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WEDNESDAY, JANUARY 22, 1997 LAID WHINE Correction The notice for the Georgetown Power & Sail Squadron Fish Fry appeared in error in the Jan. 15 Grapevine. This event is for Power Squadron members only and is not open to the public. The Gemini re- grets its error and any resulting in- convenience. Chamber hosts Head Start program The Halton Hills Chamber of Com- merce is hosting Head Start, a small business training seminar, Jan. 30 and Feb, 1. Head Start is a 10-hour course for those new to the world of entrepre- neurship. Cost for the two-day seminar, including lunch and refreshments, is $58 per person. The location is to be announced. For further information call the Chamber at 877-7119. Adult classes available Earn your Grade 12 diploma in adult- only classes at Georgetown High School. Daily classes in computer applications, English, math and ac- counting (from Grades 10 to 12) begin Feb. 3. For more information on how to register, call Sue Grant at 877-6966. Healthy Halton Hills "Healthy Halton Hills: It takes a whole community to raise a family" is the theme for this year's commu- nity organization showcase at the Georgetown Mall on March 1. Over half the available spaces have been booked and many of last year's participants have not yet reg- istered. Community groups and agencies are urged to register as soon as possible since space is go- ing quickly. Friday Jan. 24 is the deadline; forms or information are available from Joy Thompson at 873-2601, Ext. 263. Courses offered by CVA The Credit Valley Artisans have many courses. offered this Winter and Spring. They are: Pottery for Adults, Pot- tery for Children, Berry Picking Basket weaving, Drawing Funda- mentals for Adults, Stained Glass, Introduction to Watercolours, and Creative Clay for Children, to name a few. All courses are held at the Cedarvale Cottage and Cedarvale Park. For further information, call Susan at 877-4507. Second City coming to town Arts Alive presents its 7th annual comedy evening with The Second City, professional comedy troupe, Feb. 8, at the John Elliott Theatre. Tickets are $18 each and can be ordered by calling 877-3700. Coaching program The Coaching Association of Canada recommends that all coaches in Canada, whether novice or mas- ter, become certified in the National Coaching Certification Program. Level 1 helpscoaches understand why athletes participate in sports and prepares them to teach skills and to design a safe, enjoyable and challenging practice. This program will be held Jan. 25 and 26 from 8:30 am to 5 pm at Acton High School. The fee is $47. For further information call the Recreation and Parks Department at 873-2601, Ext. 275. HEY! "Yes, as a matter of fact I do. At this point I don't think the monarchy serves any purpose." Mike Casper, Would Canada be better off doing away with the Monarchy and becoming a republic? "T don't know, it's kind of a tradition. A lot of ourlegal stuff is wrapped around the Queen. It makes us different from | Americans. : | Teresa Dzaman, =! Raylawn Crescent " RR2 "We're a strong enough country without Britain's help." Mandi McMahon, Barber Drive. THE GEORGETOWN GEMINI r ake care out there! l There goes another one! A car moving really fast, weaving from lane to lane. Nary a signal but I guess it doesn't make much difference if you signal or not when you only allow about five feet of clearance with other vehicles. Does this sound like Hwy. 401 at rush hour? Nope. It's Guelph Street between Maple and Delrex, all the time. Obviously, these drivers have not had a recent roadside discussion on driving with one of Halton's finest. It can be a most humbling experience. Yes, I speak from experience, and no, I am not proud of it! Even though the officer elected to discuss rather than to ticket, he certainly got the desired results --I am driving much slower. My style of driving now is pretty tame compared to what it used to be when I was young and foolish (no comments please). I drove fast, and I drove close --all the time and with very little patience. I have realized for a long time that I was most fortunate that I was not involved in a highway tragedy. In any event, way back when, I encountered three speeding tickets over a period of six months. And then I received an official-looking letter inviting me to present myself to the driver training centre in Malton. I was greeted cordially and di- rected to a small office. I will never know whether it was by design or not, but I was allowed to sit by myself in this little office for a long time. A lot of Only In Georgetown With Bill Ellis time to consider my driving transgressions and go over my check list of how difficult it would be to practise real es- tate sales without a driver's licence. After a few minutes an officer apologized for being late and then he talked with me about death on the highway -- death caused by speeding. At the close of the meeting, he suggested that it would be a wise thing for me if we did not meet again in this little office. Boy, was I glad to get out of there, unscathed -- and my driving did improve dramatically and immediately. Oh yes, there was an additional cost to me for my speeding tickets. You don't even want to know how much my auto insurance premiums in- creased for the next few years. Lhave a suggestion for the Ministry of Transpor- tation. Each time a driver's licence is granted or renewed, the driver should be required to listen to a short audio tape of a vehicle collision. Screeching tires, tearing and crunching metal, shattering glass, a car horn blowing, a distant ambulance siren and a frightened voice call out, over and over -- "please help me." It just might prevent a whole lot of drivers from ever hearing the real thing. Bill Ellis is an Associate Broker with Johnson Asso- ciates, Halton Ltd., Realtor in Georgetown J 'This is getting Mega-boring Somewhere along the way I got the tules of astronomy mixed up. I failed to realize that the universe revolves around the City of Toronto. Itseems like any time you opena newspaper or turn on the TV, some Metro mayor is screaming about how disastrous the amalgamation of Toronto Councils will be. Gawd! And who in the heck dubbed the plan a "mega-city?" That term is getting really tiring; really fast! For years now, Toronto politi- cians have been crowing about their "burb being a "World Class City," whatever that means. The only thing world class about old Hogtown is the usurious parking rates and the "worldclass numskulls" in City Hall. This whole Mega-city moniker is going too far. There'll be some- where around 1.6 million souls in the expanded city. Know what they call that in the truly large cities of the world, like London, Tokyo or Mexico City? A neighbourhood, that's what. After turning out the rhetoric, common sense tells me that one administration should be able to deliver services more economically 'than seven. The real sound we are hearing is a whole bunch of political oxen being gored. The biggest fear the anti-change types have is that the new organization will work. If that happens, taxpayers across the province will be taking a very criti- cal look at how all local administra- tions are functioning. Last week, in what some fool dubbed mega-week (did it have eight days?) the Conservatives literally turned the province on its ear. Virtu- ally every program that is funded by taxation was affected. First, education was taken off our property taxes. I thought that was a good idea. Most Ontarians would The Way I See It With Mike O'Leary agree that we are over-governed. Not many of us considered school boards to be a level of government 'in their own right. In effect, how- ever, they had evolved into just that. Last yearThe Acton Tanner made some inquiries about a project in a local school The Catholic Board tried to respond by phone but we wanted a written response. You have to be careful in a small town that you've got the facts straight. The result was that it took months and months to get any response. We finally enlisted the aid of MPP Ted Chudleigh, who did manage to con- vince them to send us a letter, which answered only a portion of our in- quiry. Ted made it plain that as our MPP, he had no direct control over the Board. Now that the Directors of Education will report to the Prov- ince, I think the people's control over the Boards will increase. Like most taxpayers, I'm con- cerned about social programs, such as welfare being funded by property taxes. On the other hand, I've al- ways thought that our city govern- ments give us the biggest bang for our buck. Perhaps now, our local politicians can get their teeth into the welfare issue and stop more of the waste. I think most of us, for instance, were outraged by the case in Toronto, where a convicted rapist awaiting deportation, was collect- ing welfare. I'm not sure how the municipalities are supposed to fund GO Transit. Do we pay in propor- tion to the number of riders who use the system, miles (kilofoots for the metrically inclines) of track or what? In fact, if you think back on what you've read so far, we've heard a lot of rhetoric but the facts are pretty skinny. Perhaps we should all calm down and wait for the real numbers to come out be- fore we go into a mass Chicken Little Syndrome. One thing is for sure: I'll curse Bell Canada forever for creating an "Us Against Them" syndrome. I'm talking about the habit many political/media types have fallen into of classifying us as either "416" or "905" dwellers. Accord- ing to some Toronto-types, if you're a 416-er you have a social conscience, good manners and fresh breath. 905-ers, however, are money grubbing, fire breath- ing, cheapos who are hell-bent on enjoying the good life while feast- ing on the carcass of what the gentle 416-ers have built. This, of course, is mega-crap. The system we had was bro- ken. Folks hit the tax wall a few years ago. Cuts to the existing programs have been made so a radical change was necessary to avoid a round of tax increases. I like the fact the Tories resisted the urge to simply tinker with things. The tax engine needed re-build- ing. No one is going to starve or freeze unless they want to. If the changes flop, Harris et al will lose the next election. Hang on -- it's going to be a wild ride for the next few months. But let's not declare the new system a failure until we hear the rest of the story. Mike O'Leary is a columnist for The Georgetown Gemini.