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A6 THE OAKVILLE BEAVER Wednesday July 5, 2000 TheOakville Beaver Ian Oliver Publisher Ne8 Oliver Associate Publisher Norman Alexander Editor Kelly M ontague, Advertising Director Steve Crozier Circulation Director Teri Casas Office Manager Mark Dflls Production Manager Riziero Vertolli Director of Photography M elroland P rinting. P u tfch n g & D tstrtu tin g Lid., includes: A^ax/Rckering News Advertiser. A ls to n HeraicVCouner. A rthur Enterprise News. Barrie Advance. B arry's Bay This W eek. Bolton Enterprise, Bram pton G uardan, B u rlin g to n P o st. B u rlin g to n S h o p p in g N ew s. C ity P a re n t. ComgwoocW itesaga C cm ectcn. East Mark M rror. Erin A O vocate'C aritry R ou te s. E to b ico ke G u a rd ia n . F lam borough P o st. G eorgetow n Indepiendent/ftaon Free Press. Hamston Fteview. H oone Business Tm es, K ingston This W eek. Lindsay T his W eek. M arkham Ecnorm st & Sun. M idland/P enetang uishine M irror. M ilto n C anadian C ham pion. M ilton Shopping News. M ssissauga Business Tm es. M csssauga News. Napanee G uide. Newm arket/Aopra Era-Banner. N ortfxm beriand News. N orth \b rk M rror, O akvie Beaver, O akvie Shoppng News. O tdtm ers Hockey News. O riia Today. O shawaW hrtby/Clarington Port Perry The Week, Owen S a rd Tribune. Palm erston Observer. Peterborough This W eek. Picton County G uide. R ichm ond H ill/T h o m h ill/\te u g h a n Liberal. S carborough M irra . StoufM te/U xbridge "WDune. Forever M xng. O ty & Vbrk GuanSan OPINION RECOGNIZED FOR EXCELLENCE BY: Ontario Community Newspapers Association THE OAKVILLE BEAVER IS PROUD OFFICIAL MEDIA SPONSOR FOR: O T t Ay y Y Prrynnf far Tomcnov't Htwllh CM v m c a IStTBte^forL IF E LC O M E * 'A G O N im JiNqlt B eII Fuwl ^ 467 Speers Rd., Oakville O nt L6K3S4 (905) 845-3824 Fax: 337-5567 Classified Advertising: 845-2809 Circulation: 845-9742 . Canadian Community f^ C N A Newspaper s Association < 9 rn ^ TH E B R O N T E 1SUTTERFLY Jftfhem ® ^ 'e _ \JAmard Oakville ^/h o a rd s TV AUCTION O N n T t USUSi? fT tu f A a R r I i O o rowu o | oakville galleries | SK Suburban Newspapers ot America H O+CdU C hild re n 's C h o ir r | o iiy f t t f ADR J BU3NE5 StCTHE ARTS fsUsUItt Editorials Is this the end for Manning? A s the Ju ly 8th d ate fo r the seco n d b allo t vote fo r the C anadian A llian ce leadership approaches, it's interesting to note the tactics taken by the rem aining tw o choices -- form er R eform Party leader Preston M anning and form er A lberta treasu rer Stockw ell Day. Day, w ho em erged from the first ballot as the leader with 44% o f the vote appears calm and in control as he reaches out to rival candidates M anning and Tom Long w ith prom ises o f prom inent future roles in the A llian ce Party. M an n in g , on the oth er hand, appears to be panicking, as he leans heavily on Long for support and desperately claim s that only he could lead th e p a rty to victo ry in the n ext electio n . Pardon us, but d id n 't M ann in g already lead the party to a few defeats in past federal elec tions? W ho is he trying to fool? As a party leader in federal elections, M an n in g 's b attin g average is the sam e as D ay 's -- 0%. A s fo r leaning on Long, we think it w ould be better if both M anning and D ay d istanced them selves from the form er self-proclaim ed back room C onservative kingm aker. T he A lliance Party, which prom ises to be d iffe re n t, took an ugly hit, thanks to L o n g 's ballot-buying fiasco p rio r to the first ballot. W hile he may have supporters, Long lacks any credibility. R ath er than courting Long, both Day and M anning should be show ing the d oor to L ong and his forget-the-ethics supporters, who tried to m ake a m ockery o f the A llia n c e 's leadership election. W h e th e r M an n in g can p u ll v ic to ry from an ap p aren t im p en d in g defeat rem ains to be scene. W hat should not be forgotten, however, is M an n in g 's accom plishm ents in forever changing the face o f Canadian politics. If D ay d oes em erge v ic to rio u s on Ju ly 8th, we hope this d o e sn 't spell the end o f M anning. A lliance Party m em bers w ould be w ise to convince him to rem ain, even in a secondary role. Letters to the Editor The Oakville Beaver welcomes your comments. All letters must be typed, signed and include the writer's address and phone number. Send to: Letters to the Editor, The Oakville Beaver 467 Speers Rd., Oakville, OnL L6K 3S4 TH E PREMIER O N VACATION Inform ationw antedondomedC anaianairm en Ed. note: The following letter Letter of the Week was sent to the Town of Oakville Clerk, Judith M uncaster -- a copy was also filed fo r publica tion. I am writing to you because I hope you can help me with the follow ing m atter. In the nearby to w n o f Y ls t, p ro v in c e o f F r ie s la n d , in th e n o rth o f H o llan d , are the w arg rav es o f tw o C anadian airm en w ho lost their lives when their M osquito fighter crashed near the village on April 10th, 1943. The two Canadians are buried at the local general cem etery of Y lst on a prom inent place near th e e n tra n c e o f th e c e m e te ry together w ith tw o D utch re sis tance w orkers who w ere killed by the Germans. T h e s e g ra v e s a re th e o n ly w a rg ra v e s on th is c e m e te ry . Every year, since the end of the Second W orld War, so now for 55 years, these men are rem em bered on o u r n atio n al re m e m brance day, May 4th. Also again this year, and even after so many years, m any villagers attended the ceremony. A fterall, and this is still felt by many, these men gave their lives for our freedom. I m yself have taken a long tim e in te r e s t in a irc ra ft th at crashed in our area during the war and was asked by someone from the town of Ylst if I could fin d o u t m o re a b o u t th e tw o Canadians. O f c o u rse , th e ir nam es are known, Flying Officers Bull and Leach of the Royal Canadian Air Force. However, little else is known about them and it would be good to be able to put a face to those names. I realize this will be rather dif ficult after more than half a cen tury, but perhaps it is not too late. I was able to obtain the follow ing official information (from the service records of the men) from the National Archives of Canada in Ottawa. F ly in g O ffic e r (n a v ig a to r) R o lan d M o n tg o m ery B U L L , RCAF number J/8604 was bom on Jan. 12, 1919, in W innipeg. He w as the son o f Lt. C o l. R oland O sborne Bull MC and M rs. E d n a W eston B u ll o f Oakville, Ontario. He enlisted on Jan. 8, 1941, in the RCAF. H is o ffic ia l n e x t o f kin address was at the time given as First Street, O akville, O ntario. This address I also found in the city archives of the Town o f Ylst on a docum ent dated 1974. In both cases, no house number was given. I would be very interested to get in touch with any relatives of R .M . B u ll. H is p a re n ts have p assed aw ay p ro b ab ly a long time ago but, perhaps, there are still any brother or sisters alive. I would be more than a little pleased if I would be able to get some more personal information and a picture o f Mr. B ull, not only for m yself but also for the v illa g e rs o f Y lst w ho have rem em bered him and his com rade now for 55 years since the end of the war. In the Town Hall of Ylst, the two Canadians are rem em bered on a glass stained window which has their names on it. The other crewmember Flying Officer (pilot) J.E. Leach came from Toronto and I will also try to trace any relatives of him. All this may be ancient histo ry to you, but I hope there is some sort o f way in which you can help me tracing the relatives of R.M. Bull. I realize that this is probably d iffic u lt and you m ay have a b u sy w o rk lo a d . H o w e v e r, I w ould be very grateful if you could help me in any sort o f way. Perhaps, there is a local newspa per interested in publishing my question. In any case, I would be very pleased to hear from you. Menno van Coehoornstrast 29 8556 AR SLOTEN Friesland, Holland Parent support group exists without funding It would be a shame for Halton Police Services to give up any part of their budget to support the local par en t g ro u p re fe rre d to in y o u r Ju ly 2nd h e a d lin e . Especially, since there is already another successful par ent support group in Halton which required no handouts from the public purse. The BurlOak Parent Support Group, for the past nine years, has been helping parents o f acting out youth who are in trouble at home, at school, with the law or using alcohol or drugs. This group, which is a member o f the A sso ciatio n o f P aren t S u p p o rt G ro u p s in O n tario (APSGO), has helped hundreds o f Halton parents over the years. M eeting weekly, this non denom inational, self-help group has trained leaders who work with the parents to deal with their specific situations. Parents in crisis are often referred to the group by high schools, police, probation officers, pastors and professionals who have seen the effectiveness o f the group. There is no need to divert public funds for this cause. A PSGO, whose beginnings go back to 1981, has 12 groups across the golden horseshoe, all o f which are entirely volunteer and self-funding. This is a good exam ple o f members of the community coming together to deal with a problem, without leaning on the government or its agencies. Sean O'Dea Oak Park F ather' s backhanded apology was offside RE: Oak Park Teen Incident I have responded to Mr. D. Whittaker's letter in defense of Oak Park teenagers in the June 28th issue of The Oakville Beaver. Besides the Pollyanna-ish communitarian happy talk about our serene little development, there is little to be amused about in his retort to neighbour G. Brennan's letter from the previ ous issue. A quick recounting of events: on the night of June 3rd, while Mr. Whittaker and wife were away from home, Mr. Whittaker's daughter hosted a wild teenage party, inviting a throng of over-refreshed yahoos who celebrated mightily and made a hell of a racket. Mr. Brennan, a neighbour of the Whittaker's, took offence -- quite rightly -- at the invasion of privacy, atmos phere of intimidation and what sounded to him like the firing of a weapon. That, and the teenage girl he found urinating on his front yard pansies. A fuming Mr. Brennan fired off an incendiary let ter to the Beaver recounting the incident, decrying lack of parental oversight, loss of morals amongst modem teens, etc. Mr. Whittaker, unwitting host of the previous week's rave, writes a bathetic response letter claiming hurt and disappointment that anyone could think teenagers in our quaint pre-fab village are anything but sunny-faced, law abiding Musketeers. Bloody cheek. First of all, Mr. Whittaker should have ended his letter at the point where he apologized to neighbours and anyone else affected by the noise, obscenities, verbal abuse, threats and sundry property damage caused by his daughter's guests. Instead, he shifted into an insulting diatribe against his neighbour. The gentleman, methinks, protests too much. Mr. Whittaker, let me get this straight: You admit familial culpability for everything that happened that night (short of the supposed gunshot), and then con clude that everything's fine and dandy with local teens. Your moral arithmetic seems badly skewed to me. You are obviously mortified at your daughter's behaviour and it sounds like you've since engaged in serious fence mending with your neighbours. Good on you for that sir, but now you need to shut-up. My family and I have lived in Oak Park for two years and I can tell you, the local youth here aren't the uniformly upstanding citizens you describe. Besides the bacchanal at your house, I've watched numerous parties-on-the-verge-of-riots unfold on the front lawn o f a certain house in the Windfield/Glenashton area. Worse, I've recently been in a pushing match with an abusive young thug who was convinced that he had the right to park his boom car in front of my house and disturb my family's peace with impunity. You could just chalk that and, the routine screeching of muscle car whitewalls in this area, up to normal teenage boundary testing. Or you could be alarmed and, frankly, fearful about the contempt that many modem, well-to-do teens have for other people's rights. I don't know that Mr. Whittaker's neighbour, Mr. Brennan, acted as reasonably as he should have. Nor can I say for sure that trading baths in the local paper is the best way to resolve a conflict. B ut Mr. Whittaker, your bewildering swipe against someone well in his rights to be upset with you and your fami ly, is offside. Mark De Wolf Pud by Steve Nease Familywishes to thank emergencyservicespersonnel We have had the misfortune to experience a fire at our home on Third Line, recently. We wish to express our heart felt thanks to our neighbours, the Oakville Fire Department, The Halton Peel Regional Police Services, and the S.P.C.A. of Oakville. Although this experience was certainly traumatic for our family, the kindness, understanding and moral support pro vided by all of these individuals was truly exceptional. It is heartening to know that Oakville residents and the men and women who supply our emergency services still subscribe to the principle of genuine caring and personal consideration for those they live with and serve. ________________________________ The Swinimer Family