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6 -- PORT PERRY STAR -- Tuesday, April 25, 1989 The 2ovf Perey Shar 235 QUEEN STREET - PORT PERRY, ONTARIO PHONE 985-7383 FAX 985-3708 The Port Perry Star Is authorized as second dass mail by the Post Office Department, Ottawa, for cash payment of postage. Second Class Mail Registration Number 0265 Subscription Rate: In Canada $20.00 per year Elsewhere $60.00 per year. Single Copy 50¢ EDITORIAL Publisher - J. Peter Hvidsten Editor - John B. McClelland News/Features - Cathy Olliffe Billi News Reporter - Rob PRODUCTION Annabell Harrison Trudy Empringham Darlene Hlozan BUSINESS OFFICE Accounting - Judy Ashby treich ADVERTISING Advertising Office Manager - Gayle Stapley Department - Anna Gouldburn Retail Sales - Kathy Dudley, Linda Ruhl Advenising Co-ordinator - Valerie Ellis ales Representatives Pat Webster, Lisa Hutchings @ 8 Mentber of the Canadian Community Newspaper Association Ontario Community Newspaper Association Published every Tuesday by the Port Perry Star Co. Ltd. Port Perry, Ontario Editorial Comment Mr. Wilson's Budget Unless you have been vacationing on the back side of the moon in recent weeks, you know that this Thurs- day, April 27 will be a very important day for all Canadi- ans. That's the day federal finance minister Michael Wil- son brings down a new budget. And there is absolutely no doubt it will be a budget that most Canadians will find un- popular. Mr. Wilson has let it be known in plain language that this budget must do one thing: reduce the national debt and reduce the annual deficit in government spending. ~ What Canadians won't know until the budget is made public, is just how big a bite it will take from our pockets. There are only two ways that any level of government can reduce its debt load and its annual deficit: raise taxes or decrease spending. It is fair to assume that Canadians are going to wake up Thursday morning to find the federal government has hit them with both barrels. Taxes are go- ing to move up, and spending will be cut. The latter means cuts in programs financed by the national govern- ment. : Though a lot of people are holding their breath about where the tax hikes will be and what programs get the axe, the cold, hard facts of this country's national debt dic- tate that the time of reckoning has arrived. The federal debt (the accumulation of annual deficits over the last 15 years) now stands at a stunning $320 bil- lion. Left un-checked it would grow to nearly $1 trillion by the turn of the century. Unless drastic steps are taken 'now, serviciing that debt load at the turn of the century would cost about $100 billion. That's what it costs these days to run our government, exclusive of debt charges. The annual deficit last year was about $30 billion, or the amount it costs to service the debt load (give or take a billion or two) Clearly, this kind of fiscal course cannot go on if the country wants to avoid mortgaging today's children and their children to the eyeballs. The debt is just too high. It must be reduced. Business can't operate this way. On a personal level, a family or individual can't spend more than is coming in, so why should governments. : Obviously, the budget coming down on Thursday won't eliminate our national debt, and most certainly it won't be a balanced budget. There hasn't been one of those in this country for nearly two decades. -But surely, reasonable thinking Canadians who are going to be asked to "dig deep" and "bite the bullet" wil want to see: some tangible in-roads into deficit reduction. It's not enough just to hike taxes and continue spending in the same old merry way. Cuts in spending (i.e. programs) are a necessity. And if one accepts the premise that the deficit and debt must be reduced, the burden must not be carried completely by the average guy on the street. Tightening the tax loop-holes for corporations and wealthy individuals are a must in the name of fiscal responsibility and fairness. We think that most Canadians now recognize the fis- cal folly that has brought this country to the position it is now in. The trough is empty, the well has gone dry, the pip- er has played with gleeful abandon for too many years and ow, 85 the old saying goes, the time to pay the piper has ved. But let's hope that the payments are shared by all. HIGH l ) ISR, Chatterbox by CATHY OLLIFFE nos Generally speaking, men care more about where they were. Women care more about what happened while they were there. Have you noticed this? Having come back from a glorious vacation, the woman will talk about the sunshine, the beach, the great looking guys on the beach and such, whereas her mate will talk endless- ly about where, exactly, this beach is located. Upon buying a new house, the woman will describe the spacious living room, the country kitchen and the wrap-around deck, while the man will give a detailed description of where the house is located in comparison to the old house, distance-from work, minutes to the beer store, the exact latitude and longitude and number of miles to the moon. Recently, whilst having a conversation with friends over the lunch hour, | talked to the woman about a recent car accident. | told her about the number of people injured, why | thought it might have happened, how it could have been prevented, and how the whole inci- dent affected me. She and | completed the whole conversa- tion in 15 minutes and moved onto something else. Meanwhile, Doug was still trying to ex- plain to her mate where the accident hap- pened. Arguing about it, they were. They couldn't agree on the name of the concession roads, on how far away the scene was from the nearest village, or even if the highway ran north and south or east and west. Worst, they were both employing the age- gid technique of salt and pepper shaker direc- tions. "Okay, this is the northbound car," my be- loved said, holding aloft a salt shaker and placing it firmly beside the northbound spoon. "No, 'no, no," argued his friend, grabbing the spoon and the salt shaker and placing .car. The ts, i as TURN LEFT AT THE SALT SHAKER them in another direction. "The car has to be going east." The pepper shaker represented the other nife was called into play to act as the crossroad. The vinegar bottle became the ambulance. The ketchup was the police car. The traffic jam became a folded up napkin. Gradually everything on the table was' in- corporated into their "map." When our food arrived, the woman and | had to scoff the roads, all the vehicles and the entire traffic jam just to feed ourselves. | said to her, "Why is it men always do this?" And they do. | have yet to meet a man who can resist using a knife and fork to point somebody in the right direction. Of course, a knife and fork are only called into play if no paper and pen are available. Alas, if there are such writing materials at hand, men will spend what seems like the rest of their lives drawing scale maps, which in- clude mountain ranges, swamps, major land- marks (yes, including the beer store) and the height of the terrain above or below sea level. | don't know why men do this. And | don't understand why, in casual con- versation, the location of something is so darn important. | guess | just can't fathom it be- cause I'm female. Women tend to get to the meat of a story, the gossip, the emotion...the good stuff. They don't J a darn where the love story hap- pened--they just want to know the juicy stuff. Men, | think, are too embarassed to indulge freely in the "juice", so they skirt around it by Sehsiy figuring out where the heck they're going. | guess map-making is just one more of the. many differences between the sexes. Which is good. | mean, somebody has to keep their eyes on the road while us women are yap- ping.