November 10, 1980

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Canada

Big government vs. big oil

"We worked on that a lot," Marc Lalonde remarked last week. "We wanted the message to get across quite clearly.” It took several tries but the energy department finally got it the way the minister wanted it. Blunt. In the most sweeping government intervention into Canadian industry since the Second World War, the Trudeau cabinet has gambled it can finesse control of the petroleum industry out of the hands of the multinationals.

Labor

The ever-so-humble and low pay at home

Since seven o’clock in the morning, the 31-year-old woman has been sitting on her living-room couch staring intently at an empty liquor bottle. Perched on her lap is a miniature cardboard table she devised herself to hold the bottle firmly in place. By Linda McQuaig7 min

Canada

Lougheed draws his wagons into a circle

Having pre-taped the television address, Peter Lougheed retires to his Calgary apartment to watch himself deliver an ultimatum to Pierre Trudeau: a new energy deal or an oil cutback. In Ottawa, meanwhile, the prime minister goes out to a posh dinner at the National Arts Centre to mark the 10th anniversary of the International Development Research Centre. By Robert Lewis6 min

Canada

The loneliness of the short-distance runners

His Worship the mayor of Hamilton rockets into the Hamilton and District Home Builders’ Association luncheon. Propelled to the podium by backslaps, he touches down briefly to congratulate the assembly on its plans for a home show: “When the poor kids of Hamilton decide to do anything, they do it better than anyone!” By Val Ross6 min

People

Legend suggests that King Arthur’s mentor, Merlin the magician, was the son of an incubus—an evil spirit that comes in the night, taking human form to procreate. But who would suspect that a fresh-faced woman in 20th-century TV ads for everything from air freshener to sugarless gum would also turn out to be the daughter of a dreaded creepy-crawly. By Marsha Boulton6 min

Sports

Taking their aim at windmills in Spain

Outside of Philadelphians, and perhaps the few idealists who still see in the Olympic flame something more than an invitation to assorted political hustlers and over-muscled steroid poppers, there can be little argument about which is the world’s premier sports event. By Hal Quinn6 min

28b

Q&A

Television et cetera according to Moses

Maclean’s: What do you think of television? Znaimer: It’s one of the pervasive tools of the age, as pervasive as money. A lot of people imagined that TV’s high moment came with Marshall McLuhan. It was thought then that TV’s decade had passed. Now everybody knows that’s not true and that we stand on the threshold of even more significant breakthroughs than 15 years ago.

Dance

Gold medals turn to stars

For nearly an hour in a Winnipeg restaurant recently, Arnold Spohr, artistic director of the Royal Winnipeg Ballet, gushed so earnestly about his company’s recent triumphs that the waiter came over and offered to put Saran wrap over his untouched avocado salad. By John Ayre6 min

U.S.A.

Moscow’s men in the ‘computer business’

Canada seems to have become deeply entwined in a decade-long effort by Soviet espionage agents aimed at California’s Silicon Valley, the birthplace of the microcomputer technology that revolutionized Western military hardware. Often barred from purchasing equipment or know-how directly, the Soviets have turned to secret deals and smuggling. By Christopher Simpson6 min

Medicine

Survival of the preselected

It never occurred to Toby Simon, who already had a healthy child of 19 months, to undergo testing when she became pregnant for the second time in 1970. But then her son was born with Tay-Sachs, a fatal disease that slowly destroys the nervous system. By Naomi Mallovy5 min

November 31980