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Page 4, Terrace Bay-Schreiber News, Wednesday, May 8, 19865 Tarewer" The Terrace Bay-Schreiber News is published every Wednesday by: : Laurentian Publishing Co. Ltd., Box 579, Terrace Bay, Ontario, POT 2WO. . Telephone: (807) 825-3747. GENERAL/ADVERTISING MANAGER ................. Vivian Ludington Rae BS. Foi Wa oo os Cas eo eye weet ¢ Kelley Ann Chesley ia aoe ace fo a a ae hg ee ees oe 'Irene Folz PRODUCTION MANAGER. BERS yes 'o Gs ay ee Mary Melo ASTRONAUTS FAIL JO BUDGE LISTLESS Ww th aaa ews [tem & are = They can say what they Want about progress , but tll never replace See The election has come and gone, now is the time to get down to "some serious business: The campaigns certainly roared through Terrace Bay and Schreiber, some more loudly than others and more often. People were men- tioning that they were not quite sure who Michael Power was or what he looked like, but he was here. Mr. Power brought Mr. David Peter- son into the NEWS office to visit before the election was called and campaigning had not yet begun so we were not that familiar with him, but nonetheless a pleasure to meet the man. Ms. Susan Fish, Honourable Minister of Citizenship and Culture was here for breakfast early in the campaign. Unfortunately she was not bearing the Ministry's checkbook, but we were happy to be in- . cluded in her quick reception. We, the people, "did our duty", we made our choice. We mark- ed the "'X"" next to the name we thought would be the best MPP for us. We lived up to our responsibility and now our member must live up to his. It will be no easy job, there will be a lot to learn, that can only come with time (let's hope not too much time). The NEWS is sure the people of this riding will be patient, but we are also sure they will be watching and listening very carefully. The NEWS certainly intends to keep our notes handy, we will write letters and make telephone calls if promises and committments are being neglected or violated. We, the people have heard the local can- didates, we have heard their party leader's platform and we have made a decision. We must continue to be involved with the issues and concerns of our area and keep in close contact with our new MPP. He has the power and the jurisdiction but really we are the boss. It is our divine right to exercise our power, our authority and our strength in the political realities of our society. A Thought for the Week Terrace B NOTHING IS POLITICALL RIGHT WHEN IT IS MORALLY WRONG. DANIEL O:CONNELL SC we SS NS S SS Sc Sy eee SN CS Letters to the Editor Deputy minister's pension increased Dear Editor: The following article ap- in the April 15th . issue of the OPSEU (On- tario Public Service Employees Union) News: Pensions: They're better at the top Simmering anger over civil servants' lack of con- trol over their pension fund broke into the open in February, when the press revealed that all 31 current deputy ministers - and all their future successors - will get a double pension for their years in that job. The unpublicized order- in-council, signed by outgoing premier Bill Davis Feb. 5, means an ex- tra $10,000 a year on top of the $45,000 pension of his closest assistant, Clare Westcott, who retires April 15 to earn another $70,000 a year on the Metro Toron- to Police Commission. The double pension -- four per cent of their salary instead of two, for each year as a deputy minister - is "an outright patronage gift at taxpayers' ex- pense," says John Offler, chairperson of OPSEU's Retirees' Division. Offler, who gets an an- nual pension of $9,160 after 18 years as a tax auditor, says the political plums handed out to depu- ty ministers -- the highest- paid civil servants in the province -- are "an insult to the other thousands of contributors to the Public Service Superannuation Fund. '"'Deputy Ministers won't starve to death in retirement. They don't need a free handout," Of- fler said. "The ones who need a pension boost are the hun- dreds of retirees now living in poverty because of in- adequate salaries during their working years, and the ravages of inflation since retirement."' Offler pointed out that civil servants have no choice but to contribute to the pension plan, no choice over the amount they con- tribute, and no choice over their eventual benefits. "Yet by the stroke of a pen, the government can double the pensions of a favoured few -- pensions MViade in Japan the ol 2s whip ! ip) which they have neither earned nor paid for,"' he said. Offler said the only way to stop this sort of discrimination is to make pensions negotiable, so that employees, through their union, can have an equal say in contributions, in- vestments and benefits. Considering the dif- ficulties faced by pen- sioners and others on fix- ed incomes, one can't help but wonder if the tax dollar is spent in the best interest of all taxpayers. Respectfully submitted, Cathy McGrath Is anyone else in the room ancient and venerable enough to remember a time when three little words could strike fear and dread into the heart of - any consumer? The words were: Made In Japan. That phrase was comedy fodder for ten or fifteen years after World War Two. If you found it stamped, etch- ed or stencilled on the bottom of anything you bought, it meant you could probably save yourself a whole lot of grief by throwing your purchase in the ashcan right away. Anything that was Made In Japan was practical- ly guaranteed to break down, seize up, crack in two or otherwise malfunction. Common knowledge had it that Japanese manufacturers were barely out of the Stone Age. All the poor devils had going for them was aidesperately poor work force wiling to work 18 hours a day for starvation wages. There was even a story that, in order to break a North American trade embargo, the Japanese govern- ment renamed one of its manufactur- ing towns. The new name was "'USA". That way they could legitimately stamp "Made in USA"' on the bottom of whatever it was they were flogging. Or so the story went. Now that I hear it again, it sounds just too good to be true. I was thinking about those bygone days when Japanese was a synonym for cheap and shoddy, while I was loading my camera last night. It's a Nikon camera -- Japanese. Fuji col- our film. Also Japanese. It occured to me that I might just as easily have been listening to my Sony stereo, watching my Hitachi TV or out riding my Miyata ten speed. If I-had any musical talent (which I don't) I could be strumming a CBS Masterworks guitar or playing Sweet Adeline on a Yamaha electronic organ. About the only option I couldn't enjoy was going for a drive. That's because the Subaru station wagon is in for a tune up, and Lynne needs the Honda for shopping. What's going on here? I'm not a Japanophiliac. I never set out to sur- round myself with things Japanese. It's just that for the past few years, every time I've needed to buy something, I put my hand out and so- meone fills it with a product that's Made In Japan. And well made, I might add. That's the whole point. It is not like the old days. ~ There's a larger irony here as well. Japanese goods are becoming so ubi- quitous that they are not necessarily even "made in Japan" anymore. You drive a Honda Accord? Chances are it was built in Ohio. There's a GM-Toyota partnership in California right now turning out Chevy Novas. A lot of the stuff under a Chrysler hood is there courtesy of Mitsubishi Corporation. And down in the rustic town of Alliston, Ontario, a Honda factory is opening its doors this year. I know Alliston. It is a town of 43,000 peo- ple about 60 miles north and west of Toronto. It's a place of good soil, rolling hills, a pleasant mix of hard- wood bush and farm fields and sub- divisions. Pretty typical southern On- tario countryside. I also know Honda. It is a compact, efficient, no-nonsense line of automobiles made by a compact, ef- ficient, no-nonsense line of people known as the Japanese. 3 At least that's the way it used to be. A lot of things have changed. I mean I used to hunt and peck this col- umn out of a battered old German manual typewriter. Heavy? You had to rent a flatbed truck to move it across the room. Not any more. Now I use this sleek, rapid fire, lightweight electric number. Which I just looked at the bottom of, by the way. Yep. Made In Japan.