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Wednesday November 1991 the HERALD Opinion Notes and quotes from the election campaign Now that the municipal election is over its time to focus on some of the strange funny and just plain nonsensical comments made during the campaign People should note I wrote this column before election day and therefore the election results did not any way influence the column Under the nonsensical category falls the claim Im not a politican popularized by Ward 2 Regional councillor candidate Bill during the campaign Inevitably Mr would in himself by making the above statement Im sure Mr used the phrase to disassociate himself from the publics perception of politicians as possibly being crooked Call me crazy call me nuts but when the claim it tells me one thing Mr must think Ward 2 residents have never figured out who their Regional respresentative for the past three years has been Just to let you on a little secret Ward residents your Regional representative has been Joe Hewitt Still on this coment it was good to see Mr realize he wasnt a but if it turns out hes elected to represent Ward 2 Id challenge him to describe himself in the same way Another strange and I add un fair comment was made by Ward Regional candidate Linda Walton during an all candidates meeting when she referred to our immediate westerly neighbors who chose to move to Georgetown as Brampton refugees I bet its news to Brampton residents they live in a war zone or could it be unbeknownst to the rest of Canada as well as Brampton residents the city is controlled by some mad dictator who has 1m posed marshall law Its ironic that Ms Walton as Bens Banter by Ben Dummett well as others implicitly refer to Brampton in such a negative way especially when many area residen ts travel to that city to shop and or work Its acceptable to express op position to the type of development characteristic of Brampton but it s unacceptable to imply people are desparate to leave the city One of the more humorous episodes during the campaign in mayoralty candidates Miller and Rob Barlow During one of the all candidate meetings the two were asked if and when they would start to take steps to dismantle Regional government Both supported the idea In response to when they would take action Mr Barlow said as soon as possible then turned to Mr Miller and asked whether the new council would be sworn in on the first of December Mr Miller responded yes however realizing he had just inad conceded defeat grabbed the microphone and said he would get started on the idea Nov 13 If anything the questioner has assurances the next mayor is com to looking into the disman of Regional government One of the more innocent and humorous comments came from Ward Town councillor candidate Grant during an all candidates meeting Commenting on the length of time allotted to the candidates to In themselves most agreed three minutes was too short while Mr said as far as Im concerned three minutes is too long Someone in the audience was be heard saying At least hes honest Mr Emmersons willingness to run for municipal office despite his fear of speaking to large audiences brings me to my last point As a result of covering the all candidates meetings it hit home how difficult it would be to stand up to people and try to convince them they should vote for you For simply deciding to run all canidates should be commended win or lose Id like to send out a special thanks to all of them for providing all that juicey news copy I dont know where I would have been without you Some suggestions to overcome negative thinking So you are fed up with hearing and reading about how bad we are Right we all are We seem to be living on a steady diet of whin If you are careful you will note that even the above statement is just that another negative state ment about ourselves Now to get out of an unsatisfactory situa tion and we are in an un satisfactory situation there are some tried and true ways It does not matter if you are a left winger a right winger or even a nowinger at all The steps are always the same Please follow me Step one Recognize the pro blem Step two Identify of ac tion Step three Choose and plan Step four Implement Prom what we hear or read it seems as if we were stuck on step one with some attempts to deal with step two I personally think we are stuck on step two having never dealt properly with step one Negative thinking again Not really except if you are willing to believe that it is possible to build a house starting from the roof and that it is negative criticism to suggest that some foundations would not be out of place Let us overcome the stalemate by an act of force and faith Let us for a moment you can get out at any time but let us try for one moment together ok accept one opinionated definition of the pro blem eg with step one position Is we are in trouble because we have failed to realize that Canada is no longer a WASP or socie ty We are trouble because we refuse to use our best human resources because of racial and social barriers We are in trouble because a frightening percentage of our population is functionally illiterate another large percen tage is misinformed and a third group is mired in self gratifica We are in trouble because we are not willing to accept that in today s world there is only one Another View by Carlo Testa source of wealth brainpower This opinionated position also says we are not in trouble because of lack of money because of Quebec because of the quality of our workforce because of our institutions because others do not like us because of the USA Are you still with me Let us assume you are okay If we agree with the analysis we can move to step two And as we will deal with only one small segment of the plan we will move not only to two but to three and four In other words for this time and for this time only I give you an opinionated plan to deal with our perceived weakness Ignoring the potential of our fellow Canadians is part of our problem step one We want to obviate to our ignorance step two Step 3 To obviate to our ig we are going to have din at our house with a cou plefamilyperson who belongs to the ethnic group we most dislike We are going to do so not to be nice to them but to learn Don t forget we are in trouble not them We are going to cook our best food bring out our best tie as if our boss would be com ing for dinner And we are going to chat argue disagree as if the guests were our best friends No patronizing condescension No hypocrisy Step It is up to you to imple ment Please note We have not been bitching about our sad state of fairs We have agreed on a pie affordable easy to imple ment plan of action liseless Well my friends vou agreed on the premise try to the course should we do if Not because we are dogooders but because we cannot afford to ig talents and visionof other ethnic groups Do not forget to whichever ethnic group we may belong we are always a minon ty Because we cannot afford to let the wealth of experiences our multicultural society provides us get wasted As are not an homogenous ethnic nation we cannot afford to assume we are one We can however do something better exploit the advantages of variety Do you not agreed Right on that is why I think you should try the above plan Or some tions of it I am easy to please Peoples Forum No level of contamination is acceptable Dear Editor Citizens must have the right to choose whether they want to be part of an experiment in water contamination In a letter responding to con cerns by Mayor Miller Jamie Connelly hydrogeologist the Approvals Branch at the Ministry of the Environment wrote The Ministry is satisfied that leachate from the landfill will not in any way put in jeopardy the water supplies for your community Emphasis added POWER quoted those words in a letter to Jamie Connelly and went on to say Is this your per sonal guarantee Are you prepared to personally bear financial responsibility for any failure of engineering Clearly you have more faith than RSI own hydrogeologist Very Dixon who told a public meeting that he could not guarantee that would not reach Hills water supply Christmas Seals the gift of life Dear Sir Over eighty five years ago Canadians began a tradition of caring and giving each other the gift of good health by supporting Christmas Seals This tradition is continued as Christmas Seals from the Lung Association Region arrive by mail throughout the whole area of We would like to thank all the generous residents of Hills for their past support and for their continuing support In the beginning funds raised through Christmas Seals went to control the spread of Tuber Nowadays funds are us in the prevention and control of all lung disease including lung cancer asthma emphysema chronic bronchitis smoking prevention and to a lesser degree tuberculosis In fact the of the funds raised through the Christmas Seal Campaign stay Halton to help our community and to provide community pro grams Lung diseases are a leading cause of disability and death in Canada One in five Canadians adults and children suffer from some form of respiratory pro blem Every twenty minutes a Canadian dies from some form of respirator disease Christmas Seals represent a tradition of giving life and breath to millions of Canadians Thank you for giving the most valuable Christmas gift of all Sincerely Dr Roger President The Lung Association Peel Region In our letter POWER also raised the issues of Black Creek and Test Well no Popups fractures in the quarry floor 3 How long will the site be Food drive successful Dear Sir The Guide and Scout Movements of Acton and Georgetown would like to use this facility to pass on a sincere thank you to all who participated in cur Food Drive The drive was an overwhelm ing success thanks to the efforts of many many people Thanks to the many youth and adults who participated in any way Thanks to the corporate sponsors who made donations of goods and money Thanks to the people of Georgetown Acton Limehouse and area who donated to the Ac ton and Love in Christ Thanks to the Acton Calvimst Cadets and members of the Georgetown Optimist Club who assisted Guide and Scout people And a special thank you to Scouters Ron Birrell and George Henderson for all the hours of preparation and organization The people of Acton and Georgetown made this first an nual drive the great success that it was and from the Guiding and Scouting Movements thank you North Halton District Scouts Canada monitored and Who pays when the dump leaks Since Ruth Gner s decision is imminent we faxed the letter and requested an immediate response Jamie Connelly was on holiday so Don Andnjiw Supervisor of Waste Sites and Systems Ap provals phoned to explain that no one would be available to answer the letter for three weeks He went on to say that Jamie Connel ly s statement that leachate from the landfill will not in any way put in jeopardy the water supplies of your community did not mea that no leachate would ever get into the water but that the amount of contamination would be within Ministry guidelines and therefore accep table While chemical contamination of our drinking water may be acceptable to someone living outside this area I am sure it is not acceptable to the citizens of Halton Hills It should be our right to choose Prevention of pollution must be the key Once an aquifer is contaminated it can not be returned to its original state We expect an announcement from Ruth very soon Be ready to to the Premier to show that no level of contamina tion is acceptable POWER will collect your letters and deliver them in person to Queens Park With your support we can save our community Yours truly Barbara President of POWER Disappointed senior Tothe Editor Recently I attended a meeting held in the auditorium of the new Regional headquarters A building so vast that when asking directions to the back parking lot an employee stated that even the employees get lost By the time this building is completed it will have cost millions if not billions of dollars It is located in On my way home I drove through Milton past the reconstruction of the Milton Manor More millions of dollars are being spent to rebuild and renovate these premises From there I went to the Milton Seniors Recreational Centre which is at present located in the Royal Canadian Legion Branch A group of Seniors were enjoying an afternoon of recreational square dancing I hear rumors that consideration is being given to build a permanent Seniors Cen tre on the grounds of the Manor From there drove out Main St past the new 8 million dollar starting price Leisure Centre in Then I drove in to Georgetown Carswell Resident Senior Georgetown