Prescott-Russell en Numérique

Castor Review (Russell, ON), 8 Jun 1979, page 2

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Page2 Friday, June8 ComelT & SO? BID LY OY LUC Kia (0 DUSHICSS COOCHIRANE & MCKAY RUSSELL OINT. SLIDE INTO HISTORY This is a print of an old glass transparency that was used as an advertisement in slide projections before the era of moving pictures. The slide projections were a big part of travelling medicine shows and were presented as far back as 1915 at the old town hall that used to stand behind the Russell registry office. The original of this slide was in color. Cochrane and McKay owned a general store where the Feed Store Pizzeria now stands. (Photo courtesy Edgar Locks) CASTOR REVIEW CASTOR COMMENT Gorrespondence Editor, Castor Review; Tis 50 years come September since I entered the portals of Kenmore Continuation School. We talk about so called culture shock today. By Jove! Nothing like June, 1929, after struggling for three days at entrance tests in the old town hall in Metcalfe and walking into K.C.S. in Septem- ber, timid and expected to dig up a potato bug in November for the zoology class. Ireally enjoyed my years there and am looking forward to the reunion, July 21. I do hope W.B. Wallen, a teacher before my birth (married to Jenny Watson) can attend. I have had the privilege of teaching under him at Algonquin College. Sincerely, Hazel Annie White (Mains) Ottawa Aftermath: Quebec and the Joe Clark is faced with two critical areas of Canadian public affairs, with which he must contend if he is to go down not only as one of Canada's youngest but as one of Canada's more competent prime ministers. The first is Quebec. The second is the great, sprawling bureau- cracy, the Canadian Public Service. In this election, Quebec voted itself out of the mainstream of Canadian affairs. When this happened in 1957, Quebec recti- fied the error in 1958 by delivering 50 seats in that province to John Diefenbaker. In the election which will take place a year or 18 months from now, Joe Clark is working for a repetition, perhaps on a more restricted scale, of Quebec's 1958 realization that to remain in political isolation was to cut off its nose to spite the rest of the country's face. He is doing this by naming Quebeckers to top positions in his cabinet; some will be elected (perhaps only two initially) the others appointed. This is not particularly new. Mackenzie King named General Macnaughton to the defence portfolio during the war when he was still a serving general. The success of Joe Clark's manoeuvre will depend on the calibre of the individuals se- lected. As for the Public Service, a lot of nonsense has been spoken and written about Clark's approach in this direction. It would be invidious indeed, to suggest that public service the Prime Minister elect carries around in his pocket a "'hit list' containing the names of function- aries slated to go. The "hit list', if there is any, can be found in the government telephone directory; the names of 50 or 60 deputy ministers, heads of agencies, presidents or crown corporations put in place by order in council; men and women who have worked closely with the previous government. It is a well understood tradition in democratic government in England and the United States that those charged with top policy administration suffer the same fate as the government they served when the critics of those policies are elected to replace their architects. Now that the truth has come out about Joe Clark, he is really up against it with horse people everywhere. Jack Horner was the one who brought it out, obviously with great reluctance. Something he had been stowing away in his craw for some time, probably years. Finally, out it came. Joe Clark, although he's from Alberta -- wait for it -- can't ride a horse. More than that, he's afraid of them. Coming from Jack Horner, that is a smashing indictment of a man who showed every indica- tion of being a great leader. But now? Where can Joe go? Why, a man like that would have trouble opening the Russell Fair. CASTOR "One Canada" Beaver Bob Joe's tall but not in the saddle Now, it may be that Jack was feeling a mite riled when he made the statement. It was the first cabinet meeting after the elec- tion. Jack was tasting the bitter almonds of defeat, something he's not used to. We are not at all sure that Joe Clark is afraid of horses and even if he is, we can't find it in our hearts to hold it against him. Some horses, like some people are mighty ornery. We feel if Joe wasn't afraid of Trudeau -- and he showed in the great TV Debate that he wasn't -- then he has got to be given marks for courage. After all, that debate was a kind of verbal show down at the O.K. Corral, with Broad bent holding the stakes. REVIEW Box 359, Russell, Ontario Editor: 445-2080. Sports: Jack MacLaren, Edit- or, 445-2131; Peter Van Dusen, columnist; Garey Ris, reporter, 445-2069. News: Suzanne Schroeter, 445- 5709. Photographs: Mary Rowsell, 445-5244. Advertising: Michael Van Dus- en, 445-5770. Layout: 5707. Subscriptions: Tina Van Dus- en, 445-5707. Bookkeeper: Joan Van Dusen, 445-2080. Mark Van _ Dusen, Stuart Walker, 445- Submissions preferably typed, double-spaced are welcomed, publishable at the discretion of the editor. Published by Castor Publish- ing, Russell, Ontario. President: Thomas W. Van Dusen. Printed by Eastern Ontario Graphics Ltd., Chesterville, Ont. NEXT DEADLINE July 6 NEXT ISSUE July 13 Second Class Mail Registration No. 4218 ISSN 0707 -- 4956 The idea was that Joe would get caught in the cross fire between Trudeau and Broadbent. This didn't happen. Actually Trudeau never laid a glove on him; and as for Broadbent, why Joe danced away from him with ease. Jack Horner, being from Alber- ta, is pretty well sold on horses. You have to understand that Jack's family came from Pontiac county in Western Quebec. In fact, his daddy, Senator Horner, was born in Shawville. Jack Horner is a horseman and a cattle man. He won't tell you how many cows he has; and if you ask, he says, "Do I ask you how many dollars you have in the bank?"' However, we feel in all justice it should be pointed out that Joe's orientation was a little different. His daddy was a weekly newspa- per editor and he brought Joe up to follow in his footsteps. One of the things you don't have to do to be a good weekly editor is to stay on a bucking bronco. Sometimes it helps. Joe disappointed his daddy by taking up politics and throwing his lot in with a bunch of spellbin- ders and strolling players whose pastime was to get up on their hind legs on a platform and harangue an audience. Joe did all right after a while and they say his daddy is now pretty well reconciled. But he has got to scotch that report emitted by Jack Horner to the effect that Joe can't ride. It is the God-given heritage of every great leader in this country that he can sit tall in the saddle. The last laugh Castor area federal election results didn't surprise anyone. How could they? All incumbents -- Denis Ethier, Walter Baker, and Ed Lumley -- were returned with substantial majorities. In the cases of Mr. Lumley, Liberal MP for Stormont-Dun- das, and Mr. Baker, Progressive Conservative MP for Nepean-Carleton, the results reflected their high-profile effectiveness. In the case of Mr. Ethier, Liberal MP for Glengarry-Pres- cott-Russell, the resounding endorsement supplied by voters was not so anticipated. But then again, Mr. Ethier was also able to thumb his nose at detractors in two previous campaigns. Observers had expected the polished, year-long campaign mounted by PC Gordon Johnson, a Limoges nursing home operator, to make a much larger dent in the Ethier armor and perhaps even knock him off his high horse. Like other candidates who have taken on Mr. Ethier, Mr. Johnson challenged the incumbent's competence, pointing out that he rarely spoke during parliamentary debates and remained almost invisible between elections. Mr. Ethier insisted throughout the campaign that he was "a worker, not a talker". He warned that his constituents didn't appreciate attacks on their member's ability and would rally in his defense. The MP had last laugh in that he put together the heftiest majority in the three trips he has made to the polls. We certainly don't propose to repeat the reoccurring folly of suggesting that Mr. Ethier doesn't have the matter that makes a good representative. He's obviously doing a lot of things right including his riding homework. There's one favour we would ask of our man in Ottawa -- that he drop around this neck of the woods a little more often and let us know what he's doing on our behalf. 'Down in the dumps What an epic picture that was, a Minister of the Crown, Bud Cullen by name, grubbing about in a garbage dump on the outskirts of Ottawa, searching for his private files. Now, there is an investigation to determine, not what the Minister was doing out there in the early hours of dawn, with the fog rising from the fields and the night shadows stealing away, but how the papers got there. That doesn't seem to be a mystery. Apparently, the char staff of Employment and Immigration carted away three boxes of the Minister's intimate musings and dumped them. What a fate for the immortal ratiocinations of one of the stalwarts of the Crown! Picture now, the Minister in the early dawn, surrounded by the faithful of his staff, like a group of devotees out to drive a stake through Count Dracula's chest, huddled together in the weird charcoal light of a black and white horror movie by Roman Polanski. To what has our nation descended? Another Hydro mess Ontario Hydro is in another mess, this time over 36 defective boilers made by a Canadian firm for the Pickering nuclear station. The firm, Babcock and Wilcox, is a subsidiary of the company which designed the nuclear power plant at Three Mile Island in Pennsylvania. The repair bill for the defective Pickering boilers may come to $35 million dollars. Any suggestion that this cost should be passed on to Ontario Hydro consumers should be strenuously resisted. Cost of hydro power in this province has pyramided in the past five years, partly through major strategic and policy decisions by Hydro management, and partly because of lack of control by the legislature over what Hydro is doing. The situation is so serious now that if the government is not prepared to move, the legislature itself must take a firm stand on runaway hydro costs and the evidence of sloppy administra- tion which they reveal. Most disturbing about the latest evidence of slackness in Hydro administration is the fact that the Babcock and Wilcox order was let without tenders. This is not the first order this company has had from Hydro; nor according to some reports, is it the first incident when systems or equipment obtained through this supplier have produced technical failures. And yet, "lydro goes right back to Babcock and Wilcox for more boilers and when they prove defective, there is talk that Hydro may pick up the repair tab. Most disturbing of all in this sorry and defective kettle of fish are the fatuous statements emanating from William Morison, Ontario Hydro's director of design and development. Mr. Morison is quoted as saying: "We're doing our best to get what's best for the power consumers of Ontario but we don't think they want to put people out of business, either. You want to keep these manufacturers in business -- they need profits." Explaining why the boiler contracts were awarded without tender, Morison admitted it was possible Hydro might have obtained the Pickering boilers at a lower price if it had called for bids. His remarks indicate a rather unique and certainly uncalled for posture by a top design official of Ontario Hydro. Surely it is no part of Hydro's duty to keep firms in business by handing out contracts without tender; particularly when the firms in question are wholly owned subsidiaries of American companies. It should be made very clear to Hydro officials that their primary concern must be to obtain for the people of this province the best value for the extensive sums which Hydro is spending. Under no circumstances does Ontario Hydro have an obligation to supply business or profits to subsidiaries of American firms operating in this province. That curious attitude on the part of Hydro officials may be one of the reasons why this institution presents a picture of administrative disorder at this time.

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