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-- Past CEL SIRE : ¥ # i XU. 3 tl ] Re) Fe PE Sg Oey EAN Gi CASE IER WL RA S0R aN De (3 3 > phe] N73 ALY avs en Fi « 4s | Ss a dec BRE Set oo ~r « af wy AA Rae a Sr aml 7 NEAT NSE RA REE Rg ROR STROM : ' editorial poge The Great Debate Liberal party strategists decided last week that Pierre Trudeau will not take part in the proposed televised debate with Prime Minister Joe Clark and NDP leader Ed Broadbent. Noting that the Liberals are doing their level best to keep Mr. Trudeau "under wraps" this election campaign, the decision to pull out of the debate still came as a surprise. The Liberals obviously have taken the calculated risk that the electorate would not perceive this decision as an attempt to back away from confron- tation over issues. Nevertheless, in a winter election campaign when all parties concede that they will have to rely more heavily on the media to get their message to the people, the decision to pull out of the debate is suspect. While the Liberal party strategists said that the debate serves more to focus on personalities rather than the issues, it is also possible that the Liberals want to deprive NDP leader Ed Broadbent of the spot-light. ~ Broadbent is a skilled debater and would stand to gain from a debate, while the Liberals know that if they are to re-gain power, they must take votes in Ontario that might go to the NDP. Joe Clark and the Conservatives, meanwhile, are protesting over the Liberal decision, but private- ly. itis very likely they are not as upset as they would have us believe. Mr. Clark's performance during the last election debate was not on the same level as that of either Trudeau or Broadbent. Whether or not a televised debate with the three major party leaders has any real impact as a campaign tool is a question that can't easily be answered. However, about 7.5 million Canadians watched the last debate on TV. By pulling out, the Liberals have denied the electorate a chance to watch the candidates in action, thinking on their feet, so to speak. And the NDP has every right to be genuinely upset at the decision, for that party stands to lose the most because the great debate fizzled away. Danger, Thin Ice » The activity on the ice of Lake sone in the area of the Port Perry waterfront over the weekend would leave the impression that the ice on the lake is safe. Not so. While the ice off Port Perry where a lot of the activity was taking place may indeed be safe, long-time residents of the area know there are parts of Lake Scugog where ice conditions can be treache- rous and dangerous no matter how cold it gets. We have already learned so far this season of three snowmobiles which have gone into the water: two at the head of Scugog Island a week or so ago, and one over the weekend off Seven Mile Island at almost the exact same spot where several cars went through last winter, leading to tragic consequences. There are parts of Lake Scugog which are prone to currents which can shift large sections of ice quickly and almost without warning. One such area seems to be off Seven Mile Island, and according to eyewitnesses this past weekend, there was a section of open water at times stretching from the Island all the way across the lake to the west shore. Lake Scugog offers Township residents and visitors alike a remarkable playground for winter activities of all kinds: skating, ice fishing, cross country skiing, snow-shoeing, motorcycling, and of course snowmobiling. However, we would strongly urge that anyone venturing out on the ice surface for any activity do so with care and caution. Check the ice conditions first. Snowmobilers should be especially cautious at all times, and avoid areas of the lake they are not familiar with. And the risk of going through thin ice or into open water is greatly increased when snowmobiling at night. Anyone travelling around the lake in a car or truck is just begging for trouble. The memory of the tragedy which occurred last winter after several cars went through the ice near Seven Mile Island should be enough of a warning to people that any activity on the ice presents some danger. And a lack of common sense merely compounds the problem. bill CANADIAN PERSONALITIES Well, our children are gone, and our children's children. I can scarce forbear to tell you what a legacy they left us. A flat wallet. A bowl of sunflower seeds. A guitar with a hole in the body. A telephone that defies the efforts of the repairmen. A toilet that overflows. And so on. But all you need is love. As they say. Well, as I sit here remembering the Hades that is a Canadian bus terminal at holiday time, I am forced to wonder. Were all those crapulous old gentlemen and indignant elderly ladies who kept screaming, "What about me?" full of love? Or perhaps those boisterous teenagers who kept trampling the crapulous old men and the indignant elderly ladies? Since I don't even want to think about anyone under the age of 48 for at least six months, I'll leave 'er lay. I won't even mention that my daughter got her suitcase on the wrong bus, and my son got himself on the bus my daughter was not on, with all the rest of her luggage. C'est le bus business. No. I'm sick of the young. I want to deal, in this column, with a couple of smiley oldsters. One of them takes a very dim view of me, and the other takes a gleeful, healthy - look at life. For years I've been receiving Christ- mas cards from someone who signs himself Your TV Repair It drove me a little nuts. The messages were always lively and salty and blunt. This year, the TV Repair Man came out of the closet. But not completely. He still wouldn't sign his name. In the same mail, I received a copy of a long letter written to the editor of the Gazette-Reporter, Rivers, Man. Both letters dealt with a particular column I'd written. Comparing them might give the gentle reader a cross-section of the philosophy of Canadians. I'll print parts of them, sticking my own oar in whenever I dang well feel like it. Here's the TV Repair Man: 'Hello Smiley - Merry Christmas. It's that time so here we go again. You really shocked me with this year's Armistice Day column. I have always looked forward to, and back- ward to, that column. To me, Armistice Day is the most important holiday except Christ- mas. "I lost a lot of close friends in both world wars. You said you thought you had said it all and then wound up with the best one of all. You have never said it all nor ever will. "I have enjoyed your column for many years (thanks TVRM) so maybe you'd like to wade through this. I won't take long and you can scrape your shoes when you're through. "First, am an old man - 78 last month. (Hell, that's just a boy, TVRM). Second, I am no more TV repair man than you are auto mechanic. Third I am the richest man in the world, if you count friends. (Yes, man, I count friends.) I live alone in a shanty I built myself and have everything I need or want and enough pension that I can help people now and then that need it. "Like yourself, I have grandchildren that are my pride and joy and opened up a whole new life for me. I taught them to swim, fish, skate, garden, you name it, and like you I am proud as hell of them. If that ain't happiness, forget it." That's a happy guy, the old TVRM. The other letter is full of cliches, bombast, and another word beginning with B: "Sacrifices, terrible price; home and country; fallen comrades.' Etc. Fallen comrades my bum. They didn't fall, Mr. G. Mathison of Harding, Man. They were killed. More of the same pap. "Where was Mr. Smiley when teen-agers were dying on the beach at Benny Se Mer?" [I presume he means Beny sur Mer. Well, Mr. M., I was about five miles away, at Ste. Mer E"glise, shooting and bombing the daylights out of the guys who were shooting at the guys who were dying on the so-called beach. Some beach. "Where was he when the children were coming out of Caen while it was being bombed, hungry children, alone, afraid, and with nothing but a black sky full of cold rain to succour them?' Mr. M., after bombing Caen about eight times, and being shot to shreds in the process, I was in a jeep, visiting Caen, and giving those kids my chocolate rations and getting them out of that hell-hole. "Does Mr. Smiley really believe that it is time to forget the para-troopers of Arnhem, the Third Division Water Rats, the Red Devils of the First Division or the heroes of the Second at Dieppe?" Yes. I was shot down shortly after Arnhem. A paratroop doctor bound my displaced knee-cap. I met some of the Arnhems. They were a tough bunch of bastards, triumphant in defeat, undaunted. The "'heroes" at Dieppe were a poor bunch of misled, misinformed, undertrained kids led into an impossible attack by stupid commanders. "I saw teenagers, like the ones he is teaching now, die in the mud at Walcheren (misspelled) ..... and their last thought was a yearning for home. (Canada.)" Well, Mr. C., I saw teenagers go down in flames, plunge into the ocean, and though I didn't have an ear to their chest, as you seem to have had, I heard their last thoughts, sometimes, on radio. "Jesus. Mom. Help me. Help!" Mother! ® I --mie