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I RR ERT 6 - PORT PERRY STAR - Tuesday, July 30, 1991 "Scugog's Community Newspaper of Choice" The Port Perry Star 188 MARY STREET - PORT PERRY, ONTARIO PHONE 985-7383 FAX 985-3708 The Port Perry Star is authorized as second class mail by the Post Office Department, Ottawa, for cash payment of postage. Second Class Mail Registration Number 0265 Subscription Rate: In* Canada $26.75 per year *Elsewhere$74.90 peryear. * Single Copy 65¢ EDITORIAL Publisher - J. Peter Hvidsten News Editor - Scott Anderson Features Editor - Julia Dempsey Sports Co-ordinator - Kelly Lown News/Features - Gillian Barfoot ADVERTISING Advertising Manager - Anna Gouldburn Production - Pamela Hickey, Deanne Petts BUSINESS OFFICE Office Manager - Gayle Stapley Accounting - Judy Ashby Billing Department - Louise Hope PRODUCTION Annabell Harrison Barbara Lachapelle Retail Sales - Kathy Dudley, Lynda Ruhl, Tracy O'Neil Trudy Empringham Robert Taylor *CNA | fi Vober ole Canadian Community Newspaper Association Ontario Community Newspaper Association Published every Tuesday by the Port Perry Star Co. Lid. Port Perry, Ontario * GST induded in price Editorial Comment _ Off And Running They're off and running again on the campaign trail. In the past week the fall municipal election has changed from that of a relatively uneventful affair to one which could prove to be quite interesting. Although the incumbent, Mayor Howard Hall made his in- tentions known weeks ago, it was not until Glenn Malcolm, things started to look interesting. Councillor Malcolm's decision to challenge Mayor Hall caught a lot of people off guard. It may have a few more re- thinking their decisions before they officially announce. It's not that Councillor Malcolm is inexperienced in politi- cal life. He's anything but inexperienced. His father, Lawrence Malcolm, has served in area political for more than two dec- ades, as well as five years as mayor. What surprised some is his decision to go for the mayor's job after serving only one term as councillor. The councillor doesn't see this as a problem, however. He sees the mayor's job as a natural progression in his political career and one that he is ready for. "I enjoy public life and | would like a new challenge. This basically led me to (either running for) regional councillor or for mayor. | guess I've gotten too comfortable where | am, and therefore | have to do this," he told the Port Perry Star last week shortly after announcing his decision. It is his intention to make this year's election interesting. The public "enjoys a race," he says and he is prepared to make it one. With.his announcement, the election becomes an interest- ing event. Now that he has moved from Area 4 Councillor to aspiring mayor, his old seat in council is up for grabs. It's there for the taking. In fact there's a number of seats that are up for grabs, as Neil Hunter, Don Cochrane and Al Goreski have decided not to seek re-election in their respective areas. Regional Council- lor Yvonne Christie announced her intentions to seek re- election in the same position, while Councillor Marilyn Pearce has yet to announce her intentions. With the number of seats becoming vacant it appears to be the perfect time for an aspiring politician to take the plunge and seek nomination. With the incumbent out of the race, it is more likely for a relatively unknown person to assume the de- sired seat. When the election is over and whoever is elected takes office, it appears there will somewhat of a different look than the present in the council chambers. Although it doesn't appear there will be any mudslinging or muck racking, the races, especially for mayor should prove to be interesting. A number of issues will be dealt with quite heavily, and perhaps rather heatedly, in the days leading up to the cam- paign. Servicing will be one issue. Scugog has a great need for increased municipal services such as water and sewage. Without these essential services, future development is put on hold. Garbage is another contentious issue, not only on the lo- cal level, but also on the regional level. According to Council- lor Christie, "garbage is on everybody's minds" and there must be solutions found to the problems of garbage disposal. The spending of local tax dollars should surface as an is- sue along the way. Councillor Malcolm wants to see tighter control of the municipal spending until the recession is defi- nitely over. He is in favor of improving existing infrastructure instead of building new facilities, just for the sake of having it. Nothing is a sure thing in politics. Seats are wide open, the opportunities are there for the taking, some can be had with very little effort. There couldn't be a better time to take the plunge. If i's not taken now, the chance may not be there down the road. Go ahead take the plunge, or forever hold your peace. presently Area 4 Councillor, threw his hat into the ring that "Well, we may be outa' the woods ---- now) to get back on the fairway La SOME RIGHT - SOME WRONG With the number of recent announce- ments by candidates for the coming election, I though this might be an appropriate time to check back to a column written during the last week of December 1990, at which time I gave my election predictions." Starting with Mayor - Last December I predicted Mayor Howard Hall would run for office again. While this part of the prediction is correct, the second part, which suggested that he would received competition from someone within the ranks of the Citizen's Against Unjust Taxes group, has not materi- alized to this date. My prediction that Regional Councillor Yvonne Christie would take another run at the same post was confirmed this week, with her announcement in this issue of the Star. Another correct prediction - that Area Councillor Don Cochrane would call it a political day, was also confirmed this week with councillor Cochrane's announcement he will retire from municipal politics. Both councillors Allen Goreski and Neil Hunter declared a few weeks ago that they would not be seeking another term, confirm- ing my predictions made last December. While anticipating Glenn Malcolm would seek another term on council, my suggestion that he would run from either ward 4, or area councillor seat was very wrong. Mr. Malcolm surprised everyone last week by announcing he will run for Mayor of Scugog Township. And finally, my last prediction suggested that Marilyn Pearce would run for office one more term. I qualified this by saying I felt there would be some local projects she would like to see completed. Although councillor Pearce has yet to make her official intentions known, I'll stand by this prediction made sev- en months ago. There's no doubt, election fever is starting to increase in Scugog. We've heard rumors o a few other people seriously considering tak- ing plunge into municipal politics this year. But, it is not our intention to publish rumors, even though two I have talked with are very serious about their intentions and plan to make their ambitions known in the next few weeks. In addition to new candidates, already one former political pundit has declared his intention to seek election this fall. Harvey Graham, a former area councillor, threw his hat into the ring this week, announcing he will run for the seat of area councillor. This is the same seat Mr. Graham held for one term, before bang defeated during the last election in the race for Mayor. There's only 16 weeks left until voters head to the polls, but that's lots of time for political hopefuls to make up their minds and make their intentions known. It should be an interesting fall. PARKING FINES Tickets! Whether your parking fine is $5, $10, or $20, it's always frustrating to have to pay a ticket, for parking in the wrong spot, with your hard earned money. But here's something that should make Canadian motorists feel just a little bit better about paying their parking fines. Just be happy you don't live in Tokyo. Motorists who leave their car overnight in a no-parking zone face fines of more than $1,700 in this city. An amount equal to more than two weeks' pay for the average worker. Apparently its part of Tokyo's all-out war on parking. The government uses everything from old-fashioned tickets and tow trucks to a ruthless high-tec parking meter. Imagine a parking meter that can tell automatically when a parked car has pulled away, at which point the "time remaining" flashes back to zero so nobody can cruise the streets looking for an unexpired meter. And if your car exceeds the one-hour limit, bright red lights start blinking to attract olice. Running out to feed the meter every hour doesn't work here either, because the meter will not permit a given car to park for more than one hour. So next time you put a quarter in the met- er, just think what the alternative could be.