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

Ae RRA it i Ah en wh or Ho 1, SYA Br rh Fi Dey LR h LYE ZA TL AN FL 0 | { | 0 ment, and the Canadian people who depend on the mails. This labour dispute between the union (CUPW) and the post office management has been marked byg incredible bitterness and rancor on both sides, and the Liberal government, with an always watchful eye on the polls, has indicated that back-to-work legislation is a strong possibility. Will that help? Forcing workers back on the job might keep some of the mail moving, but it is obvious it will do nothing to improve the level of service over the long run. To say that the post office needs a complde overhaul, from top to bottom, is something that's been said a hundred times in dozens of reports and chance and let their names stand for election to public office? Surely there must be some women who feel they are just as capable of running the affairs of the Township as men. After all, this is 1978. The Post Office For weeks now, indications from all sides pointed to the inevitability of a strike by the 23,000 inside postal workers across Canada. -- And sure enough, like some self-fulfilling prophecy, the strikes started last Friday, as soon as the workers were in a legal position to do so. Why Not??? With nomination day, October 23, now less than a week away, the number of declared candidates who will be seeking a seat on Scugog council on November 13 has not exactly reached flood-tide proportions. That likely will change, however, by the end of this week, and up to 5:00 p.m. this coming Monday when nominations close. While there is a fair amount of interest around ay Scugog in the upcoming election, the lack of a single The sad part Is hat U1 Is 5 'nowin siiuiation for studies. The time to start 'that overhaul was AA "'burning issue" in front of the voters has been noted everybody involved - the postal workers, the govern yesterday. ay by some observers as why so far anyway, election Si fever has been somewhat subdued. EA As more and more candidates state their intent- AYN ions, one cannot help but note a striking absence of women willing to take a shot at one of the seven seats on the Scugog council. While it is safe to say that municipal politics has been and is today pretty much a male domain, there have over the years been some rather notable exceptions. Charlotte Whitton in Ottawa and True Davidson in East York both left their mark on the political scene in those municipalities. Women NT old a -- iy = -- ' pty WN a SE ALS De nal presently sit as the Mayor of London, Ontario, and hi St.John's Newfoundland, and there are several i strong female members of the Metropolitan Toronto Wy council. Nonetheless, the number of women holding or even seeking public office, remains far less than men. Of the 30 members of the Durham Region council, just three are women. In the Scugog municipal election two years ago, there were 19 candidates for seven seats, and not'one woman among them. There have Se. a 2 Sond Tin x ar SSE Se RO 5a oN) CHE CAISSI TELLER 3 3 been no women elected to Scugog council since the Sih formation of Regional government in 1974, and to our * 4 knowledge there has never been a woman elected to PE . the old Port Perry Village council. ~ Just why women in Scugog feel inclined not to get actively involved in the political process is some- thing of a mystery. Some might argue that politics, especially in the rural and semi-rural areas of Ontario, is still very much governed by the chauvanistic attitude that a woman's place is in the home. There may still be some truth in that, but one should keep in mind that Old Reach Township elected Lucille Gray to council several years ago. In 1978, there is not reason at all why a woman in Scugog Township or any place else, should feel uncomfortable about seeking public office, or feel poe that she will be excluded simply because she is a 272 IZ Woman. "Wir! MY peas anv' YOUR coral, irl BE quire A JOIN. I Are there no women in Scugog prepared to take the --dp-- bill WRITING PLEASURES ONE OF the deepest satisfactions in writing a column of this kind is the knowledge that you are getting into print the angers and frustrations of a lot of other people, who have no recourse for their resentments, and consequently take 'them out on the old man or the old lady. How do you know this? Well, because people write you letters cheering you on to further attacks, and other people come up to you, perfect strangers, shake hands warm- ly, and say, 'By the Holy Ole Jumpin! Bill, you really hit the nail on the head." This can be a little disconcerting, as you are never quite sure which nail they are referring to. If the congratulator is a woman, I smile weakly and change the subject. Because sure as guns, though she thought you were one of nature's noblemen for your assault on male chauvinism last week, she'll turn on you like a snake when, she reads tomorrow's paper, with the column exposing female chauvinism. Speaking recently to a class of potential writers in a creative writing course, I tried to pass along the persdnal satisfaction one gets from this type of personal journalism. I emphasized the 'personal' satisfaction, TT BAIT smiley because there's a lot more of that involved than there is of the other kind, financial satisfaction. Columnists and freelance writers have no union working for them, nor any professional association, as have doctors, lawyers, teachers. They have only their own talent and wit and perseverance with which to penetrate the thick heads and thicker skins of editors and publishers. But it's a great feeling when you vent your wrath, say, about the rapaciousness of mechanics, and you are button-holed six times in the next three days by people with horror stories about mechanics you can scarcely believe. Trouble is, they all want you to write another column about mechanics, and put some real meat into it. This means, in effect, that they would happily stand in the wings and applaud when you were sued for libel. Some readers would like you to be constantly attacking whatever it is that they don't like. Capitalist friends are aghast when you refuse to launch an assault on capital gains taxes. Welfarist friends think you are a traitor and a fink when you won't attack the government for not providing Ti Bah x wo wr colour TV for everyone on the take. I am not by nature an attacker, and I think there is nothing more boring than a writer of any kind who tries to make a career of being a "'hard-hitting"' journalist. Once in a while my gently bubbling nature boils over. Throwing caution and syntax to the winds, I let my spleen have a field day and try to throw some sand in the grease with which many aspects of society are trying to give us a snow job. And that's one of the finest paragraphs I've ever written, if mixed metaphors are your bag. Fair game for the hard-hitter are: garage mechanics, plumbers, postal workers, supermarkets, civil servants, and politi- cians. Most of them can't hit back, and everybody hates them, except garage mechanics and their wives, plumbers and their wives, etc., etc. Smaller fry are doctors, lawyers, teach- ers, used car salesmen. They all squeal like dying rabbits when attacked, but nobody pays much attention to them except doctors and their wives, etc., etc. There are a few areas that even the hardest-hitters avoid. When have you, lately, read a savage attack on greedy farmers, callous nurses, or unloving mothers? And yet, there are lots of them around. One of these days, perhaps, one of these hard-hitting writers will muster enough guts, after about five brandies, to launch an all-out attack on the audacity of women, thinking they're as good as men. Boy, that fellow will learn what real hard-hitting is all _about. Personally, I can't stay mad at anybody long enough to be a voice of the people, or a public watch-dog, or any of those obnoxious creatures who try to tell other people how they should feel. The only constant in my rage is the blatant manipulation of self-seeking politicians who will twist and warp and wriggle and squifm and bribe for self-perpetuation in office. ® » Best example of the moment is the Tory government in Ontario, which has called a totally unnecessary election in that province through sheer hunger for greater power. Otherwise, I get a great deal more joy from touching the individual life than inflaming masses. When I get a letter from an old lady in hospital, crippled with arthritis, who has managed to get a chuckle out of my column, it makes me feel good. Recently, I got a letter from a young Seo who has immigrated to Canada. He says: * learned more about Canada and Canadians through reading your column that all the accumulated wisdom from the Canadian newsmagazines, novel and TV programs I have absorbed." Now there is a man with his head screwed onright. If I, as a newcomer, tried to get my impression of this country from magazines and TV programs, I'd catch the first boat or plane home. So, I guess I'll just try to go on talking to people, getting sore, having some fun,@ looking for sympathy in the war between the sexes. That's what life is all about, not plumbers and politicians and other horrors of the ilk.