PAGE 4, WEDNESDAY, APRIL 10, 1985,WHITBY FREE PRESS Published every Wednesday hbi M.i.. Publishing Community EdItor and Photography Inc. P~lhone 668-6il l VALERIE COWEN Advertising Manager The Free Press Building, 1:1 Brock Street North. Second Class Mail Voice of the County Town Michael Ian Burgess, Publisher - Managilg Euitor1P.0.>Box 206, whitby, Ont. Registraùon No. 5351 The only Whitby newspaper independently owned and operated by Whitby residents for Whitby residents. Ashburn plant closure proof we must become masters of our own economy Some 25 members of our community will be ad- ded to this natlon's already too long unem- ployment roll when Andrew Antenna closes its small Ashburn coaxial cable manufacturIng plant at the end of the month. The Speaker of the House of Commons, John Bosley, has ruled that Shella Copps, the Liberal member for Hamilton East,.did not have a case in the question of privilege she raised recently. Cop- ps had claimed that remarks by the Secretary of State, Walter McLean, in a newspaper interivew, were intimidatIng and were therefore a threat to her freedom of speech. The Interview concerned Copps' mother, Geraldine Copps, the wife of the former Hamilton Mayor. The Mulroney cabinet had decided not to reappoint Mrs. Copps as a citizenship judge. At some point in the interview - and the exact context has not been established - McLean remarked: "You check the record, what her daughter's had to say about the government." When the question of privilege was raised, McLean did not dispute the accuracy of the quotation, but In somewhat garbled statement to the House, indIcated that the newspaper reporter had put the remark in what he called a "new con- text." In ruling, the Speaker said he understood Cop- ps' distress, but in any dispute between a newspaper reporter and a member of Parliament - in this case, McLean - "the chair must always take the word of the member." It's too bad that Copps could not establish breach of privilege, but what is worse is that politicians should continue to use public money as reward or punishment. I know how Copps feels about her tran- sgressions being charged to her mother, because the sa'me thing happened to me. When my father was director of the Canada Council, with imputed rank in the civil service, he discovered that he was the lowest paid deputy minister in Ottawa. The Tory chairman of the Canada Council remon- strated with Prime Minister Diefenbaker about this, and he replied to this effect: "Trueman is a Grit, and his son is a Grit and writes against us in the Montreal Star. Il never raise his salary." We were not Liberals, and if I was critical of the government, I was only doing a job. And yet my father, then in those final years which determine pension payments, is still, in his 80's paying the price for Diefenbaker's rancid suspicion. I thought we just fought an election campaign on patronage. I thought Mulroney said he was against it. I thought he promised reform. To say the least, it's overdue. A plant closure is always tragic, whether it af- fects 25 people or 650 as was the case when Firestone closed Its Whitby operation almost six years ago. Quite plainly, closures such as this are a sign of the times. In order to stay competitive in an ever changing and unstable world economy, business has to get "lean and mean" as the president of the Whitby Chamber of Commerce is fond of saying. To survive, business must be adaptable. It must respond quickly and confidently to a changing market. It must fInd and produce new products for a new world. A company that still operates the way it did 10, 20, 50 or 100 years ago is doomed to extinction. Business must learn to change with the times. The problem with change, especially in a society that Is becoming more and more technical in Its outlook, ls that people suffer because of t Men and women are thrown out of work. For many, that plant (be It Andrew or Firestone or anyone else) was the mainstay of their personal economy. Many are too old to find other work (not because they think themselves too old but because our society thinks them too old) and therefore end up on the welfare rolls. It Is ail well and good to say that business must remain profit oriented. Without that return on In- vestment there are no jobs and there is no prosperity. The Whitby experience of the last few years has been especially tragic because these decisions were not primarily made by Canadian firms of Canadian Interests. Both Andrew and Firestone are American controlled companies. Both of these companies realize sizable profits from their U.S. operations. Because thelr senior management and ownership Is American they tend to operate in what they percelve to be the economic interests of their company ln the United States. It Is unreallstic for Canadians to expect American companies to operate businesses ln this country in the best interests of Canada. How can they, they are Americans. Situations such as the one that occurred last week are positive proof that Canada must become the master of Its own economic destiny. If Canada s to embrace the free enterprise system then It should operate in the best interests of Canadian workers, owners and managers. Let Canadian's own, manage and work In free Canadian com- panies that do not have to report to, and are not subject to the whims of, their foreign parent com- pany in Detroit, Chicago, Stockholm, Bonn or anywhere else. In the big economic picture, the Ashburn closure is just a tiny piece of the puzzle. The 25 people who will be displaced are just a minute fraction of the entire unemployment problem. While the example may be small, It proves a big point. This newspaper firmly belleves in free enter- prise. We embrace wholeheartedly the Jaycees' maxim that "Economic justice Is best won by free men through free enterprise". But we maintain that it must be Canadian free enterprise. Let in- dividual Canadians win economic justice for themselves and their country unfettered by the demands of a U.S., West German, Japanese or Swedish parent company. This is our country. We live here. Our fathers and brothers gave their Ilves for it. We must be the masters of our own economic destiny. The Americans will operate their companies in their own best lnterests. That Is fair enough. Their best Interest is their country's best interest. They make decisions based on their needs. Shouldn't we be doing the same?