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6 -- PORT PERRY STAR -- Tuesday, January 31, 1989 Editorial Comments HOW ABOUT ROSS | Newspapss reports Monday morning quoting those ood old "reliable sources" said Prime Mininster Brian ulroney is getting set to announce a new cabinet, pos- sibly as early as Tuesday. Well, if those "sources" are correct and the PM indeed is getting ready for a Cabinet shuffle, hopefully the name Ross Stevenson will be among those appointed to handle a portfolio. : In fact, we can think of one, possibly two portfolios for which Stevenson comes highly qualified. The first is agriculture, and the second is environ- ment. Stevenson is the MP for the riding of Durham, and aside from the fact he has some pretty fine credentials for the cabinet posts mentioned above, we think it is high time that an MP from this part of Ontario's heartland gets a post in the cabinet. After all, looking at the results of last November's fed- eral election in which Stevenson was an easy winner, it's obvious that he has the support of the people in this rid- ing. It's time they had a voice and a presence in cabinet up there in Ottawa. - Granted, Stevenson is a "rookie" MP, and that likely will be a factor working against him when the cabinet shuffle comes. But he knows agriculture, both from the farmer's side and the economic/technical side as well. He's from a farm, his family still farms near Uxbridge. He studied agri- culture at the post-graduate level and was a professor in the subject at Guelph University. And while serving in the Ontario Legislature as an MPP for nearly seven years, he held the agriculture portfolio for a time. What better qualifications does a guy need to get at least a shot at this important position? As for environment, Stevenson also has some high level experience in that area as well, and he's espacially tuned in to the sensitive subject of the impact that mod- ern farming has on the environment, a subject that all of us are going to have to come to terms with in a hurry. Stevenson may not be the best speaker in the Mul- roney government (in either official language) but he can speak the language farmers understand; and he has a fine grasp of the. complexities of modern agriculture. He's a hard working, no nonsense kind of guy with a penchant for getting the job done. And let's face it. Mulroney owes us something in Dur- ham. The former MP Al Lawrence was passed over in Cabinet suffles, shunted to the back benches. Stevenson held this riding in the last election in the face of some pretty tough opposition in a province where Mulroney and free trade were not exactly welcomed with open arms. It would be good for Durham riding to have its member sitting in cabinet. And Stevenson has all the qualifications needed for the job. Come on Mr. Prime Minister, take a look at the heart- land of Ontario and a guy named Ross Stevenson. --- AND WHEN YoU GE] THERE, THERE'S THE METRIC ~ IMPERIAL QUANDRY / / Chatterbox by CATHY OLLIFFE Port Perry (Qs % CNA STAR § (= 235 QUEEN STREET - PORT PERRY, ONTARIO Phone 985-7383 P.0.Box90 LOB 1NO J. PETER HVIDSTEN Publisher Advertising Manager Member of the Canadian Community Newspaper Association and Ontario Community Newspaper Association. Published every Tuesday by the Port Perry Star Co. Ltd., Port Perry, Ontario. J.B. McCLELLAND . Editor Authorized as second class mail by the Post CATHY OLLIFFE Office pp hen di cash News & Features Second Class Mail Registration Number 0265 RADIAN COMMU. » Ye we, Wo, Arias p3305ie Subscription Rate: In Canada $20.00 per year. Elsewhere $60.00 per year. Single Copy 50° © COPYRIGHT -- All layout and composition of advertisements produced by the adver- tising department of the Port Perry Star Company Limited are protected under copyright and may not be reproduced without the written permission of the publisher. BAD STUFF AND GREAT STUFF It looks like my pre-election fears of free trade were not unfounded. According to a recent report on Canada A.M., some 100 Canadian mergers have tak- en place since the election. Experts are predicting 100,000 jobs are in jeopardy because of those mergers. 100,000 jobs. Before the elections, pro free trade politi- cians admitted jobs would be affected by the trade agreement, but none of those pundits gave Canadians any indication of the num- ers. They also promised they would help those affected find new jobs. Ha. Last week an MP told Molson brewery workers to "look in the classifieds" to find themselves work. One employee took his ad- vice and found the only thing he is qualified to oe (besides work in the brewery) is to water plants. Watering plants does not pay anywhere near the $40,000 he was making at Molson's. Which really is beside the point. Telling peo- ple to look in the classifieds is not my idea of elping find jobs. It's callous, insensitive and not really surprising. Because the government pushed so hard for free trade, and because corporations are now juggling to prepare themselves for more intense competition (therefore merging and laying off), the government should be held re- sponsible for giving real assistance to affected workers. Real assistance--not phony condolences and smart-aleck remarks. These people should be paid for job re-training or upgrading their educations. Special committees should be set up to help laid-off workers find new jobs--jobs with similar wages to what they lost. Corporations should be made more accounta- ble to employees they lay off, with better com- pensation packages. After all, a lot of the people who have been, or will be affected by mergers, are hard- working joes who are trying to build nest eggs and support their families. . A job at a company like Molson's can't easily be replaced--there just aren't that many high- paying jobs out there for unskilled labourers. Free trade may be a good thing for big com- anies, but so far, it's doing nothing but hurt- ng the little guy. What else is new? It's always the average Ca- nadian who suffers. And frankly, I'm sick of it. A Tip of the Hat My sincere congratulations go to Saroiyh and John Irwin of Pine Point on the birth of Al- lison Elizabeth Margaret, a sweet little girl born under the most extreme of circumstances. For awhile there on Thursday morning, it looked like Allison might not make it. Wednes- day night's freezing rain had left an inch and a half of ice on roads, turning them into skating rinks, and wheri Carolyn went into labour, with baby in a breech position, John couldn't get his wife to the hospital. He called for help, and a community lifeline sprang into action. An ambulance and a police cruiser was on its way, led by a Township of Scugog sander. Neighbours got out of their beds when it was still dark to do what they could. StH another neighbour took Carolyn to the hospital over hill and dale in his four by four, when the ambulance, sander and police cruiser were stymied by the severe ice condi- tions. Meanwhile, two doctors were racing to the hospital. in order to perromy an emergency caesarean section. Dr. Bob Allin risked his own life driving across dark, foggy and unsafe Lake Scugog on his snowmobile. Dr. Bill Co- hoon also took a snowmobile into town, from his home at Honey's Corner. And even though he'd never performed a C-section on his own before, he delivered baby Allison with flying colours. Sain had been booked in for the opera- tion at Oshawa General the next day, Friday, but Mother Nature had more dramatic plans for this brave mom. Thankfully, there was a happy ending to this story. Mother and daughter are doing just fine, and Carolyn and husband John are abso- lutely thrilled about the care they received from Community Memorial Hospital and the people who helped them get there. "This could only happen in a small town," John said on Sunday, with an ear-to-ear grin. "I'm just as glad | had the baby here," Caro- lyn added. "I'd much rather be in this hospital an down in Oshawa." | guess it just goes to show how lucky we all are to have such a fine hospital and such won- derful, helping people in Port Perry. A tip of the hat to Gary Carter, who drove the sander; to ambulance attendants Brett and- Norm; to Heo Dunn who drove Carolyn to the hospital in his truck; to Doctors Price, Co- hoon, Allin and nurses at the hospital, and to everyone who helped--you're all great! Smear TTY