The following text may have been generated by Optical Character Recognition, with varying degrees of accuracy. Reader beware!

PAGE 4, WEDNESDAY, FEBRUARY 13, 1980, WHITBY FREE PRESS -- Voice of the County Town Michael lan Burgess, Publisher - Managing Editor IMe only Whitby newspaper independently owned and operated by Whitby residents for Whitby residents. Published every Wednesday by M.B.M. Plublishing and Photography Inc. Phone 668-61 Il The Free Press Building, 131 Brock Street North, 1P.O. Box 206, Whitby, Ont. Community EdItor Milie Krel Production Manager Mati Buffles PrInt & Promollonai Manager n nobin Lyon Classified Ad AdvertIsIng Manager Karen ThornpSOn %,'A t!e Votete The most polItical statement that the Whitby Free Press will make (unlike some of our com- petitors) ls get out and vote. The right of franchise ls the most fundamental in any democratic system and, amazingly enough, almost every country and state in the world recognizes this. Even the Soviets have elections, however, they are not like those to which we are ac- customed. In the British parliamentary system the right of f ree and secret franchise was over 1,000 years in the making and s fnot a right that we should throw away by not casting It. The right to vote should be exercised at every opportunity and at every duly constltuted elec- tion and there is even one country in the world that makes It manatory to vote. Australia has a law that fines those persons who do not exercise their right of franchise, because their belief in democracy is so great, they compel their members of their society to participate. That isnot such a bad idea when voter turn out in CanadaIs considered. the Free Press will not presume to tell the reader for whom they should cast their ballot, simply we encourage that the ballot be cast. Many political observers have stated over the last few years that it is quite possible that the great western democracles will fall and give rise to a new form of totalitarianism. It is obvious that the vast majority of people both In Ontario Riding and Canada as a whole do not want this. Almost everyone has a political opinion and it ls surprising how many people do not turn that opinion into a vote. In this riding we have a fine siate of can- didates, (for the most part) most of whom would do a good job for the people residing here. To aid the voter, we will Introduce, once again, the candidates: Dawn Carrell, Marxist-Leninist Party; Doug Dickerson, Liberal Party; Scott Fennell, Progressive-Conservative Party; Roif Posma, Libertarian Party; Jean-Claude Stranart, Rhinocerous Party; and Geoff Rison, New Democratic Party. The Canada Elections Act states' that every person must be allowed the opportunity to vote. Their employer must give them a minimum of four consecutive hours off work to go and excer- cise their vote, If they cannot go to their polling station at othertimes during voting day. The poils are open between 9 a.m. and 8 p.m. on Monday, February 18 and the reader can find out where his polling station is by calling the committee rooms of any candidate or by calling the Returning Officer's office at 668-7222. The entire process doesn't take long, so take a half-hour or so out of your day and go and vote. Vote Liberal, vote PC, vote NDP, vote anything but get out and vote. Every vote does count and it is our chance to tell the politicians and the parties how we feel about the issues and what we want done about them. Don't procrastinate. Listen to the candidates and when you have made up your mind, don't faulter, vote. It has been the practise of the Whitby Free Press to publicize events sponsored by various non-profit community organizations and service clubs free of charge when space is available. The Free Press shall endeavour to main- tain this practise in the future, however, we feel that it is time for us to clarify our position to these organizations. One of those groups recently voiced com- plaints to us (quite loudly), because we had not publicized their event, because of many factors, many of which they are not aware of. This may sound callous, but the only way we will guarantee publication of anything is through the purchase of advertising space. The existance of this publication relies, almost totally, on the income from adver- tising revenues and as a matter of course they take priority. Occasions have arisen when members or officers have called the Free Press to com- plain that their announcement 'was not in- cluded in the editorial content of the paper. There have been occasions (thankfully rarely) when these persons have been rude and arrogant and have given the impression to the staff of the Free Press that we owe them to publish their material when they want, and if we don't etc. etc. We do not have any obligation to publish anything, anytime, but when we do, which is almost always, we do so as a service to our readers, based on editorial judgement and space limitations. Much as we would like to, we cannot publish everything we receive ail the time. There have been, however, some clubs that have been more co-operative with us, most notable, the Whitby Jaycees and the Whitby Chamber of Commerce. These two organizations have showed their appreciation to us in more ways than one and more times than can be counted. They have both also recognized our efforts on their behalf by awarding the Free Press certificates of appreciation. To the Jaycees and the Chamber, we are indebted. Other organizations and clubs should be mindful of a policy that is followed by some publications. That policy is, that if an organization charges for a particular event and intends to make a profit from the event, they will be charged the regular advertising rate for in- cluding their public announcement. The Free Press has not followed that policy nor do we wish to adopt it, because we hold the opinion that these groups provide an excellent and often much needed service to the community and as part of the community we desire to see these groups exIst and flourish and hence are willing to continue providing the free promotional service that we do. These community organizations should also be aware of our deadlines. Our deadline for these public announcements is Friday at 5 p.m. prior to publication date. Anything received on Monday before publication will probably not be included as the newspaper is already mostly made up, and the remaining space is for the most part, already allotted. If any organization wants more information on our policy, do not hesitate to contact either Michael Burgess, the publisher or Michael Knell, the editor at 668-6111. An open letter to all service clubs and other community groups r a whitby