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■I 2 The Canadian Statesman, Bowmanville, Wednesday, February 17,1993 Section Two Former Publishers Rev. W. R. Climie, 1854-1878 • M.A. James, 1878-1935 • George W. James, 1935-1957 Produced weekly by James Publishing Company Limited For 139 Years, Our First Concern Has Been Our Community Publisher - John M. James Assoc. Publisher - Richard A. James Plant Manager - Donald J. Bishop Ad. Manager - Brian G. Purdy Editor - Peter Parrott ^ Production Rick Patterson, Julie Cashin-Oster, Ross Fisher, Laurens Kaldeway, Doug Lugtenburg, Sharon McMullen, Barb Patterson, Ralph Rozema, Jim Snoek, Vance Sutherland, Jim Tuuramo c Advertising Laveme Morrison Editorial Brad Kelly, Lorraine Manfredo, Laura J. Richards Office Angela Luscher, Junia Carnegie, Grace McGregor, Nancy Pleasance, Marilyn Rutherford, Barb Schouten P.O. Box 190,62 King St. W. z Bowmanville, Ontario, L1C 3K9 416-623-3303 Fax 416-623-6161 Gag Laws Before the next general election, the federal government had belter clarify some of the laws which are being discussed as they pertain to electoral advertising. The National Citizens' Coalition, in its reading of the proposed new electoral laws, believes that they would virtually prohibit newspapers, ■ magazines and the electronic media from supporting or opposing political parties or candidates during an election. Essentially, the proposed laws leaves all electoral advertising to the politicians and political parlies or their agents. In other words, citizens' groups would be forbidden to spend more than $1,000 in advertising their point of view. That's not exactly a princely sum when you consider that some national groups might want to take their message across Canada. According to the proposed law, they would be forbidden to do so. Furthermore, the National Citizens' Coalition claims that "This gag law would effectively prohibit most of the media from exercising their freedom of speech during elections by endorsing -- or otherwise -- political parties." The coalition's president, David Somerville, goes on to say that there could be "No more ringing editorials or columns, no more fiesty talk show hosts or commentators, fearlessly stating their views." Would someone please say it isn't so? Or, at least, would someone clarify this situation? Because, if this particular interpretation of the law is correct, then newspapers and all members of the media have surely lost an important freedom. Not all newspapers endorse political parlies or candidates. But, surely they have the right to do so if that is their choice. How can there be. open discussion of issues if newspapers-and other branches of the media are not entitled to state positions? And, not only are newspapers and commentators having their rights ■ infringed upon, but also members of the public as well. Until the introduction of the proposed electoral "gag" laws, it was the : right of organized groups to place advertising for or against political parties and the positions they represented. Now, it seems that such groups can only express themselves up to the point where their $1,000 in advertising expenses runs out. And thé wording of the electoral regulations suggests that even articles written about issues might be subject to the aforementioned rules. In other words, a group may be limited to spending no more than $1,000 to support or oppose a particular parly. But, what if that same group calls a press conference and newspapers publish articles ;about their views? Is this oris this not allowable under the federal gag law? Certainly, the rules need to be clarified well in advance of the upcoming election, especially if some organizations wish to challenge these regulations in the courts. Of course, there is a better way. Rather .than putting unnecessary limits on. the freedom of news media and citizens, the government ought to scrap altogether its federal election restrictions on advertisements by groups outside of the main political parties. We suppose that all three of the federal parlies are supporting the restrictions on electoral advertising because they fear that poor, misguided citizens may be swayed by groups able to muster large advertising budgets to get their message across. We think the government should give the public credit for more intelligence. And, it goes without saying that political parties are being self-serving by clamping down on advertising which might be placed by organized groups with views different than their own. Ideas ultimately will be judged on their own merits. The public is not as stupid as the government imagines. Therefore, it really doesn't matter how much an organization can spend in advertising its position, that position must stand or fall on its own merits. So long as you have an informed, and interested electorate, you cannot bamboozle them by slick advertising campaigns. Unfortunately, the electoral regulations seem likely to leave citizens less informed and less interested in the political process. And, to make matters worse, they will be (for the most part) subjected only to the propaganda of the main political parlies. There may be a small risk in allowing organizations other than recognized political parlies to freely advertise during federal elections. For example, a group might attempt to publish outright lies or misrepresentations and there may not be time to print corrections and retractions until after ihc damage was done. Yes, there is a slight risk of allowing freedom of speech. But, that risk is not nearly as bad as any of the alternatives we can imagine. Secondary School Teachers Accept New Offer by Laura J. Richards ' Letter to the Editor Reader Prefers "Municipality" to "Town" Dear Sir: nesses, factories, schools, churches It will be interesting to see if your etc. Whereas terms such as - Munici- editorial of 10 February titled "Last pality, or Township, conjure up, in my Chance" concerning the name change to - Town of Clarington, will stir up yet another hornet's nest. I think you are absolutely right in doing so as I for one do not agree with the term - "Town of..." I thought the selected, name, (Clarington), was to be prefaced prefaced instead with tire term - "Municipality "Municipality of...". The term "town" to me, depicts a specific built up area of homes, busi- by Rick James mind, a large geographical area which includes a number of towns and villages, villages, with a preponderance of farm land in between. I really have no objections to the name Clarington, but I frankly do not see that it, or any other name, really does much to help clarify the present or future situations. If I had my choice I would name our rather large administrative area simply - "Municipality, (or Township), Township), of Durham East", and allow our communities to get on with life, and names, as they have known thefn for past generations. Yours truly, Bill Stewart Bennett Road Bowmanville, Ontario. Editor's Note: We erred in referring referring to the new name as being Town of Clarington. It will be "Mu- As you're doing yoiir income tax return this year, consider how your T4 slip compares to those of some of the top chief executive officers of major corporations. For example,, did you know that Robert Stempel, former chairman of General Motors, was paid $2.4 million in 1991? Or how about Paul Stem of Northern Telecom who was paid $2.9 million? Then there's John Akers, chairman chairman of I.B.'M. whose annual pay cheque rings in at $3.9 million. But, all of the above are just petty cash to Paul Lego of Westinghouse who received more than $6.2 million in 1991. All of these are, of course, in U.S. dollars. Besides sharing big pay cheques, all of those listed above have something else in common. They are all unemployed. Nobody is immune from the global economic crunch we're in, and just like a professional sports team, the lop banana is the first one to be axed. And just like a sports team, a C.E.O. fired from one company will likely be snatched up by another very quickly. Case in point, former Northern Telecom boss Paul Stern will likely become the top gun of I.B.M. The immediate reaction of most people to the high priced help is disbelief, jealousy, and frustration frustration that a portion of your phone, home computer, computer, or washing machine purchase is going towards towards the litige salaries of lop executives. There's even an impulse to boycott a company until its salaries arc reduced to levels that arc acceptable to the guy with a wife and.three kids, making $6 an hour on an assembly line. But, wait a minute, If we're going to corn- season driving a Formula One race car? That's still low compared to fellow racer Ayrton Senna who made about $26 million in '92, Still not making enough money yet? Then let's move to the world of entertainment. Nobody will ever admit to liking Oprah, Geraldo, Madonna, or Michael Jackson, but somebody's making all of them incredibly wealthy by preying on our appetite for weirdness. weirdness. After considering the responsibilities of a chief executive officer versus the obligations of athletes and entertainers, perhaps $3,9 million a year is a bargain to save a company like I.B.M. Just ask the employees of Chrysler who put their faith in a high-priced suit named Lee Iacocca to save their jobs. As the saying goes, "you get what you pay for." 1 nicipality of Clarington", according to the latest regional government decision. decision. That should ease some of the concerns, although die question of the Clarington name still remains. Auto Insurancè Dear Editor: The public hearings on Auto Insurance Insurance Reform are now complete. I was pleased to make my presentation to the Committee Reviewing Bill 164 in support of the government. The O.M.P.P. has many fine points, yet was found lacking in medical medical and financial compensation to innocent innocent victims. The 10 year time limit on the $500,000.00 medical allowance and harsh verbal threshold are unacceptable. unacceptable. Bill 164 is a blend of statutory benefits benefits combined with access to the courts for pain, suffering and psychological psychological injury, subject to a $15,000.00 Continued on Page3 _ Awards for Writers Every so often, journalists get recognized recognized for having done something exceptionally well, by the people in their own field. Since we journalists don't get the chance to toot our own horns very often, often, I want to offer my congratulations to Brad, our sports guy. If you have already read Brad Kelly's Kelly's Sport Thoughts this week, you know that he won an award for his Three-on-Three Basketball Tournament. Tournament. The award in the community service category was sponsored by the Ontario Community Newspaper Association,. Association,. ! Although The Canadian Statesman did not sweep all of the awards this year, as the Port Perry Star seemed to have done last year, we're all proud that Brad's organizational efforts were appreciated by someone other than ourselves. As for this writer, I received an Honorary Mention for an article ;i wrote on ostriches back in October. It was entitled: Big Birds Could Mean Big Bucks for Local Family. It's rather ironic, I must admit, that this particular article got mentioned, since Lorraine (the other news writer on staff) suggested I submit it. As for Brad, we will have lo tether him until hot air in his head cools down so he won't escape! Swoon Time Caught an interview with Donny Osmond on W5 Sunday nighl. It was really hard not to compare the interview with the one I saw Mi-. chael Jackson give last week. Clean cut (and sexy) Donny appears appears to be happy with his wife Debbie Debbie (or was that Debby), a bunch of kids and living in North York. He also seems to be enjoying his "new-found" fame in Toronto. Starring Starring in Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Technicolor Drcamcoat, Donny has been singing and dancing before packed houses since last June. He and Michael have different lifestyles. lifestyles. So, comparing that part of their lives is difficult. And Donny, from all reports, was not abused as a child as was Michael. In fact, his family was portrayed as being loving and generous, not dysfunctional dysfunctional as the Jackson family has been described. / However, for a little over 10 years, even his fans did not seem to hear about him. Donny had disappeared. From the interview on Sunday, some of the holes were filled in. For instance, he did try live theatre earlier in his 20's but that was a bomb. He only performed one night. If my memory serves me right, that was in the Pirates of Penzance in New York City -- on Broadway! What a heart-breaker that must have been for him. All that work and he ended up with nothing. When I think that Donny Osmond now lives in Toronto, I wonder if I will ever see him walking along the street by the Elgin Theatre. What would be even more thrilling would be to interview him and take his photo. Sigh, maybe some day. McDonald's Restaurants One of my most memorable visits to the Golden Arches was back in third year of university after an all- Continued on Page3 Under the category of really petty things.. You may recall a few weeks ago that a pic- ; turc of a pole with two "No Exit" signs ap- plain about huge corporate salaries, we'd better peared in this column. You'll be glad to know not support the Blue Jays anymore. Alter all, that the town has remedied the situation and re- who makes bigger bucks in a year than the stars moved the second sign, of baseball teams? Or how about Michael Now, if the town could do something about Andretti who will make about $10 million next the huge line-ups for swimming registration... H m W<e Asked Should council proceed with the renaming of the Town of Newcastle to the Municipality of Clarington? .. .And You Said Bill Blair Bowmanville "It's a waste of money. They should have left it at Bowmanville to start with." Ray Candler Glenn Eldridge Francine Bowmanville Bowmanville Nicholas "Why not? Who's "I don't like it, the Bowmanville saying that bigger is change to Clarington "j don't think they better?" - I've lived here all shou ld change it. I my life. It's hard to i ove the Town of say-' Newcastle, always did." Next week's question: Do von think that M.u Don,this should loo,tie ,t rest,nil.ml in Lowin.invillu' m