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Page 5, News, Tuesday, September 25, 1990. Using ballots as cherry Remember the old joke? What did Abraham Lincoln say upon waking up after a six day drunk? "I FREED WHO!?" This is precisely the way N.D.P. voters felt on the morning after the provincial election. "WE ELECTED WHO?! AND BY HOW MANY?!?!" Gees Louise. All most of us wanted to do was scare the hell out of David Peterson, we didn't mean to make the man functional- ly unemployable! The problem with "scare" vot- ing is an obvious lack of commu- nication by those saying BOO! with their ballots. Next time I suggest we phone each other first. "Okay Eugene you're going to vote to scare David by voting N.D.P. Lillian you're a commit- -ted socialist so you'll sincerely vote for Bob. That means I'll waste one on Mike and Shelley, William J. Thomas that means you'll have to counter- balance by voting for David. Ah, come on, Shelly, after all you're the one who's married to him!" Next time lets phone ahead. Boy, oh boy. Whodathunkit? The whole world's going to' capi- talism and Ontario headed for socialism. It's like passing Mikhail Gorbachev on an off ramp knowing one of you is trav- elling in the wrong direction. And people do have fears. Red fears. So as to allay these unfounded and ugly suspicions of Ontario going communist I expressed these fears directly to M.P.P. Peter Kormos of Welland, the fastest rising star in Bob Rae's majority. (There, I said the "M" word without flinching!) I said "Mr. Kormos - is there any threat of communism implicit in your party's victory?" And he said: "Bill, please, please...call me Comrade." But seriously, there are people who could misconstrue this tri- umph of socialist as something more and something more to the left than it really is. That's why I went directly to M.P.P. Peter Kormos of Welland, quite possibly the next Attorney General of Ontario and I said: "Mr. Kormos - in the distribution of power - what role do you see for the other parties?" And he said; "Other parties? Why would anyone need more than one?" And then Peter gave me a big bear hug and said he was on his way to Queen's Park with a five year agricultural plan that would eventually end the line-ups for bread in Sudbury. "But Peter" I said, "there are no bread lines in Sudbury." "Bill, please, please..." he replied, "give us a chance." ombs But seriously, people are con- cerned - especially those over at Brian's Chev/Olds who took in Peter's black corvette as a trade-in on a new Soviet Zil. But seriously... The N.D.P.'s stunning victory is a land mark in this country's democratic history. Think about it. It's the first time Canadians actually voted into office people they like. We admired the hell out of all the great ones - the scrappy Tommy Douglas, the. unflappable David Lewis, the elo- quent Stephen Lewis, the honor- able and honest Ed Broadbent, the compassionate Bob Rae and even Peter Kormos, the champion of the little guy. But give 'em power? Are you crazy? Why they could...they could do some- thing...worthwhile. There has continued on page 6 Dealing wit "The Green Ripper" alias the Grim Reaper. I confess, I confess. The above is a direct steal from the title of one of excellent mystery writer John D. MacDonald's books, but it's one humorous way of looking at the Old Man with the Scythe who comes along in ALL our lives - early, middle or late - to snip that umbilical cord which ties us to life and sends us either six feet under or to the cre- matorium. Yer ole Baba realizes this is not most people's favourite topic of conversation, but when you get on this side of the Mountain of Life, you begin to become only too aware of how fast the time is slipping by. Since you know darned well nobody has attained immortality and lived forever, it's sort of comforting to know that king, queen, pauper, rich, ugly, beautiful, famous or unknown, we all come to the same sticky end. Olga Landiak How to prepare oneself for this inevitability. Certainly not in some panic-stricken, what's the use-of-living way guaranteed to be a misery both to yourself and others about you, but in a cheer- ful, healthy attempt to do the best by oneself and others. None of us are ever truly ready to go, even the most pious and religious. While we're still com- paratively strong and mobile, that is. It's quite a different story when one is stricken with one of the terrible diseases of today, becomes completely bed-and- pain ridden and is faced with the knowledge the end is imminent. Then medical marvels alone keep us alive and living. Living? This is living? Or is it a cruel living-death instead? Once upon a time we died simply and in dignity without this terrible prolongation of a life which should have been allowed to go naturally. This prolongation is a modern day dilemma and horror, particularly when the brain is gone and only the body shell is kept functioning. Why is it con- sidered anti-religious, suicidal, unlawful, to be allowed, while still in possession of one's facul- ties, to determine the time of our going out when there is not the slightest hope of recovery. What makes us think our lives are so all-fired important in the first place? Will not the world wag on its bad, mad, sad way without our presence?. Will not people and institutions or whatev- er be able to get along quite well without our being there? Why do we have this terrible egotistical feeling that we should be immor- tal? How many more times does one want to go through the end- lessly repeated follies of mankind? Not me, I can tell you. Once around the merry-go-round on this particular planet of mad . destructive human beings, is once enough for yer ole Baba. 'To be kept alive by artificial means if the end is inevitable or the old brain box is completely empty of the very essence which h the grim reaper makes us human beings in the first place, well, I can't think of anything more gruesome. Like so many others who have expressed the same desire, I hope, when the finger of the Green Ripper finally points at me, that he'll make it quick and sure, or else allows me to lay down peacefully one night and not wake up in the moming. It's not that I'm afraid of a little pain and adversity in my life - on the contrary, I welcome it asa building of strength of character, otherwise we'd all end up as some sort of wimpy, marshmallowy kind of people. It's this artificial prolongation of a life which isn't a life, which I object to. Besides I don't happen to believe I'm all that super-impor- tant to anybody or anything that I should fear the arrival of the Old Man with the Scythe and he goes snip, snip. Whatever happens AFTER that, is surely for the Creator of All to know and deter- mine. Not Man. A network with a difference On September 6th, the voters in David Peterson's riding of London Centre and the rest of the province followed the advice of NDP campaign commercials and decided to "send the Liberals a letter they can't ignore" and voted NDP. Before Peterson and other Liberals finish packing their red ties and moving out of Queen's Park, I want to reflect on what Peterson's legacy might be as far as northern Ontario is concerned. From my __ perspective, Peterson's northern Ontario phi- losophy will be his most impor- tant legacy. He articulated his philosophy quite clearly in Sault Ste. Marie, at the "First Conference on Northern Business and Entrepreneurship" he hosted in November, 1986: "We must have a heavy reliance on northerners to develop ideas and solve their own prob- lems. Our government is pre- pared to play its role. But the leadership and the co-operation has to come from here. What you do not want is made-in-Toronto solutions to some of these local problems." NORTHERN INSIGHTS Peterson gave a similar version of that message to southeastern and southwestern Ontario - it was not a policy philosophy applied only to northern Ontario. For the most part, Peterson's philosophy was welcomed by northerners as something governments should have been saying a long time ago. At the same time, the philosophy was criticized by opposition par- ties and some northerners as a cop-out. Bud Wildman, the NDP MPP for Algoma, among others, focused on the word "leadership", and attacked Peterson for waiting for northerners to demonstrate leadership, instead of implement- ing programs and legislation that would address long-standing northern community leaders' grievances, such as the high price by Larry Sanders of gas and the poor state of our highways. But Peterson's philosophy nonetheless became the underly- ing rationale for all government initiatives in the north. Joint working groups that actually involved northerners in decision- making became standard operat- . ing procedure, instead of an exception. One such joint work- . ing group was formed in 1986 with the municipal economic development officers, and we are now living with the results of that discussion. It's called the "Northwestern Ontario Economic Development Network". The Network started off with just the municipal economic offi- cers, but has since expanded to include representatives of Community Futures Committees, and Community Industrial Training Committees. All these people, despite being funded by different levels of government, have the same purpose: diversify- ing the economic base of north- western Ontario. The Network has_ since expanded, in the words of Bob Michels (the economic develop- ment officer from Atikokan and the founding chairman of the Network) to the point where "the needs of the region and our ambi- tions have outrun our ability to respond as a Network and as a limited group of municipal eco- nomic development officers., We've concluded that we have to come up with some new models for dealing with both municipal and regional economic develop- ment. That's pretty obvious to me. If the models we had worked, we wouldn't need to be here, right? All the economic development problems would be solved, and I would be on some long-térm pension of some kind due to the gratitude of the people of Atikokan." The Network has secured a two-year funding agreement with the province, hired a full-time coordinator, and is about to open its own office outside the provin- cial government buildings. It's also written a draft of a "Mission continued on page 10 Correction In last week's Northern Insights column there was an error concerning the removal of a wood pile that had been cut by Buchanan Forest Products. Last week's article said that Buchanan had made a written promise to remove the wood by March 31, 1990. The story should have read March 31, 1991. teak AT See