8 NORTHERN LIFE, FRIDAY, JANUARY 7, 2005 EDITORIAL PAGE

GREATER SUDBURY’S COMMUNITY NEWSPAPER. Northern Life is published every Northern Life is a member of the Canadian Community Wednesday, Friday and Sunday by Laurentian Publishing Limited, Newspaper Association, the Ontario Community 158 Elgin Street, Sudbury, Ontario, P3E 3N5. Phone: (705) 673-5667 or Newspaper Association, the Suburban Newspapers of Fax: 673-4652 America, the International Newspaper Marketing Association and the Sudbury MICHAEL R. ATKINS President ABBAS HOMAYED Publisher Editorial/Briefs Fax: 673-4352. E-mail: [email protected] Homebuilder’s Association. KARSTEN JOHANSEN Associate Publisher VICKI GILHULA Editor KIM ROCHON CGA Corporate Controller Classified Department Fax: 673-3904. Canadian Publications Mail Sales Product Agreement No. 086185 (ISSN) 0700-527X Reading tea leaves for 2005 tougher than usual f 2004 is any guide, miracles do happen. you see what has actually been spent. Ontario Mineral Industry Cluster The Boston Red Sox won the World VIEWPOINT Northern film and television industry. Council. This is an important initiative. If Series, the Tampa Bay somethings won This is real money. It has created work and the cluster council can do one thing, which I the Stanley Cup, the Toronto Argonauts “The premier was in possibilities. It was high risk and those is bring a centre of mining excellence to Lau- won the Grey Cup and Col. Moammar involved deserve credit for taking chances rentian University some time in the next few Gadhafi threw in the towel without being Northern Ontario last and, so far, looking smart. years, it shall have more than served its pur- invaded. The Toronto Maple Leafs ... well month to announce Northern Ontario School of Medicine. pose. The time is now to build on the fantas- there is a limit to any country’s miracles. This is a hugely important project for North- tic momentum in the mining business to cre- Reading the tea leaves for 2005 is tougher the Northern Prosper- ern Ontario and the government deserves ate one of the most important mining than usual, particularly for Northern ity Plan. I’m trying credit for continuing to support it. solution centres in the world. At some point Ontario. The recent spiteful action of the Grow bonds. This has potential, that policy is going to flow through, around, United States Department of Trade and Com- desperately to see although I have no idea how it works. What or begin with this group. merce on softwood lumber doesn’t bode well. the silver linings.” matters is whether development capital can be Go North investor program. I’ve read That and a strong currency are murderous extended to businesses that otherwise would the press release. I don’t know what it is on forestry trade. MICHAEL ATKINS not get it. I don’t know who or how those deci- going to do. It looks like some kind of mar- On the other hand, every day they don’t President, Northern Life sions will be made and it seems to overlap in keting swat team for the north, but it is let us send over a piece of lumber is an purpose with the Northern Ontario Heritage pretty vague with its mandate. We’ll have to incentive to add value. It is better for us to Fund, which is apparently getting back in the wait and see. send roof trusses than logs. Too bad we don’t business of supporting individual businesses What is missing is perspective. It is a do more about it. Too bad the provincial gov- n’t able to attend the announcement so I am with financing of one kind or another. It also patchwork directed at symptoms and not ernment doesn’t see this as an opportunity relying on the ministries’ press releases to supplicates FedNor’s Community Futures causes. In that regard these plans are not to recalibrate our forest industry. Too bad ascertain where we are going. Some thoughts: infrastructure. We’ll have to wait and see. unwelcome, but are unremarkable. It will be our forest industries don’t see their future Development councils. This is politics. Northern Ontario Heritage Fund. up to northerners to push and shove this differently as well. We are held hostage to Every government does it. Keeps the faithful Well, who knows? stuff into something more relevant or it will our own indifference. involved and allows for photo ops. Seldom What matters is the quality of the spe- be same old, same old when we look back Speaking of the provincial government, translates into any real action. cific decisions that are being made. Often five or 10 years from now. the premier was in Northern Ontario last Northern highways program. At best these investments can be fairly dubious. On Miracles do happen. Let’s hope. month to announce the province’s Northern an extremely modest improvement in fund- the other hand, strategic investments in Prosperity Plan. I’m trying desperately to ing. At worst smoke and mirrors. You never infrastructure can really make a difference. Michael Atkins is the president of North- see the silver linings. really know what gets spent. Just ask the This file needs to be assessed on the wisdom ern Life. This column is reprinted from the I don’t know three northerners who want people with Hepatitis C in this province of its use of cash and that can vary widely January issue of Northern Ontario Business. us to succeed more than David Ramsey, about funding announcements. These pro- from year to year. First indication will be He can be reached at matkins@laurentian- Michael Gravelle and Rick Bartolucci. I was- grams are best assessed a year later when the quality of new board appointees. media.com. Kid from Sudbury didn’t refuse ‘women’s work’

e was a skinny boy. Barely 17. A kid Loblaw Groceries and pick up a tin of pears The man in the white shirt just shook his the company that had wanted to fire him really. He rode the train down to for 21 cents. And he mused about the head. “I’m sorry,” he repeated. when he was 17. By then, he had risen to the Toronto from Sudbury. Slept prospect of buying some Christmas cake or This young man, however, was no quit- position of plant superintendent. H overnight at Union Station before Christmas pudding and sending it to his ter. “There has to be something I can do,” he Like hundreds of others who came to boarding the train again in the morn- family in Sudbury. said politely. Windsor in the 1920s, he survived the ing for Windsor. His The young man felt on top of the world, “Not really,” said his supervisor. Depression and kept working. That kid was mother had packed until his supervisor summoned him to the “There has to be!” he insisted. my father. GUEST him a lunch and given glassed-in offices on the second floor. “Well. Yes, there’s a job, but it means COLUMN him what she could in He climbed the metal stairs to the office, working with the women. Light work and Marty Gervais is a poet, playwright, histo- the way of money. and, from where he stood, he could survey all, but that’s it. rian, editor, journalist, and publisher. As a It was the begin- the vast layout of the factory below. The “I’ll take it!” the kid snapped. journalist he writes a weekly column on books ning of December supervisor, sitting behind the sprawling oak “Well, wait a minute - we give those jobs for the Windsor Star where he is book page 1927. This young man, desk, wore a bow tie. His sleeves were rolled to women, not men,” countered the supervi- editor. This column was reprinted from the like hundreds of oth- up to the elbows. And he wasn’t smiling. sor. Windsor Star with permission. ers, flocked to Wind- “I’ve got some bad news for you. You’re a “Why not me?” sor in search of work good worker; but really with your size - you “Fine, but working with women could be in the car industry. aren’t very big and not very strong - I am humiliating to you as a man, and you’ll be Letters And with a cousin sorry to tell you, but you’re not suited for made fun of,” said the supervisor. must include address and signature of employed at the Cana- this job. We’re letting you go.” The kid didn’t care - he wanted the job. sender. A phone number for verification must be dian Motor Lamp - at The young man stood there in shock. And so that day - two days before Christ- provided. We will not publish copies of letters sent that time located just “I need this job!” he stammered. mas - Ted joined the light assembly division to others. We will not print letters with libellous MARTY GERVAIS off Drouillard Road in That day was Dec. 23, 1927. working with a staff of women. It brought remarks or information that cannot be verified. The old Ford City - he was The kid told the supervisor he had taunts and heckling from some of the men, ideal length is 200 words or less. promised a job. That socked away most of what he had earned and but he didn’t care. He had a job. He now factory would later move its operation to had planned that day to wrap up a wad of could send money home. Seminole. bills in pages from the Boarder Cities Star And that day, he went out and bought Reach us by e-mail On that Monday after his arrival, this and place this tiny bundle neatly in an enve- some Christmas pudding for 75 cents, and Vicki Gilhula Scott Hunter Haddow young kid was dispatched to the line where lope and post it to his mom and dad in Sud- sent it to Sudbury. managing editor reporter he slammed the assembly of headlamp cov- bury. That day, he remembered reading a story [email protected] [email protected] ers together. He worked like a devil, and at His family had fallen on hard times and in the Boarder Cities Star about how Al night would return to his aunt’s house needed his help. Now what was he going to Capone had been arrested for carrying a con- Tracey Duguay Heidi Ulrichsen where he would sit in a tub of hot water to do? cealed weapon in Chicago. He had been fined associate editor reporter soothe his sore limbs. Now he was being told he was out of $200. [email protected] [email protected] The kid felt on top of the world with work. “That was more than I made in three Keith Lacey Marg Seregelyi enough cash in his pocket to buy a tin of The kid stood there in shock. months!” he said. senior reporter photographer tobacco and roll his own. He’d walk down to “I need this job!” he stammered again. Forty years later that kid retired from [email protected] [email protected]