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OPINION Heading into the 2007 provincial election Progressive Conservative leader John Tory was hop- ing Ontario voters would show their anger at four years of broken promises by the Liberal government. Instead, the electorate turned its anger towards Tory and his ill-conceived idea of full funding for faith-based schools. And, despite all the spin doctoring by Tory apolo- gists and supporters, the reason the Conservatives will once again be sitting in the Opposition benches at Queens Park is because their leader misjudged Ontario voters. It was not the medias fault. It was not Premier Dalton McGuinty misrepresenting the issue of faith-based funding. The blame rests at the feet of John Tory, who ironically, lost his bid for re-election at the hands of Liberal education minister Kathleen Wynne. As we stated in last weeks editorial, this was Torys election to win as the McGuintys Liberals served up a host of issues on which the Conservatives could focus their campaign on broken promises, ques- tionable grants, inaction on a number of issues, a needless legal fight against parents of autistic chil- dren, etc. But voters not the media as many bruised PCs will whine were enraged at the idea of faith-based funding. A last-minute back-track by Tory on the issue did nothing to turn the tide and only weakened his credibility. While he vowed to stay on as PC leader, we doubt he will be leading the party when we next head to the polls in 2011, nor should he. The Liberals, and particularly McGuinty, did not run a great campaign but they ran a winning one. The premier avoided any potential potholes, kept Tory on the defensive, and did more than enough to convince voters that, while he made mistakes in his first term, he was an improvement over the last years of Mike Harris/Ernie Eves and therefore deserved another chance. NDP leader Howard Hampton managed to gain seats for his party and a decent hike in the popular vote so it is unlikely there will be calls for his head. The Green Party, disappointed in not electing its first member to the Legislature, showed with its pop- ular vote total that it is likely only a matter of time before they make that breakthrough. In the horribly-publicized referendum on electoral reform, voters wisely rejected the mixed member pro- portional option in favour of the current first-past- the-post method. Locally, longtime Tory Ted Arnott gets a chance to show Halton Hills voters why he was the popular choice of Waterloo-Wellington voters for the past four elections and he easily defeated game, but out- matched, Liberal rookie candidate Marg Bentley. We wish him well and hope he is an effective voice for local residents, albeit from the Opposition benches. Grit-ty victory The Independent & Free Press is published every Wednesday and Friday at 280 Guelph St., Unit 29, Georgetown Ont., L7G 4B1. It is one of several newspapers published by Metroland Media Group Ltd. Advertising is accepted on the condition that, in the event of a typographical error, that portion of the advertising space occupied by the erroneous item, together with reasonable allowance for sig- nature will not be charged for, but the balance of the advertisement will be paid for at the acceptable rate. In the event of typographical error advertising goods or services at wrong price, goods or ser- vices may not be sold. 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Publisher Ken Nugent Advertising director Steve Foreman (sforeman@independentfreepress.com) Retail advertising manager Cindi Campbell (ccampbell@independentfreepress.com) Managing editor John McGhie (jmcghie@independentfreepress.com) Distribution manager Nancy Geissler (distribution@independentfreepress.com) ADVERTISING Advertising co-ordinator Jennifer Christie (jchristie@independentfreepress.com) Retail Sales: Jennifer Spencer (jspencer@independentfreepress.com) Andrew Key (akey@independentfreepress.com) Amy Sykes (features@independentfreepress.com) Real estate: Sue Spizziri (realestate@independentfreepress.com) Classifieds: Kristie Pells (classified@independentfreepress.com) ACCOUNTING Rose Marie Gauthier, Michelle Wimmer EDITORIAL Cynthia Gamble: News editor (cgamble@independentfreepress.com) Ted Brown: Photography (tbrown@independentfreepress.com) Lisa Tallyn: Staff writer (ltallyn@independentfreepress.com) Eamonn Maher: Staff writer/sports (emaher@independentfreepress.com) PRODUCTION: Mary Lou Foreman, Kevin Powell, Shelli Harrison, Dolores Black, Debbie MacDougall STAFF DIRECTORY Send us a letter! Phone: 905-873-0301 Fax: 905-873-0398www.independentfreepress.com Dear editor, In the first week of February 2006, The Independent & Free Press printed a story about a Halton Hills council meeting. At that time, the Director of Finance, Ed DeSousa, responding to a question from Councillor Bob Inglis said: Its a known fact in the munici- pal world that development does not pay for development, agreed DeSousa. .... DeSousa also noted that assessment growth does not cover even all the base budget costs. I was told some time ago by an Oakville regional councillor that development charges (DCs) DO NOT pay for all the necessary roads, libraries, fire stations, etc that are needed in new areas. In other words, new development is a net drain on our finances. Now I am confused. The Independent & Free Press, Sept. 12 story, Library project put on the shelf, reported that: Director of Finance Ed DeSousa painted a grim picture of the future financial stand- ing of the Town should no water be found to build more development. The need to build capital projects fire stations, libraries, arenas, parks, roads, etc. would outstrip the abil- ity to pay. So, if in the past our Town was constantly falling behind due to low DCs in supplying services, is this why we dont have the money need- ed for library expansion? Were we going to pay off that credit card by more subdivisions using the DCs from the new development to pay for services that were required by subdi- visions already built? If Mr. DeSousas original state- ment, that development does not pay for development, is accurate, DCs will not bail us out. The more subdivisions we build the further behind we will be in paying for the necessary services. Can council come up with a system that will pay for all requirements of new development? This should be our aim. Barbara Halsall,Georgetown Dear editor, Over the past year, the board, staff and students at Literacy North Halton were very excited and pleased to hear the expansion of our library services had been approved by the Town. The obvious need for this expan- sion has been spelled our clearly in communications to the Town, and information sessions held in this com- munity. Simply put, our library supports local community literacy programs by allowing access to computers, a com- fortable environment to stimulate improving literacy skills, and offers various book collections. It is time that Halton Hills understands and acknowl- edges our library must be developed and enhanced to match the growth in population and indeed, to bring them on par with other libraries in similar communities. Libraries are an integral part of every community. Its as simple as A-B-C. We, at Literacy North Halton, con- gratulate the Town of Halton Hills for approving the expansion of the Georgetown Library. We strongly urge the Town to keep the library project a community priority, and to move on the development of the library as soon as possible. Denise Dilbey, Chair, Literacy North Halton Library project must be a community priority 6 Acton/Georgetown, Friday, October 12, 2007