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Section Two The Canadian Statesman, Bowmanville, Wednesday, August 17, 1994 3 Last Thursday's Globe and Mail headlines read, "Prosperity returns". The story went on to say that manufacturers manufacturers were showing unbridled confidence in their economic prospects. prospects. A survey of 135 reporting companies showed an increase of al-, most 139 per cent in after-tax corporate corporate profits. The survey also showed that 40 per cent of manufacturers expect expect their volume of production to grow in the next three months. So much for those who had forecast forecast a 'no growth' situation all the time our government was in power at Queen's Park. So much for those who had forecast business in Ontario was fighting like a man with one hand tied behind their back because of the so called anti-business legislation, legislation, Bill 40 and Bill 79. The truth is now out there, and those sanguine doom and gloom thinkers and sayers, had better find a new angle in their attempts to discredit us as an antibusiness antibusiness government, and to blame us for the recession which we didn't create but inherited, when we took office in 1990. Also on another bright note, The Toronto Star of last Saturday carried the headline, "Job growth soaring on business pickup." They went on to say that Ontario has chalked up its biggest single monthly job increase, with 28,000 new positions being created, 26,000 of them full time positions. positions. Michael McCracken, chief economist with Informetrica Ltd. said, "There is a greater feeling of prosperity among employees these days. And the outlook hasn't been so bright since 1980.". As a government we were harshly criticized for letting the deficit rise during the worst part of the recession. I believe that it was the right thing to do then. The recession cost hundreds of jobs, and they cost every one of us in increased social assistance payments. payments. But, what if we had turned our backs on our friends and neighbours, in their time of greatest need, when thèy were down and out, without money to buy even the basic requirements requirements of life? I don't believe the majority majority of Ontarians wanted to live in that kind of uncaring society. The principles of fairness and compassion, compassion, I believe, have come to characterize characterize what our government is all about. Now, things have turned the corner corner we are committed to reducing Ontario's deficit, and we are committed committed to doing it in the fairest possible way. It isn't going to be an easy task. The challenge we face in this province province has partly been created by federal federal government policies. They have reneged reneged on agreements to share the cost of post-secondary education, health care and social assistance, while pursuing policies that have hurt Ontario's economy, such as high interest interest rates, free trade and attempts to call the GST by any other name. I suspect even more bad news for Ontario Ontario once the federal government brings down their early spring budget. budget. Only time will tell! Now things have turned the corner, we are committed to reducing Ontario's deficit, and we are committed to doing it in the fairest possible way. A recent article in the Toronto Sun claimed that the budget for the Premier's Office increased by nine per cent last year, while the rest of the public sector was feeling the effects effects of the Social Contract. As usual, the Toronto Sun story wasn't true. I'm convinced their idea of investigative investigative journalism consists of finding finding a cab outside of Union Station. The facts are, spending in the Premier's Premier's Office has gone down by $300,000 compared to when Mr. Peterson Peterson was Premier. And there are no extra staff members hidden as the Liberals claimed. Much of the article centred over the Premier's driver being allowed to collect overtime pay during the Social Social Contract period. In fact, the Premier's Premier's driver accumulated a large number of overtime hours during the period prior to the Social Contract. Although the driver took a number of days off in lieu of payment to reduce the total overtime accumulated, the total number of hours was just too large to completely eliminate with lieu time before the end of the last fiscal year. The driver was entitled to claim for the hours worked, and the social contract co-ordinator of the Ministry of Transportation has stated that the collective agreement with the union requires that overtime previously previously accumulated. and not taken by March 31st, 1994 be paid out. As you can see, there is nothing inappropriate about paying the overtime. overtime. Second, the Premier's Office had no authority over the issue since the driver is an employee of the Ministry Ministry of Transportation, not the Premier's Premier's Office. This was a matter between between the driver and his employer. Nevertheless, you can trust the Toronto Toronto Sun to make an issue out of nothing in their endless pursuit of bashing our government. I must say I got rather amused when I recently read what various . provincial government "nomination hopefuls" see as the most important issues to right everything wrong in Ontario. Don't replace old road signs in a systematic manner, with new ones. Don't dare put anything French on them, and then there would be money to keep hospital beds open. How easy it all seems! Anyone who is elected to serve at Queen's Park needs to be a peculiar thick-skinned workaholic who has a populist's rapport rapport with people but an intellectual's understanding of problems and issues, issues, if he or she is to juggle all the responsibilities the position entails and prosper in the rough and tumble world of legislative politics. To do, and be all of that, ain't that easy, believe believe you me. In recent public forums where the Clarington Official Plan has been open to comment, I was surprised to hear that some people want "affordable" "affordable" housing stopped because of the cost to taxpayers. There is a massive Continued on page 4 Chocolate Covered Grasshoppers Over the last week or so, all types of food have looked good as I have suffered with an infection of some sort. From last week's Orono Area bar- beque to a FOCUS potluck dinner the smell of food drove me nuts. (Hmm another food.) I began to think of the popsicles as vegetables and Gatorade as more than it really is. I was so hungry I could have eaten any thing... almost. It just so happens that in the August August issues of Harrowsmith and Equinox Equinox there are articles about people eating eating grub ...er... make that plural ... grubs. The first one that I read was "Gourmet Grub: It hops, it wiggles, it chirps. Haute cuisine goes live" by Paul Quarrington. He says it is the squeamishness that arises from the European cultures from which some of us descended that turns our stomachs at the thought of grubs, spiders and crickets slipping down our throats. Quarrington mentions some of the things that I have been thinking about the last few years. One of those ideas is this: What is the real difference, if any, between a lobster and say, a grasshopper? Well, one lives in the ocean and the other creature hops around on dry land. Sure, but both are arthropods. What do they eat? The grasshopper is a vegetarian and well, the old lobster eats that which drops to the bottom of the ocean. Sounds almost as yummy as a chocolate covered grasshopper which by the way the way, I did tiy once. While I have not seen them recently, recently, they used to be available in some gourmet stores back home. And you thought there were no gourmets on the east coast. We try to hide the gourmets! gourmets! Back to the lobster, there are parts in them that you are not supposed to eat because, rumor has it, you can become become ill. Sounds like fun, eh? Lobster has the smoothest tasting flesh (cooked) and when dipped in lemon butter or garlic butter, it simply melts in your mouth! So, what's the difference between boiled lobster and broiled meal worms, other than the fact we all feel a gut-wrenching squeeze inside? I honestly don't know. The Harrowsmith story comes with a recipe for Thai Cricket. It calls for rice noodles, garlic, ketchup, Sambal Oeleck, peanut butter, chicken stock, bean sprouts, cilantrol, roasted peanuts peanuts and 1/2 cup of dry-roasted crickets. crickets. Hmm, yuck! Sorry, my biases are showing. The article looks at honey as being "bug juice" and discusses the little fibre fibre flecks in flour or bread as being more than you have thought they are - - like flour beetles. The article instructs a person on how to dry roast crickets. Quarrington notes they taste nutty. The other article in Equinox by Adrian Forsyth has a number of photos photos in his article called: Creepy Cuisine. Cuisine. It is the photo of someone's hands holding out a handful of grub larvae that makes me wonder about our inherited inherited feelings, against eating bugs. Surely they would be just as good as lobster when boiled and dipped in lemon butter and sprinkled with freshly freshly grated pepper? So, what do you think? Could you handle eating insects or grubs? I don't know about you, but I think it is time for me to give up lobster completely ... and shrimp. After all the thoughts, it looks like lobster and shrimp are really just ocean bugs! by Rick James "Rick's Familiar Quotations" One of the most reliable sources for noteworthy statements comes from a book entitled "Bartlett's Familiar Quotations." If you need a quotation pertaining to just about any topic, Bartlett's book will provide provide a list of quotable quotes from famous figures like Winston Churchill. To a writer, this journal is just as important as a thesaurus or dictionary. But, there are some topics and quotations quotations you just won't find in Bartlett's. However, you can find these rib ticklers on our newspaper association's electronic bulletin board system. While browsing through the computer files recently, I down-loaded some of the funnier quotations quotations for this week's entertainment. For example... "Thoughts on Lawyers" Last week a mob attacked a white attorney attorney because he was defending someone accused of killing a black man, and that's wrong. He should've been attacked because because he's a lawyer. --A. Whitney Brown What's the difference between a dead cat on the road and a dead lawyer on the road? A dead cat has skid marks around it. -- Orson Bean My parents sent my brother through law school. He graduated. Now he's suing them for wasting seven years of his life. -- Mike Binder Here's an amazing story. A man in Orlando, Florida, was hit by eight cars in a row and only one stopped. The first seven drivers thought he was a lawyer. The eighth was a lawyer. --JayLeno Juries scare me. I don't want to put my fate in the hands of twelve people who weren't even smart enough to get out of jury duty." -- Monica Piper "Thoughts on Drinking" Alcohol is good for you. My grandfather grandfather proved it irrevocably. He drank two qiiarts of booze every mature day of his life and lived to the age of 103. I was at the cremation--that fire would not go but. -- Dave As tor The drinking age should be 18. When you're 18 years old you're old enough to vote. You should be old enough to drink. Look at who we have to vote for! You 1 need a drink. -- Marc Price Beer commercials are so patriotic: "Made the American Way." What does that have to do with America? Is that what America stands for? Feeling sluggish and urinating frequently? -- Scott Blakeman "Thoughts on ... Oh, Oh ...Sex!" Going to bed with a woman never hurt a ballplayer. It's staying up all night looking for them that does you in. -- Casey Stengel In the hotel there was a mirror over my bed! I was uneasy going to sleep. When I sleep I toss and turn, and when I woke up I thought I saw a naked sky diver coming at me ... But I don't know what it's there for. I really don't. You gonna shave in bed? What the hell you gonna watch? All I know is, from the way I... umm ... you get a broken neck tryin' to watch ... and Camille's a Catholic, I know she ain't peekin'! -- Bill Cosby Last week I got badly beaten up fighting fighting for a woman's honor. Next time I'll pick a smaller woman. -- Henry Gibson My sex life is very bad. If it wasn't for pickpockets I'd have no sex life at all. -- Rodney Dangerfield He just kept rushing through the love- making. Which is the part I like, the beginning beginning part. Most women are like that. We need time to warm up. Why is this hard for you guys to understand? You're the first people to tell us not to gun a cold engine. You want us to go from zero to sixty in 5.5. We're not built like that. We stall. --Anita Wise "Thoughts on Husbands" He can recall the score of the Army- Navy game of '54, the electoral votes the Republicans won in the last election, and the gas mileage of the first car he ever owned. But he can't remember what size socks he wears, the ages of his children, or the name of that old Cole Porter number that his wife refers to as "our" song. --Jane Goodsell I like a man that wears a wedding ring. 'Cause without it, they're like a shark without a fin. You pretty much got to know they're out there. -- Brett Butler My wife and I were happy.for twenty years. Then we met. -- Rodney Dangerfield "And My Favourite -- Insults" He's a self-made man ... the living proof of the horrors of unskilled labor! -- Ed Wynn Save your breath, you may want it to clean your glasses later. -- Julius Tannen That corner over by the fireplace looks kind of bare. I'd like to sec something hanging there---you. -- Lou Costello Do you know the meaning of rigor mortis? mortis? Well, you will in a minute. -- W.C. Fields They say you shouldn't say nothin' about the dead unless it's good. He's dead. Good. --Moms Mabley What would you charge to haunt a house? -- Fred Allen "And this week's best one-liner..." If my dog had your face, I'd shave his butt and teach him to walk backwards. -- Jamie Farr