Winnipeg Free Press

Winnipeg Free Press (Newspaper) - March 12, 1977, Winnipeg, Manitoba Canada s population weight badly Oufou balance Ard j. Needham lodged firmly in the Middle that is in is compelled to subsidize Quebec with balance. New York state with 20 the big trekking has stopped now i there s welfare in employ lians know or should to the. Western equalization payments olympics million people is balanced by califor think. Canada seems to have acquired Durance etc., to look after i nans Kiiu i i oui no vices. The Atlantic no vices. Are i Rahmic Muon Umrie and . _. J in a _ by Richard j. Needham most canadians know or should know that there s a big demographic change taking place in the United states. People especially the better off and better educated Are moving from the dirty dangerous decaying cities of the Northeast to the wide open spaces of the so called Sunbelt the area lying South of a line roughly drawn from san Francisco to Phila Delphia. Industry jobs and Money Are going along with them. The Conse Quence is that within a few years the South and Southwest will have More Power especially political Power than North. The president from Plains ga., is a Herald of what s to come. No such change is taking place in Canada. Today As a Century ago the whole weight of Power political economic cultural and social is lodged firmly in the Middle that is in Ontario and Quebec. The Western provinces the Atlantic provinces Are out there somewhere Little known or cared about. I would guess that for every torontonian who has been to Edmonton there Are 100 who have been to Europe and that for every Mon Trealer who has been to Halifax there Are 100 who Jiava been to Florida. Central Canada has the people. Of the 23 million who now make up our country Quebec and Ontario have roughly 15 million the four Western provinces roughly six million and the four Atlantic provinces roughly two million. Ontario alone has As Many people Many Federal votes As the eight Western and Atlantic provinces combined. Quebec alone outvoted the whole Region that stretches from the Lakehead to the Pacific the Region which ironically is compelled to subsidize Quebec with equalization payments olympics Mirabel make work programs and All such. The Best of Needham _ a . Parallel would seem in order. Suppose new York state had 80 Mil lion and Pennsylvania 70 million of that country s 215 million people with the remaining 65 million scattered thinly through the 48 Mainland states suppose in other words that these two adjoining states commanded More than twice As much Power in Washington As the other 46 combined. I think those 46 states would be talking secession. Now let s look at the real . Populations you la see that the states has what Canada does t have balance. New York state with 20 million people is balanced by califor Nia with 21 million Pennsylvania with 12 million people is balanced by Texas with 12 million Ohio with 11 million people is balanced by Florida with nine million. No one state or two states can dominate the nation. Time was when Canada looked just looked As if it was about to be settled More evenly than it was then or is now. In the Early 1000s, the population of the newly opened West was zooming ahead much faster than that of the Central provinces. Two world wars with an intervening depression and drought put an end to that. From 1930 to 1950, the trek was t from Ontario to Saskatchewan but from Saskatchewan to Ontario. From 1950 to 1975, the trek was t from Europe to Winni Peg but from Europe to Toronto and All along from the Atlantic prov inces to Central Canada. The big trekking has stopped now i think. Canada seems to have acquired a shape that won t be changed by internal or external migration. Even if Quebec were to depart Ontario would still dominate the other eight prov inces it would in population terms be Niobe than half of Canada. And those people who chose to gel out of Quebec would be More Likely to resettle in a familiar Ontario than in an unfamiliar Atlantic or West. Again the developments of the lust 30 years have turned canadians into a Static people inclined to stay put rather than seek adventure or Opportunity or even employment elsewhere. In two years of the pre War depression 1935 and 1936 i lost my Job in Toronto and got one in Hamilton lost my Job in Hamilton and got one in Sudbury lost my Job in Sudbury and got one in Calgary. People Don t do or need to do that sort of thing any More. There s welfare unemployment insurance etc., to look after them right where they Are for the rest of their lives if need be. About the Only canadians still trekking across the land Are executives of big corporations. Note this Calgary item from our report on business the construction Industry in Alberta is so Desper ate for workers that companies Are paying employees to sit at Home until a project starts. A Survey shows the Industry will be Short to skilled workers this mean while there arc thousands upon thou Sands of skilled construction workers Silling around in Ontario in Quebec in the Atlantic Region. But they won t be moving to Alberta and that for Alberta must be pretty Damn frustrating because it s Alberta in Large measure which is paying their Wel fare and Pic cheques. Til continue these meditations from time to time. Word Wise Oxford updates English by Larry Getler last year was no great shakes in the annals of history. What will by chiefly remembered for the year team Canada a i lopped the in win to world hockey lit in the year Botswana changed its cur Rency unit from the ratio to the Pula or the year of Levesque or Jimmy Carter no. The flush and Rush of current events induces myopia. Spurts economics provide news papers with bulk. But All too often the real action is found elsewhere. year May come to be remembered As the year of publication of volume 2, of the massive supplement to the Oxford English dictionary. The new volume will be indispensable la teachers and Fashio ners of cur rent English. In Canada As in the United slates the Oxford dictionaries have become the supreme arbiters on matters concerning English words. While Webster s dictionaries continue id be consulted for Quick reference for science and technology terms Ami trendier items from the passing show the great Oxford dictionary along with its Bright Convoy of subordinate editions and supplements remains the ultimate reference. The Oxford is the scholar s diction Ary. In it English words a re Given the fullest treatment possible. Thus in the second volume of the supplement the word land gets a full six columns or two pages of detailed up dating. Tin statistics of the 1976 volume Are impressive main words Are sifted into senses 125, my quota Lions arc used As evidence and illustration. Volume 1, published in 1972, covered he letters a to g. This newest volume covers ii to n. A seven letter diction Ary but four letter ejaculations Are hardly in order. This seven Teller work is presented in Large three columned Pagas. Rambling through this volume is like Reading a medical report on the English language and concurrently. Of i lie world s English speaking societies. For new words arc arising to express new realities. Tolopia. For instance formed from motor and Utopia this word expresses new desire for Ideal cities where vehicles and people will never conflict or impede each other. Motor Bandit Monorail and Moi Orama Are Only a few of the other collisions Between motors Anri language. It May cause Eyebrow Elevation to learn that motor Hob. One who has a morbid dread or hatred of motor is declared obsolete. If anyone thinks our age is chiefly characterized by excess this new vol ume will please them. Hyper in greek translates As above beyond Over super and a peek at the hyper prefix in the new dictionary shows a growth in hyper usages of about pages. Here arc some of the additions hyper analysis the analysis of psychoanalysis. Hyper cube cube in More than three dimensions. Hyper space space where sur faces have at least three dimensions. With delusions of grandeur. A product of France. Carrefour hypermarkets have attacked the . While the hyper March of Montreal is a Cross Between a warehouse and a football stadium. Hype modern excessively mod Ern. Hyper charge nothing to do with Price gouging but a dimly understood property of the recently discovered sub atomic particle the Hadron. The Hadron s other properties Are color and Charm. A synonym for the Hadrons hyper charge is strangeness. Hype Correct modern linguists find that a spelling or a grammar form May be so excessively Correct that it wrong. One thing our excessively hyper age docs Lack is knowledge of the meanings and histories of our language. This new Oxford supplement Simiu help Stu dents scholars and lovers of English to new strength and word wealth. Your Money the Herron Folk by Shawn Herron clock o Mara. The other Day miss aggie who is a school teacher and spends her holidays in this area came to our House to ask me some questions. Such As How Many hours a Day do you thump that thing does it bother you no the sound does t bother me what bothers me is thai 1 Don t know what you re saying on it. Are you writing about us she has arthritis something fierce and drinks while wine for in. I open a bottle and pour for 1 have no great objection to the stuff myself. Now Tell me the truth she says i timed you yesterday and that thing went for five solid hours without a Stop. What in the name of god do you get to Type modestly. I take the credit for this thumping but the truth is not there. The fact is that a Young women from across the country has come to stay and she is doing some typing for me because at the moment i am writing with Fountain pens for some eight hours a Day and this Young woman and my wife arc the Only two people in the world who can read my handwriting. So i Tell miss aggie that the typing is All in Aid of a Book which is the truth. Are you putting us in it she asks me. It s set in the late 19th Century i Tell her. Thanks be to god she says. Then we re not in it 0. I could t Promise you that aggie i say and pour her More White wine. You can Transfer a charac Ter to any Century you like. Then Are you making us sober and upright and go fearing people she asks me. I could t Promise you that aggie. Then poll Tell you about me so that you can get it right she says. One of the things you hear a lot around Here is sure my father never got As far As secondary school. Friends in Dublin Send Young students Here to Call on us. They come walking around Ireland packs on their backs and Pup tents getting to know their own country. They Are part of a revolution that is taking place in Ireland and that in time will kill one of the most con Stant facts in Irish life violence. Political violence that is for scholarly men Are doing what they never did in Ireland before they Are digging out the material that makes the rewriting of Irish history possible. That won t make Irish history any less tragic but it will take and is taking some of the Poison out of it and giving some of its most tragic elements a new meaning or at a partly changed meaning. One of the tragedies of the Irish memory is that it has been an emotional memory by which i mean that the propaganda of one generation has passed on to the next without analysis or even Examina Tion. Now some first class Irish schol ars arc examining the economic facts especially of the 18th and 19th Cen Turies and among educated people attitudes Are Heck modified Ami adjusted and qualified and in some areas entirely. Leon Uris s Book Trinity which is in its own right a very bad Book is based on the old View unqualified and is emotional history that has already done the new Ireland some harm. It seems that Uris went on television in new York promoting his Book and companies negotiating to Settle in ire land around Shannon phoned the new York offices of the Shannon develop ment corporation to cancel their inter est on the ground that a situation so unstable Wann t a situation they wanted to be in. Or. Uris is spoken of very bitterly around Shannon. The economic situation of Ireland is disastrous and the end of emigration from the country in t due to anything positive but to the fact that unemployment elsewhere makes in pointless to go anywhere else. Now an entire leaving class in the schools faces the immedi ate future with something like despair there is no work for them Here or elsewhere. These Young people who Call Here Are either about to Start University or Are already there. They think perhaps University is their salvation not because it will help them to make a living in Ireland but because it May make them poet s Corner old woman in tied to a chair in a shapeless Heap the old woman sat As though in sleep. But there was no shame no struggle there for Only her body was in the chair. Her mind was free As a Bird to see the places she d loved and wished to be. In memory her step was Quick and Light As she worked and Sang in her Kitchen Bright. Pies to make and the peas to Shell and water to bring from the Cool deep Well. Here no modern Chrome or padded foam but never missed because this was Home. The pussycat on the window Sill the children s voices in Happy trill the Clang of the Gate As the men came through the Hustle and Bustle so much to do but of the fun when the work was done acceptable As immigrants elsewhere. One is a Law student he will stay in Ireland because litigation is a nation Al of them Are pc med or about to become pre med because we can emigrate to Canada where half the doctors in Ireland seem to have of about a dozen Young Fellows who have come our Way and called Only two could say that their fathers had a secondary education. And that is one of the paradoxes of Ireland. Educationally the lot of these youngsters if far far better than thai of their fathers. Economically it is just As insecure. Miss aggie has gone. I drove her Home because As she said White wine and arthritis make me she is a dear soul who goes to Church to find out what she ought to do about this or that i said my prayers and god told me to do this or she assures me and thank is her comment on the weather. It s a Lovely Day thank she says. Have another Glass of wine aggie thank she says. Well that was a Nice Little ride thank god she said when i left her at her door. God plays an enormous part in aggie s life. She tells me co education is bad for Young people because it makes them think of sex and some times i think aggie broods More on the evils of sex than the Young do on its pleasures. I am certain she knows nothing about that Side of the business and probably thinks it would have been belter if god had made it an unpleasant experience. But that May be doing her an injustice. It is unlikely that god could have been mistaken in her Book. It is i think that we put too much store on the Good things he gave us. For aggie says i suffer terribly from the arthritis but i be Learned a lot from it. Like what aggie to Bear pain she says. A nursing Home the family around her each blessed one. She dozed and dreamed and was Happy there in her pitiful body still tied in a chair. The flesh was chained but the spirit free and the things of Earth had ceased to be. She had wandered Back on that Happy track where life was Sweet and she knew no Lack. A nurse came by and with Practised tread she took the wee bundle away to bed. Her hands were tender her heart was sad for the dreary Days the old one she never know that Trie Sun shone through. And the waiting hours were All too few. By Olive Fairhall the free press poet s Corner appears each i Leisure. Readers Are invited to Send in typewritten poems to be considered for publication. The free press reserves the right however not to acknowledge or return what is submitted. Real estate profitable be wary by Mike Grenby temper your dreams of glamorous real estate riches by Reading this account of How a House in t always Home for profits. I feel a warning is in order to Trio average person about making Money on your own writes Margi Young. You should t expect profits when you buy or sell within a Short period or when the Market is stable or rising Only slightly. These paints Are perhaps obvious. But the amount of Money you can lose is suffering for an average family Bud get As our experience will the Youngs moved to a Small Community in june 197-1. And had to decide whether to buy or rent. We knew we could be there for in years or the rest of our lives or for some period in Between. People urged us to buy you la have your equity can t lose As rents were almost As High As our mortgage payments we bought Bor rowing the entire Down payment to do the buying costs on the House were lawyers of to land Transfer tax mortgage assessment fee Survey. Total 1821. Over the next two years the Youngs spent which they would not have spent if they d rented instead taxes. Interest on Money borrowed for Down payment Upkeep and insurance on House then we had to move and sell after less than two years. The Market had been stable so to try to Cut our losses and avoid the real estate commission i decided to sell myself. I have had few worse experiences in my life. I advertised extensively and had a number of phone inquiries but none of the people who made appointments showed up. When i tried to Call them Back i would discover the phone numbers or names they had Given me were fakes. I suspected somebody in town was trying to sabotage us but what could i do by the time the obscene Calls started i was a nervous wreck and called in a real estate the House finally sold for the Youngs had to hold a second mortgage which because of their losses they sold. The costs of Selling their House Pri vate attempt advertising real estate commission lawyer discount on second mortgage appraisal fee that works out to minus the increased value of the House for total Selling costs of so the total Cost of Home ownership for two years was of yes our equity in the House. After in mortgage payments which is what we would have paid if we had our equity was less than so that reduces our total loss to so much for a sure in addition the Youngs spent on broadloom and had we put Money into the Bank As we saved it instead of having to pay off our Down payment Loans we would have been significantly tie Opportunity Cost of the loan was about the Youngs realized that had they stayed longer or had the real estate Market been volatile the Story would have been different. Yes you can make Money by invest ing in real estate or the Stock Market but there Are no guarantees. While in general putting Money into a House is a fairly sound idea As with Many investment you must Cut surfer the specifics your own situation and the in nations immediate and Bug term surrounding the particular Hesse ;