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PAGE 4THE CANADIAN STATESMAN, May 19,2004 www.durhamrogion.copi Tim Whittaker Publisher Joanne Burghardl Editor-In-Chief Chris Bovie Managing Editor Fred Eismont Director of Advertising Eddie Kolodziejcak Classified Advertising Manager Kirk Bailey Distribution Manager Lillian Hook Office Manager Janice O'Neil Cheryl Haines Composing Managers Clarington's Award-Winning Newspaper Since 1854 Eljt Cmtirtnan Statesman imons I May 19,2004 Metroland Printing, Publishing £ Distributing Ltd. eta EDITORIAL e-mail letters to newsroom@durhamregion.com Liberal budget: You get what you pay for Il wasn't so long ago that successive successive Progressive Conservative Conservative finance ministers promised tax cut after tax cut, swearing we'd have balanced books and economic growth along the way. If some of those promises from ministers Ernie Eves, Jim Flaherty and Janet Ecker were part wishful thinking, part worldwide economic boom, Liberal Finance Minister Greg Sorbara threw a cold bucket of water on them Tuesday. The new minister kicked off his first budget speech by telling us we'd all pay more in future for health care. Starting July 1, all those who make $20,000 or more per year will pay an annual annual health care premium. Fees range from $300 per year for those making $20,000 to $36,000, all the way up to $900 per year for those making over $200,000. Mr. Sorbara's logic on reinstituting reinstituting this tax was simple. Health, care has become (the ever-hungry beast which constantly constantly devours more and more of our tax dollars. Unless it gets a major bqost from each taxpayer, public health care in Ontario will simply simply not be sustainable. i Mr. Sorbara promised far more nurses, shorter waiting times, more hospital beds and a number of other key improvements improvements to health care. But he also took away optometry, chiropractic chiropractic and physiotherapy services -- except for seniors and, for optometry exams, for those under 20. Mr. Sorbara also promised to cap class sizes from JK to Grade 3 to 20 students per class over the next four years, to boost education education funding by $2.1 billion over the next four years, to invest invest $1 billion in GO Transit, to kick in one cent per litre of gas to cities this October, 1.5 cents per litre in October 2005 and finally, finally, two cents per litre in October October 2006. The gas tax revenue is welcome news and will allow cash-strapped municipalities the funds they need to improve local and regional transportation systems. systems. The deficit beast, which Mr. Sorbara claims is $6.2 billion this year, will not be slain until 2007-08 or about the time the Liberals are trying to get reelected. reelected. Mr. Sorbara predicts a deficit of $2.1 billion for the coming year and says the government government will whittle it away year by year. The Liberals did inherit an economic mess at finance that was in part due to a miserable 2003 -- think of the massive costs associated with SARS and the August blackout - and could do little but look for revenues. But Mr. Sorbara's budget flies in the face of Premier Dalton McGuinty's repeated promises of no new taxes if the Liberals were elected. If the last two Tory budgets delivered good news for Durham, Tuesday's speech left us with an empty feeling. OPINION ,j->r"?W .1...ft..i -.-.r>' in c-mSIfletfefs to ncwsroom@durhumrcgion.coih' Bring on the rabid skunks, baby Jennifer News g< ill Newsflash: Men are not interested interested in dating women who reek of relationship desperation. OK, this information may seem so painfully obvious to most people that they feel it's hardly worth mentioning (I concur), concur), but it seems 'Elle' magazine magazine columnist E. Jean Carroll feels it bears repeating -- over and over and over again. As some of you may already know, I have embarked on a grand adventure/social experiment designed to test the theories set forth in a little book called 'Mr. Right, Right Now: How a Smart Woman Can Land her Dream Man in 6 Weeks.' And I'm dragging two of my single gal pals -- we'll call them Laverne and Shirley to spare their respective families any embarrassment -- down into the singles self-help snake pit along with me. Laverne can quite legitimately legitimately be described as a ravishing and buxom woman in her early 30s. She has long, straight hair that is perfectly honey-coloured and she works in the television industry. Shirley, meanwhile, is a coquettish Asian beauty with silky shoulder-length black hair. She is also in her early. 30s and works as an administrative .assistant. .assistant. Teeth gritted and pride swallowed swallowed (along with more than a little red wine to help it go down easier), the three of us gathered in Lavcrnc's kitchen 6nc evening after work to read our "man-catching" assignment for Week One: Achieve detoxification detoxification -- of men that is. « For seven days, we were not to "think man, breathe man, flirt man, sleep man, or cat Chef Bo- yardcc." We were to restrict ourselves ourselves to reading exclusively female female authors, shun male vocalists vocalists and completely cut nuts out of our diets. By doing this, Ms. Carroll assured us, we would achieve the utter indifference to members of the opposite sex that proves irresistible, and ultimately ultimately causes them to "froth at the mouth like rabid skunks." ' Unsavoury metaphors aside, the three of us were willing to give it a go. After all, none of us had ever really managed (or attempted) attempted) to feign indifference toward someone we were actually interest- . ed in, choosing instead instead to be ourselves. (Ms. Carroll, incidentally, incidentally, insists that it's important to be ourselves ourselves -- of course we care a little bit what men think of us, but we mustn't let on that we care one iota.) And, as each of us has made her share of man-related mistakes, we figured maybe they could be chalked misdirected indifference and a failure to play a targeted game of Hard to Get. In the end, the three of us weathered the week without too much difficulty. While we found it difficult to avoid our male co-workers during the course of the week, we averted our eyes as best we could. There was at least one incident involving involving a flirtatious e-mail, but with plenty of moral support that fell just short of singing choruses of "I am Woman, Hear Me Roar" down the phone lines, the guilty party was talked back from the precipice. Laverne faced the added complication of sharing office space with her ex, though she proudly reported having declined declined his offer to buy her an egg salad sandwich. Meanwhile, Shirley maintained maintained a level head, or so she claimed. for me, 1 actually dc- up to help me. laoWSst \ • -■ I, > W. : ■ "i v'- r ' ""Y : ' r • \ y ) j ' .V ; \ V,' : - * . c r>- ' -if:'" 1 ■ MiM LETTERS TO THE EDITOR Phone 905-579-4^00 Classifieds 905-576-9335 Distribution 905-579-4^0/ General Fax 905-579-2235 Newsroom Fax 905-579-1805 E-Mail newsroom@durhamregion.com 865 Farewell St., Oshawa ON L1H 715 Publications Mail Registration No. 07637 infodurhamreaion.coifi CLICK AND SAY Today's question: How would you rate the Liberals' Liberals' fist provincial budget under Premier Dalton McGuinty? □ Excellent ; c> □ Adequate 11 □ Missed important funding needs o Cost your vote online ot r j infodurham5-egi013.com t •; a Last week's question: Should the Province and the ^ federal government support y GM in Durham Region with ^ subsidies in a three-way re-in- vestment partnership? ' • 4 □ Yes 59.5% □ No 40.5% > r Votes cast: 148 j HAVE YOUR SAY Question: Do you think Clarington council should sponsor our .students' trip to Juno Beach in June? Melissa Tobin "Yes. It's importantito the students. students. It'3 a ir- tunity'to I XT --7T*' great o e-mail letters to newsrooni@durhamrcgion.com It doesn't take longto-hetpr someone in .need To the editor: Re: 'Next time, stop and 'lend a hand,' letter from Marg Seaton-Logeman of May 12. A while ago, I was out walking at night with my mother; We were crossing , Liberty Street at .Concession and the lights were" in our favour. I was knocked over by a car and thrown to the ground. I managed to get to the side of the road with my mother's help. Not one person stopped to help. There were plenty of people, people, as it was about 6.30 p.m. on a weeknight. I, along ' with the police, was amazed that nobody stopped. Lucky for me I only had bumps and bruises. People of Bowmanville need to wake up. It only takes two minutes to help someone in need. Lisa Watt Bowmanville Bowmanville Heritage designation is not needed Anyone owning a home of i historical meritis able to vol- v'ü nTafi^hWe; ït designated. 1 support this" right, but. I ques- i tion the. fairness in blanketing an entire neighboiirhood with a designation ,,against the wishes of its residents. Would you want this to happen to your neighbourhood and home? Moving into the next phase of this process, particularly when area homeowners do not want it, seems a waste of taxpayers' taxpayers' money. T Thousands of taxpayers' dollars have already been paid to consultants and further spending has been approved for the second phase, should council decide to proceed with it. This does not include the value of Municipal staff time dedicated to this process and any costs necessary to expand or alter the scope of this process. Are expenditures of this nature on one neighbourhood fair to taxpayers throughout the municipality? We have been able to maintain maintain the integrity of our Old Bowmanville neighbourhood as custodians of our own properties. properties. A heritage designation is an unnecessary infringement on our rights as property owners. owners. William Morrison Bowmanville To the editor: As an area homeowner and lifelong resident of Bowmanville, Bowmanville, 1 have strong objections objections to the designation of the Old Bowmanville residential neighbourhood as a Heritage Conservation District. My house is my own private private property. I do not want it subjected to a heritage designation, designation, regardless of the contents contents of any proposed guidelines. guidelines. Police chopper too costly and noisy for too few arrests To the editor: The sometimes startling activity activity of the Durham Police helicopter over neighbourhoods neighbourhoods seldom visited by a patrol patrol car by day suggests a radical radical transformation that affects Oshawa with the onset of darkness. The alacrity with which .the . chopper is dispatched to ..the city's hot spots, often three of four consecutive nights, usual- ly well after midnight, may give the impression that not only is crime rampant in the city, but that its perpetrators never sleep. The scarcity of news reports reports of the chopper's exploits in the local media suggests the intensified police activity results results in a disproportionately small number of arrests. Crime in Durham has not disappeared disappeared with the acquisition of the police helicopter. Had the Regional budget committee considered the experience experience of Toronto, where the helicopter program was can- cèlled after it was found to have a negligible effect on the city's crime rate, it might have drawn conclusions as to the limits of a helicopter's utility in an urban environment. Do we need a million-dollar million-dollar crime-fighting machine to combat penny-ante crime? It is an ironic, if unintended, unintended, consequence of acquiring a helicopter, that, for many neighbourhoods, the helicopter helicopter has itself become the main disturber of the peace. Margaret Fuller Letters to the Editor We welcome letters that include name, city of residence and phone numbers for verification. Writers are generally limited to . 200 words and one submission in 30 days. We decline announcements, announcements, poetry, open letters, consumer consumer complaints, congratulations congratulations and thank you notes. The editor reserves the right to edit copy for length, style and clarity. The newspaper contacts only those people whose submissions have been chosen for publication. publication. Pax: 905-579-1809; e-mail: newsroom@durhamregion.com ' '■ ' mp JL learn and see the woiiçl." Joy Alehin "Yes. ii they would represent Clarington and hqlp remember , . the Canadipn contributibn to the war." : 1.3 Mark Nicholas "Sure tli'ey should? It would b'3 a learning experience for The students-jto share when they got back." Jeanette Poole "Yes. .to help remember tjic Canadipn vets' sacrifices. We should make it a holiday." ' 1 ! J 1 •/ - l°T- * -X As dined a very templing invitation out, and opted instead to slay home and watch 'Fried Green Tomatoes.' If that's not dedication, dedication, 1 don't know what is. God News column week. Editor Jennifer Paige's appears every other TRUE GRIT maim 1 YMTVl A WMtWu «- vp By Tim Dollghan Ha w. Œljc Canadian Statesman is on.e of the Metroland Printing, Publishing Publishing and Distributing group of newspapers. The Statesraan is a member of the Bow- f l manville Clarington Board of^ Trade, the Greater Oshawa j Chamber of Commerce, On- 1 tario Co'mmunity Newspaper) Assoc., Canadian Community Newspaper Assoc., Canadian Circulations Audit Board and ( the Ontario Press Council. The publisher reserves the right to classify or refuse any advertisement. advertisement. 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