MEMO
FROM
MATHER

OTTAWA — Both Old Parties were ready to close shop and
have Parliament adjourn, as this was written. The Liberals had
been embarrassed for weeks. Their Leadership campaign had
left them with an almost absentee-Cabinet. They wanted out.
The Conservatives, acting less and less like -a hell-bent-for-
election Party, were ready to acquiesce. The NDP was pressing
for action first on Drug Price Legislation. It appeared that the
Liberal hopefuls would get a shorter than expected run for

their money, or rather for yours.

Barry Mather is NDP-MP for the

federal riding of New Westminster.

DRUG PRICES: In the Drug Price debate, Dr. Wm. D.
Howe, M.P. (NDP. Hamilton South), urged that the Bill not
be sent back to Committee where the Pharmaceutical Manu-
facturers Association could kill it, but that it receive immediate
House passage. David Orlikow, M.P. (NDP Winnipeg North),
again urged that the best way to get drug prices down would
be to nationalize the making and distribution of important
prescription drugs, at cost.

WHAT’S A MILLION: There’s a great deal of waste in
Federal spending. Taxpayers’ money can be saved by better
management and economy. But keep this.in mind: The ten
billion dollars a year that we spend here has the same relation-
ship, cost-wise, to one million dollars of waste that a one
hundred dollar paycheck has to a lost one-cent stamp, Nobody
wants to lose stamps. Every care should be taken of them.
But, when figuring how Ottawa can save your money, start
with the fact that what we spend on so-called defence and
what we spend just paying interest on Federal borrowings
totals close to 40% of the entire Budget.

WHO CAN'T AFFORD IT? Who’s against Medicare?
Mainly the economic and financial interests, notably the insur-
ance companies, who stand to gain by the status quo. Powerful
lobbies have flooded Ottawa with anti-Medicare-now material.
They argue that Canada can’t afford it. What they mean is
that THEY can’t afford it. Christopher Young, Ottawa Citizen
Editor, put the matter clearly: “Taken together, the hundreds
of plans operated by private insurance companies, medical
organizations and provincial governments, represent an in-
efficient, expensive, non-comprehensive and usually non-profit-
able patchwork quilt that leaves uncovered many people who
need it most and covers hardly anyone to his entire satisfac-
tion.”

THE U.S. IN TROUBLE: The “gold rush” which involved
parts of our interrelated world in monetary turmoil was re-
lated to the fact that the U.S. was in trouble over its foreign
activites, notably, the Viet Nam War. NDP MP’s have long been
arguing that it was no friendship to the U.S. to go along with
Washington’s tragic Viet Nam War policy. We have usually
argued from moral, ethical and legal viewpoints. (The U.S. has
now dropped more tons of bombs in the Viet Nam War than the
entire total dropped by all combattants during World War II).
But consider these figures: The U.S. is spending an amount on
the Viet Nam War equal to three times the entire Canadian
Federal Budget ... What the U.S. spend for Federal Aid to
Education is but 7 percent of what it spends on Viet Nam War.

BREE TS RI! PS tes

ot ee

THE WESTERN CANADIAN LUMBER WORKER

JOBLESS
UP IN

CANADA

Canada’s unemployment
rate has risen to its highest
level in almost four years,

Figures from the Bureau
of Statistics and the Labor
Department show an esti-
mated 482,000 persons jobless
at mid-February, represent-
ing 6.4 per cent of the total
work force. This was the
highest level since March,
1964, when 6.8 per cent of
the labor force was out of
work.

Unemployment increased
by 86,000 over the figure for
February, 1967. Although
there were 125,000 new jobs
in the service industries, 37,-
000 in trade and 33,000 in
finance, jobs in manufactur-
ing dropped by 55,000 and
construction jobs by 30,000.

When jobless rates are con-
sidered by regions, the At-
lantic region had the worst
showing with 10.9 per cent
unemployed. Next was Que-
bec with 8.4 per cent and
British Columbia with 7.5 per
cent,

COMPANY
LOY ERS
aS: WN

HOWEVER... DUE TO THE CIRCUMSTANCES!

Hewers of Wood

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