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'Editorial Comment i SHORE {CONTROLS : \\ by Dean J. Kelly Ontario cottage owners may get right to vote by mail. Ontario's 300,000 cottages represent more than 750,000 voters who collectively pay property taxes estimated to be more than $100 milion Victoria county has more than 8,000 cottages. Councillors often opt for the local interest, ignoring pleas from cottagers for services because they know that the cottagers are unlikely to drive through wintery weather to vote. On the average the ratio is THREE TO FOUR cottagers to each permanent resident...a powerful voting block. Maybe local councillors will think twice before denying services to the 'city slickers"...as they were once labelled. Summer residents spend millions of dollars in small communities...often the difference between survival and bankruptcy for local merchants. FOOT IN. MOUTH DISEASE: It seems Earle McLaughlin, head of the Royal Bank, really put all women down with his statement that there was not a woman in Canada capable of sitting on the Board of the Royal Bank. Chauvenism extraordinaire! Is the real reason that the all male board is afraid a woman might rock the boat by letting some of the inside, maybe not too ethical decisions, out te public? Royal Banks financing take-overs of Canadian industry by foreign companies is not in the best interest of the country nor Canadians. One wonders how many skeletons are hid- ing in the hallowed halls of the bank's boardrooms? Normally we do not question editorials in the STAR but the Unchurched one on bilingualism is off base. It would appear the writer is unaware of Bill 22 in Quebec making FRENCH the official language denying English-speaking their rights. Ask the parents of an Italian immigrant who chose to send their children to English schools and are denied the right. A recent CBC television in depth study found that in cases where children were subjected to the English qualification test before being allowed to take English schooling... those with a complete fluency in English were rated by the Quebec examining Board as failures with marks as low as 20 per cent. These were people completely fluent in English...already bilingual (Italian and English). . There are about 60 million people in North American that speak Spanish. South America has a pulation of 150 million with Spanish its main "language. Spanish is widely spoken in Florida, New York, and some other U.S. states, the Carribbean, / Zo WN . South America and Europe. Hundreds of millions speak Spanish...many more than speak French. 1 must question the statement in the editorial "not allow bigots to monopolize air time and letters-to-the- editor. Is the United Church not monopolizing the editorial page with its own views by supplying weekly news papers with 'canned' editorials. Letters-to-the- editor are healthy signs of people who care and vent their feelings. Thev are welcome in a democracy. For the record, I was raised in the United Church faith, both Sunday School and Church. By the way, China, with one-quarter of the world's population...some 800 million are teaching their children ENGLISH...the language of commerce the world over. Tobject to the use of French on the grounds of waste and the immense cost involved. I took three years of French and with no one to speak to, it was a complete waste of school tax dollars, already taking more than 50 per cent ofthe entire municipal tax dollar. ' The latest to join the CB craze is the Lindsay Police department. Town council approved $508.25 for the system. Officers feel having CB Radios can provide fast communication in case of accidents, fire, and emergency situations, saving valuable life-saving time. It's also good public relations. CFTO-TV talk show host Joyce Davidson has taken my advice in making clear the names of guests on the show. A number of prominent doctors have appeared with names that were difficult to spell and locate. The one in question recently was one with Dr. Norman Shealy and Dr. Howard Eisenberg on new treatment methods including the occult. I had a phone call from the producer Sandra Faire explaining that they did not have the budget to print the names on the bottom of the screen as they do on many U.S. interview shows. With so many commercials...how could CFTO possibly have budget problems? At any rate, Joyce (Mrs. David Suskind) has some big names on her shows including Zsa Zsa Gabor, Ann Miller, Sylvia Miles to name a few. Producer Sandra Faire tells me that the medical shows ~draw the most mail. Merv Griffin has also said that his most watched shows were the ones on nutrition. Dr. Robt, Stety of N.Y. city says there are over 2,000 hysterectomy performed every day in the U.S. Many on women in their twenties. The rate is four times higher than in Britain. Removal of the uterus has become the number one fad among women in the U.S. The going rate among doctors in New York is about $1,000. according to Dr. Berman, author of book, "Solid Gold Stethoscope', who claims there are 3.2 million unnecessary operations each year. The federal government's $3.2 million advertising campaign failed to persuade Canadians to save oil and other forms of energy, according to the International Energy Agency in Paris. It says energy consumption rose faster in Canada last year than in most other western countries. The Netherlands did best of any country with a 20 per cent reduction, Japan with 19.7 and the U.S. with 12.7 per cent. : Election Time The municipal elections are approaching rapidly, and by all indications so far, it appears like the citizens of Scugog are going to have some choices on election day. So far, seven' people have stated they would definitely run for public office, and another five people have indicated they are at various stages of making up their mind. Considering there are only seven seats on Scugog Council, that works out to a contest for each seat...not bad for a municipal election. Yet, if this election turns out to be the usual, only a minority of the voting public will have elected their representatives. Municipal elections, without the federal political contests, usually reveal something more than public apathy but usually fall far short of public enthusiasm. B After all, asks the skeptic, what an be done from under the thumb of regional, provincial, federal government? Do not the purse strings hang elsewhere? And, does this not effectively strike initiative off local agendas and replace it with a program of local caretaking and administration? These arguments seem to be so prevolent that many local councillors themselves have accepted the role of passive political gatekeepers, passing leader- ship through the local ranks, cataloguing, filing or reacting when a reaction is needed. Hardly grass roots leadership. More like artificial turf. To contribute passively at this, perhaps the most important level of our democratic federalism, is a sad and alarming sign of public and political indifference. i ' But before the public can point their finger at slow-moving, slow-acting, local politics, let's first examine the kind of encouragement we the public have offered these men. In some municipalities, entire slates are elected by acclamation.. While some may claim such cases reveal a council of able and responsible people, one cannot but wonder if such "ableness" and responsibility could have withstood the test of the ballot box. We believe that initiative and drive, far-sighted- ness and perseverance are as important in Scugog Township Council as they are at Queen's Park or Parliament Hill. More so here, in fact, if we are to overcome the problems that face this community. We need new ideas, old and proved solutions to new problems, or new solutions to old problems. But most of all, we need action. Action to go out and get, rather than sit and receive. Action to anticipate, rather than simply react. We need to say, rather than simply be told. With the right mixture of aggressiveness as well as caution, local municipalities might be able to recapture some of the responsibilities and initiative that once were exercised at the grass roots level. It might do well to note that much of the responsibilities hasn't been usurped from local governments.---it's been offered by the principal of vaccuum. : It might be a good idea to demand some of it back, and perhaps the initial step would be to show that we can handle it. And that takes concerned, educated, and respons- ible voters. Which brings us full circle. PORT PERRY STAR Company Limited Phone 985 7333 (ecia Serving Port Perry, Reach, Scugog and Cartwright Townships J. PETER HVIDSTEN, Publisher Advertising Manager John Gast, Editer Member of the Canadian Community Newspaper Associaton and Ontario Weekly Newspaper Association Published every Wednesday by the Port Perry Star Co. LM, Port Perry, Ontario Aufhorired as second class mail by fhe Post Office Department, Oltawa, and for payment of postage in cash Second Class Mail Registration Number 0245 Subscription Rate: In Canada $0.00 per year Elsewhere $10.00 per year. 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