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a 1 A AA AMA Sse --------- "A Family Tradition for 132 Years" 1 -- nt The Pout evry Stay | Question of the Week... What would you like to see happen in 1999? Do you have a suggestion that __ you think would make a good Terry Fox Id like to see another ice pad here in Port Perry. There's a lot of people trying to play ringette and hockey right now and Peter Peters How about happier peo- ple and peace on Earth; those would be fine. I'd really like to finish my journal I've been working Nelly Thiele I'd like to make more money. Also, the govern- ment; they're not doing a bad job, but they could always get better. I'd like Stu Ion A new government for the province. Cuts to health care are putting it in great danger and I think Harris has really screwed up the Cathy Faint I'd like to see a movie the- atre in Port Perry. Everything else we need is | pretty much here; movies are the only thing you have to drive away for. question of the week? we're forced to go to on for the last year or so better health care and school system ' i . : The rest's already in town. Ji I Call us at 905-985-7383. other arenas to play. help for the homeless. ' Quality education under fire again To the Editor: Though much is made of government ministers, their policies, and their intent, I feel that the more important point is what effect their policies and actions will have on our society. By giving themselves sweeping powers through the Omnibus bill passed early in their mandate, this government has been able to wreak havoc on our society and it's institutions. Attacks on our social safety net through welfare cuts, and cuts to the public service, have marginalized an even greater portion of our society. People on the edge before have been pushed over, people with "secure" jobs have lost them, and those who still have work in the public sector are concerned about their future employment. : Health care cuts have further reduced the ability of people within our society to spend time concerned about societal good. To most, personal and family well being, in its narrowest sense, comes before concern for our collective good. The bulwark of a strong democracy is quality public education. In this institution all members of our society have the opportunity to learn of our system of government, to discuss it, and begin to come to some understanding as to the importance of being actively involved in it. With a diminishing of this institution's ability to educate as it has L} done in the past, we will see a further decrease in our society's ability to make informed and valid. decisions when going to the polls. If the quality of instruction in secondary schools continues to decrease, it is possible that we could see the complete destruction of universal quality education. As people of means, who to this point in time have had their children in public schools, begin to feel that they are not get- ting from these schools what they wish to have, they will all for charter schools and a voucher system of funding. As is evidenced in the United States and Great Britain, this type of funding creates a large varia- tion in the quality of schools. The end result of -- this government's actions must be a stratification or class system in Ontarian society, a class system in which the position of the wealthy and powerful is entrenched. This certainly puts me at ever increasing odds with the Durham District Board of Education. Through their actions in regard to our present contract negotiations and indeed through the contempt that they have shown their staff, I must feel that they are actively involved in advancing this devastating situation. , Gord Humphrey Port Perry en? 3 ut you. think the first show' storm of 1990 was bad this past weekend, take a look at this picture. It shows Clarence Cook's Livestock transport truck bogged ong the Port Perry to Manchester road. In March 1947 the highway was blocked for an entire week before being cleared, and snowbanks were piled from 8 to 20 feet along the 5! after te worst showfall | in 53 yours. Photo Souvinsy of Bruce Shaw. down in snow by Jeff Mitchell NO MOOSE LOOSE HERE, EH? By now you're all accustomed to this space containing thoughtful insight, wit and candor, most of it in the context of this great country of ours and examination thereof, so it will come as no surprise to you to hear that | was dumb- founded to learn the animal on our quarter is not a moose, but a caribou. A caribou. I'll be damned. It's not that | have anything against caribou, mind. It's just that one gets used to thinking of things in certain ways -- you are, after all, really just a compilation of all you know and the way in which you use it -- and to my mind, it's always been a moose there on the 25-cent piece. Because I've never looked closely. If you examine the quarter you'll clearly see that it is adorned with the image of a majestic caribou, gazing steadily westward -- to the mountains, perhaps, or the sweeping spread of the tundra. If it were a moose, there would be a depiction of a slovenly, smelly beast, mucking about in a swamp with weeds protruding from its gob. | 'Whatever. | think it's great, having animals and stuff on our currency, rather than dead presidents and such. In Mexico, they have on their pesos people who look like they were mummified before they ever assumed public office. In America -- well, in America, they gave George Washington the quarter, and put Lincoln on the penny. (Lincoln does, however, show up on a larger denomination bill, which shows you that in America, you can succeed, no matter how humble your beginnings.) A friend from America marvelled recently at our colourful currency: "I paid for it with two polar bears and something that looks like a duck," he said, "and got back two moose, a beaver, and a sailboat." As we know now, of course, they were not moose, but caribou. But he's from Ohio. What the hell difference does it make to him? How to explain this affinity for animals? There are loons on our $1 and $20 pieces, king fishers on our fives. In Canada $10 will buy you an osprey, and a polar bear can be had for two bucks, replacing the robin of the paper era. And it's been so long since | saw a $100 bill, | have no idea what's on it... a raccoon, for all | know, or maybe a trout. It's distinctive, you've got to give us that. In the Dominican Republic, they depict sugar cane slave lords, in Mexico, some guy who once threw a rock at the Alamo, and so on. Here, we've got caribou. It goes a long way toward defining us as a people. ...eh? 3 EN Ey EIT eT Eh ar hi ak ds cdma al fo oan, sralitL A