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It‘s getting tougher every day to maintain our typically smug Canadian, betterâ€"thanâ€"theâ€"Americans stance that we‘d never let the country be run by the stereotype poliâ€" tician who blusters promises to get elected and disappears into the woodwork when the action is due. We seem to have gone one stage further. The candidates at the top have stopped promising and decided to make it by process of elimination. # What difference does it make? The whole show is put on for your benefit, and the last federal spectacular in 1974 cost us slightly over $29â€"million. With the inflation factor we‘ve experienced since then, this year‘s extravaganza should run close to $50â€"million. overall campaign. For that kind of money I want some something better than a mud fight. The suggestion that all three national party leaders appear on coastâ€"toâ€"coast TV to debate the issues seems likeaa step in the right direction. + Any salesman worth his commission will tell you that you don‘t gain ground by knocking the competition. Then how come Canada‘s leading salesmen don‘t follow that old maxim? The men who want most to run this country are definitely salesmen. Selling themselves and their ability to run the federal government is what the campaign is supposed to be all about. But when the best sales pitch they can come up with is a laundry list of what will go wrong with the country if the other guy gets elected, you have to stop and wonder where we all went wrong. , If you were interviewing an applicant for a responsible position in your business, would you consider anyone who behaved in such an immature style? Would you want your kids to emulate the performance as a guideline to success? Listening to the campaign speeches, we are in a sense interâ€" viewing applicants for an extremely responsible position in what is very much our business. â€" The problems of running a country are obviously too comâ€" plex and often too confidential to explain in detail to the votâ€" ing public during an election. But surely we can get a more intelligent presentation than we have so far. The race to decide who will be the member from Waterloo riding will be getting into full swing soon, and with four canâ€" didates in the running, let‘s hope we get a more positive Don‘t knock the _competition Any photos mailed or delivered to the Chronicle will be copied within a week and either mailed back or held at our office to be picked up according to the owner‘s choice We‘d welcome the chance to reprint those old picâ€" tures as a regular feature in the Chronicle, whether the subject matter can be identified or not. To date there has not been a comprehensive picâ€" torial history of Waterloo‘s history published. and your assistance in loaning your photos will perhaps enable us to at least partially fill the void Do you have any old photos of people or places in Waterloo that relate to the city‘s history? your old photos We need subscriptions: $10 a year in Canada. + _ $12 a year in United States and Foreign Countries. Publisher: Paul Winkier Acting Editer: Howard Elliott established 1854 How will we respond to the new leisure? Will we use it for making our lives more humane and more fulfilling? Already there is evidence that many of us are succumbing to the devastating boredom that is always a threat to those who ~have much leisure Dr. Viktor Frankl. one of the more influential psychiaâ€" trists of our time. points out that ~Boredom is now causing. Sir William Osler, the Canadian physician who was one of the makers of modern medicine, said this in one of his essays: **Happiness lies in the absorption in some vocation which satisfies the soul."‘ Yes, of course. But the kinds of drudgery which many people today must face in their work are enervating and demoralizing and terribly frustrating. For many there is little satisfaction, little fulfilment, in their daily work. For them work is primarily an ordeal that must be undergone in order to make money for the basic necessities of life and for leisureâ€"time activities in which some personal fulfilment may be found. o We who find fulfilment in our work must resist the tempâ€" tation to be over critical of those whose work is dull or disâ€" tasteful, those whose work consists mainly of routines which can put callouses on the heart as well as on the hands, those whe.labor merely for existence and for the leisure in which they can find their main fulfilment. A few years ago a team of social scientists predicted that in the year 2000 the general pattern of work in the developed parts of the world will be one of a seven and one half hour work day instead of eight, with four working days a week inâ€" stead of five and only 39 working weeks per year compared to the present 50. In the face of all that is now happening in our society, that seems a fairly reasonable forecast. Our society is already becoming leisureâ€"oriented in many ways Boredom a threat to our socie THAT SHOULD HOLD THEMâ€" TOGETHER ) © FOR A WHILE (â€" â€"â€"â€"â€"â€"* \‘%"Rr 1 J Letters to the editor . . / t @;Wfit / | cR 7 and certainly brings to psychiatrists, more problems to solve than is distress.‘" Bertrand Russell once said, ‘"Boreâ€" dom is a vital problem for the moralist, since at least half the sins of mankind are caused by fear of it." In an age of increasing leisure for most people art and music and drama and literature and sports become increasâ€" ingly significant in our society. And religion can play a creaâ€" tive role here, helping people get beyond their anxieties and insecurities to awareness of life‘s deepest meanings. And, as Bertrand Russell went on to say, "If a leisure population is to be happy, it must be an educated population, and must be educated with a view to mental enjoyment as well as to the direct usefulness of technical knowledge." Letters to the editor of the Waterloo Chronicle must be signed with the writer‘s name in order to be pubâ€" lished. The name will be published with the letter. The writer should also include his or her address and teleâ€" phone number. Normally, a letter signed with a pseuâ€" donym will not be published The editor has the right to edit letters for grammar and spelling and to withhold letters which may be deemed defamatory. contemptuous or of questionable taste The Chronicle welcomes letters to the editor on any subject. Letters should be sent to: The Editor, Waâ€" terloo Chronicle. 92 King St S.. Waterloo Letters policy C