The Sun Times from Owen Sound, Ontario, Canada • 16

Ciyda Wicks Publisher' Jim Mordant Editor Kina Pridham News Editor Dan Harrison CityOlstrict Edltdr EKEEftKI Opinions otters Publiihed at 290 9th St Owen Sound Ont N4K 5P2 By Southam Inf proprietor Thun Fab 22 1998 Vbi 143 No 70 Fighting the deficit is just the first battle OUR VIEW the budget A 25-cent per gallon tax increase on gasoline (55 cents per litre) was the cornerstone of the budget Because his was a minority government it was defeated when a non-confidence vote passed in the House of Commons The motion of non-confidence incidentally was proposed by Bob Rae a rookie MP who later became Ontario premier and bemoaned the fact that the federal government was cutting transfer payments because of its past profligate ways In the election which followed in early February 1980 the voters dismissed from office Joe Clark that upstart prime minister who tried to get Canadians to balance the budget to pay their way Four years later the debt had climbed to $164 billion Had we listened to Joe Clark and reined in government spending we would be in much better position now The billions of dollars spent each year in interest charges on the debt would instead be available to fund the many important government programs at all levels We could even be enjoying a lower income tax levy But laying the blame will not solve the financial problems that confront us every day The massive debt is reality Another reality is that wily Canadians working and enduring together in any ways that we can will be able to solve the nation's problems and get Canada back cm the right track anguish and concern but the plain truth is governments cannot cut back on the cost of servicing the massive debt Ibo much money has been borrowed outside the nation'i borders It is tragic to consider how badly a succession of governments has served us in the past 25 years In 1968 the federal debt totalled $5 billion now it exceeds $600 billion Canadians cannot lay all the blame on governments We kept re-electing these governments and we kept demanding more from them Only one prime minister had the courage to tell Canadians they had to change their ways and start balancing DRAWING CONCLUSIONS DADDY WMISTHE PENSION plant? W-f AND THE BEST PART DADDY HAS TO AISO SAVE MONEY IN RRSPs FOR US CfM RETIREMENT PADDY PAS TWICE AND COLLECTS oNCEl flmuHfana who are upset because of major cutbacks in government spending at all levels had better get used to the idea that governments are going to do less because they simply cannot afford to do more It starts with the federal government which has made serious reductions in transfer payments to the provinces In turn die provinces have had to greatly reduce transfer payments to municipalities The current focus is on ridding governments Of operating deficits a major task ih itself but the biggest challenge will come when budgets are balanced Then we have to tackle the accumulated debt which for all federal and provincial governments combined Thoughts our local Editor: When in Sault Ste Marie a couple of years ago we walked the handsomely appointed waterfront where lies die old SS Norgoma This is the ship (or its sister ship) that Owen Sound declined to buy for $1 Across from it was the new government building housing Wintario which had just been named the Bondar Building after first female astronaut How soon we forget our heroes! She has had trouble finding funding for her work in Canada Another major attraction at the Soo is a restored sandstone house built in 1814 Ermatinger House As we went on a guided tour we learned that Richard Carney first mayor of Owen Sound lived in this house when he arrived there in 1858 as the first sheriff ofAlgoma Carney is remembered in Owen Sound by die lane named in his honor on die main street 'There is also a Carney Street in Brooke Carney is not a revered pioneer of this city He gets the blame for the fact that die railway line foiled to come this far in 1855 but stopped at Colling-wood Carney was sure that no bonus should be paid to the railway company as it was obvious that Owen Sound was the best place for the railway terminus He was wrong Owen Sound was without a railway link for another 18 years Helene Weaver Owen Sound Quotas needed to keep a fishery Editor: There is room for both a commercial fishery and a sport fishery on Lake Huron This has been proven by the fact that we now have a world-class sport fishery for trout and salmon alongside a healthy commercial fishery for whitefish chub and lake trout Salmon stocking has been occurring for over 30 years in the Great Lakes and the biology and ecology is generally understood The sport fishery (now maintained in Lake Huron almost exclusively by sport clubs under MNR direction) generates millions of dollars in expenditures in the local economies The Canadian commercial fishery in Lake Huron is a $772-million a year industry It is understandable that the First Nations would desire to have exclusive control over this business Revenues of this magnitude could eliminate the need for government subsidies to First Nation communities The Lake Huron fishery has not always been healthy The combined effects of lamprey introduction and uncontrolled commercial fishing decimated the resource early in the century It was only via an international government program to control the lamprey and the establishment of a strict comritertial quota system established by the Ministry of Natural Resources actions disturbing BYDALEEISLER to be there is partly what makes some- to be on edge about this personal safety For Southam News thing like a Flag Day relevant Wfe have a But to do that also ignores the foot we country that values protects and encour- demand more from our political leaders WELL SON HIE GoyERMENT TAKES FROM DAEP5 SALARY AND PUTS ff IKE 4 potTtuen toe moneys given TO RETIRED FEofTE MtilBE IDEA TUAT ONE DAYDACDY BE GIVEN money from R3T1DO BoYYoURE A SUCKER ARENViOU DAD? ages free speech One official from the RCMP security service that protects the prime minister dismisses any suggestion that Chretien was in danger or that his security had lapsed analysis shows that the prime minister was adequately protected at all said Sgt Andre Guertin who described the incident as a Guertin says the RCMP did not see the man as any kind of threat to Oirctien So if the prime minister was in no danger and security had not foiled an obvious question is raised What was Chretien doing? Why did he act like he was some kind of crude head of an authoritarian state that does not tolerate dissent? He even kxzd the part in sunglasses tilted upward as if in military style Can you imagine die outrage the public condemnation if Brian Mulroney would have acted this way How about Luden Bouchard grabbing a federalist demonstrator by the throat? The point is what Chretien did was wholly unacceptable We have not only a right but a duty to expect more out of our political leaden than for them to behave in a way you would expect from a professional wresder Is this how Chretien be-Ueves you deal with dissent in a democratic society? Rough them up and shut them up? There will be those who will say this is a gross over reaction to a minor incident Fertiaps the prime minister acted improperly and momentarily lost his cool but so what? That's where it ends We all make mistakes and given the recent break-in at 24 Sussex Chretien perhaps has a reason now stands at $900 billion And it will grow much larger before all the budgets are balanced Why worry about that monstrous debt? Very simply that debt is the biggest single drain on the resources of Canada because it has first call on the taxes we pay The first dollars we pay in taxes and billions more after that go to service this millstone around the economic neck Only after the demands of the debt have been satisfied can governments start to spend money on the programs that Canada needs to provide the services that we have all come to expect -Governments can cut back on funding for all kinds of services and they have The result has been outcries of about heritage YOUR VIEW that the fishery was allowed to begin to recover Just as the First Nations are embracing the modem high-tech methods of commercial fishing and even experimenting with the controversial technology of cage culture fish forming so must they accept the modem concepts of fisheries management A small group cannot expect to understand the health of a large ecosystem (Lake Huron) by an unscientific look at one small area Only a government agency like the Ministry of Natural Resources in co-operation with neighboring agencies around the lake has the resources equipment and expertise to do this monitoring and make determinations It is imperative that to maintain a healthy fishery the regulations stipulated by the Ministry of Natural Resources be adhered to These include obeying quotas reporting all catches respecting sanctuaries size limits closed seasons and utilizing approved equipment Commercial fishing and sprat fishing have co-existed in Lake Huron for 100 years Due to a respect and adherence to government-dictated management practices by all parties the resource is healthier than it has been for generations Whether the commercial fishing industry is run by Natives or non-natives as long as all users agree to abide by proven principles our children and grandchildren will have a fishery that is as good or better than Al Wilkins President Lake Huron Fishing Club OLA head wrong about North Stars Editor: As one of the four of the North Stars Lacrosse team in 1967 1 was dismayed at the untimely demise of the team President Bob Bricker has provided capable leadership to a dedicated hard-working executive Without a regular lucrative outside source of income it has become impossible to operate a viable amateur sporting operation in Ontario today The present executive is experiencing from the frustration of trying to operate a class operation in a hostile environment Perhaps this or another group can reorganize for 1997 only time will telL OLA senior convener Bruce remarks towards Bob Bricker' and the North Stars executive were uncalled for Hood has either been listening to the wrong people or he should shake his head his brains are stuck George Watson Owen Sound significance but they hardly rate as precedents for a birthplace title Bill Guilfoile vice-president of the National Baseball Hall of Fame in Cooperstown notes that other variations erf baseball were played elsewhere long before claim including in Ontario As well the Baseball Hall of Fame has records of a team being formed in Philadelphia in 1833 though no official records exist of the team playing games Baseball history prior to the 1840s is all rather vague As a result myths inspired by patriotism and commercial interests in the US have tended to cloud the early realities Baseball pioneers such as entrepreneur AG Spalding and AG Mills fourth president of die National League used shameless fabrications for the findings of a commission they established (n 1905-08 to stifle any suggestions die sport purely American hence the legend of Cooperstown1838 IN BEACHVILLE BUT VOUR DADDY WILL NEVER SEE THE MONEY BECAUSE TUERE WILL BE TOO MANY PEOPLE DRAWING FROM IT BEFORE DADDY GETS TO RETIRE MDU BET SON FM A CANADIAN Besides if anyone should be able to deal with a few demonstrators Chretien He has been in politics for 30 years and has always talked about how his experience is a great asset because he realizes irt important not to over react in politics Why then did he? If anything what this country needs right now is the kind of political leadership that engenders respect from virtually everyone We need not all support Jean Chretien in a partisan sense but wg need to have reason to at least respect die person and the position rtf prime minister We might not all agree on his policies but we must be able to recognize our values as a national community things like tolerance civility freedom of speech reflected in die position of prime minister at that level where Chretien's actions are the most disturbing Perhaps it-' was a momentary lapse in judgment uni der die stress of a confrontation but make it any less troubling The whole point is what that brief inri- dent says about Chretien He seemed completely rattied and according to some media reports even disoriented for a time before and after die incident Like it or not this incident tells us a great deal about die prime minister and his ability to cope with personally difficult situations The last person in Canada who should act the way Jean Chretien did is 1 die prime minister In a country filled with growing stress and tension what does that tell us? From die Regina Leader Post and is convinced of its validity He and! graduate student Nancy BouchierI cross-referenced and authenticated the I names locations descriptions of equipment and circumstances sur- rounding the game in old tax forms records and maps Everything fit Bar-' 1 neysays It's a game however to try to claim ownership of a origins Historical references indicate the game' evolved in various forms from the Eng- lish game rounders and primitive variations of bat-and-ball games date back to pagan fertility rights of ancient times A fanciful read-' ing of the Bible even suggests the sport may go back to the first day of ere-' ation After all the Good Book opens' with: In the big inning Still only one officially recorded first So before New York or New Jersey get the nod how about Beachville? Bill Jory is a member of The London Free Press Opinion page staff REGINA It was something you might expect from a tin-pot dictator But the prime minister of Canada? The images of Jean Chretien grabbing a protester by the neck putting his hand over the mouth and then pushing him aside to be wrestled to the ground by police security should alarm us all And not because the incident amounted to some kind of worrisome breakdown in protection for die prime minister troubling was how Chretien reacted how he handled the situation how he treated the demonstrator and what it says'about the prime minister himself Amazingly the initial reaction to the incident in Hull Que has focused on the security issue Coining only a few months after a late-night intruder made his' way into home the talk has been how this was another serious breach of security Confronted foce-to-foce with an angry demonstrator Chretien had to literally take matters into his own hands But did he? Apparently the people in charge of security believe not They say there was no problem never any threat to die prime personal safety Remember this event was for Canada's Flag Day and the crowd was largely made up of school children The demonstrators are said to have numbered only about 12 and were hardly menacing They merely chanted their slogans against Chretien and his government Nothing very threatening about that if anything there would be more cause for concern if these sort of demonstrators were not allowed to congregate and express themselves to the prime minister The feet they are there and allowed fuss over The reality is different In feet the best evidence indicates the first recorded baseball game was actually played in 1838 in Beachville a year before the mythical Cooperstown encounter and nearly three decades before Canada was even a country On June 4 1838 in a celebration to mark the birthday erf King George III a game between villagers and fanners of neighboring Zor-ra TOwnship was held in Beachville midway between Woodstock and In-gersoll American baseball historians Joel Zoss and John Bowman acknowledge in their book Diamonds In The Rough that "certainly a strong case can be made for Canadians having played some of the earliest recorded games of Canadian baseball historian William Humber suggests that baseball were not already die national pastime of the United States I suspect we long ago wouldhave declared it ours" claim rests on a letter written to The Sporting Life of Americans in futile origins BYBILLJORY Ftir Southern News Southwestern claims to baseball history are being ignored as Americans bicker over attempts to replace one myth with another The legend of the game being by Abner Doubleday in a cow pasture in Cooperstown NY in 1839 has long been discredited Now the United States Congress is being asked to replace that hoax by declaring either New York City or Hoboken NJ as the birthplace of baseball New York Senator Alfonso D'Amato wants Sept 23 declared National Baseball Day in the US because that date marks die first formal organization in 1845 of a New York baseball dub the Knickerbockers New Jersey Senator Frank Lautenberg contends the date riiould be June 19 because it commemorates an historic 1846 game played in Hoboken No doubt both dates have historical Philadelphia in 1686 by a former resident Dr Adam Ford In his letter Ford describes his boyhood memory of the game on nice smooth pasture field just back of Enoch The letter describes the game its rules and its participants in minute detail Of course room for skepticism precise 48-year-old recollections of what occurred when he wks seven or eight yean old seem too good to be true Moreover he is reported to have been a drinker and at the time of his letter he was living in exile in Denver Cola after being accused of poisoning a temperance leader in Canada Nevertheless claims have been recognized by Cooperstown the Canadian Baseball Hall of Fame the Ontario legislature and Canada Post Corp which honored the 150th anniversary of the-gamewith a stamp in 1988 Bob Barney a history professor at the University of Western Ontario has researched account extensively I -f mm mmtm.