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Page 4, News, Tuesday, October 23, 1990 'Be se os eee a care mae =Fditorial The Terrace Bay - Schreiber News is published every Tuesday by Laurentian Publishing Limited, Box 579, 13 Simcoe Plaza, Terrace Bay, Ont., POT-2w0 Tel.: 807-825-3747. Second class mailing permit 2264. Member of the Ontario Community Newspaper Association and the Canadian Community Newspaper Association. 'Tel.: 825-3747 seem Site wi luca cote: Publisher............... A. Sandy Harbinson Gx A Subscription rates: $16 per Advertising Mgr......Linda R Harbinson year / seniors $10 (local); Advertising Rep......... HalynaO. Worth 2) eho eerurns "0 mile News Editor... Robert Cotton iy es Admin. Asst.................. Gayle Fournier J{4 se Misuse of procedure holds up government While Liberal senators use procedure to obstruct the GST the Conservatives use it to shove new legislation through the Commons. Last week Privatization Minister, John Mc Dermid moved for time allocation after only two opposition MPs had spoken to a bill privatizing Petro Canada. Time allocation is a procedure limiting debate on a measure to two days.It is designed to speed up lengthy debates. In this case it was used to stop debate. McDermid's motion was subsequently ruled out of order by the Speaker. _ Time allocation, closure and other procedures are being used in Ottawa more frequently than ever before. Both closure and time allocation are intended to be used only in extreme circumstances. However, the Liberal party, under Trudeau, used time allocation 27 times in four years. Mulroney's Conservatives have used it 27 times in six years. The Conservatives have used closure, which ends further debate on a bill before the House, 15 times since 1984. Closure was first used in 1913 and only 19 times between then and the 1984 Conservative victory. The government of the day use procedure to ensure the success of its policies and the consolidation of its power.The opposition use it to stall debates and embarrass the party in power. The traditional political parties are more interested in either maintaining power or regaining it. To be democratic and efficient Canada must govern itself by consensus. The federal parties should 'get back to work. They should make proper use of the existing committee systems and above all should set aside egos and dreams of power in favor of listening to each other and the people of Canada. Robert Cotton Lotteries...a tax on The lottery: fools. a tax on Henry Fielding Sometimes a picture really is worth a thousand words. A few weeks ago. the newspapers carried a photograph that said more about the idiocy of lotteries than a_ hundred-page manifesto from Gamblers Anonymous. The photo showed a guy lying on the hood of his car which was parked in front of a Florida convenience store. He was staying there all night so that he could be first in line when the store opened in the morning. He intended, the photo caption said, to spend his last $800 on lottery tickets. It was part of the latest outbreak of Lottomania which occurred in Florida last month. The top prize in the State lottery was worth over $100 million, and suddenly people were buying ten, fifteen tickets at a time. Some hopefuls spent their rent money. Others arranged bank loans. Just think of the sub- human level of logic. Some of these folks wouldn't have bothered to buy a ticket if the prize had been, say, $100 thousand. But $100 million? Florida looked like a shark feeding frenzy. Despite the fact that every ticket sold increased the odds against winning, the lineups of 'hopefuls stretched for blocks. It's a strange addiction, Lottomania. Some people live for their weekly fix. I know a lady who lays out twenty bucks every Thursday morning at the corner store. All Thursday afternoon she's as high as _gyrefalcon, humming Broadway tunes and chattering about far-away places. Then comes Friday morning. She's lost again and she's down in the dumps. Which is where she stays until another Thursday morning rolls around. I figure she's happy for about six hours a week. Hell, most drugs give a better return than that. I've thought of telling her that I know an easy way she could save a thousand dollars.a year, but a little voice tells me she want to hear it. Lottomaniacs do love their vice. Even though it can kill them. Bill Curry, a 37-year- old Boston cafeteria worker won $4 million and change in the Massachusetts lottery last month. He died of a heart attack two weeks later. His sister-in-law said Curry's health began to go hownhill the day he found out he'd won. He was hounded by old acquaintances who suddenly became best friends, by self- appointed financial advisors and strangers seeking money for everything from major surgery to Madagascar tin mines. "It was the stress of it that killed him," says the sister-in- law. : That's the trouble with easy money: in the long run, - it's not that easy. Pauline Glassman knew that. She's a Toronto woman who, ten-years ago, was a bag lady sleeping in parks and eating out of restaurant dumpsters, wandering through the alleys and laneways of downtown Toronto. In 1982 she disappeared and was given up for dead. Then, just a few weeks ago a private detective - found her alive and married, the fool ish on welfare, in a _ tiny apartment in a subsidized housing project in Toronto. At first she denied being Pauline Glassman, but the detective had done his homework. As well he might. The detective was being well paid by a large trust company that urgently wanted to find Pauline Glassman. To tell her that, due to an inheritance, she was now a millionaire. But the best part is -- Pauline Glassman didn't want the money! She said that the past five years with her new husband had been "the best years of my life" -- so wonderful that not only did the prospect of wealth not tempt her, she feared it might ruin all tae joy she'd found. Smart lady. Alas, smooth talkers in charge of the estate convinced her otherwise. Pauline Glassman gave in and is now a rich woman. I guess all we can do is wish her "Good Luck."