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RMN LAE BE WO CPE TO Tas Sonn [8 | Cpaasind 3 GENUINE" we at . R AR PRR oJ NAY TL Seat "in ar ~--a a he 34 2 Ta A Nn \ 4 DSTA DAGON ER EE PUGS TRL GE TS HRN POCO editorial poge ° A Tiny Step > So, our federal government is finally starting to i take a serious interest in the development of alternative sources of energy. Over the next five years, nearly $400 million will be forthcoming from the federal coffers to do two things: purchase outright Canadian-made solar water and space heaters; and provide grants for the research and manufacture of equipment that uses alternate sources of energy. While $400 million is but a mere drop in the bucket compared to the amounts being spent in the private and public sectors to develop and transport conventional sources of fossile energy which are finite, at least one can say that the government move is a step in the right direction. The problems centering around the availability -------- vo iaNE | PT gv] - i fC mae { PAIN, GATEAUX [fe mnt eZ ET TARTES [lake "= : , : 157 of energy are of concern to us all. While there are 7s | y | 20 conflicting reports about how much conventional oi LLER | E , i 0 energy remains in the world, a couple of things are A Re i ' NS DES CLEFS 83 known for certain. NOUS COUPONS S$ The first is that despite doubling of costs in the past half-dozen years, our consumption has not declined. In fact we are still using available sources of energy at an increasing rate every year. The second is that the harnessing of alternate forms of energy (solar, tidal, winds, the burning of solid waste) is within our technological grasp. On a small scale it is proving to be more and more cost-efficient. What is now needed is the develop- ment of this technology to provide sources of energy on a large scale, large enough to reduce our dependence on non-renewable sources. } The $380 million the feds plan to spend to this end in the next five years certainly can't do any harm. The question remains, however, as to whether it is too little and too late. While we urgently need to develop other sources of renewable energy, we also need fo exercise some self-control in the amounts of energy of all forms that we consume each year. Abbwiiet gis py Turn Back Time? When was the last time you read anything good about the world we live in today? Judging by the conventional wisdom of our times, this must be the worst of all possible worlds. The family is breaking up; the deserts are spreading; our fish have been poisoned; violence is increasing; welfare is destroying the work ethic.... And the future -- again according to conventional wisdom -- looks even worse. We are threatened by "Ir wis 15 MARDI, THIS MUST BE QUEBEC!" dope on politics. Obsessed by the possibility peanuts. Too much government interfer- bill BORING TALK CANADIANS, on the whole, are probably the most boring conversationalists in the entire world, I don't say that idly, merely to put backs up. I say it from agonizing experience. I's not because we are a dull people, though we are. It's not because we are stupid, because we aren't. It seems to be based rather on a sort of philistinism that labels interesting conversation as a "'cissy"' pastime, fit only for dilettantes, idealists, Englishmen of a certain background, edu- cated Europeans and other such intellectual trash. Next time you're at a dinner party or any similar gathering, lend an ear. The dialogue will depress you deeply. Perhaps the real fault lies in the fact that we are basically a nation of materalists, and that we have become more and more SO, with the withering of the churches and the increasing affluence of our society. Our topics of conversation change with the decades, but remain awesomely inane in their content. A few decades ago, men could talk for hours about cars and hockey, while women smiley chattered incessantly about children and recipes. Nowadays, the men talk about real estate and boats, and women go on and on about Women's Lib and the trip abroad they have just taken or are just about to take. And they all say the same thing, or near enough. All of them, -especially the men, are absorbed by their vocations, the sadistic cruelty of the revenue department, and their latest acquisition, whether it's a power cruiser or a swimming pool in the back yard. Get a gaggle of editors together and they talk shop, golf, and how much advertising linage they carried last year. Seldom a word about a powerful editorial campaign they are going to launch to halt an evil or promote a good. Dig up a deliberation of doctors, put a glass in each hand and listen to the drivel about the inquiries of medicare, the ingrati- tude of patients, the penal taxes they pay, and the condominium they just bought down south. Not a Best or a Banting in the bunch. Lawyers are just as bad. They may be a bit more sophisticated than the doctors, but they're just as dull. Dropping hints of inside ERIE of getting a judgeship or at the very least, a Q.C. Criers of the blues about the taxes they pay. A party of politicians is even worse. Jostling for attention, back-slapping every- thing that is warm and breathing, needling the enemy, seeing everything in black and white. "They're black; we're white." Joe Clark likes westerns on TV. If figures. The big shoot-out, and let the bodies of bystan- ders fall where they may. Behind the politicians, but not far, are the civil servants. Empire huilders, defenders of the status quo. Everything in quadrupli- cate. Everything secret. The public is the enemy. Always go through channels. Keep your nose clean. Don't get a black mark on your record. Dull, dull. Ah, ha! The farmers have been sitting back enjoying this. They're every bit as bad as the rest. It's the government's fault. It's the chain stores' greed. It's the fickle public It's the weather: too hot, too cold, too dry, too wet; or, if the weather is perfect and the crops are superb, it's taking too much out of the land. Business men are just as culpable of devasting dullness in their conversation. Too many forms to fill out. Lazy clerks. Second-rate workmen. Those dam' shop- ping plazas on the edge of town. Manufacturers are in the same boat. Wages are too high. Can't get parts, what's the matter with those people? Too much absenteeism on Monday morning. Profit down .03 percent last year. Can't compete with those lousy foreigners who work for ence. Dentists ditto. They are just as dull as the others, but they commit the crime of asking a particularly dull question when your mouth is so full of junk that all you can do is grunt, and they think you are interested and agreeing with their platitudes, when what you are trying to say is, "Shut up, turkey." As you know, I always save the best to the last. When it comes to dullness supremo in conversation, I have to hand it to the teachers. They go on and on and on about some kid who just won't do his homework, or some meaningless memo from the office, or' some student who decided to spend a nice June day in God's great our-of-doors instead of in a dull classroom with a dull teacher. Maybe I've been harsh in this somewhat blanket condemnafion. Certainly none of my friends are dull conversationalists. Maybe that's why I have so few friends. Or perhaps my remarks are based on pure envy. Ihaven't a condominium in Florida. I .haven'tevena row-boat, let alone a cruiser. I haven't a two-car garage, though I have two cars, eighteen years old between them. That's it. Jealousy. I don't have a swimming pool or a little place - just forty acres, mind you - in the country. My wife is as near to nuts as can be. One kid is a hilsgiapary in Paraguay, the other can't get a job. That's why I can't stand around with the doctors and lawyers, etc., and commiserate with them on the fact that the price of steak is going absolutely out of reach of the ordinary professional man making only forty-five thou a year.