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WEDNESDAY, JUNE 30, 2004 THE NEW TANNER GRAPEV. MANES PARIS BOUND Former Acton IGA owner Mike Manes knows he is going to like the hard- ware business. "If it doesn't sell, you don't have to throw it out," Manes joked on Friday as he talked about his new life as owner of the Home Hardware store in Paris. Manes, wife Monica and their 12-year- old son will move to Paris at the end of the month, and the deal with the current store owner, who is retiring, closes mid- August. Manes said the five-year-old Paris store looks like the Acton store, owned by his cousin Bill Manes, but is larger. Mike Manes' brother John owns the Home Hardware store in Harriston, and their cousin Brad Manes owns the Palmerston store. : "T figure selling a can of paint will be the same as selling a can of pork and beans... and I wanted to get back into retail," Manes said of the move. He misses the Acton food business, "Wwe did that all our life," but after taking it easy for the last five or six months, he said it is time to get back to work. SWANK SOIREE The Gambrel Barn at the Farm Mu- seum in Milton was transformed into an Evening in Paradise last Thursday at the Acton High School formal. The supervised, school-sanctioned event drew 155 people to the traditional end-of-year party that featured an evening of dining and dancing. Retiring principal Greg MacPherson praised the student lead organizing com- mittee for it's party planning skills and allowed that he "danced a little" to a great DJ. BOARDER FUN Thanks to downtown Acton merchants amobile skateboard park will be featured at the Leathertown Festival on August 8. The Acton BIA has offered to rent a skatepark and with help from ASAP -- Acton Sports Action Committee--mem- bers will offer boarders some fun and challenges. RARE ASAP members -- gearing up for a major fundraising campaign for the pro- posed park -- are also grateful to Sobeys, which generously donated proceeds from its barbecue yesterday (Wednesday) to the skateboard project. CANINE SIGN Thanks to Leathertown Lumber's do- nation of wood and the skills of Acton High School woodworking students, the Town's first off-leash zone in Prospect Park will soon be officially signed. The sign will include plaques to thank donors who helped make the leash-free zone a reality and space for announce- ments, notices and park rules. The $15,000 leash-free zone has been a hit with dogs and their owners since it unofficially opened last fall with the help of HH-DOG -- Halton Hills Dog Own- ers Group. HAPPY ANNIVERSARY Congratulations to Tuitman's Garden Centre on the 25th anniversary of being in business in Acton. Elly and Len Tuitman will mark the special occasion (July 3) with an art ex- hibit called Art in the Garden, featuring sculptures and plants and the public is invited to join the Tuitmans for refresh- ments between 11 a.m. and 2 p.m. WEDDED BLISS Many congratulations to Acton's Marie and Ross Jeffries who celebrated their 65th anniversary yesterday (Wednesday). The celebration for the couple, who moved to the Legion building on Birchway Place six years ago, will con-~ tinue on Sunday with a small family gathering at the home of their son, Bob Jeffries. NEW MINISTER Ata barbecue after church on Sunday, the congregation of Trinity United Church said fond good byes to student supply minister Edward Bellsmith, who had tended the local flock for almost two years. Bellsmith will attend Emmanuel Col- lege at the U of T full-time in September, saying his theological career is being guided by a United Church Presbytery committee and "I don't have a lot of say in the process." What will he miss most about Trin- ity? "The people are absolutely wonder- ful. The love, the support they've shown and the sense of unity -- it's just an in- credible group of people," ae said on Sunday. Student supply minister ee McKellar, currently serving at a Scarborough church, will take over the pulpit at Trinity on a one-year appoint- ment. DRAGON MAGIC The Acton library will host a magical dragon on Saturday with a special show featuring Owen Anderson and his Magi- cal Dragon Quest Show. Along with kings and queens, the world's skinniest dragon will visit the River Street branch at 2 p.m. There are a limited number of tickets. ek The Acton library is offering prizes for reading this summer in its "Fire Up Your Imagination" summer reading club. If you read for 30 minutes a day -- or have someone read to you for 15 min- ~ utes a day--and keep track of the books, you will be eligible for prizes. Reading club members receive a book- let, poster and sticker. The library is also offering free pro- grams for kids including book parties, imagination station, crafternoons and family story time. For details, call 853- 0301s CAMP DAY SUCCESS More than 9,000 children will make camp memories to last a lifetime this summer, thanks to those who donated more than $6-million -- $4,614 in Acton -- to the Tim Hortons Children's Foun- dation on Camp Day on June 9. Deserving kids aged nine to 12 will be able to attend one of six Tim Hortons camps this summer--all expenses paid-- by the Camp Day donations and pro- ceeds from every cup of coffee sold that day. E-e-e-ek -- it's a rat... continued from page 6 further problems from Ralph. That evening, I circled Ralph's final resting-place about every half- hour. I wanted to make sure that he didn't escape or that the wind blew the top off. Friday, my dad asked me if Ralph was gone (in the per- manent sense). I was too afraid to look because either Ralph or the ghost of Ralph would make a noise every once in a while. Either way, there was no way I was looking. By Sunday, the Dude checked on Ralph pronounced him officially dead at 1:58 p.m. Now, I am Ralph free, however, I am haunted by the words of Doctor Doolitte/dad. .. "You know what the problem will be? There is never just one... there's always two." Maybe I'll be lucky and the second one will be Ralph's ghost. HAPPY RETIREMENT: Retiring Robert Little School principal Don Warren was surrounded by stu- dents, well-wishing colleagues and friends at the school recently at a party in his honour. -- Frances Niblock photo Ze Although the federal election produced the expected minority government the results were not as expected. Paul Martin's Liberals surged ahead in the last few days and picked up about 15 seats more than I expected. The traitors' party, initially be- lieved to be on the ropes, captured most of the seats outside Montreal. The reason given was that Quebecers were furious with the feds over the sponsorship scandal. I wonder why? Almost all of the money, even the millions that dis- appeared, went to Quebec. One would think Quebecers would be upset that the money is being dried up. Generally, Stephen Harper ran a good campaign. At the end, though, he managed to snatch defeat out of the jaws of victory. Many claim it was the intemperate remarks of a few Tory candidates that cost Harper his victory. I disagree. I think it was three little words that he didn't say. When some staffer spun a press release about child pornography and headlined it to say Paul Martin was soft on child porn Harper fumbled the ball. In- stead of being prime ministerial and immediately saying three lit- tle words, namely "I am sorry," he reverted to his penchant to be a policy wonk. A case can be made that the Lib- erals did not use the "notwithstanding" provision in the charter to overturn the B. C. court decision on kiddie porn. In essence, the B.C. court decreed that possess- ing child porn is a right but distributing or sharing it with oth- ers is illegal. Instead of acting decisively to overturn this decision the Liberals dithered. The issue came up when the scum who murdered Holly Jones blamed child porn for triggering his impulses. A staffer seeing an op- portunity f6 hammer the Liberals issued the offensive release. It of- fended Canadians when it was seen to portray the P.M. himself as be- ing soft on porn. That's a ludicrous and dumb proposition. I'm often surprised at the obvious mistakes \SenCE political staff make. You'd The Way See lt with [Mike Oleary think, at this level, polished profes- sionalism would be the norm. But it isn't. Then Harper compounded the problem by not apologizing and trying to explain the unexplainable. With about two weeks left in the race Harper started to muse about a majority government. Harper is still an unknown quantity. While Cana- dians, especially Ontarions, might have been content to see a Con- servative minority a majority was a horse of a different colour. The an- gry Liberal vote started to shift back. Harper, in my opinion, drove the final nail in his coffin last weekend. Home in Alberta and playing to friendly crowds, he talked about how "The West wants in" and that he would ensure that western Ca- nadian influence would be paramount in the corridors of power. Why he would trot out old Reform slogans is beyond me. It was unnecessary. He knew the To- ries would clean up in Alberta. Why, introduce an unknown influence like western power? I watched him ram- ble on basking in the adulation of his crowd. My immediate reaction was that watching the guy shoot himself in both feet wasn't fun. Back here in Ontario, where the Tories needed a big breakthrough, you could almost feel the shifting tide. I was surprised that Belinda Stronach only squeaked into office by 702 votes. I figured her profile and deep pockets would sweep her to power. Why, oh why, did the voters in Mississauga return Carolyn Parrish (she of the "damn Ameri- cans... I hate those bastards" comment) to office? St. Paul's rid- ing in Toronto maintained its record of never electing an opposition M.P. when it went Liberal. Here in Acton and environs I think we are fortunate to have elected Mike a ~\ Minority rules! Chong. Mike is an impressive young man who I believe will represent us well in Ottawa. The race here was also close with Chong besting Lib- eral Bruce Hood by about 10 per cent. The Wellington-Halton Hills race, while very competitive, was thoughtful and respectful as op- posed to the national race which was, as I saw it, disgusting. So con- gratulations to Mike Chong and | encourage you to get to know him during the various events he will be attending in our town. Don't hesi- tate to contact him if you need his assistance. I'm positive he'll work hard on your behalf no matter what your political persuasion. As I said, I thought the national campaign was disgusting. Why have we allowed our national political scene to dumb-sown into negative advertising and fear mongering? If the feds are wondering why only 61 percent of eligible voters went to the polls perhaps they should look at the election campaign strategies. After he has had a chance to go to Ottawa and find the washrooms, | intend to ask Mike Chong to explore the pos- sibility of all parties adopting a code of conduct for future election cam- paigns. My God, can't we at least be civil during these things? This is our first minority govern- ment since 1979. I am encouraged that the N.D.P. doesn't hold the ab- solute balance of power. A Liberal/ NDP coalition would give my wal- let nightmares. As it is, we can't expect much more than tinkering with the useless gun registry boondoggle. More billions will be wasted. We are probably on the way to a national child care program. Cha-ching. The thieves who stole our money through the sponsorship program will never see the inside of. a jail cell. Chretien and his cronies will get a free pass. Health care will continue to deteriorate. Paul Martin and Stephen Harper will have an- other go at it. "But lighten-up, it's not all bad news. We'll get to do this all over again in two years or so. Hopefully, by then, my Liberal friends will be speaking to me again. as | WReSteceeteememsa--ee |) = |