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Rae should avoid federal NDP Home Newspaper of Halton Hills Established IBM A Division of Canadian Newspapers Company Limited Guelph Street Georgetown 3Z6 Ontario DAVID A BEATTIE Publisher and General Manager BRIAN MacLEOD Editor Phone 8772201 DAN TAYLOR Advertising Manager CUM Mall Rrgbtrrrd Page THE HERALD Wednesday October 1989 We need books In recent months heavy issues such as waste disposal road repairs and finishing the towns new civic centre have all been headline news But in the wake of the rush to jump on these issues some less conspicuous yet impor tant institutions can be forgotten In Halton Hills the case in point is our two libraries Hills Library Board member Steve Foster told councillors Monday that our libraries in Georgetown and Acton are currently below standard in all categories He said service to libraries users is not as good as it should be And chief librarian Betsy Cornwell said the town needs 16000 new books to meet current needs and another 33000 books by 1995 if their population projections hold true We should all be a little bit embarrassed The town pushed ahead with great zeal to get the new civic centre built at a cost of over million But now were told that not only will we need more money to keep our libraries up with projected population increases but that our libraries are now substandard Cultural institutions like libraries are often the hub of a community There can be no downplaying their im portance From centuriesold legendary scholars to presentday school children theyve played a critical role education and learning Weve watched our universities crumble through gross We dont want that frame of mind which dominates provincial and federal politics to carry over to the municipal arena You can debate the merits of civic centres roads and water pipelines from Lake Ontario at length but a dollar spent on books is a dollar well spent Few would debate that The population projections for Halton Hills 36300 peo ple in Georgetown and more than 11 000 people in acton by 2001 are very similar to Halton Regions own projections And if were to meet the needs of those increasing numbers of people wed betterget to it now Halton Hills councillors did some hard looking to find the money for the civic centre and we expect them to search equally hard to keep our libraries an important and well- equipped institution in town Fighting on Brian MacLeod Youve got to hand it to the organizers of POWER they know how to organize a publicity cam paign For the second in a year the citizens group hit the steps of Queens Park this time demonstrating against the Greater Toronto Area committee More than HO people from several irooroental groups staged which them a inches of copy in the and Hall as well as other media at tention There are those In town who say POWER Protect Our Water and Environmental Resources Is wielding quite a bit of influence these days some even say too much theyre just doing what they were told to do last year by a successful environmentalist Remember Lois Gibbs The woman who fought and won the battle at the Love Canal in the United States told POWER members to make the fight against the Acton dump proposal or any other fight for that matter a political fight She said fighting such proposals entirely on scientific grounds rare ly works She gave that advice drawing on her own nightmarish experience And their approach seems to be working Theyve succeeded in get ting the town to support their pro clamation against the a move the town clearly wasnt prepared to make without promp ting After more than two years they teem to be picking up steam Its an oddity Host ratepayers groups lose Interest after an Initial push The key Is the environment Its the number one Issue on the minds of most Canadians today and POWER seems to be the focal point of most peoples concerns in Halton Hills Derek Nelson Queen Park Leader Bob decision to remain out of the federal NDP race will likely prove good for him and his family And for his party Unfortunately it also makes things a lot tougher for those Cana- dians who believe the country needs a political alternative to the three oldline parties of the PCs Liberals and NDP A federal election that involved a fight between an led by Rae a PC party starring Brian Mulroney and a Liberal party hailing Jean Chretien would be perceived in western Canada at least as a squabble among two and their kissing cousin from Ontario The westernbased Reform Par ty would have done extremely well in such circumstances the will likely choose former BC premier Dave Bar rett a compelling stump politician with a deep populist streak who has already thumbed his nose at Quebec As federal leader he would compete for much of the same base of support as Preston Manning leader of the Reform Party Fae would have gone into the leadership race as the partys establishment candidate beholden to the bilingual vision of Canada he Is fluent in French and backed by the laborunion oriented segments of the party He might have beaten the westerner too think there was a lot of support out there Rae said of his chances Barrett is still remembered as the man who became premier of BC only to do such a bad job he lost it all in three years Too much the buffoon many said and radical to boot Now Rae will remain in Ontario where he has promised to lead the NDP into the next provincial elec tion He didnt allow the stroking of his ego by a very efficient cam paign aimed at drafting him shades of Bill Davis and the federal Tory leadership of 1963 to overcome his common sense although the decision was quite close Interestingly the partial ex planation he gave for why he isnt going to go federally is as valid for getting out of the provincial frying pan as it is for not jumping into the federal fire ONLY HUMAN Ive got three kids under eight I just lost my brother to cancer this year My wifes parents were kill ed in a car accident a few years ago I mean were only human he said At the end of the day I had to make an entirely personal deci sion he said Over the past couple of years speeches have become more reflective and personally philosophical with much about love and the human condition He leaves the impression that once he has done his duty one last try in Ontario under more favorable con ditions than in the 1967 provincial election where he had to watch Liberal David Peterson practically walk on water on his way to victory hes off to do something more useful As Peterson still points out and because hes been there he knows it is true there Is probably no worse or tougher job its a terri ble Job in this province than leader of the opposition at Queens Park No one is ignored more by the Ontario media and public than the person in that post except maybe the leader of the third party in the legislature It takes enormous time away from oneB family often for little obvious reward Federally it would have been even worse and this when his children are at an age when he wants to be around as much as possible Thats why his saying no ia good for him and his family Out of loyalty and perhaps curiosity to see whether he can defeat Peterson in a more even contest than last time hell fight the next provincial election But no one should be surprised if he then leaves the political game entirely If he were viewing life from an academic setting instead of traips ing the back roads of Ontario in pursuit of the elusive goal of elec toral victory hed at least be home for supper every night Why a Via royal commission attar nil that a muni Vic Parsons Ottawa Bureau nnmanllnnltmct The most bizarre aspect of the governments frontal assault on Via Rail was the announcement of a royal commission to produce a plan for the next centurys passenger transport system One suspects It to be a last- minute sop thrown out by Prime Minister Brian in an at tempt to cool down anger over the Via cuts Indeed It was reported that Transport Minister Benolt Bouchard told Tory caucus col leagues before his announcement that the commission would help sell the cuts to constituents Well The royal commission certainly seems to have been a rush job Bouchards prepared press state ment makes no reference to it and he just tacked it on the end of his opening remarks The news release from the prime ministers office was not included in the transport departments kit One imagines a healthy brigade of departmental staff working well into the wee hours to throw a few jargonistic phrases together in time Translation Printing Lots of overtime pay You the taxpayer get the bUI of course Its most peculiar Here you have a government in power for just over five years Via Rail ser vice has been an issue throughout that time and years previous for that matter There are scads of public and secret documents com paring this mode of transportation to that Moreover Bouchard has said half of Via will be slashed by cabinet order without hearings by the National Transportation Agen cy Only perseverance on the part of the Commons transport commit tee including some Tory rebels ensures the public Is beard at all Suddenly after all that a royal commission which no doubt will hear those same opinions Bouchard preferred to ignore is look at some information the commission will likely study and which is already available from the load of paper released Wednesday by transport and Via One point that wont escape the notice of commissioners is that vir tually every other industrial coun try but Canada is stepping up its in vestment in rail passenger service France has spent about billion on its trains a grande vitesse and billion on conventional- speed service In the next decade Italy will invest billion on high speed rail West Germany Is already into a 6148 billion pro gram to end In USD Spain Is pumping in bUUon British Rail has invested billion and expects to be profitable In two years the American rail service has receiv ed investments of billion and is coping far better than Via Am- operating cost recovery is per cent compared with 30 per cent