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'editorial po. A Good Choice More and more these days, one hears the common lament that there are not enough "good men and women' prepared to seek high elected office. And there may be some truth to it. That was not the case last week when the Durham Region council voted for a new Reglonal chairman. Both Gary Herrema and John Aker brought excellent credentials as candidates for the most sensitive political job in Durham Region. And although Herrema won the vote by the most slender of margins, most observers agree that either gentlemen would have made a good chairman. In his speech In front of the council last week, Herrema was quite right when he said it's high time to stop making the Region a convenient whipping boy for all the problems faced by local councils in: Durham. _ His call for cohesive efforts by regional and local councils at this time is right on the money, because some of the problems that must be overcome are going to require co-operation by all concerned. Whether Herrema is the man to mold this cohesion in Durham remains to be seen. One should not forget that it was he not too many months ago who suggested that a financial study be undertaken to determine if the northern municipalities were getting a fair share by being members of Durham. However, the vote last week indicated that Herrema has widespread support from all munici- palities in Durham except the city of Oshawa where he got but one of the 11 votes available. That is understandable as councillors from the city of Oshawa could not help but feel a sense of obligation for one of their own: And, Herrema got complete support from the councillors in the so-called northern municipalities of Scugog, Brock and Uxbridge. But to his credit, he also got support from Newcastle, Ajax, Pickering and Whitby. Certainly, John Aker would have made a good chairman. He has several years municipal ex- perience on both Oshawa city and Regional councils, and for the past two.years, has. been chairman of the Region's important finance committee. He consistently places high on the polls in municipal elections, and is described as urbane, cool, unruffled, and articulate. Herrema has sat on Regional council for four years, including the last two as chairman of the public works committee. He has been mayor of Uxbridge for the past two years, and was acclaimed for another term in the November election. Forceful, blunt, energetic, high profile, straight- shooter, are some of the words that have been used to describe Herrema. Others, less complimentary have described him as pushy and a political bull- dozer. But maybe this blend of assertiveness and high profile energy is just what Durham Region needs from its chairman for the next few years. : Being from a northern municipality in Durham and a successful farmer with active ties to the agricultural community, Herrema as chairman will help to foster a better understanding of Regionalism in the rural communities where there is still open suspicion and hostility towards the concept of Durham. We all know that the strong farming base in the north compliments the industry south of the ridges, but there is direct competition between Oshawa, Whitby and Pickering for commercial, residential and industrial development, and often this has spilled over into the business of Durham council. With even less overall development coming in the next few years, selecting the location for that which does occur and keeping peace among the 30 Regional councillors at the same time Is going to be a tough job. Nevertheless, the inaugural meeting last week broke up on what was a conciliatory note, on the RN TR LS Pan od SAIN fiery +1740 outside, anyway. John Aker was genuine in his congratulations for Herrema, and went so far as to ask his supporters to make the vote unanimous. So, it is fair to say that the Region is off to a - better start this term than it was two years ago amid the bitterness of the controversial tie-breaking vote in his own favour by Walter Beath. Durham Region is a creation of the provincial government, and like it or not, it is here to stay until the provincial government decides to change it (which Is not likely). : For some, the Region Is just a remote bureau- cracy, the council meetings nothing more than a debating club for disgruntled politicians who rubber stamp recommendations from the administration. Changing public perceptions of the Region, especially in the so-called hinterlands must be an important function of the Regional chairman's job, along with such routine things as putting pressure on Cabinet ministers for more money for day care, senior citizens, social services, 'police budgets, and so on. We wish Gary Herrema well in his new job. He worked hard for those 16 votes he received last week, and we believe he will work just as hard for Durham and the eight member communities over the next couple of years. : Item. I'll never write another ode to bill smiley More doorbell ringing. Finally, she forced open one of the cellar windows and crawled in, dragging her best SHOTGUN COLUMN Shotgun column coming up." Reason? I've just been through a real mother of a 'flu attack, and the little bit of brain matter still alive, inside a body that feels as though the Gestapo had been having a go at it, is not capable of the usual sustained, melodious, incomparable prose essay. Item. After looking forward to my old lady getting home from two weeks in the north country, after laying on arrangements for her to be picked up at the airport and dropped at our door, after making the house look as though I'd hired an expert house- keeper, 1 blew it. I was listening to a particularly noisy TV. programme. I wandered downstairs about the time she was to arrive, just in time to find her opening the' cellar door with an expression the Gorgon would have envied. She'd got in a bit early, rung the doorbell when she found the door locked. No response. She checked the garage. Yes, the car was there; he wasn't off somewhere carousing, unless on foot. Lights in the house all on. - No answer. white suitcase behind her, across the ~ woodpile beneath the window. I'd kept the door locked because I'd become used to doing so while she was away. Hadn't heard the bell. Five minutes after she got home, I was wishing she's go away for another two weeks. Day after she got home, I got the 'flu, which she took as a personal affront. Lay around groaning and hawking and spitting and drinking plenty of fluids, until she was wishing she's stayed away for another two weeks. Item. Doctors and well-meaning friends urge you to take it easy, that you are not indispensable. Well, they're completely wrong. Some of us are indispensable. Like me. I took two days in bed, and returned to work to find chaos. Three members of my English staff off sick, one of them for good, eighteen pieces of adminis- trivia to sort out, new timetables to be arranged, and, feeling like a wet rag that has just been wrung out, eleventy-seven essays and tests to mark, and four exams to set. I'm looking at those New Career ads in the paper. Can't seem to find anything suiting a venerable gentleman with no manual or technical or organizational skills. I'm thinking seriously of joining my son when he goes back to Paraguay. Surely I could be of some use down there. I make a fine pot of tea, and could teach English as a Second Language, and I am an expert at dandling babies on my knee. Item. Budget. Allan McEachin should be renamed Allan Machiavelli. Mackenzie King is chortling in his grave as he watches one of his disciples go through the old Liberal routine: you can fool most of the people most of the time; use the carrot as well as the stick; never let your left hand know what your right hand is doing; learn to speak out of both corners of your mouth at the same time; and energy taxes if necess- ary but not necessarily energy taxes. If the average household ran its budget as does the federal government, we'd all be on welfare. And that's just about where Canada stands now. On welfare. Borrowing from one finance company to pay. the interest owed to another finance company. Holding out its hands to the poor, with gall in one palm, and vinegar in the other. Item. The Consti-bloody-tuition. Trudeau acting like a near-sighted lion, with his comfortable majority. Joe Clark and Ed Broadbent waving futile fists in the air. And the provinces, like so many jackals, each striving to tear off a juicy morsel of meat before the lion roars. October. This has been the rottenest (rotten, rottener, rottenest?) in many a year. Where are the Octobers of yesteryear, with their magnificent colors, their clear blue skies and. mellow sunshine, their opportunity to haul out the boat or get in a last few rounds of golf? It rains. It sleets. It snows. And it's mighty cold, in our parts. The splash of brilliant color has been turned a sort of dun, and the wind and rain have stripped the foliage before it had a chance to show its fancy undergarments. Item. Somebody is after me. Lost a ~filling.----Twenty-one-bucks.--Caught--not wearing my safety harness. Twenty-eight bucks. Sink plugged.- Fifty-two bucks. The Feds are after me for income tax errors. Somebody stole my wallet. Two hundred. Storm windows coming up. Over a thousand and at the rate we're going, it'll be April before they're on. Brickwork needs about three hundred. Whole house needs painting. Inside and out. About two thousand. Oil and gas bills going up. Corn on sole of right foot killing me. Telephone bills exorbitant. Inflation far ahead of salary increase. Well, I don't have to fill in any more details. We're all in the same leaky boat. However, the only way to doitis a day at a time. Tomorrow I'll be a day nearer the grave, but I'll have done tremendous things; shaving my face, brushing my teeth, going to work, marking some essays, sorting out a squabble among my Grade 10's. The possibilities are limitless. < i Pi. "IA Rt ps tg I ==