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- ERA RRC AAI LR Rw A TERE CLEA Th ATL NB ad 5d ely Pik £00, Ne. yop TNR GR HU SBT Ce es By Fite A RE AE AE FLUE Ta 7 Sri hg ves BATE SREP Si) RA EP J CIR XE ORAER L 1004, PAO Se SC EN A RE Hiei SRE EAP Read % - editorial poge | 3 | i 'Scugog | i" Ratepayers The Scugog Ratepayers Association has taken a Nf a positive step forward with the decision last week that fie ii ™ £71 ; TH rg mn Pe Ts 1 the organization can if it chooses, take an active side in any issue concerning the citizens of this Township. For the past seven years, the Association through its constitution, has avoided "taking a stand" on local issues, working instead to help bring information in front of the citizens, organizing public forums for debate and discussion, and sponsoring all-candidates meetings at election time. While these functions are worthy and necessary for an organization like the Ratepayers, it was obvious that the time had come to expand its mandate to take more of an advocacy role in local issues. Firstly, by being able to take an active stance pro or con on municipal issues, the Association can't help but attract more public interest and members. And secondly, .any ratepayers or citizens organiza- tion, by its very nature, must be in a position to develop and present arguments for or against issues that touch the lives of citizens living in the com- munities. At the general meeting last week, when the decision was made to take a stance on issu, there was some concern expressed that the Ratepayers members themselves could end up split and divided : over which issues they should support or oppose. l This may very well happen from time to time. But surely the Ratepayers Association will operate along democratic lines, and any decisjon to take a stand will occur if a majority of the members desire it. And hopefully, those members who are not in favour of taking a stand one way or another on a specific issue will accept the wishes of the majority. oo We believe that an active Ratepayers Associa- 3 tion is necessary in any community, especially so in their work in the organization of the Royal Canadian "/ PRESCRIBED THAT ONCE AND / LOST My LICENCE Jo PRACTISE |" Ete LG WRN TL, EER Sin hE yt. SEN EY, ASAT = ~ =F DAL Tad LL FER Ow x ha SL a > A ~ these difficult times when there are so many crucial issues in front of us. While we endorse the decision to be able to take a stance on local issues, at the same time we trust that the Ratepayers won't start opposing issues simply for the sake of opposition. When the time comes to decide to take a stand on an issue one way or another, it should be done ° objectively, based on the facts relating to that issue. The Scugog Ratepayers Association has been in existance for the past seven years. We would urge concerned citizens in Scugog who are not members to find out about this organization, and give serious consideration to joining. Old Bills What can one say about the Old Bills? Most are now in their eighties or older, frail and bent with the passing of time, the Old Bills are veterans of the First Great War from 1914-18. The Port Perry Legion has been hosting an Old Bills Night for the past several years; an evening devoted to these veterans in recognition of their contribution to the development of Canada as a nation; their courage and sacrifice in battle; and Legion. It's easy for most of us to forget the Great War of more than 60 years ago and what the men involved in that conflict endured to help make Canada the country that it is today. The Old Bills Night held at the Legion over the t weekend was a success, as always, and certainly those veterans who were present enjoyed them- selves. We salute the Old Bills for what they did. We salute the Port Perry branch of the Royal Canadian Legion for hosting this evening of fellowship that is a most worthy way of saying we will not forget you,T ever. bill MARCH BROKE? Well, admit it, sourpuss. It's been a great winter, hasn't it? January, unbeliev- able. February cold but clear. About half the amount of snow of an average Canadian winter. My snow removal bill is about half what it was during a normal winter. And that makes me wonder. What are all those towns and cities and villages who put aside in their budgets so much for snow removal and disposal going to do with all the money they haven't spent? I'll tell you. They'll switch it to some other department, and spend it on some- thing equally as non-producing as snow removal: so much for straightening bent parking meters; an allotment to the fire department for three new checkerboards; a little dispensation to the Parks Board to repair vandalism; a portion to the Board of Works to pave over some grass for new parking meters; expenses for a councillor to go to a convention in Hawaii to study racism. You name it, but it won't be a refund to the taxpayer. smiley By the time this appears in print, the March Break will be over. This annual affair, which used to be known as Easter Holidays, has grown into a gross exercise in lowering our national balance of trade with the U.S. It involves hundreds of thousands of Canadians, parents and children, students, school teachers, in a massive airlift to the south, where they spend several million of our sick Canadian dollars getting a sunburn. Somebody should put a stop to it. It's a waste of energy, with all that oil and gas going up in smoke. It's a waste of money. And it's'a waste of time. Maybe you think I'm. just jealous, when all the teachers, and half the students, tell me they're off to Jamaica, Hawaii, Florida, the Barbados, Texas, for their one-week break. I am. But I'll be diddled if I'm going to spend a, thousand bucks, and another on my wife, to, line up in confused air terminals with all the other peasants, fly down south at some ungodly hour, stay in some hotel that has about as much style and class as a McDon- ald's hamburger joint, be ripped off for everything I eat and drink, and come home broke and exhausted and peeling. Not when I can do the same thing for about two dollars, four months later, and not be burned, frustrated or even tired, by just driving out to the beach, opening the thermos, gently brown, swim in clear water, and come home relaxed. People who can't cope with March by staying in Canada for the March Break should be picked up at the border, locked into box-cars and sent up to James Bay. And that's exactly what I contemplate, as I write. Instead of heading for the sunny south, and a sybaritic week pretending I'm rich and elegant and swinging, I'm planning to head for the frosty north, and a frigid week pretending I'm poor, tough and hardy. It takes a lot more guts than flying to Barbados, bolting rum punches, and getting stung on the foot by a sea urchin. I'll be training to Moosonee, bolting rum punches, and getting squeezed all over by human urchins. My grandboys. It's only a twenty-four hour ride on the Polar Express, and I love trains. I can sleep and read and contemplate the inanities of the human race far better than on one of those great cattle cars they call jumbos. There's a four-hour stop in Cochrane, and I doubt that I'll have to line up to see the sights there. I won't have to stand in a sweaty line to catch the last four, five or six-hour train ride to Moosonee. Instead of having to fight for a taxi, I'll be met at the station by a snowmobile, inexpertly driven by my daughter. I'll whistle out to her house, teeth chattering, not with cold, but fear, as we circumnavi- gate tractor trailers, trucks, and Indians under the influence. I'll be greeted by bonewracking hugs,¥ and misaimed kisses by two little blonde boys who love the north, and haven't had a cold since they went up there. (When they lived in the city, they had eternal runny noses and chest barks.) I'll put out some presents and be the centre of attention, which is good for the soul® of a grandad. I'll have the odd skoal with the neigh- bours and venture into town to see whether it's true that the Hudson Bay Company is gouging the natives, as it has since the time it was formed by Prince Rupert in the seventeenth century. 8 If it's a clear day, I'll holler Hello, boy!" across the 300 miles that separate my daughter and my brother, who is up in Northern Quebec helping organize the grea- test hydro project in the world. My only concern is what I.should wear, son Hugh having taken off with the last of @ my thermal underwear. Where does one purchase fleecelined panty-hose? And when I come back, I'll smirk and sneer and snicker at my colleagues with the tan that will last a week. Whaja do in March Break, Bill?" "Oh, nothing much. Spent a few days at James Bay, shooting caribou and catching ® twelve-pound trout through the ice." My only fear is that my wife will want to go with me. That would require four months planning and put us right into the black-fly season.