r w' Ottawa Report By Norm Cafik, M.P. I presume that the economy will be one of the issues on which an election will be fought and this I welcome. We need to involve Canadians in the questions of economic priorities and an industrial strategy. What concerns me is that we may lose the fragile feeling of confidence we have in our economy because we are going to hear charges that we have not done all the things we should have done - a government. Any objective reference to the economic record in this country puts the lie very quickly to the simplistic stories of doom and gloom. We have improved our standard of living in relation to any other country with which we can be reasonably compared. We have created almost 3 million jobs in less than 8 years - 429,000 of them in the last year alone and have achieved a percentage increase in the number of jobs available over that period of 25 per cent - better than any other industrialized country in the world. The next closest performance was that of the United States with a 15 per cent increase in employment. Statistics released last week show -that we have a record balance of trade for 1978 - due to the devalued dollar we hear so many tales of woe about - and that for the first time since 1973 we have created more jobs in our country than we have had new people enter the labour force. Now that may seem like a strange thing to get excited about, but it means we have passed the crest of the immense wave of Ontario archives get old court house plans Plans and drawings for three significant Whitby buildings are among the papers in the E.C. Horwood Collection of Architectural Drawings, -presented this month to the Ontario Archives. The collection is said to be the largest single gift of architectural drawings ever made in Canada. The donor, Eric Horwood, was the senior partner in the firm of Horwood and White until his retirement. The collection was accumulated by Mr. Horwood and his father, also an architect, over a period of 150 years. The most significant Whitby plans and drawings are thoSe by Cumberland and Storm for the Ontario County Jail, dated 1852, and the Ontario County *Court House, dated 1853. The court house is now the Whitby Centennial Building, located at 416 Centre Street South. It was constructed in the Doric style of Greek revival architecture, with a cupola or dome on the roof. TBY FREE PRESS, WEDNESDAY, MARCH 21, 1979, PAGE 13 important, far more true: Psychologically. The free lunch is no longer in fashion. Increasingly, ,Canadians are realizing that our problems, and their solutions, are of our own making. We even think we detect the fragile re-emergence of a quality that's seldom been encountered in Canada in» recent years: Pride. Don't underestimate it. Pride is about boasting instead of bitching. Pride is about tackling problems instead of describing them. Pride is the perception that the liberated energies of a free people can accomplish just about everything. For business people, it's the perception that creative capitalism still has a major, and possibly redemptive, role to play in this country - a perception that the larger public in increasingly coming to share." Addition of a second floor to each of the wings was made in 1910. The court house, one of the most architecturally signifi- cant buildings in Whitby, served as the judicial centre for Ontario County from 1854 to 1964 and was converted into a community centre in 1967 as a Centennial project. The jail, which was located behind the court house, was demolished in 1960. It was built of stone imported from Queenston. Also in the Horwood collec- tion were the plans for a second-storey addition to the W.A. Dryden home near Brooklin. These plans were prepared by Burke, Horwood and White, architects, in 1916. The Dryden home is on the seventh concession of Whitby, east of Thickson Road. W.A. Dryden was one of the founders of the Royal Agricultural Winter Fair at Toronto and a prominent stock breeder in the Brooklin area. One Parent Families expect charter soon The Success of the recently formed Whitby Chapter of One Parent Families Asso- ciation of Canada has been overwhelming. The Chapter expects to meet all requirements for its charter by the end of March; at which time the Chapter shall make application for charter to the National Board of the Association. The Chapter meetings thus far have been both informa- tive and educational, hosting speakers on a variety of topics such as Income Tax, Astrology, Family Law, Photography, Character Development (Self-Recogni- tion), Caribhean Travel, Brownie mothers The 2nd Whitby South East District Brownie Mothers will be selling Laura Secord Easter candies this month to raise jç44e.yr.thepackc. "Children The Challenge", etc., these subjects and many others all being part of a comprehensive program designed to aid the single parent in a traditionally two- parent society. To be eligible, one must be a single parent by reason of divorce, separation, death or unwed parenthood. Custody of your children is not man- datory. The meetings are held every Monday evening at 8:30 p.m. in the program room of the Whitby Public Library. For further information call 728-5248. sell Easter candies For more information, call Laurie Skitch, 688-9684; Pat Papoushek, 668-4261; Brenda Campbell, 668-9176; or . NancçDavidsone668-864, Mmqwý WM employment demands created by the baby boom of the 1950's and the stepping of women into their rightful place into the labour force. Remember - almost 3 million jobs created in less than 8 years. Even though employment is still too high, that's a remarkable performance, and it's the envy of the industria- lized world. I think the best comment on the need to keep a sense of perspective came in a forecast for 1979, published by Canadian Business Magazine: "The fact is, we're operating one of the most successful economies on earth. You know all about the negatives, but consider some of the pluses of the past year or so: Albertans, encouraged by higher prices, have found more natural gas than Canada can immediately use; other Albertans are preparing to tackle the Alaska Highway pipeline, one of the largest construction jobs ever attempted; other Albertans brought the Syncrude project on stream, on time and on budget. In any other times but these, what's happening in B.C., Saskatchewan, Ontario and even parts of Quebec and the Atlantic Provinces would be regarded as an amazing boom. It's only because our expectations are still coloured by the extraordinary economic events of the 1960's - events that economists regard as an "aberration rather than a norm - that we fail to recognize those victories. Furthermore, we suspect that matters are improving - perhaps not yet statistically, but in a way that's far more