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PAGE A6THE CANADIAN STATESMAN, DECEMBER 18,2002 www.durhamregion.com Tim Whittaker Publisher Joanne Burghardt Editor-in-Chief Chris Bovie Managing Editor Judi Bobbitt Regional Editor Fred Eismont Director of Advertising Eddie Kolodziejcak Classified Advertising Manager Kirk Bailey Distribution Manager Lillian Hook Office Manager Barb Harrison Composing Manager Clarington's Award-Winning Newspaper Since 1854 Œïj e Canadian Statesman « ■ Dec. 18,2002 Metroland Printing, Publishing &. Distributing Ltd. Phone 905-579-440C Classifieds 905-576-9335 Distribution 905-579-4407 General Fax 905-579-2235 Newsroom Fax 905-579-1809 E-Mail newsroom@durhaniregion.com 865 Farewell St., Oshawa ON L1 H 7L5 Publications Mail Registration No. 07637 infodurhamregson.com EDITORIAL J e-miiil letters to ncwsroomSdiirhainrcgion.eom Canada needs to fully back ITER W hen you're in competition competition for an international international nuclear fusion research research project against the likes of the European Union and Japan, you need the full support of your national government to have a chance of winning. The lack of an all-out commitment commitment from the feds in terms of political leadership and financial financial support has been the most conspicuous missing piece of the ITER puzzle where the Claring- tbn bid is concerned. f !. Canada has been at the table at conferences this past year but, to date, there has been no major long-term promise of capital, nor has there been any assurance Canada will continue as an ITER partner should Clarington not be chosen next year to host the site. This must change. The dream of producing fusion fusion energy, a massive leap forward forward from the current fission process, is much bigger than any one nation. It will require incredible incredible resources and global partnerships partnerships to find the key to success success in a world that is growing more populated and more polluted polluted eveiy day. The kind of leadership Prime Minister Jean Chretien showed Monday in signing on as the 98th country to back the Kyoto Accord Accord is now needed on the ITER project. If the PM is looking for more legacies to back he couldn't couldn't do any better than jumping in with a $30-million per year, 30- year pledge to ITER. The Province is already on board with $300 million promised for 30 years. However, attention at the world stage only comes when a nation speaks loud and clear. Clarington Mayor John Mutton and Durham Regional Chairman Roger Anderson have lobbied hard for the Clarington bid at conferences around the world. Next, the real message needs to come from the top. Up until now, ■ of all the bidding ITER nations - Canada, France, Spain, and Japan - Canada is the only one which has made its future participation participation contingent on landing the ITER project. That has to immediately immediately change. We can't walk away if we aren't the winners. Such a policy dooms us to failure since none of the partners will be likely to support us unless we commit to being in for the long haul. It's in our best interests. Clarington and Canada have a real chance with ITER to take a lead role on the planet in what we hope will be one of the most critical scientific breakthroughs in all human history. It takes only a strong federal commitment, a national financial pledge and a firm dedication to stay the course. So many have put in long years of work to bring us to this point. The feds must now be there to put our bid over the top. OPINION e-mail letters to newsroom®<lurhamrcj;ion.com Greener eggs and ham S tarting in January my eggs and ham will be turning green - figuratively figuratively and literally. In fact, so yill my beef, last piece of tu.Va sandwich, mouldy cheese and\ tomatoes I left in the crisjfrcr too long. Jim. 1, as a guinea pig for the J Region's new compost picklup and expanded blue box protgram, I am going to forge ahe'tad where no Dunham resident has gone: before and throw my leftover meajt, dairy, vegetable vegetable and fruit scraps into a pail. The rest of Clarington Clarington residents will join me in this venture venture Feb. 11 while the northern townships townships of Uxbridge, Scugog and Brock will follow suit beginning beginning Feb. 25. With any luck the rest of Durham will come on board with the program sometime in 2003. Then together we will carry our green pails to the curb where some nice man (or woman) with a truck will come and lake it out of sight and mind. No muss, no fuss Inil the results will be as good as if we had watched over a pile of mulching leftovers religiously. religiously. The Region's new curbside pickup of composting - including including dairy and meat, the 'no-nos' of backyard mulching -- will begin in tandem tandem with an expanded blue box program that will allow residents to add a myriad of Jacquie Mclnnes Staff Writer extra products to what can already already be tossed in the box. For my family, piloting the program will mean turning over a new leaf. It's been a while since we abandoned backyard composting having left the big black digester at our old house. We arc still faithful blue boxers, though sometimes our rinsing and sorting skills leave a bit to be desired. Yet despite the two overflowing blue boxes we set out bi-weekly, we still manage to hit Clarington's Clarington's four-bag limit with alarming regularity. As a reporter reporter who has written written extensively on the subject of landfill, landfill, it is a hard thing to admit. If the path to hell is paved with good intentions, chances arc I'm headed for somewhere hot. Luckily for me it is the time for New Year's resolutions resolutions and for 2003 mine is to get hack on the righteous road I started down in the days when I washed cloth diapers, and sprilzed my windows with vinegar and water. I'm ready to lake a second stab at going green and if the Region is only too glad to accommodate with a bigger, better waste reduction reduction plan, so he it. My goal is two garbage hags or less each week, It's a start. You'll he able to follow my journey throughout January. Emails of encouragement are welcome. Letters too... hut only on 100 per cent recycled paper. Last week's question: Cast your vote online at infodurhamregio6i.com It Do you think Durham businesses businesses will be hurt by the Region's new smoking bylaw? □ No 52.4% □ Yes 47.0% □ Not sure 0.6% Votes cast: 317 HAVE YOUR SAY jpopm CLICK AND www.oolighan.com Today's question: s % □ No Are Durham schools better prepared to deliver education services following the announcement of millions of dollars more in provincial funding? □ Yes □ About the same 1 LETTERS TO THE EDITOR c-nmil letters to ncwsroom@(lurhamrcyion.com Seniors say thanks for light displays ■To the editor: For the past four years, our community outreach program has included a Holiday Tour of Lights for residents of several area nursing homes. Each year, the seniors have been delighted by the fantasy of lights and seasonal seasonal displays presented by the residents along Old Scugog Road north of Bowmanville. These tours are always such special events, as the seniors enjoy singing carols and often reminisce about long-past holiday holiday memories. It is always a privilege to take the seniors on this festive outing, and our staff sign-up sheet to drive and host tours always fills up quickly. This year, one of the groups of seniors commended the tremendous effort and expense the homeowners incur to put on such a fine display. They wished for some way to thank them for their generosity to the community, but realized we do not know who to thank, nor would it be appropriate to intrude intrude by knocking on their doors to thank them. A letter to the editor was deemed to be a fitting way to express our gratitude to the Old Scugog Road residents, and to all the other thoughtful home- owners throughout Durham Region Region who put the festive touch into our holiday season. Thank you so much. Dianne Bauer Director of Family Services Oshawa Funeral Service Consider U.S.A. when making policies To the editor: Canada's failure to acknowledge acknowledge the U.S.A. as the main driving driving force in all economic world policies will eventually bankrupt us. Our governments have spend billions on trans-Canada bilingualism, metric conversion, conversion, the GST failure, gun registration registration and, recently, the absolute absolute ridiculous decision to agree to Kyoto... without U.S.A. participation. Canada covers a lot of real estate and just maintaining transportation links with such a relatively small tax base... places enormous economic pressure on us to be competitive competitive in the world markets. When is Canada going to use logic and 'just good old' common sense when deciding on policy? Whether we like it or not, we depend heavily on the U.S.A. for our economic survival survival and world protection. 1 do not suggest all U.S.A. decisions are "right and proper," but our government cannot ignore the geographic factor, plus our trade and industry dependence when making major decisions. I am proud to be a Canadian and live in Canada... but we must face reality. We are a fringe player. Adopting policies and directions contrary to the U.S.A. is not just stupid, it is suicidal. Kelly Adams Orono We must spend on immigration To the editor: Who can blame the Americans Americans for planning to register, all travellers who enter or leave the U.S.A.? If the billion dollars had been spent on our immigration department department over the years to keep out undesirables and to know where thousands of illegal people residing residing in Canada today are, it would have been money well spent. Forget the Gun Control and follow the example set by the U.S.A. Register all travellers entering or leaving Canada and spend money wisely on more police and security. Instead of being the laughingstock laughingstock of the free world, let us show them we are not tolerant with misfits and criminals and set an example. Gen Gaherty Bowmanville Question How close are you to being ready for Christmas? Christmas? Michelle Gregorio "I am almost there. I have one candy, everything. The presents are all wrapped and under the tree." Dan Ellis "I finished shopping this ino^irg. carols last week. The kids are starting to get excited. It always seems to come way too quickly." sy McDowell a shopping. I've been working every day. I'm going to go on my Soraya Cronkwright OPINION (i-mail letters to newsroom® <liirlianireaimi.com Memories of midnight Mass M idway through my childhood we stopped going to church on Christmas morning, opting instead instead to attend Midnight Mass on Christmas Eve. I never really questioned the reasons for the change, I just knew it meant I could stay home on Christmas morning and play with my new stuff. Looking back on it now however, it seems a fairly portentous portentous event for a number of reasons. reasons. Number one, my father, who up to this point had avoided church like the plague, actually came along with us to midnight mass. I can only guess his new- found faith was grounded in the fact that the church we were now attending was attached to the Catholic Seniors Residence which housed the aging sister of his mother, my great Aunt Kay. Either that or my mother really leaned on him. Having never attended church with my Dad before, it took some getting used to. From my point of view Dad always looked vaguely uncomfortable and out of place in church, His eyes wandered around restlessly as though searching in vain for a Neil Crone Enter Laughing good place to throw a bass plug. While it was usually a form of punishment to sit next to my father at the dinner table (those considered most in need of correction correction were always placed within striking distance), it was actually kind of fun to he placed beside Dad in church. I lis unrepentant unrepentant 'had hoy' attitude was infectious and from time to time, while not under the baleful glare of my Mom from the other end of the pew, he wotdd look down at me and roll his eyes or wink. It was like being pals with the school bully for an hour. But while I was thirstily drinking up my Dad's lessons in irreverence and self-reliance, my mother was slowly and gently gently illustrating a point I would not fully understand until years later. My Aunt Kay, from a kid's perspective, was the quintessential quintessential aunt. No more, no less. She was old, wrinkled and wore a lot of lipstick and flowery perfume. She almost always had something something sweet and bad for us in her purse too, something she would offer in a voice, courtesy of the good people al Philip-Morris, like a gravel slinger. What 1 didn't didn't know, and of course what no little kid should ever know, was that she was also a lonely old lady dying from emphysema. My mom, who had no real. connection to this woman outside outside of marrying her nephew, nevertheless took it upon herself to visit Aunt Kay regularly, to see to any little needs she might have and to make sure she was not ever lonely on what is for many people, the loneliest night of the year. In short, to love her. 1 didn't gel it as a kid. I was too busy making faces at my Dad and dripping candlewax on the pew in front of me. To tell the truth I didn't really gel it for quite some time. But when I did finally comprehend that lesson from my mother, I understood just that much more of what Christmas is really all about. Merry Christmas everyone. "I'm a day away, another hour or two of shopping. The presents are bought but not wrapped. Our Christmas is half done. I've already hosted 30-some people." ®lic Cmmbimi Sitntcsninii is one of the Metroland Printing, Publishing Publishing and Distributing group of newspapers. The Statesman is a member of the Bowmanville Bowmanville Clarington Board of Trade, the Greater Oshawa Chamber of Commerce, Ontario Ontario Community Newspaper Assoc,, Canadian Community Newspaper Assoc., Canadian Circulations Audit Board and the Ontario Press Council. The publisher reserves the right to classify or refuse any advertisement. advertisement. Credit for advertisement advertisement limited to space price error occupies. Editorial and Advertising content of the Canadian Statesman Is copyrighted. copyrighted. Unauthorized reproduction reproduction Is prohibited.