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Editorial Comments Getting the Message Obviously the message. is getting through. : The Christmas-New Years holiday season is no time to be drink- ing and driving in Ontario. ; ~~ In Metro Toronto, police officers pulled over 6000 vehicles on New Years Eve looking for drunk drivers -- and made one arrest for impaired driving. , : Throughout 1985 in Metro, police stopped more than 116,000 vehicles in spot checks which resulted in just 23 impaired driving charges, about half the number of the previous year. Are drivers in Ontario finally getting the message? It would seem 80. - In the past couple of years there has been an all-out assault on the drinking-driving menace, mainly through television advertising, stories in newspapers and the efforts of many citizen groups like the one formed just before Christmas by students at Port Perry High School. And the politicians have finally brought in new legislation which makes it very painful for a person convicted of drunk driving, even a first-time offender. Heavy fines and lengthy licence suspen- 'sions are painful, indeed, though not anywhere near as painful as the loss of a loved one in an accident. The tougher laws, the citizen awareness-groups, the media stories and advertising, the stepped-up efforts by police are all part of the campaign to rid the roads and highways of drinking drivers. More important, perhaps, we are seeing the start of an attitude change on the part of the public. It is simply socially unacceptable for anyone, young or old to get behind the wheel of a vehicle after drinking. Once that change in attitude firmly takes hold among the peo- ple of Canada, the battle may finally be over. It's going to take more time, but it's fair to say that we are moving in the right direction. Open or Shut Should the government, or anybody else for that matter, have the right to tell a person when he or she can be open for business? That's a question that the courts and the law-makers in this coun- try are going to have to answer in a big hurry. Over the past year or so, police in Toronto and other centres have been routinely laying charges against stores that open for business on Sundays and 'Statutory holidays in contravention of the Retail Business Holidays Act. One Toronto furrier alone has been charged over 100 times for keeping his store open on Sundays. And police in Toronto pressed about 150 charges on Boxing Day for stores that decided to open their doors. In Oshawa and Whitby, the Durham Regional Police laid nine charges against retail stores - which opened on December 26. If convicted, those merchants can face a maximum fine of $10,000. Here in Port Perry, one retail store was open Boxing Day, and there are others that are open for business on Sundays during the year. They have not been charged. Obviously, the time for changes is overdue. It is ludicrous in this day and age when law-abiding merchants must break the law just to run their business, and face hefty fines in the process. Surely, the time has arrived (this is 1986, after all) for society to face the fact that some businesses must stay open on Sundays and Statutory holidays just to survive. But the real point is whether a retail business should be told when to open or close. There are a lot of people, apparently, who like to do some shopping on Sundays or holidays. They find it convenient, and in the case of Boxing Day, they also find the rock bottom prices to their liking as well. But really, (Turn to page 6) cilinns . PORT LORY $170 (CO LWMTID [GD | \ 1S QUEEN STREEY : : g - 20 #0120 C 19) : CORT Pie O10 H _-- €8) 088 134) ar NN. / 1 ' J. PETER HVIDSTEN Publisher Advertising Manager Member of the Canadian Community Newspaper Association and Ontario Cammunity Newspaper Association Pubhshed every Tuesday by the Port Perry Star Co Ltd Port Perry. Ontario J.B. MCCLELLAND Editor Authorized as second class mail by the Post. . Office Department. Ottawa and for cash CATHY ROBB payment of postage «in cash News & Features Seconq Class Mail Registration Number 0265 Subscription Rate In Canada $15.00 per year Elsewhere $45 00 per year Single Copy 35° COPYRIGHT -- All layout and composition of advertisements produced by the adver ising department of the Port Perry Star Company Limited are protected under copyright and may not be reproduced without the written permission of the publisher AR Pu TTERN RPS.£532 Chatterbox .by Cathy Robb ) NEW YEAR'S RESOLUTIONS Just because John B. won't make any, doesn't mean I don't have an entire fistful waiting to be resolved. : My numero uno resolution in 1986 is to Get Organized. That means a total upheaval of my en- tire life, everything from my bedroom closet to my bank book and absolutely everything in bet- ween. | am a walking disaster when it comes to organization and although I'm not sure how to go about straightening things out, I'm sure going to give it a try. 'I'm also going to try not to insult anybody this year. It seems like every time I write a Chatter- box, I insult somebody and while this is fun, to a certain degree, it's also a royal pain..It's alright when you only have to avoid one or two people on the street, but it's a whole different ballgame when you're afraid to step out of the office for fear of being yelled at. So, it's either can the insults, or buy a long trenchcoat, kerchief and dark glasses. Or, move to Mexico. oo I'd also like to try to get to work on time every day in 1986. Well, maybe not every day ---- my boss might have a heart attack if that happened. But I would like to:get here before noon every-once in awhile. Looks good on a resume. It would also be nice to have a clean office. If you could call it an office. Have you ever seen the TV show WKRP in Cincinatti? You know Les Nessman's "'office;'"' the one with no walls? Well, that's just like mine. Except I don't have any Silver Sow awards on my desk. John B. has an of- fice. Peter Hvidsten has an office. I have a cor- ner. No shelves. No filing cabinet. Nothing. And what's more, I have to share my space with the passport camera. Every time some world traveller gets his or her picture taken, I have to inhale chemical fumes, the ones used to preserve the darn photos. No wonder my columns are usually upbeat. And people think I'm just high on life. The good thing about my "office'" is my bulletin board, lavishly covered with memorabilia from the two and half years I've been at the Star. While people are waiting to have their passport pictures taken, they can browse my bulletin board, checking out my Ronald Reagan postcard (I picked it up on a street-corner in Washington for a nickel), my. Cyndi Lauper newspaper clipp- ing and a photo of me and Ronnie Hawkins. They can also observe my overflowing ashtray, my paper-littered desk and the half- empty coffee cups growing various species of mold. Yes, I think it would be a good thing to keep my desk clean in 1986. - I also want to get around to meeting Christie - Blatchford from the Toronto Sun this year. She avoided me all summer in 1985, even though she did write something sweet about me and Port Perry in her column. This year, however, I am determined to meet my hero, in the flesh. She did disappoint me slightly when she actually married The Boy, but then again, nobody's perfect. I wouldn't mind reading a few more books in 1986 either. I picked up a great one the other day and read it like a man lost in the desert might drink from stolen water. It was unbelievably refreshing to nestle in a blanket for a good, honest read in the wake of video mania. Just to show you how enamoured of video life we have become, why, the other night me and the ~_ bayfriend were sitting around his apartment wondering what to do. His TV wasn't working, none of our friends were around, we weren't able torent a video machine, and we were too tired to catch a movie in Oshawa. It was a real conendrum. "Maybe we could talk," I said. "Get serious,' he said. So he read the newspaper and I read a book. Thrill upon thrill, Years ago people looked to each other for entertainment. These days we expect to be enter- tained, without any effort on our part. Like reading this column, for example. You're reading it because it's too difficult to read the hor- ror stories on the front pages of city newspapers, or because it's lighter reading than the editorials. You read it because you expected to be enter- tained. Oh well, disappointed again. That's something else I wanted to resolve in 1986. I want to force myself not to expect too much from anything or anyone. It only leads to heart- break. Have you discovered this? If you don't ex- pect anything from anyone, you'll always be _ pleasantly surprised when they come through for you. And oh yes, I resolve to be nice to my mother. Have I forgotten anything" EDITOR'S NOTE: So, Robb had made a Resolu- tion to Get Organized. I'll believe it when I see it. Cheers in '86, Cath, and good luck! a ae.