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Mr. Reagan has a great old Hollywood smile, was going to reduce taxes, balance the budget, scare the Russians silly and do all sorts of things. None of which he has Let‘s go back a bit. I‘d take even Joe Clark ahead of Pierre Trudeau, but 1 still wouldn‘t want a Thatcher or a Reagan. Mrs. Thatcher is a remarkable woman in many ways. But she certainly hasn‘t led Britain out of its economic slump. And she has recently, supported by people like yourself, got her country into a difficult and dangerous war, which could destroy that economy completely. Think of the oil ‘"I am disappointed with Reagan as he seems to have gone soft but he sure made a wealth of friends when he put the screws to the unions. It didn‘t take him long to show who was boss. Would there be one politician in Canada with that kind of backbone? No bloddy way." 1 haven‘t changed any of the punctuation. Well, Mr. Ross, you say what you mean, but I‘d hate to be in a prison camp with you as the Gauleiter in charge. HE raves on: ‘"Would we have the educational horror in Ontario if we had one Minister of Education with some backâ€" bone. Tell me Mr. Smiley when do you people actually do any teaching. Be honest would you teach six months out of a year if we put it all together? It seems to me that every time I go out in the street its full of high school students..."‘ Instead, Miller‘s budget, with its long list of new taxable items, has become a constant reminder to citizens that government is lcreeping more and more into their private ives. This would have meant an additional $425 million for Ontario‘s coffers, and it would have saved the Davis government from the present political storm. Taxpayers most likely would have shrugged at such action, realizing that a tax increase was inevitable. But why, we wonder, didn‘t Miller simply raise the Ontario sales tax by one point to 8 per cent? Miller stirred up a tempest by expanding the 7 per cent tax base to include almost everything, from sewing patterns to tampons, shaving cream to hamburgers, school noteâ€" books to hotdogs. PAGE 8 The treasurer maintains this action will mean an additional $330 million in revenue. It‘s been a month now since Provincial Treasurer Frank Miller introduced his new budget, and each day Ontario residents become more and more perturbed. Second Class Mail Registration Number 5540 _â€"__ Budget _ stirs up tempest â€" WATERLOO CHRONICLE, WEDNESDAY, JUNE 16, 1982 Eoo Eoi e oo Om emeeneeeenene e epneie se en My readers write published every Wednesday by Fairway Press, a division of Kitchenerâ€"Waterloo Record Ltd., owner 225 Fairway Rd.S., Kitchener, Ont. address correspondence to Waterioo office: 92 King St.South, Waterloo, Ont., telephone 886â€"2830 I‘ll be honest, Mr. Ross. Yes, we do teach six months in a year. In fact, we teach 10. And if we didn‘t have a long break in the summer, our mental instituâ€" tions would be overflowing. As well, I might mention that the teachers on our staff spent more than 5,000 hours outside the classroom, helping with student activiâ€" ties, last year. Well, at least I keep my readers guessing. In one week I received a letter rom Saskatchewan that accused me of being a rightâ€"winger, and another from Ontario suggesting I am a socialist. Sorry folks, but you can‘t label this old codger that easily. I am neither. 1 am done. He has produced a budget that would create a three hundred billion dollar deficit, and even his own Republicans can‘t swallow that. The U.S. is in a bad recession. Unemployment is high. I‘m not blaming the man. But let‘s face it; he is just another politician full of hot air who can‘t deliver on the election promises. I agree about Mrs. Thatcher‘s guts and those of our politicians. But about that education horror in Ontario. What horror? Confusion, muddling, changes of direction. But horror? I ain‘t seen none, as my students would put it. And we do have a Minister of Education who is noted for backbone. In fact, Dr. Bette Stephenson is a terror, a miniature Margaret Thatcher, but not a horror. Publisher: Manager: Editor: Paul Winkler Bill Karges Karla Wheeler In the first place. I am not a millionaire. He is. In the second, I don‘t think I‘m right about everything. He does. In the third place, I‘ve never met the man, haven‘t read anything he‘s written for 30 years, and know him only as that old man on that dreadful dog called ‘"Front Page Chalâ€" lenge," whose first question is, "How much do you make?* O.K. Now for Jim Ross of Exeter, Ontario; he writes with force if not much But what really hurt was that the letter from Sask. accused me of becoming another Gordon Sinclair, whatever that means. I am no more like Gordon Sinclair than Gordon Sinclair is like Joan of Arc. The Saskatchewanian did not sign his letter, but attacked me for a column about welfare bums, the shrewd ones at the bottom of the heap who know every angle, and the shrewder ones at the top of the heap who know the right people, and are appointed to posts with immense salaries, like M. Juneau, or given choice architecâ€" tural plums like that other chum of Mr. Trudeau‘s. Not for an instant was I talking about the poor devils who must have welfare to put bread on the table and shoes on their kids. merely a person who says what he thinks, within the bounds of common decency. Even though a third letterâ€"writer says, **Your columns are almost always interâ€" esting if sometimes just a trifle vulgar." BILL SMILEY Tell you what should be done, perhaps. If we can find a wall long enough, we‘ll line up all the postal workers and teachers, and shoot them, the dirty pinkos. It would certainly help solve the unemployment No, Mr. Ross, not all teachers are socialists. Nor are they all married, or Anglicans, or Rotarians, or women, or men, or grasping, or rich. No teacher 1 know is the last. They are just people doing the best job they can with the material they have. As I remarked, Mr. Ross writes with considerable emphasis but little elegance, and is a master of the sweeping generalâ€" ization. ‘‘Margaret Thatcher has more guts in her little finger than all the politicians in Canada put together. Would we have the chaos in the post office if we had one man in Ottawa with the courage of standing up to the post office union instead of cowering in a corner while postal clerks crapped on him?" ‘"Enjoy your column and most times agree with you. I was rather upset with your comments that *(Lord forbid) we didn‘t need a Thatcher or a Reagan. Surely old fighter pilot Smiley isn‘t a socialist although I guess most teachers are." style. I‘ll give you some excerpts, along with my comments or answers. ..