WHITBY FREE PRESS.WEDNESDAY. NOVEMBER 20, 1985, PAGE 5 "I have sworn upon the altar of God eternal hostility against every form of tyranny over the mind of man." - Thomas Jefferson R 90 MiLLIOM AID THE I /A b CROW'S NEST by Michael Knell So, Larry Grossman is the new leader of the Ontario Progressive Conser- vative Party. Are you impressed? Do you even care? No. Yes. For me, anyway. Like many people, though probably not as many as in January, I watched the leadership convention on television last Saturday afternoon. It wasn't the same party I saw a few months ago. Then, they were confident, proud, determined and secure. But the party I saw Saturday seems a trifle insecure, maybe even a little scared, bewildered and confused. How the mighty have fallen! It is also a divided party. For those who don't believe, just take a look at the fact that Grossman defeated Dennis Timbrell by a scent, mere 19 votes. Many of the party's rank-and-file must agree with Timbrell's grassroots. The Big Blue Machine has forgotten that it's the rank and file who work the hardest and the longest during an election campaign. It's the ordinary party member who knocks on doors, answers the telephones, serves the tea, licks the stamps, delivers the brochures, drives seniors to the polis and who does ail of the nitty gritty, 'joe' jobs that make an election campaign hum. That is the problen that the Tories have got to overcome. I've noticed in the past few years that the Tories have become the party of the upper middle class, or at least they have adopted that attitude. They have forgotten that ordinary, working people are the backbone of any organization. Ordinary, everyday people are who makes the community, this province and this country tick. I mean, not everyone is a millionare. Not everyone makes over $30,000 a year. Perhaps the major reason why the Tories have forgotten ail of this is because for over 40 years they tasted the fruit of power. For four decades it was the Tories who held ail the lavish cocktail parties, who courted and were courted by the powerful and the rich, who held the national spotlight and who flowed in the reflective glory that is Queen's Park. When May 2 came and the Liberals and the NDP sealed the fate of their dynasty, it was like going through cold turkey. They no longer got their daily fix of power - perhaps the most powerful drug of ail. And that is what we saw on television last Saturday. An addict without the drug. They were lost and confused. They want to climb back on the pedestal but they don't know how to get there. Most party members have never known life in opposition. They've always been able to trot out a cabinet minister or two to their little parties and social gathering, but now there are no cabinet ministers. They feel a little left out. I suspect that's the reason they chose Larry Grossman as leader last Satur- day. For the Ontario Tories, Larry Grossman is something of a precedent. They have usually prefered their leaders to be bland and unexciting. Men like Frank Miller, Bill David, John Robarts and Leslie Frost never really excited people. They weren't great orators or rabble rousers. They were quiet, studious men who charted a steady, predictable, proven course on the ship of state. Grossman's a rabble rouser. He's a street fighter. He's aggressive and he certainly is not bland. He's also ruthless, perhaps even cocky. But under that lies a politican of immense talent that is coupled with a razor sharp intellect. He's probably the only Tory in Ontario politics today who is an even match for David Peterson. Only Grossman can take Peterson on one-to-orie and have a prayer of surviving, let alone winning. But, is Grossman enough? That's got to be the big question on the minds of many Tories. Is he too little, too late? Probably so. The reason: Bill Davis and Frank Miller threw away their advantage, for now David Peterson's in the driver's seat. It's Peterson who's getting ail invitations, who's basking in the national spotlight. He is also not afraid to lose. His party isn't afraid to lose. They've spent 43 years in the political wilderness. They know they can live and fight another day. But the Tories have never lost. They are probably a little afraid of losing. And that is another obstacle that Larry Grossman is going to have to overcome. He has got to fight to win, but he also has to prepare them for the distinct possibility that they willlose the next election. Bill Davis and Frank Miller destroyed the Ontario Progressive Conservative Party. Larry Grossman is the man who has the awesome job of trying to put them back together. Grossman is enough of a no-nonsense politician that he just might take the bull by the horns and get rid of the deadweight while attracting people like him- self to the party. Like Peterson, Grossman is a yuppie. Young aggressive, well educated, professional. I'm looking forward to their first meeting in the Legislature and the election. If nothing else, it's going to be a lot of fun - especially for working journalists. Not withstanding the pleasure one will gain from watching Peterson and Grossman in action (what about Bob Rae, you say? Who's Bob Rae?) I still think that Tories are 10 months too late. He should have been named leader last time. The events of the last few months have made Grossman's job much har- der. He presides over a divided, confused party. He has to make them believe again. Peterson doesn't have to make anyone believe. After ail, if you've been an Ontario Liberal for the last 43 years you have to be a believer. But, you never know, politics in Ontario is going to be a lot more interesting over the next few months. I can hardly wait. WAT ADSWorkWonders! WITH OUR FEET UP By Bill Swan You are about to learn the secret of making a million dollars. No need to scoff read on, and see if ol' Swannie would lead you astray. The secret was unveiled through hours of tough work, late at night, flipping through channels in an attempt to find something worth watching -- a neat trick at any time of day. But at 2 a.m. the search is mind-numbing. Armed with twin roast-beef sandwiches and a hot toddy, we flipped through the channels hoping that something, anything, would help put us to sleep. That's when we found "the secret". (I have been honest with you and not tried to pass this off as my idea, all we have to do is convince the libel lawyers of the same thing. But read on.) What the guy on television said was: All you need to earn a million dollars is a lot of credit cards. Like, something in the neighborhood of 201 credit cards will do fine. What you do then, is borrow from one credit card; take the second card and borrow a little more, (paying back the first card, of course); and take the third card, and do the same. It is important to increase the amount borrowed each time, and to pay back before you have to. Quickly. The result, the man said, is trust. More people trust you, the more they will lend you. Same with credit cards. Keep borrowing and paying back first, and you will soon qualify for top credit on any of your 201 cards. But that's just the start. Next, you shop around for a real estate property, that is evaluated at $200,000. That's not too tough, I guess. You approach the owner and offer to buy the property from him, cash on the line, for $150,000. And the owner will be so happy to get rid of this turkey of a property that he will fall all over you and kiss you. If you're lucky he won't have AIDS. Okay. So now you've agreed to buy a property for $150,000. But you're still stony broke, right? All you have in the world are your grubby little 201 credit cards. Well, now all your efforts to elevate the credit level on each of those cards will pay off. You hustle to your nearest bank and borrow the limit from each of your cards, (or at least until you have the needed $150,000). Then, with the cash in your hot little hands, you hurry up to the vendor, count out the money in un- marked bills and get him, quickly before he changes his mind, to sign the right papers and deed the property to you. Now haste is important. Before the ink dries on that deed, you race over to your favorite mortgage company. There, you work out an agreement for a mortgage on your property. The manager of the mortgage company wants to evaluate the property first. Which is okay with you, since the property really has an evaluation of $200,000. With us? So you take out a 90 percent mortgage at the going rate. And 90 percent of the property value is 90 per- cent of $200,000, or $180,000. The mortgage company stuffs your pockets with bills, $180,000 worth. You skip to your bank, where you quickly pay off the $150,000 in credit card bills. And you pocket $30,000. Now comes the neat part. What you've done so far is to end up owning a heavily mortgaged property that has taxes, heating bills, repairs and is likely rented out to tenants who give weekend parties to motorcycle gangs. You want to be part of that? No way i To avoid the down side of home ownership, you find some nice sweet person - one of the tenants will do - and out of generosity unknown in this century, you offer the property to them no money down. And you sign the deed over to them, no strings at- tached. Or you give the property to a church or some other body that qualifies for a tax deduction. Bingo - -you score twice. At tax time you'll smile. Do that once a month, and you can have an annual income of $360,000. In three years, you will be a millionaire. All on credit cards. And a little larceny. After you've pulled a few tricks like this, and are beginning to live the good life, do mea favor. Keep the secret to yourself. No need to tell anyone that Bill told you all about it. Okay?