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THURSDAY, JANUARY 12, 2006 THE NEW TANNER 7 GRAPEVINE with Mike OLeary The Way I See It HAIR HELP For almost half of her life, Sarah Lindsay, 9, of Limehouse, patiently waited while her wavy light brown hair grew long enough long enough to make wigs for kids who had cancer and lost their hair. On Friday morning, it was long enough, and with dad Jim ceremoniously wielding the scis- sors, a 13-inch long ponytail was cut from Sarahs hair at Profile Beauty Salon. Profile owner Monica Galway happy to help will send the hair to an organization that makes wigs for people left bald by chemo- therapy, something she has been doing for the past six years. Sarah, a Grade 4 student at Limehouse Public School, said she started to grow her hair long enough to donate because she wanted to help as several of her close family members and a fam- ily friend have fought cancer. SOCCER SIGNUP Its not too soon to start think- ing about warm weather sports and the Acton Soccer Club is prepping for another season with several registration sessions at the Acton arena. The first one is January 21, from 9 a.m. to 1 p.m., when players from under-five to under-21 can sign up parents will be glad that the rates remain the same as last year. As well, registrations will be accepted after that date at Dollar Stretcher Daze. NEW MANAGER Staff at McDonalds have wel- comed new manager Bill Green to the Acton location, and said a fond bye to departing manager Steve Cabral who opened the Acton restaurant for owner Dave Beatty and has been promoted to one of Beattys larger McDonalds in Brampton. Green, who was promoted from first assistant at another of Beattys Brampton McDonalds, took over last week and is report- edly learning the local ropes and the names of his 67 employees. Welcome. BIG BROTHERS NEEDED With a waiting list of five boys in the Acton area, Big Brothers of Halton needs volunteers to be pals, mentors and father figures to boys, aged five to 14, who dont have a man in their lives. The organization currently has four active Big and Little Brother matches in Acton. After careful screening and training/orientation, a Big Brother typically a patient, flexible, caring man with a good sense of humour is carefully matched with a Little Brother who has similar interests. The Big Brother is expected to commit to spending several hours a week with a boy, for one year, providing friendship, support and guidance. Big Brothers also arranges monthly activities and events for participants to do guy stuff. For details, call 905-339-2355. Although the Big Brothers and Big Sisters organizations in Halton have amalgamated in Acton, North Halton Big Sisters is now run by Girls Inc. CITIZEN COPS Interested in seeing a mock trial? Want to know how Halton police investigate major crimes, handle traffic control or catch impaired drivers? The Halton Police Services citizens police academy provides a view into the law and order system that most civilians dont get to see. The weekly sessions (January 31 to April 18) include presentations on the tactical rescue unit, the police budget, forensic identifica- tion bureau and communications bureau. For more information or an application to the citizens police academy visit www.hrps.on.ca or call 905-878-5511 ext. 5042. JK/SK REGISTRATION Actons public elementary schools are now accepting reg- istrations for Junior and Senior Kindergarten students for the fall 2006 school year. When registering, the docu- ments (originals) required include proof of the childs age (birth cer- tificate or passport), immunization record, Ontario Health Card, proof of address, and if not the parent, proof of custody (court order.) JK kids must be four-years-old, and SK five-year-old, by Decem- ber 21, 2006. Parents can get registration information and find their home school on the Halton District School Boards website www. hdsb.ca Parents are asked to register their children by February 3. PIZZA PARTY Actons Pat Robinson will be eating pizza with her work colleagues and singing along with Brooks and Dunns Only in America tomorrow (Friday) as the winner of Hamilton radio station Country 93.5s Pizza Pizza all- request country lunch. Listeners had to e-mail the station with their top 25 country songs and each week a lucky listeners name is chosen and they and 25 colleagues are treated to lunch. Robinson, a driver trainer at Ty- ler Transport, said shed forgotten all about the contest and was very surprised and pleased when they called last week to set up a date. The station will play as many of Robinsons favourites during the lunch hour as possible and will pre-record her introducing some of the songs. HOLY SMOKE! The driver of a Holy Cow Canoe Company work truck used snow to put out a fire under the truck at 5:29 last Tuesday afternoon. The driver pulled off the road and into the Superior Glove lot on Highway 25 and quickly ex- tinguished a small fire under the hood. Acton firefighters discon- nected the battery and called a tow truck. Were down to the wire in what has been a somewhat sub- dued federal election. Part of the problem could be we have the same cast of characters in the top jobs. And for the most part, the same messages although I do give some credit to the Conservatives for proposing a modest cut to the hated GST. The thing to remember is that, no matter who is elected, the promises the parties are mark- ing are going to cost big bucks. Those dollars are going to have to come from you the taxpayer. Quite frankly, I dont think our overburdened citizens can afford to pay much more. So when you hear politicians promise to spend more on this or that, remember that you have to pay for it. Thats what upsets me when I hear the Liberals will give you this and the Conservatives will give you that. Government cant give you anything without dipping into your purse. That said, this is the system we seemed to have morphed into. Personally, I would be more inclined to vote for a party that would be dedicated to fiscal responsibility. What we are stuck with is three parties spending like drunken sailors and the traitors of course. We only have ourselves to blame. I think it was John Crosby who said a billion here, a billion there: pretty soon youre talking about real money. Unfortunately that seems to be the mindset that has infected Ottawa down to the lowest levels of public servants. One could almost feel sorry for Paul Martin. Someone has it out for his government and many fingers are pointing at the Chretien loyalists. I think Chretiens supporters can and are that Machiavellian. Martins machinations behind the scenes led to Chretiens downfall. The fact that since the election was called the Liberals have been faced with several RCMP inves- tigations and now a critical book is about to hit the stands points to a well orchestrated plot to unseat Mr. Martin. Paybacks a bitch eh, Paul? Stephen Harper has had a good outing this time around. Innova- tive proposals such as the GST reduction, grants for kids in sports, better health care (which is impor- tant for an aging population) and a strong crime fighting program are attractive to Canadians. What I dont understand is the number of people who still say I dont trust Harper. Hell, after 40 years of voting I dont trust anything any of the leaders say. So people trust Paul Martin over Harper? How does that work? Can you forgive the Quebec sponsorship scandal, the billions blown on the useless gun control boondoggle, the bil- lions blown on the HRDC scandal and more and more? But Harper cant be trusted? Locally, which is where our attention should be, we have an interesting race between current MP Mike Chong and Liberal Rod Finnie. Sorry Noel, but thats how I see it. We also have Brent Bouteil- lier contesting for the Green Party, Mike Wisneiwski running as an independent and Carol Ann Krusky representing the Christian Heritage Party. Violence, especially gun vio- lence, may well be a decisive issue in this election. Although our crime rate is low locally, were influenced y the Toronto media. People want laws enacted that actually punish these pistol-packing peckerheads. Be careful, though, because our parole system is overly generous. Im looking for a party that will crack down on the whole justice system. The Tories get the nod on this issue. In our riding, MP Mike Chong gets my support and heres why. He and his wife Carrie have been more visible in our community than any other federal MP in memory. I am hard pressed to think of any event from community brunches, Legion events, skateboard park fundraisers, to Remembrance day ceremonies where Mike didnt at- tend. Now you may think thats all part of the job and to a greater or lesser degree it is. But a genuine concern for our town isnt some- thing that can be faked. You can see by the little things Mike does that he has such concern. Little things like making an effort to attend as many 7:30a. m. meetings of the Towns phy- sicians recruitment committee as possible. Little things like reacting to constituent inquiries quickly. Little things like appear- ing at Town Council three times to explain Federal policies. At the recent opening of the YMCA Daycare Mike was tied up in Ottawa so his wife Carrie and infant son William attended. At one time I noticed Carrie serving coffee to several harried workers. That spoke volumes to me about how down to earth and non-pretentious this family is. Those are qualities Im looking for to represent me in Ottawa. After the last election, Mike was named to the powerful Industry, Trade and Commerce Commit- tee. This shows the confidence the party has in Mike and bodes well for his future. He spoke in the commons more than 60 times in the last parliament. Obviously hes a man who knows his con- stituents and has no reservations about speaking out for them. His presence in Ottawa has been noth- ing short of impressive. Most people, including staunch Liberals I know who have had contact with Mike, remark on how impressed they are with him. Hes the genuine article and thats why he gets my vote. Whichever way you vote be sure to vote on Jan. 23. Have your say because every vote is impor- tant to the candidates. Remember the old Irish saying: Vote early and often. I like Mike Chong that is! MAKING THEIR OWN FUN: Before television and computers, children used to make their own fun, says Anne Drysdale of McDonald Blvd. in Acton. She took this photo of kids who got all dressed up and paraded around the Wartime one summer just to have fun. And they did, much to their parents delight.