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Ian Oliver Publisher Robert Glasbey Advertising Director Norman Alexander Editor Geoff Hill Circulation Director Teri Casas Office Manager Tim Coles Production Manager What should the province do to ease traffic congestion on the QEW? aod 0 "Firstly, the province should push the 403 connection all the way through. This is being delayed in part by the town‘s antagonistic attitude with the province. While I don‘t agree with the provincial government right now, I believe you have to work with who is in power. Secondly, the town should be pushing the Upper Middle Road bridge further ahead and should furthermore stop spending money on many foolish _ things and push ahead with a roads program that this town sorely, sorely needs. \ David Stewart agd J I think what they should do is implement a program similar to matching men and women to be able to get the people together to share cars everyday. For instance, I I live around Kerr Street and somebody else lives around Kerr and we both leave at approximately seven in the morning, why can‘t we drive together. ao 0J In regards to what the province can do to ease congestion on the QEW, I think they should prescribe a very large decongestant. the Tories in the next election. The trouble is that his latest comments offer little of substance to make us believe his is the party of change. The political rhetoric was as thick as molasses Wednesday when Chretien said a Liberal government would spend money on research and development, job creation, skills training and education. Not only will the Grits accomplish all this, Chretien vows, but it won‘t add a penny to the deficit. We‘ve heard it all before. And although he said he would show voters how the Liberals will turn the trick before the next election, Chretien also said he wasn‘t going to make "lavish promises today...and then break them the day after the elecâ€" tion on the grounds that the books are worse than we imagined." It looks like federal Liberal leader Jean Chretien is ready to take a run at No doubt Chretien was referring the kind of promises broken by his old boss Pierre Trudeau. The most notable of these promises was provided in an election campaign against Progressive Conservative leader Robert Stanfield. The Tory leader said that wage and price controls would be necâ€" essary to curb runaway inflation. Trudeau, you‘ll recall, said if the Liberals were elected, there would be none of that. Of course as soon as Trudeau was elected, he introduced wage and price controls. Surprise. The Liberals were the big spenders under Trudeau and then cabinet minister Chretien. They took a government surplus and accomplished the amazing trick of wiping it out in a second and began taking us down the road to debt a road will still trod today as will our children and their chilâ€" His naievte of business showing, Chretien said as a first move to curtail the deficit, he would scrap the $4.4â€"billion purchase of military heliâ€" copters. But even his own party hierarchy doesn‘t necessarily agree with that position. MP Paul Martin, who battled Chretien for the party leaderâ€" ship, is coâ€"chairman of the Liberals‘ platform committee and he says that the penalty for cancelling the contract could be as costly as letting the deal go through. Martin, it should be noted, is not only a politician but a busiâ€" nessman. Chretien is a politicianâ€"lawyer who has spent a lifetime in Ottawa and Parliament. Too bad he hasn‘t yet learned that the current electorate of Canada is in no mood for political platitudes. More platitudes 467 Speers Road, Oakville, Ont. LGK 354 Classified Advertising: 845â€"2809 Circulation: 845â€"9742 or 845â€"9743 845â€"3824 Fax: 845â€"3085 QUESTION OF THE WEEK | All callers are allowed 45 seconds to respond and must provide their name, address and phone number for verification. A sampling of the best answers will be published in the next Weekend edition of the Oakville Beaver. Give us your opinion on this topic by callâ€" ing 845â€"5585, box 5012 and registering a yes or no answer. What should the Halton Board Education do to reduce education costs? Vicki Kokotec David Klarer But a disaster at Chernobyl and a nearâ€"meltdown at Three Mile Island has turned Nuclear *Energy into a pair of cuss words. Plus, the bills are starting to come in. Nuclear energy, quite aside from its disaster potential, is a catastrophically, stratospherically expensive way to keep the home fires burning. Ontario Hydro â€" the biggest energy consortium in the country â€" has invested bilâ€" lions in nuclear generation techâ€" nology over the years. Methinks there might be something to the aboveâ€"quoted morsel of washroom wall graffiti. I know my personal ecological tolerance threshold was broached last week by a TV ad I saw. It cooed about the ‘environmental conscience‘ of some car manuâ€" facturer. "Aw, shaddap!" I heard myself snarl at the tube. It‘s not just that we‘re tired of hearing about the environment â€" it‘s _ that â€" Environmental Correctness has turned out to be a lot more complicated and pricey than we thought. Take nuclear energy. Just a few short years ago, the experts were touting it as the power source of the future. Nuclear plants bloomed like ragweed. Our own government was peddling Candu reactors to any country that could comprehend the words "sign here". Last month, a cashâ€"strapped, tappedâ€"out Ontario Hydro folded its cards and began to talk about War to save the environment has some unusual casualties cology is dead.We talked it to death. (g3 Other signs of an environmenâ€" tal backlash? Well, in a variation on the old Coalsâ€"Toâ€"Newcastle theme, scientists have decided to pull huskies out of the Antarctic. Huskies have been part of the South Polar expeditions as long as men have been going there and yes, the hardâ€"working dogs do a capital job. What‘s more, great bonds of affection spring up between Antarctic research teams and their canine transportation system, but, but... shutting down its nuclear plants. Well, what if the dogs brought some new disease to the Antarctic? Or what if some of them escaped and found their way to a penguin colony? Legitimate environmental conâ€" siderations, I guess. But it‘s hard to imagine how the Antarctic ecosystem is going to be improved by the introduction of belching, fuming, roaring snowâ€" mobiles. You never know where or how the Environmental Backlash is going to strike. Take Ducks Unlimited Canada. Last year, this group, which dedicates itself to saving wetlands where ducks and geese breed, shot itself in its own webbed foot by announcing the construction of its new headquarâ€" ters â€" smack in the middle of Oak Hammock, a Class One Wetland just north of Winnipeg. ThE MN WoGAEUS â€" FREE TRADE AND The GSTZ. NWHOD Want kHIM ASTORYLEADER?‘/ 3 Or take the case of Nancy Skinner, a city councillor in Berkeley, California. Ms. Skinner is so environmentally correct she probably gets letters from loveâ€" struck humpback whales. She is the designated ecology expert on Berkeley Council. She is also the head of Local Solutions to Global Pollution. When Skinner decided to have her house painted, she quite predictably insisted on an environmentally friendly, allâ€"natâ€" ural, milkâ€"based paint. Which was fine. Until it started to go rancid. She stripped the walls and scrubbed them with bleach. The house still reeked. Finally, she had to tear out the walls, put in new wallboard, and repaint with (boo!) ordinary synthetic paint. Environmentally unâ€"chic perâ€" haps...but at least the neighborâ€" hood cats have stopped queuing up to lick her house. A hunter was killed on Long Island last month when the shotâ€" gun he was clubbing a deer with discharged. My last example? A news item in the paper last month: Some may call this a mere example of a dumberâ€"thanâ€"averâ€" age deer hunter getting his just desserts...but I‘m not so sure. I think it might be more than that. I think that Long Island shotgun blast may be the opening volley in a conflagration that will go down in the history books as the First Great Envirobacklash War. Just to be on the safe side â€" I‘m cashing in my Green Stamps.