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PAGE 6THE CANADIAN STATESMAN, JUNE 20,2001 # Editorial&Opinions FOR 146 YEARS, OUR FIRST CONCERN HAS BEEN OUR COMMUNITY Publisher - Tim Whittaker Editor-in-Chief - Joanne Burghardt Managing Editor - Judi Bobbitt Advertising Manager - Brian G. Purdy Advertising - Lavernc Morrison, Christian-Ann Goulet Office-Junia Ilodge, Nancy Plcasance-Sturman Editorial - Brad Kelly, Jennifer Stone, Jacquie Mclnnes Efje Canadian Statesman Former Publishers and Partners Rev. John M. Climie and W.R. Climie I854-1S78 M.A. James 1878-1935 • Norman S.B. James 1919-1929 G. Elena James, 1929-1947 • Dr. George XV. James 1919-1957 John M. James. 1957-1999 Produced by Metroland Printing, Publishing & Distributing Ltd. Also Publishers of CLARINGTON THIS WEEK P.O. Box 190,62 King St. W„ Bowmanville, Ontario L1C 3K9 TEL: 905-623-3303 FAX: 905-623-6161 HOURS: Monday to Friday 9:00 a.m. until 5:00 p.M. E-mail: ncwsroom@durhamrcgion.com Publications Mail Registration No. 07637 EDITORIAL e-mail Idlers to news room® ditrhainregion.com 0CAP leader is a one-note Johnny Clarke's career is based on anger, protest, publicity John Clarke, the 47-year-old Torontonian arrested and jailed in Whitby as a result of the investigation into the trashing of Jim Flaherty's constituency office, has a long career of violent protest. You might think Mr. Clarke, the head of the Ontario Coalition Against Poverty, would be thrilled to see a different different provincial government in power. After all, the poverty activist led the violent assault last June at Queen's Park that saw many officers hurt and scores of protesters arrested. Reached at his jail cell this past weekend, he told reporters he wants to continue the attack on Tory constituency offices in an attempt to drive the current government from office. Those who'vc paid attention, those who've watched closely over the years, know all about Mr. Clarke. For nearly two decades, almost since he arrived in Canada Canada after coming here from England, Mr. Clarke has made it his life's work to protest against the party, any party, in power. While David Peterson's Liberal government ran things from 1987-90, Mr. Clarke heaped abuse on the Grit, dubbing dubbing him the "poverty premier," and making a habit of crashing nomination meetings and barbecues. Mr. Clarke's wish to see Mr. Peterson defeated came true in September 1990. Lo and behold, the NDP won a shocking shocking victory and swept to power with an astonishing majority majority under Bob Rae. This self-described 'people first' provincial government should have been a perfect fit with Mr. Clarke. Alas, the honeymoon did not last long. By 1991, Mr. Clarke was leading the assault on Mr. Rae, charging'the NDP leader with "creating a mountain of human misery," and stating "people were going to die from poverty." And these statements were OK despite the fact the Province was increasing social assistance payments to welfare welfare recipients. Mr. Clarke, along with other labour leaders, the business community and a huge percentage of Ontario voters, chucked Mr. Rae out in June 1995, replacing him with the Mike Harris Tories. In short order, not surprisingly, Mr. Clarke was railing against the Tories, blaming them for all that was wrong with Ontario. It should be obvious Mr. Clarke's entire career depends upon protest against any and all governments. He also took his troops to Ottawa for a major protest in. 1999. No matter who wins the next provincial election, expected expected within two years, the premier can count on John Clarke to make outlandish statements and to organize protests. We shouldn't be surprised, nor should we take him at all seriously. He has nothing positive to offer, nothing useful to say, no workable plan for progress. His is a tired act, one thoughtful Ontarians with a grasp on reality haVe learned to ignore. LOOKING BACK WITH TRIE STATESMAN 75 YEARS AGO June 17,1926 A Bowmanville family mourned the loss of their youngest son, a well-known employee of the Hydro Electric Power commission in Port Hope. He met death when he came in contact with a live wire carrying an electric current of 2200 volts. 50 YEARS AGO June 21,1951 A Dutch church congregation prepared to build a new home for itself on Scugog Street at Jackman's Road. The congregation of the Christian Reformed Church had been meeting at St. Andrew's Presbyterian Church in Bowmanville Bowmanville on Sunday afternoons. Between 1945 and 1951, 55,000 Dutch people immigrated to Canada and 65 percent of them resided in Ontario. Between 1947 and 1951,29 Ontario Ontario branches of the Christian Reformed Immigration Society Society were formed. 25 YEARS AGO June 16,1976 Sixty Durham Region nurses joined more than 1,000 of their provincial counterparts on the picket line to demand compulsory arbitration to end strikes and lockouts. Among the slogans posted on their signs was one that read, "Why wait? Arbitrate." Information taken from the archives of The Canadian Statesman LETTERS TO THE EDITOR e-mail tellers lo newsivom@durlmmregion.com ITER siting committee must cross-examine To the editor: Re: ITER The International Thermonuclear Thermonuclear Experimental Reactor: Reactor: colliding nuclei, whether igniting or going supercritical like a hydrogen bomb, are treated treated with Quantum Theory (QT), founded upon Heisenberg's Uncertainty Principle (HUP). Reactor design and operation can be taken from the hands of experts by judges who have previously ruled, "HÜP doesn't apply..." or "The law is not perfect, perfect, and no one expects it to be..." when HUP contradicted the Crown's claims for infinitely infinitely accurate observations of parked cars (as. one example). The expert with true evidence was ridiculed, reprimanded and convicted with fines. The ITER siting committee should openly cross-examine these 'authorities' with specific questions like, "How fast can an object go and still be stationary?" stationary?" as relocating ITER after the fact would be too costly. It is exactly projects like ITER that can protect our freedoms from the hypocritical 'do-gooders.' 'do-gooders.' QT has always been here and is no respecter of persons. Can a judge ruling against gravity annul it while falling from a high building? Better to lose $6 billion spinoff locally than to lose mankind's "energy salvation," falling into the wrong hands. Tom Niçois Liberals usually blow their chance Grits have a long history of failure in Ontario Ontario's Liberals have often thrown away opportunities and this has helped keep them out of government for all but a pathetic five of the last 58 years. The most recent was when they led in polls while the New Democrat government self-destructed self-destructed in 1995, but refused to announce policies before an election election in case someone stole them. The Progressive Conservatives nipped in first and the Liberals' eventual platform seemed a watered-down watered-down imitation. But the Liberals probably missed their most golden opportunity opportunity 37 years ago when the party's establishment and not its rank and file turned down an unusual, unusual, talented outsider who wanted to lead them and it holds some lessons for the Liberal and other parties. Obituaries of Charles Templeton, Templeton, who died recently at 85, have focused on him as an evangelist who left his ministry because he was no longer certain of his fundamentalist fundamentalist Christian beliefs and felt he could not impress them on others. He rose quickly to top posts in newspapers, TV and radio and was obviously a man with diverse talents. Mr. Templeton quit his journalist's journalist's roles and announced he would run for the.Liberal leadership leadership in 1964, after John Winter- meyer, one of a long succession of faceless leaders, lost an election election and his scat. A gospel singer who toured with the world's best-known evangelists over 40 years told this writer, at the time covering the events for the 'Globe and Mail,' "the most persuasive was Billy Sunday, but it could have been your Charles Templeton if he had stayed. He would have been bigger bigger than Billy Graham." ■ Mr, Templeton was an appealing appealing speaker on a lot of subjects, which was why lie got on TV so 1 ; ~?sl Eric Dowd At Queen s Park often and clearly had organizational organizational talents. But he had taken out his Liberal party membership only a month before, no one was quite sure of his political philosophies philosophies or steadiness and he had never paid what many considered his dues in the trenches and worked his way up. Besides, most of the Liberal establishment and particularly its powerful federal cousins already had chosen Andrew Thompson, an MPP who had been an aide to Prime Minister Lester Pearson but whose only other claim to fame was having made one effective effective speech attacking the Tories' noted police state bill. He later became notorious as the absentee senator who spent most of his time, in Mexico instead of Parliament Parliament Hill. At the time a usually safe Tory scat in east Toronto was vacant after a resignation and Mr. Templeton Templeton also declared bravely or recklessly ho would run in the byelection there when it came time to show the Liberals lie was confident he could get elected. This gave an opening lo Tory John Robarls, a self-assured premier premier who would not be frightened frightened by Mr. Templeton but would also not welcome a rousing rousing speaker to the opposition benches, where there were few. Mr. Roharts set the byelcction vote for a mere week before the leadership convention, feeling Mr. Templeton would not win it and his attempted crusade lo leadership would be slopped in its tracks. Mr, Templeton's religious be liefs became an issue in the by- election and leadership campaigns. campaigns. Some supporters of leadership leadership rivals, not the candidates themselves, said the Liberals did not need a 'messiah.' At that time it was important a prospective leader show some adherence to religion and Mr. Templeton insisted he still went to church and, when asked which one, searched around the room desperately before asking his wife, singer Sylvia Murphy, "What's the name of that church, darling?" Mr. Templeton narrowly lost the byelection, oddly to a New Democrat and not the Tory, but the fervor he created survived and his enthusiastic supporters persuaded him to continue his run at the leadership convention only a week later and he still managed to get on the last ballot • but was defeated by Mr. Thompson. Thompson. Two years later, when Mr. Thompson stepped down, frustrated frustrated at getting nowhere and after being fined for dangerous , driving and so ill it showed phys- 1 ically, most Liberal MPPs who had opposed Mr. Templeton before before asked him privately to take over the leadership and he could' have done so almost without opposition. opposition. Mr, Templeton pondered but refused, pointing out he ran up a huge debt in his previous try and would have no income if he led from outside the legislature because because salaries were paid only sitting sitting MPPs. Mr. Templeton pointed pointed out also he still faced active opposition in the party, with one leading MPP declaring the best service he could do for it was stay away, and would have difficulty difficulty winning an election due a year later without a united party The main lessons arc parties should be open and innovative and listen more to their grassroots. grassroots. Jennifer Stone Staff Writer jstonefà durhamregion. com Province should give a little guidance Late last week, two media releases • arrived at the office of The Canadian " Statesman/CIarington This Week. The first, from the Kawartha Pine * Ridge District School Board, indicated ■ that because of higher than normal pay- 1 " outs for retirement gratuities due to un- : precedented numbers of teacher retirements, retirements, and insufficient funding from the • Province, some services to students ' would need to be cut in the upcoming :] budget year. Not only are there current ; financial pressures, but the local public • school board finds itself playing catch- ; up for an almost $ 10-million deficit in- j curred over the past couple of years, i And the deficit must be paid down by! i the end of the next budget year. ; \ The second press release also dealt ' with school board cuts. The Peterbor- * ough Victoria Northumberland and ! Clarington Catholic District School ! Board is cutting 202 educational assis- ; tants'jobs. Many of the jobs cut are a re- ; suit of the fact that while the board de-, » cided to place an EA in every kinder-! garten classroom with more than 20- ' some-odd students to one teacher, the, ; Province does not fund such extrava- - gance. And so, for the past few years,' ! the hom'd has been making up the difference, difference, finding the money elsewhere! Most of the money was being found in; - the board's reserve funds. But those re-)' serve funds are now non-existent, the ! savings for a rainy day reduced to little',; more than a leaky umbrella. Now how, one might ask, can this: be? The Province says there is more money being spent on education than in ' years past. But, one has to wonder, is the funding sufficient? Or, is the Ministry Ministry of Education simply not supplying boards with enough information on how to best use the funds they receive? Boards across the Province, many of) which used to carry around hefty reserve reserve funds to help out when the going ; got tough, are saying they're broke, that they don't have any extra money any-':; where to spend, not only on extrava- ; gances, but also on some of the day-to- •; day necessities of education. I; So maybe, just maybe, it's time for ; the Province to start providing some an- ; swers. Stop with the rhetoric on how ) more money is being spent on education ! in Ontario than ever before, and give;' boards some clues on how to make the ( funding work for students. It's the stu- ! dents, after all, who will bear the brunt ; of the cuts. Because if the Province has a way to ! make the money being granted to boards cover all the expenses, then it's time for. the Province to share this wealth of ' knowledge with boards, which are clear-. ly having a little difficulty cracking this ; formula. 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