Freedom Flyer 6

Unlike their counterparts in London Centre who had an early night this week when an all-candidates' meeting was cancelled because of a poor turnout, the four London South election campaigners got to go through their platform recitations for the fourth time Tuesday.

It was to the delight of the West London Jaycees, fearful of a repeat of Monday night's low attendance that resulted in the London Centre candidates agreeing to scrap their meeting when only four voters showed up.

The Jaycees' meeting chairman, Blaine Channer, said he felt that "a lot of publicity" generated by "the negative aspect" of Monday's meeting had been instrumental in encouraging more people to respond to Tuesday's political gathering at Laurier Secondary School.

Channer said a hand count showed there were 23 voters in the audience which also included about 20 campaign workers and media representatives.

It was the fourth all-candidates meeting for the London South standard-bearers in the May 2 provincial election -- Tory Gordon Walker, Liberal Joan Smith, New Democrat Dave Winninger and Rob Metz of the London-based Freedom Party of Ontario.

Much of what they had to say was a repeat of their previous platform electioneering, although the meeting became dominated by education funding during which Metz was given a grilling by his political colleagues and members of the audience over his argument that individuals should be allowed to direct their education taxes to the system of their choice.

He charged that education is a government monopoly which is "turning out a bunch of clones" and added that individuals should be responsible for their own post-secondary education and not have to pay for the education of others all their lives.

Winninger said the provincial government's payout of six cents on the dollar for education is the lowest in the country. He reiterated NDP policy, which advocates removing the education tax component from the municipal level and collecting the money through income tax, which, he said, would better reflect a wage earner's ability to pay. He termed government funding for education as appalling.

Earlier, Walker defended his government's track record and took the opportunity of saying the poor turnout at the meetings demonstrated that people are "relatively content" and that "there are no substantial burning issues in our constituency."

However, he added that in his campaign to retain the London South seat, he had concluded that the issues on the minds of most people were the economy and jobs.

In an interview, he said the concern stemmed from the fact that most people had been affected, or at least become somewhat apprehensive, of the worldwide recession and were frightened.

However, he told the meeting that Ontario has "had real success in our recovery" and that 335,000 net new jobs had been generated in a two-year period up to December, 1984.

Walker's appraisal of his government's performance was attacked by Winninger who said unemployment among youth in London has topped 16 per cent. He said there were three major reasons - job availability, lack of job skills among the young and illiteracy.