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8 -- PORT PERRY STAR -- Tuesday, Janvary 23, 1990 Letters to the editor Silent majority acting like Rip Van Winkle To the Editor: A few days ago, the presi- dent of General Motors (Cana- da) spoke in Montreal and was confronted by a pipsqueak left- ist from Radio Canada with sar- casm because he didn't speak in French, although he had two French speaking vice presi- dents flanking him and an in- terpretor to translate his re- plies. In a survey by the largest employer group in Quebec--Le Conseil du Patronat--French language was the last on a list of major concerns shared by Que- bec business. It was 17th on a list with No. 16 being "other." It points out clearly that most peo- ple inside Quebec could care less about French being spoken outside the province. In North, South and Cen- tral America, the first threelan- guages are English, Spanish and Potuguese, The Global 2000 report to the President of the United States says that Spanish will be the number one language by the end of this dec- ade in the Americas. French is listed 17th world- wide. The first and second most- used language in the world is English. Even in Cambodia and Viet Nam, children and adults are learning English. In the most populated countries in the world--China, Russia and India---the second language is English, andiit is the language of commerce the world over, as it is in air traffic Life's Like That by Julia Ashton Manure hits fan at farmer's night What happens when five elected officials with differing political affiliations get together in the same room for an informal night out? All heck breaks loose! The scene -- Blackstock Recreational Cen- tre. The event -- The Blackstock and District Lion's Club Annual Farmer's Night. The date -- Wednesday, Jan. 17 around 8 p.m.ish. The audience -- About 130 Lion's Club members, area farmers and one lone reporter (me) with pen in hand. The culprits -- Scugog Township Ward 4 Councillor Glen Malcolm; Scugog Township Mayor Howard Hall; Durham Region Chair- man Gary Herrema; Durham East MPP Sam Cureatz; and the special guest speaker, the Honorable David Ramsey, Provinicial Minister of Agriculture and Food. My first order of buisness was to get a snapshot of the distinguished guests with the president of the Blackstock Lion's Club Ernie Swain. This shouldn't have been a hard task since | take pictures practically every day of the week, and most of the elected officials have their picture taken every day of the week. Showing off their knowledge of group photo taking, the gentlemen quickly formed a solid line-up. But something struck me as odd. | said to myself, "Are these men color con- scious, or is there a reason for all the gentle- men wearing red ties to be on one side of the picture, while all the gentlemen wearing blue ties are on the other?" (Too bad | shoot in black and white.) After a bunch of wisecracks, ranging from "Have you got the lens cap off" to "Is there any film in the camera" and "Why don't we get a teddy bear like the kids at Woolco do" | fi- nally got them to shut up (this is hard, remem- ber, we're talking about politicians here) and 1 took the photo. But this was just an appitizer of what was still to come. The distinquished guests were in rare form that night. Although they could not be seen with the naked eye, party banners were flying everywhere. The elected officials (and Gary Herrema, who is elected by his peers) were given the floor to make a few comments before the Honorable Mr. Ramsey's speech. Ward councillor Glen Malcolm was up first. To break the ice (and keeping with the night's theme) the local representative told a farming joke. Although | did not get the joke down in my notebook verbatim, the gist of his tale was that a farmer mortgaged his farm so his son could get a college education. Well, the son kept coming back home ask- ing for more and more money, explaining that college life was so much fun, as was closing. the bars every night. Finally the farmér ran out of money, and he confessed to his son that he had made a grave mistake. "I know dad," the son replied. "I shouldn't have squandered all your money." "That's not it, son," the farmer said. "| should have gone to college myself." After Mr. Malcolm's comments, Mayor Ho- ward Hall made a few short remarks. (No pun intended. I'm a short person, too.) Chairman Gary Herrema also cut his re- marks down to a minimum, but following true Herrema fashion, this wouldn't be the last we heard from him during the evening's events. Sam Cureatz, a Progressive Conservative through and through, started his opening re- marks by poking fun at the nation's leader. (If you can't beat them, join them.) Mr. Cureatz said it was ironic that Council lor Malcolm would tell a joke about a farmer's son closing bars, while Brian Mulroney has (Turn to page 14) control. Why then, the continual pushing of French in Ontario with Peterson's infamous Bill 8 and Ottawa's more than $500 million a year for more French? When questioned about the cost, Peterson's reply was "It's only peanuts." Before Bill 8 became law the province had already spent about $50 million on French Services Act in Ontario. When the Act was passed, 52 MPPs were missing from the Legisla- ture. Peterson said in a letter I have in front of me, "We view the provision of French Lan- guage Services Act as a major accomplishment." His major ac- complishment will cost us hun- dreds of millions of dollars for no practical purpose other than to secure votes from the Franco- phone minority. Why then, is} _man- datory language: in high schools? Why not the option of Spanish or other languages? When Jean Chretien, then a cabinet minister, was ques- tioned about the discrimination against English speaking in Quebec, he replied "it's too sen- sitive a matter" and did noth- ing. Later, he said when jobs were being denied English- speaking people he said, "you're not ofthe blood." The jobs are not going to Anglos who learn French, but to French Candi- ans. This man could be the next Prime Minister of Canada. As an old Trudeau man he no doubt will take us down the road to more and more costly French-only legislation. Quebec already has its own language police-the enforcers who even take then "s" off Cen- tury old names like Eatons and Simpsons, because they are English. A province whose motto is "Je me souvien" (we shall reme- member) no doubt referring to the defeat on the Plains of Abra- ham 200 years ago. This is just the tip of the ice-berg. French-sspeaking people are being moved to Ottawa by the thousands and being paid $10,000 to move and $25,000 per year until key government jobs can be found for them. The Armed Forces and Civ- il Service are being filled with French speaking, ignoring the rights of the English speaking. Dr. Redenkop, a political science professor at Wilfred La- urier University, said Quebec is building an Iron Curtain. Francophones in Ontario were given $600,000 to fight as- similation by the nglish speaking majority. We are building ghettos aided and abetted by Peterson and his in- famous Bill 8. Another $500,000 was given Franco- phones for a survey. These As- sociations are being funded mainly by Ottawa and by Peter- son's office. In Durham Region, as an example, only .36 to 2.5 per cent claim to be French speaking. Of- ficial bilingualism is just around the corner where every- thing must bein French. A front-page story in an Oshawa newspaper (Jan. 11) says six Francophone organiza- tions threaten to take the Onta- rio government to court to give more power to the French- language schools. They want more School Board with com- plete control and power. French trustees of the Dur- ham Separate Board who have exclusive jurisdiction over French first language educa- tion in the Catholic system can set their own payincreases. They wanted to increase the chairman's pay by 50 per cent, to be paid by the tax- payers of Ontario, where al- ready more than 50 per cent of property taxes go for education. French Immersion costs $26 million in Durham Region plus another $230,000 for busing. Meanwhile, the silent ma- jority acts like Rip Van Winkle. Anglos are losing by default. Takeit for granted and they will take it away. Write your MP in Ottawa. Let Premier Peterson know what you think about all the new taxes ($3 billion) he's putting over our heads and his wasteful bill 8 French Lan- guages Act. Dean Kelly, Port Perry, Ont. FALSE PROMISES? When your thinking about advertising, don't be fooled by false promises and large circulations. Many newpapers are given away FREE, thrown at the bottom or your driveway, or in the ditch. But how many of these are actually read? The Port Perry Star has a paid circulation of 7,000 copies per week. Our readers want the Star and the pay to make sure they have it in their homes. By advertising in the Star, your message will reach these potential customers. For Advertising Made Easy call the STAR at 985-7383 For Better or For Worse® WHAT MAKES A MAN DON'T KNOW ---- CHEAT ON HI3 WIFE, Lil) JOHN? WHAT MAKES ANYONE. CHEAT ON ANYONE ZI by Lynn johnston EVERYONE THINKS ABOUT BOREDOM? FRUSTRATION? RUNNING OFF ITH SOME - THE NEED TO TEST ONE ELSE. AT YOUR ATTRACTIVENESS IME ? PROPER ELT-ybu: dl HAVE. TO DRAW THE LINE. EMMERSON 193 QUEEN ST., PORT PERRY, ONT. L9L 1B9 (416) 985-7306 ALL LINES OF GENERAL INSURANCE * HOMEOWNERS - FARM - AUTO COMMERCIAL » *