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PAGE 6THE CANADIAN STATESMAN, MARCH 6,2002 4? Editorial&Opinions FOR 14 6 YEARS. O Publisher - Tim Whittaker Editor-in-Chief - Joanne Burghardt Managing Editor - Chris Bovie Regional Editor - Judi Bobbitt Advertising Manager - Fred Eismont Composing Manager - Barb Harrison Office Manager - Lillian Hook EDITORIAL e-mail letters to newsroom^ darhamregum.com Durham shows it's ready for the future Latest performance indicators prove college is a leader Durham College students continue to graduate from school aimed with the necessary tools and current knowledge that make employers take notice. Durham's tradition of preparing its students for work in their chosen fields remains on firm footing with the latest results results of the performance-based funding initiative introduced by the provincial government in 1998. This time around, Durham College is to receive $569,000 in operating funding based on three key performance indicators. indicators. The funding is calculated on the employment rate of students students six months after graduation, employer satisfaction with how well graduates were prepared for the workplace, and the satisfaction of graduates with their post-secondary education. Durham College, even in the midst of expansion and the establishment establishment of the new University of Ontario Institute of Technology, Technology, has clearly shown it remains committed to its core values: values: The preparation of students, through academic and hands- on training, for careers in their chosen fields. Durham's $569,000 in funding is part of a larger $ 16.4 million million in operating grants being given to colleges around Ontario based on the so-called 'key performance indicators' program. And, according to the Ministry of Training, Colleges and Universities, Universities, fully 89.7 percent of college graduates found gainful employment within six months of graduation. Not surprisingly, Durham's results were slightly higher than the provincial averages in two out of the three categories. In the six-month employment rate categoiy, 91.9 per cent of Durham graduates found work. In the graduate satisfaction category, the Durham alumni percentage reflected the provincial provincial average of 80.5, while in the employer satisfaction column, column, Durham came in above the Ontario average of 91.4 per cent at 93.2. These are impressive numbers and illustrate both the commitment of post-secondary school students attending Durham College, and the dedication of course instructors, whether their focus is on skilled trades, or early childhood education. education. Moreover, the college should publicize, as much as possible, these numbers as it recruits high school students in the coming months and years. College courses with a high post-graduate employment rate will attract students keen to benefit from innovative, challenging and ultimately practical course and program materials. Few could argue the success achieved by Durham College in these last several years. These performance indicator assessments assessments simply provide a clear illustration of that success. Certainly, employers are overwhelmingly satisfied with the quality of students coming out of Durham College. That's a tangible sign that college officials are doing the right thing when it comes to their programs, services and students. students. Bring on the future. CLARINGTON COMMENTS Clarington may join three other municipalities in a new waste-collection system that would see residents sort food waste for compost pick-up. Question: Would you be willing willing to sort your garbage for organic compost? Owen Taylor "I think it would be better better if people were given a composter to put in their backyard because nobody wants compost in their garage. You'd get animals in there, especially where I live in the country. It just doesn't appeal to me to have a pail sitting there and stinking." Corinna Bacon "1 don't think it's that big of a deal to separate it after you're done with it. It's better for the environment environment and it lakes up less room in the landfills." Connie McRobert "1 don't know I would do that - that's pretty gross. It's nasty, mushed-up food and stuff. That's pretty gross actually when you think about it." Peggy Millikcn "I already do. 1 compost for myself; it's a good idea. 1 think that's (compost) what we should do with your gai'bage, keep it out of the landfills." UR FIRST CONCERN HAS BEEN OUR COMMUNITY Eljc Caitairian Statesman Former Publishers and Partners Rev. John M. Climie and W.R. Climie 1854-1878 M.A. James 1878-1935 • Nomian S.B. James 1919-1929 G. Elena James, 1929-1947 • Dr. George W. James 1919-1957 John M. James, 1957-1999 Produced by Mclroland Printing, Publishing & Distributing Ltd. Also Publishers of CLARINGTON THIS WEEK P.O. Box 481, 865 Farewell St., Oshawa, Ontario L1H 7L5 TEL: 905-579-4400 FAX: 905-579-2238 E-mail: ncwsroom@durhamrcgion.com Publications Mail Registration No. 07637 DROP OFFICE: James Publishing, 66 King St. W„ Bownianville, 8:30 p.m. - 5 p.m. weekdays Crystal Crimi Staff writer ccriniifadurhamrcgion.com .«TUEEBOFB/L LETTERS TO THE EDITOR Slow down and save lives To the editor: I am writing in hopes people will start looking at their speedometers while driving down Liberty Street. You people who drive down this road better slow down before you kill someone's child! I have been a resident of Bownianville all my life, and I have been living on Liberty Street for 10 years. I have three small children who wait on our driveway for their bus every day and I tell you, the only time you see someone doing 50 km/h is when they have at least three to five cars of angry people behind them! Worst of all are the buses, maybe one or two do 50, the rest are flying by. We have called and complained, but it does not seem to have worked. I would rather •■mail Idlers to ncwsroom@ilmtmmregion.com see you people a little late for work than to see you go to jail for murder. Please slow down. Lisa Doorenspleet Bownianville Pollution spoils pleasant walks To the editor: I walk a lot for exercise, but walking on the streets and roads aroimd town has its drawbacks. It's the air. Oh, it's great to get out in the fresh air, take some deep breaths unless you're behind someone with a cigarette, or a bus or track goes by with their stinky exhaust. Most cars have been through the drive-clean program but sometimes sometimes still have a smell. Surprisingly, Surprisingly, the worst ones are the school buses. And while I'm out there walking, I can't believe the garbage on the streets and roads. There are candy wrappers, pop cans, plastic bottles, and all kinds of stuff. How can anyone just throw stuff on the ground like this? It has become an epidemic. Couldn't they just keep their garbage in their pocket or car until they get home or come to a garbage container? This is really terrible, can't they see how bad this is? People with dogs are trained now to poop-and-scoop. Well, most do. But now there's a new problem: they are throwing their little bags of poop .right on the ground with the rest of the garbage, so why do they bother to poop-and-scoop anyway? Maybe we could have a 'no throwing garbage on the ground week' like we have for 'butt out cigarettes day' or a 'poop and scoop and take home poop week.' Betty Dubeau Bowmanville Leadership race is most bitter Campaign to be premier could leave casualties The Ontario Progressive Conservative Conservative leadership race will leave a lot of wounds and all the doctors in the province's healthcare healthcare system would be unable to heal them. Some Tories already are expressing expressing worry nasty comments candidates have made about each other have created such ill-feeling ill-feeling it will be difficult for them to work together in a future cabinet. The fear is valid because the contest to succeed Premier Mike Harris is the most bitter in memory, memory, It raises questions such as could former deputy premier Ernie Eves, trying a comeback from business, get along with current deputy premier Jim Flaherty, Flaherty, who scoffed at him as a pale, pink imitation of a Liberal, so wishy-washy he would lose the next election? Could Mr. Eves manage a harmonious relationship with Health Minister Tony Clement, who says Mr. Eves docs not have enough ideas to run a government government and has exulted at managing managing to "rattle" him? Would either feel at case in a cabinet headed by Mr. Eves, who has warned they are acting as if they do not want to serve in someone clse's cabinet? Would any of the candidates feel comfortable anyway in a cabinet led by Mr. Flaherty, who wants to jail people who insist on living on the streets and privatize evciything but the front doors of the legislature? These injuries are real - this is not the World Wrestling Federation. Federation. Some hurt in leadership campaigns campaigns have swallowed their pride and sometimes been helped by winners magnanimous in victory. victory. But Ontario history is littered with the corpses of useful polili- Eric Dowd At Queen's Park cians who left, sometimes with a push, after losing leadership campaigns. After Larry Grossman as Tory opposition leader lost an election and his seat in 1987, Alan Pope, who had been defeated by him for leader, wanted another race quickly. Mr. Pope was the only leadership candidate ever to make his convention speech popping popping up suddenly in the audience carrying a microphone and walking walking among it speaking forcefully without text, a startling format. But the party establishment wanted the race delayed and the MPP from Timmins left, convinced convinced the Toiy bosses whose northern base was eroding did not care much about the north. After Frank Miller was chosen chosen premier to succeed William Davis in 1985, Roy McMurtry, attorney general and a buddy of Mr. Davis since university, quit, saying lie was disgusted rival candidates started their campaigns campaigns even before Mr. Davis announced announced lie was leaving instead of staying loyal to their leader. Mr. McMurtry, now chief justice justice and still sounding very much like a red Tory, was one of the most persuasive talkers in decades, a regular on open-line shows. His presence could have given Mr. Miller's government a more moderate and city tone to go with his right-wing, smalltown smalltown image and that might have saved it. Mr. Davis had been chosen leader with the support of the Tory establishment in 1971 by only a handful of votes over Allan Lawrence, an upstart minister minister who expressed grassroots concerns, particularly that Mr. Davis spent money lavishly as education minister. Mr. Lawrence's supporters wanted Mr. Davis to make him almost an equal partner, but Mr. Davis shuffled him instead into the post of secretary for justice policy development, which kept him huddled over law books and out of the public eye, and the frustrated Mr. Lawrence left to ran federally. Premier John Robarts put the rival who came close to beating him and even led on the first ballot, ballot, Kelso Roberts, into a backwater backwater as lands and forests minister, minister, and he was not heard from and dropped out. It has been much the same in other parties. Murray Elston quit the legislature after Lyn McLeod won the Liberal leadership in 1992 and Sheila Copps left after losing an earlier race to David Peterson. New Democrat \ Frances Lankin left recently, never having quite recovered from the feeling she was robbed in the leadership race won by Howard Hampton, in which she got portrayed as the instigator of public service wage curbs when the NDP was in government, government, although Mr. Hampton also was a minister. Sonic who lost acrimonious races for leader also stayed on, including Dianne Cunningham, who bravely called Mr. Harris yesterday's man in their campaign campaign in 1990 and has lived to run several ministries. But leadership campaigns have ended the careers of a lot of politicians, many of them high calibre because these are the type who run, and it could happen again. Role models make a difference Whoever thought it was only today's teenagers who represented the much-reviled 'Slacker' class - caring little about anyone else or even themselves themselves - has it dead wrong. There arc plenty of 'Slackers' of all ages wandering wandering our streets aimlessly. However, since much of the media attention puts the spotlight on youth, the real question question is: 'Who created these kids?' About a month ago I heard some teens talking about getting into a fight in a high school cafeteria and actually videotaping it. These youths followed through on their plan, taking the tape home for a few cheap, inappropriate laughs. The knowledge of what happened left a knot in my stomach and caused me to seriously question what was going on with the youth of today. What has changed so much in the short time period since my own teenage years? Was it something in the air, the water, the food? Then another unpleasant experience experience put things into a clearer perspective perspective for me. I was sitting in the emergency emergency room with an ill family member when two men in their early twenties were brought in from a drunk-driving accident. Neither of them was. seriously injured, injured, but what bothered me almost as much as how drunk they were, was the conversation between two of the staff. One nurse asked another staff member if she had cleaned the two up. Her response was, 'Why should I?' She told the nurse she sent them to clean up each other despite the glass in their arms and even in their mouths. The young men weren't the only ones mistreated, and it wasn't only the one lady doing the mistreating. And these uncaring people too often cloud the good others are doing. Negativity is spreading like a disease. disease. It's one thing to be pessimistic, and in an occasional bad mood, but many have moved past that and today's teens are too vulnerable to resist resist being infected by hate or indifference. indifference. Maybe the problem today isn't the children, but the example being set for them by their elders. Throughout my entire education there were teachers and administration offering plenty of encouragement. My employer throughout my high school and college years did nothing but believe in me and he still does. These people have become the ones I wish to model myself after - pieces of them have been molded into my own personality. Good roles models make all the difference. It just seems as though we don't have enough of them. THE CANADIAN STATESMAN is one of the Metroland Printing, Publishing Publishing and Distributing group of newspapers. 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Fax letters to 905-579-1809 or emailed to ncwsroom@durhamrc- gion.com <B na ddc UMTAMCI m*UWNtll 13 cca