The following text may have been generated by Optical Character Recognition, with varying degrees of accuracy. Reader beware!

Page THE HERALD 11 A Division ofCanadian Newspapers Company Limited Guelpb Street Georgetown L7G 3Z6 Ontario DAVID A BEATTIE Publisher and General Manager PCs can really have their say MIKE TURNER Editor Phone 8772201 DAN TAYLOR Advertising Manager CUn Mill Number M43 A THE HERALD Wednesday False security In a lot of ways we of the northern hill country con sider ourselves more fortunate than our urbanbound counterparts in the south of Halton Region To a large degree this feeling is justified After all we dont have to battle huge traffic jams as they do in Oakville and Burlington Rarely are we subjected to the annoyance of vehicles moving at a snails pace traffic and congestion due to collisions Here in North Halton we enjoy a freedom the people of the more populated south could only imagine But that freedom appears to be taking its toll Statistics from Halton Regional Police show that of the 22 fatalities from car accidents during the last year oc curred m the North Halton Region That comes as a startling revelation when you consider the differences in population between the north and south and the corresponding differences in traffic volume and flow Statistics can often be deceiving On one hand we have the RIDE Reduce Impaired Driv ing Everywhere statistics saying there are fewer drink ing drivers using the roadways Naturally thats reassur ing But another set of statistics tells us the number of traffic fatalities in the Region has increased over the previous year In there were 15 fatalities And half of the 1988 fatalities involved alcohol There is another side to this though Of the 22 traffic fatalities 10 people died on the roads of North Halton where weve come to feel so secure Since there is less traffic people seem to feel they can choose to travel at whatever speed they wish Those same lovely country roads we enjoy away from all the hustle and bustle are apparently more dangerous than the larger super highways of the south Weve been lulled into a false sense of security that can prove costly Simply slowing down appears to be the only logical and ultimate solution How would you like to join a political party and know youd have a vote for its next leader not just for some delegate wholl choose that leader The odds favor the Ontario Pro gressive Conservatives offering you that kind of option after their next convention scheduled at the moment for Feb 11 In theory as many as 1000 Tories will be gathering to discuss possible amendments to the party constitution In reality that normally dry document might Just be ignited by the passion being aroused over the proposed changes to it The main bone of contention is how to elect the partys new leader an event scheduled for either autumn or spring It is a twolevel debate Up front is the high ground where the ciple of involving as many people as possible in the selection process is acknowledged to be everyones goal At a different level are the ques tions of who will be leader and bow and where those jockeying for ad vantage see the party going Open conventions are unpredic table On the other hand they favor good organizations They may or may not dilute the strength of the conservative rank and file Names currently being tossed about for leader include party president Tom Long former leadership candidates Dennis Tim- Queens Park Derek Nelson Thornton Ntwt brell Roy McMurtry and Allan Pope newcomers like MPPs Cam Jackson and Mike Harris and John Tory But it is the vote itself that is pro ving most fascinating to outside observers In their two leadership contests of 198485 and 1986 the Tories restricted voting to delegates chosen by people who were members of the party on the day the leadership race was called This cut off new blood and wont be allowed to happen again In ad dition almost everyone now favors some kind of universal for the next leadership convention one person one vote the allowing of every paidup Ontario Tory to cast a ballot for leader Dispute erupts over the best method for accomplishing this or achieving the closest thing to it There are political drawbacks Without a convention and balloting on the spot there is none of the real or manufactured drama that makes leadership races so in teresting to the media in par ticular the only branch that really matters anymore television The Parti found that out in Quebec when they held a oneperson onevote leadership election by mail It was small news in the media No one wants the choosing of the new PC leader to be ignored It is tough enough nowadays for a third party to make the news in Ontario as it is As well there are major and legitimate mechanical problems about how you conduct a balloting If everyone Is to get the vote Regional conventions are one answer Preferential ballots another Staggered voting a third There is a fourth method which would take longer to implement than the PCs have available before then next leadership vote but it is a method which I think is the long term solution This would be to give party members cards similar to personalized bank cards that are used for instant tellers except in this case they would register votes from around the province It is interesting to note that one of the constitutional reforms being considered at this convention is a centralized membership list something the party has never had before and something absolutely necessary before a bank card kind of voting could be arranged In any case it is new ground that is being broken here an attempt to open up the political process to in volve as many people as possible It may not work But it is a wor thy attempt and one in which one wishes all the parties were ed The tally on couch potatoes I The tragedy of 1917 It comes as a bit of a surprise to find that televisionviewing in Canada appears to be on the decline Its surprising because there is so much television out there to watch now According to StatsCan a recent survey compiled for showed there was a slight decline In the national average of couch potatoes doing what they do bestat33 Throughout the 1980s average viewing time for Canadians has hours For led all provinces with ja77 hours of TV viewing Take Bom that what you will At the other end of the scale theres Alberta which averaged hours to show the least in television What that not altogether sure Ill bet youre just dying to where we showed up J in Ontario Well we showed fourthlowest level of viewing J Vm not sure you can draw any from all these But Its interesting to me the national average hasnt Isolated any Editors Notebook Mike Turner Herald Editor over the last several years despite a far wider variety In television viewing It seems like theres a station for everything today news weather religion sports shopp ing Rumor has It that the next step is to put a Island Network on the air and I can hardly wait What toe heck we seem to have everything else Television has come a long way over the years Once was the time when the only argument at home was over which channel you were going to watch Thats because there were only two to choose from Life ma so much simpler then If you were really fortunate you had an antenna and could pick up another station or wo Now the of channels available has soared out of sight In fact there are so many channels stations have successfully resurrected series from the Golden Age of television to help nil the time slots And thats fine with me since some of the trash thats on these days Isnt worth passing the time with But getting back to those statistics isnt it a little strange that people arent watching more television given the selection they have to choose from Maybe the major networks could take a cue from this and realize its not quantity the peo ple want its the quality Were not going to watch any more television simply because theres more of it to watch I think the statistics pretty much bare that out On the other hand those statistics might be a little misleading if they arent taking into consideration the amount of time spent in front of those same televisions watching movies through their videocassette recorders That kind of makes all the other statistics insignificant doesnt ft By GIL HARDY Thomson News Service Buried deep in the Public Ac counts of Canada is a small reminder of a tragic and dramatic event that occurred 71 years ago The Public Accounts the annual compilation of federal government spending details hundreds of millions of dollars In spending In cluded is the Halifax 1917 Explo sion Pension Account which con tained at the end of the 198788 fiscal year on March The account made up of cash and securities pays benefits to the survivors of the worst disaster in Canadian history In Halifax was a busy port and naval base playing a major role in Canadas to the Allied war effort The First World War was in its fourth year and Britainbound convoys laden with troops munitions and supplies of ten sailed from Halifax On Dec the French steamship Mont Blanc packed with TNT ex plosive acid and benzine collided with the Norwegian steamer The resulting explosion devastated much of the north end of Halifax killing people and seriously injuring another The explosion was so powerful that a anchor shaft was hurled more than two miles from the scene Some people were left homeless and property damage amounted to million To help rebuild the shattered lives and broken city the Halifax Relief Commission was created Public and private money poured in for the injured and the families of the dead Some money went to the rebuilding of the dry the rest as compensation to the victims By 1990 the commission was paying pensions to people mere were only 353 receiving monthly instalments HA Clark the finance depart- meat official who now adniimsters thetrost account says the decline pertly because some pWMBted for lumpsum payments But old also has taken Its toil The number of pensioners fell to by and to just when the commission wound up in As of November there were people s receiving payments They are declining by four or five a year says Clark