cover the cost of operating the lot. Parking would have been simple if everyone who used the spots paid for the opportunity to park their car. Unfortunately, some people didn't, thus came the invention of parking tickets and officers to enforce enforce those tickets. Recently the parking lot at the Statesman has been paved and employees employees had to find alternate places to park their vehicles. vehicles. Naturally we chose to park in the Silver St. parking lot or along King St. in front of our building. building. Report from Parliament by ROSS STEVENSON, M.P. for Durham As the House of Commons Commons resumes this week, we begin what is known officially officially as the Third Session of Canada's 34th Parliament. That's not so complicated as it may sound. A Parliament Parliament is made up of the Members that you and other voters elect at a federal general general election. This 34th Parliament Parliament was elected on November November 21, 1988. Each Parliament is divided into segments which are called Sessions. In earlier times when Parliament generally sat only during the winter and spring, those six or seven months usually made up a Session. Nowadays, with the House of Commons not infrequently infrequently meeting during all or part of each month of the year, Sessions often run longer. The First Session of this Parliament met only a few days in December, 1988, to pass the Canada-U.S. trade agreement. The Second Session Session has been under way since April, 1989. There was a lot more to it than the Question Periods you may have watched on television. Much important legislation legislation was enacted, including completion of extensive renovations renovations to the tax system which began during the previous previous Parliament. Unemployment Unemployment Insurance was overhauled so more money can be used for worker training, training, and to improve maternity maternity benefits. Our armed forces forces were sent to the Persian Gulf conflict. A comprehensive farm income income protection plan was approved, and an environment environment Green Plan announced. announced. Controlling the deficit was a major concern, leading to significant cuts in federal spending and new tax and revenue measures. Pension and RRSP tax rules were changed to give Canadians Canadians better opportunities to save for their retirement years. As well, veterans programs programs where enhanced, a new Broadcasting Act was adopted, and a new board m established to investigate transportation accidents. These are just a few examples examples of what was accom- E lished during a very busy econd Session. Following our Parliamentary Parliamentary tradition, the Third Session opens with a Throne Speech, read in the Senate Chamber by the Governor General, as representative of the Queen, our constitutional constitutional head of state. The Throne Speech is an important important ritual. In it the government government outlines its legislative É lans for the coming session, luring the following days of debate opposition parties have an opportunity to criticize criticize the government's plans and put forward their own proposals, and individual MPs can speak on virtually any topic of concern'to them and their constituents. With national unity in the balance, this quite probably probably will be one of the most important Sessions in our nation's history. It will be a time for some very fundamental fundamental rethinking of our present constitutional structure structure and what we want and can realistically try to achieve for the future. Those who follow the House of Commons closely will notice some changes have been made to the rules under which it operates. Among other things, sitting hours will be longer, but the number of days it sits will be reduced slightly, giving MPs more time to spend back home with their constituents. constituents. That's to meet the special needs of those Members Members representing ridings in eastern and western Canada. Canada. These rule changes resulted resulted from extensive consultation consultation and discussions by the House leaders of the three major political parties. The aim is to make Parliament Parliament a more modern and efficient efficient institution, and to help ' MPs maintain closer contact with the people who elect them. This promises to be an extremely interesting Session Session of Parliament, with a great deal at stake for all of us who care about the future of our country. It was a minor inconvenience inconvenience but most of us had no problem paying to park our cars for a few days. The problem some of us encountered, however, involved receiving tickets for parking at broken meters. meters. In one day, three of our employees who had to park at broken meters returned returned to their vehicles to find tickets affixed to their windshields. I too, had the threat of a ticket looming over my head when I mistakenly parked at a meter that ate my money but didn't acknowledge I could park at the spot. Most people, I'm sure, accept the fact that if the time expires before they move their car and they haven't paid any additional additional money, they will receive a parking ticket. What doesn't seem fair is to be fined for parking if money has been paid and the meter hasn't registered registered the payment. I understand parking enforcement officers aren't psychic and can only determine if money has been paid by looking at the time on the meter. They obviously can't know that a person put $1 into a meter but that the meter didn't recognize recognize the payment. Once the sign says expired, expired, then the time to park at the spot is over. But, if people who park in the lot are paying for the upkeep of that lot, shouldn't the facility be maintained and meters that are broken be repaired? repaired? The. average citizen has no problem with paying paying to park. But to pay and then be fined because of broken equipment isn't the public's public's fault. It may be a tight financial financial year, but money is tight for everyone. To fork over $5 after paying $1 to park doesn't seem fair. Throne Speech Reader Feels We Have Lost Competitive Edge RR. 4, Bowmanville, L1C 3K5. Dear Sir: I refer to T. Kindratiuk's letter "Igloos Are Not Made at Home" in your 8 May issue. issue. I not only agree with Mr. Kindratiuk that we should be producing our own "Recycling "Recycling Igloos" instead of having having to import them from Germany; but I would further further suggest that we should be selling them to countries like Germany and Japan. The same as. we should be selling cars, TV sets, radios, cameras, etc. to those countries. countries. Most of us own many of these items, and even though some of them carry a North American manufacturer's manufacturer's logo, most can be identified as having been produced beyond the shores of North America. Is it really free trade, high taxes, the GST, or the alleged greed of big business in their attempt to make a profit, that are. causing our plight? Or might a lot of our difficulties in not being able, to produce and sell our manufactured manufactured goods to other countries be shared with the huge demands of unions over the years for higher and higher wages and benefits benefits for their workers. Correct Correct me if I am wrong, but I have heard fairly weltfound- ed rumours that the average GM line worker costs GM some $60-$70,000 yearly in terms of wages and all benefits. benefits. If that is even close to the truth then no wonder we are having difficulty in selling selling North American manu factured cars at home let alone beyond our shores. My remarks are not meant to be derogatory towards towards unions, but rather to point out that all of us, in all fields of endeavour, whether unionized or not, have become become so accustomed to reaching into the pot of gold and pulling out handfuls of I pullii odies" ' -goodies - ' with a minimum of effort, that we seem to have lost the ability, or the will, or the "guts" to create, finance, finance, build, and SELL our "Igloos" to other countries. When we can again start doing doing that; when we can again start competing, in price and quality, with any other country in the world then - our own "Igloos" will be in demand. Yours truly, W. Stewart. Golden Dragon Acrobats Amaze Crowd at B.H.S. Auditorium Members of the Golden Dragon Acrobats form a hu- May 8. The performers were appearing in the final in- - man pyramid during the finale of a show at the Bow- stallment of the St. Paul's Performing Arts 1990-9"l : manville High School auditorium last Wednesday, series. -I: <ls Pressing Matters In One Small Town by John E. James - "Seeking the Real Ontarian" Pity poor (we speak purely in a symbolic sense) Keith Spicer and his "Find the Real Canada" Committee, This is an impossible task. No matter how much money Spicer's Spenders throw at the objective, it will never be achieved. That doesn't mean everyone should turn their backs on the guy. One thing most definitely in our nature is Good Samaritanism. We're delighted to assist, and will to do so by pointing out why the Spicer Commission won't work. Of course, if we succeed, another question is raised: "How come Mulroney couldn't deduce the inevitable outcome himself?" Oops, best not to jump ahead, Let's go back to finding a "Real" Canadian. Wait a minute; it may be argued we have no right to speak for our French-Canadian counterparts in Quebec, Province of. Oh Dear, what to do? Compromise is everything, We'll limit our search to ' the "Real Ontarian". Help us out here. Quick, figure out the single most identifiable characteristic you possess; the one thing which sets us Ontarians apart. Ilmmmm. If your're stuck for an answer, don't feel bad. In all probability, our most identifiable trait is the fact that no two Canadians (sorry, Ontarians) .nod heads the same way on more than a single topic. Perhaps a. qualifier should be added. Each of us is firmly convinced our own opinion on any given topic is absolute, non-negotiable gospel truth. Might as well add one other ingredient to the mix while we're at it: many Ontarians seem to have convinced themselves that the province owes them a living, whether they earn it or not. Consider the case of the Toronto Maple Leafs, otherwise known as "Ontario's Hockey Team". Talk about poetic justice! "Reap what ye sow" thinking at its purest level, right up there with the new provincial Budget from the Ministry of Deliverance. Back to The Buds. Somehow the collective brain cells on the Leafs' current board of directors decided ticket prices should be raised for the coming year. A single seat in the Gold section at Maple Leaf Gardens will cost $40 next season! For that princely sum the season ticket holder receives: a chance to watch Wendell's back spasm occur; front row seats for the annual goalie "Parade of Saviours"; the opportunity to witness unrivaled blockbuster trades of the infamous "Courtnall for ICordic" ilk; and the occasional glimpse behind the scenes, as various survivors in the Ballard family stage intermission fights in the lobby with Yolanda Whatsername over who gets to walk the bloody dog. What in the world is wrong with Hockey Night in Canada? Why, if they shoe-horn a nightly debate featuring Yolanda et al between periods right after Don Cherry's segment, ratings would soar. Goodbye A1 Bundy, hello Twin Peaks. No question The Leafs are an institution; a mental institution. And anybody paying $40 to watch them play should be admitted. That's not to say Toronto won't be a legitimate contender for the Stanley Cup next year. Yeah, we're serious. In fact, they may even be the favourite, Remember where you heard this first. Not content to bury Ontario's credit rating with its recent Kamikaze budget, our NDP government wants to create a new Professional Sports Ministry, with the deposed Evelyn "Loose Lips" Gigantcs as cabinet ministress, or mistress, or whatever. Her first act will be to call for introduction of "Play Equity" legislation, a Gigantec step forward which will dramatically impact on the NHL...particularly on Toronto's Maple Leafs. That is correct,. Watch for a formal declaration that any NHL team visiting Ontario will soon be subjected to "fair play" rules. If there are twenty-odd teams in the league, (we gave up counting two expansions ago), it's only fair that each team is entitled to win the league at least once every twenty-odd years. The Leafs are already at the "thirty-odd" year level since the last time they won the cup. Nobody cares if the New York Rangers have waited even longer. The team is located in the government's home town. And something has to be done to justify those $40 seats. Need we say more? No, but let's do it anyway. The only thing which, could block The Leafs' triumphant march to the Cup next year is another piece of NDP legislation, the brand new Affirmative Action law. Specifically, all employees of business located in Ontario (believe it not, Leafs are still considered a "business") will be forced to undergo gynecological testing. If 50% of the Leafs do not possess ovaries, their business licence will be revoked until the club's male/female ratios do' represent similar prqportions. Relax. Don't worry about it. The way they've played in recent years, it shouldn't be a problem.