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6 -- PORT PERRY STAR -- Tuesday, February 6, 1990 The Lot Pevey Slay 235 QUEEN STREET - PORT PERRY, ONTARIO PHONE 985-7383 FAX 985-3708 The Port Perry Star is authorized as second class mail by the Post Office Department, Ottawa, for cash payment of postage. Second Class Mail Registration Number 0265 Subscription Rate: InCanada $20.00 per year Elsewhere $60.00 per year. Single Copy 50¢ EDITORIAL Publisher - J. Peter Hvidsten Editor - John B. McClelland News/Features - Julia Ashton News/Features - Kelly Storry PRODUCTION Annabell Harrison Trudy Empringham Darlene Hlozan BUSINESS OFFICE Office Manager - Gayle Stapley Accounting - Judy Ashby Billing Department - Louise Hope ADVERTISING Advertising Co-ordinator - Valerie Ellis Advertising Sales Representative - Anna Gouldburn AAD IAN COMMUN @n | 7 w Ld \O, boa reas 2350 Ce Retail Sales - Kathy Dudley, Linda Ruhl, Tracy O'Neil Member 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 THE SOO SAGA It could only happen in Canada. In a city with a French name, a guy with an Italian name who happens to be the mayor, is being hailed as a hero and condemned as a vil- lain after his city council voted last week to declare Sault Ste. Marie would be English only. When Mayor Joe Fratesi and his council voted 11-2 last week to declare the city English speaking, he became an instant household name across the land and touched off reaction all the way from Queens Park to the Prime Min- ister's office in Ottawa. Not surprisingly, that vote by the Soo council made headlines in major newspapers, sparked editorials and opinion columns, and touched off yet another public debate over what has become Canada's national illness: lan- guage. The resolution endorsed by the council did not "ban French" in that city. It did not decree that signs in store win- dows must be English only. What it did say was that city services would be provided in one language: English.. Although the move was pushed by a 25,000 name pe- tition collected by the Association for the Preservation of English, economics were at the root of this action. The city of Sault Ste. Marie, like most municipalities in the country, simply does not have the resources (read tax dollars) to get into the costly game of providing services in both languages. A francophone association in the Soo had been lobby- ing city council for a French community centre and a French school. About 5,000 of the Sault's population of 80,000 are francophones. Prime Minister Brian Mulroney called the action "deep- ly regrettable." And Ontario Premier David Peterson is quoted as saying the resolution on language is "extremely damaging......pandering this way to sentiment in our com- munity." Perhaps forgotten in the furor is the fact that some 25 other municipalities in Ontario have endorsed similar reso- lutions, though this was the first city council to do so. The others were mostly small, rural Townships in east- ern Ontario. Was this a back-lash against Quebec's language leg- islation, against Ontario's Bill 8, the French Language Ser- vices Act. You bet it is. Countless newspaper reports in the wake of the resolution carried quotes from ordinary citizens both in the Soo and beyond who said in so many words "they are sick and tired of having French shoved down their throats." Regrettable, as Premier Peterson says? Of course. But not for the reasons he had in mind. It is a graphic illus- tration of just how divisive the language issue has become among ordinary Canadians. You know, the ones who are picking up the tab for it all. The message coming out of this issue is that official bi- lingualism in a far-flung country of 25 million people is a noble and worthy idea. But it costs too much and it just won't work, no matter how hard politicians like Brian Mul- roney and David Peterson wish it would. Is there an anti-Quebec sentiment bubbling through all this? Let's not mince words. Of course there is. People in the other nine provinces know exactly what kind of treat- ment the English language is getting in Quebec, and what kind of treatment the English-speaking minority there is feeling. What the council in Sault Ste. Marie said last week in (Turn to page 8) TURBANS FOR SIKH MOUNTIES ? -Yews ltem- Jottings MYSTERY SOLVED First of all, an apology to our subscribers and readers in the Blackstock, Caesarea, Nestl- ton area for the lengthy delay in getting last week's Star. When the papers didn't arrive in Blackstock at their usual time Tuesday afternoon, the Star and officials at the local post office began a se- ries of phone calls to find their whereabouts. Countless phone calls later, the papers were traced to Scarborough. Apparently a mail courier mistakenly picked up the bags of newspa- pers destined for the Blackstock area last Tues- day and they were in Metro before the error was noticed by anyone. But stranger still was, after locating the pa- pers at the Scarborough plant, they still did not arrived back at their Blackstock destination until late Friday, three days after they were located. But that's another story. This is the first time we have encountered this type of error, and hopefully it will be the last. The Star has received good service from Canada Post (in particular our local post office) over the years, and we thank them for their efforts in lo- cating the missing mail bags. And while on the subject of the post office, subscribers to the Star living in Port Perry who have not notified the office of their new postal code and street address are urged to give us a call so we can change your mailing stencil. If we have the proper code and address on your newspaper label, it will help to ensure there Is no delay in the arrival of the Star each week. It only takes a phone call. Do it today! MORE PLATES | promise this will be the last list of unusual vehicle license plates printed in this column. But as | mentioned a few weeks back, | would contin- ue the search and since then have come across some great plate ideas. First of all, Nancy ordered me a personal- ized plate for Christmas, but it didn't get here in time. It finally arrived last week so I'm now sport- ing my VID S10 pie on the van for the whole world try to decipher. I'll bet they can'tl Following my last column, John Christie came into the Star office and offered me a long list of plates he had written down while travelling back and forth to Toronto. Some of plates he found are as follows: HI2 YOU (Hi, to you); SUPER 1; QUEAN B; MAE DAY; HI TECH; 1 QWILT; FORUS 2 (For us two); BOW TY and OR DURV. A few more examples in ingenuity were found when we were in Florida recently. The ones | really liked were: BAR CAR (self explani- tory); OLD COP; X PENSE; and the best of all JESUS (this car was found in a shopping mall on Sunday). And to end this list, here are a few more plates found in the area: SKI FAN; SKI OUI (bi- lingual plete meaning "Ski Yes"); WEE BIT; CHATTR; 4 GER (forger); 2 PLUS 4 ig a mom and dad Wi PLUS (4) children); 6 WATTS; and finally IMA CAR. That's it. No more plates, | promise! RECEIVE AWARD The Star has once again been judged as one of the top community newspapers in its class by the Ontario Community Newspaper As- sociation. Competing against newspapers with a cir- culation between five and ten thousand sub- scribers (the Star prints 7,000 copies each week), the Star placed second in the General Excellence Class. Winner of the top honour this year was the Eganville Leader. Judging of the annual competition, is done by editors and publishers from across the prov- ince and each newspaper is judged on the mer- its of the front page, editorial pages, composi- tion and layout of the paper, as well as news, features, sports, advertising and photography. We are proud to have been selected as one of the best in Ontario, and | would personal- ly like to add my congratulations to the entire staff here at the Star for their efforts in making this newspaper one to be proud of. The award will be presented at the Ontario Community Newspaper Association's annual Sonu ion being held in Toronto the first week of March.