The following text may have been generated by Optical Character Recognition, with varying degrees of accuracy. Reader beware!

PAGE 4 ♦ THE CANADIAN STATESMAN ♦ February 22,2006 Tim Whittaker Publisher Joanne Burghardt EdItor-in-Chief Chris Bovie Managing Editor Fred Eismont Director of Advertising Eddie Kolodziejcak Classified Advertising Manager Kirk Bailey Distribution.Manager Lillian Hook Office Manager Janice O'Neil, Cheryl Haines Composing Managers Clarington's Award-Winning Newspaper Since 1854 ®ljc Cmmbtmt Statesman Opinion | FEBRUARY 22, 2006 Phone 905-579-4400 Classifieds 905-576-9335 Distribution 905-579-4407 General Fax 905-579-2238 Newsroom,Fax 905-579-1809 E-Mail newsroom@durhamregion.com 865 Farewell St., Oshawa ON L1H 7L5 Publications Mail Registration No. 07é37 infodurhamregion.com EDITORIAL c-mail letters to newsroom@durhamrcgion.com Ontario needs to make case to Tories * The proof that Quebec is the ; quintessential player in Cana- ;'dian politics has been evident for ! most of our lives. After all, it was Pierre Trudeau's » and Brian Mulroney's dominance ' in Quebec and their power base in the province which allowed ;; them to bring home the constitution constitution and then to try to amend it. ;;Jean Chretien had the influence tin Quebec political circles if not *a majority of the seats to make « Quebec's concerns paramount in Canada - and to almost split the ^country in the 1995 sovereignty j referendum. * Certainly the Quebec sponsorship sponsorship scandal, which happened «on Mr. Chretien's watch, had a 'hand in dropping the Paul Margin Margin Liberals from government to ^opposition. t It also helped propel Stephen 'Harper's Conservatives into 'power as 10 Tories were elected tin Quebec where there had been : »none for nearly a decade. £ Now, it appears the Bloc Que- îbecois will help to prop up the ! Harper Tories. : : Why? Apparently it is because the Bloc is taking Mr. Harper at his word that he will be more open to Quebec than were the Liberals. Liberals. That means the Bloc believes Mr. Harper will let Quebec run its own affairs as outlined in the j division of powers in the Cbnsti-" lutioii. ; :: ' Mr. Harper has also made noises about allowing Quebec a "larger role on the international " stage. What does all this mean for us here in Ontario? Well, first of all, it likely means no federal election until 2008, a relief to those of us hit by election election fatigue. . It offers the minority government government Tories a chance to implement implement the programs they promised promised if elected. But it also offers Ontario a chance to make its case for better treatment from the feds. Premier Dalton McGuinty has to walk the fine line of trying not to be divisive on a national scale but must also make sure Ontario is treated fairly. , That requires the premier to continue to press for Ontario's proper share of the federal fiscal pie. Mr. McGuinty repeatedly told Mr. Martin that Ontario was contributing contributing $23 billion more than it was receiving back. Mr. Martin took some mea-, sures to help address this imbalance imbalance but more will be needed. We can only hope that, with a former provincial finance minister minister now at the federal helm, Ontario will get its fair share. As a definite "have" province, it's to be expected Ontario will contribute more and get less in return than any other province. But there has to be a reasonable balance. For too long, Ontario has been content to let the federal government government and other provincial concerns concerns dominate Canadiah'.'pbli-" . {i 1 IT:111 ï I : tics. Now it's time for Ontario to" make its case and to show the Harper Tories there may be political political rewards by paying attention to the needs of Canada's largest • province. VfA NOT ALLOWED TO Play cœs and LTOfeOW ... WWUA MY mrn>? CLICK AND SAY ■: J Today's question: Is Canada performing well at the Olympics or do medals even matter to you? Canada's doing well Could be doing better Medals don't matter Cast your vote online at infodurhamregiofi.com, Last week's question: .r. Should a Member of Parliament who crosses the floor have to resign and run in a byelection? : f l No 49.1% Yes 50.9% Votes cast: 554 a '>1 dofighan.com HAVE YOUR SAY Are you happy with the /, performance of Canadian "• athletes at the Winter Olympics? LETTERS TO THE EDITOR e-mail letters to newsroom@durhamregion.com Lakeridge Health Oshawa parking garage not 'user friendly' BACKWARD GLANCE Hospital staff cooks, 1993 Statesman File Photo Bowmanville Memorial Hospital kitchen staff prepare a meal in 1993. From left, Clara Schmid (cook) and Joan Bruce (baker), get down to work. To-the editor: I would like to know why it is necessary for families with loved ones in Lakeridge Health Qsha-j " wa.'td be literally "skinned alive*' 1 ' - by that money-eating machine : known as the parking garage.' ■ My mother was admitted into the emergency ward on Thursday Thursday night. After making sure his mother-in-law was comfortable comfortable for the night, my husband left only to be aggravated by à machine that was not working properly and denied him a validated validated ticket. With all the stress up to that point, as well as getting very little • sleep, the last thing he needed, as well as a few others lined up behind him, was to be charged an obscene amount of money from a machine whose voice I myself have learned to despise after several years. Who was the rocket scientist whose idea it was for this moneymaking moneymaking extravaganza in the first place, and tell me, does he have a villa in Bermuda? They should take a full course making things "user friendly," because in my view, the machines there are not! Laura Feeney Courticc Toy gun ban not critical to crime prevention To the editor: It is the responsibility of governments governments at all levels to provide protection and security for its citizens. Gun violence in some places is making people feel that our streets are not safe. Governments Governments must appear to. be taking action to counteract that fear in the public. ! One of the solutions presented is a total ban on guns which, of course, is unlikely to stop, the gun violence. The latest solution . offered is to ban toy guns. Now everyone knows that the only violence to be prevented there is ; , from a trigger-happy policé dffi- " cér shooting some person 1 with ' a toy gun. thinking it's a real gun. Tliat is not going to stop the violence foremost in people's minds. Criminals need to know they will be caught and that they will be punished severely. That means people must get over their fear and start talking. People need to let their government government know they support tougher action on violent crimes and increased police presence. They need to come forward when they witness violence. They also need to let their government know that police need training that will lessen the chance of them shooting shooting innocent people (kids with toy guns). Finally, they need to let their government know when actions they are proposing are ludicrous. John Cousins Oshawa Child-care program needs to be expanded . children receive. One of many advantages of regulated care is the ability of parents to be reassured reassured their child is getting quality quality care which is monitored for them. This is not possible under the Conservative's $1,200 program. I am also concerned about the cut-off of benefits at age 6. Twelve is the recognized age at ! which most children jean be left" ' alone after school. / ' ' However, there are. many "latch-key children" in our society society under 12.1 think the $1,200 could be very beneficial for parents parents of 6-11 year-olds to allow those parents to purchase afterschool afterschool care, particularly through local recreational programsr- Being allowed to use the $ 1,200 for after-school programs would be a real boost to services in this area. Currently, there is a shortage shortage of after-school programs because parents can't afford them. This would help immensely. This would also fit in nicely with the government's plan to allow tax deductions for athletic programs. programs. Ron Dancey Oshawa Mark Sankey "Yes, I think they're doing reallywell." Barb Dewey "Yes, it's been a good year The first day of the j 3 ' competition we got a gold." . '!.'J To the editor: I am concerned about the possible possible cancellation of the child-care agreements the federal government government has with the provinces. I would argue for both expanding expanding the existing agreements and using the proposed $1,200 per year per child six and under. Parents want the best for their children. While at work, parents parents worry about the care their LETTERS We welcome letters that include name, city of residence and phone numbers for verification. Writers are generally limited to 200 words and one submission submission in 30 days. We . decline announcements, poetry, open letters, consumer complaints, congratulations and thank you notes. The editor reserves the right to edit copy for length, style and clarity. The newspaper newspaper contacts only those people people whose submissions have been chosen for publication. FAX: 905-579-1809; E-MAIL: Newsroom ©durhamregion. com. Ian Dankmeyer "More gold meals would be nice, but they're doing fairly 1 ™ well so far." We just gotta win men's hockey gold! When it comes to the Winter Olympics, you could no better better describe me than to use the immortal words of that comic legend, Don Rickies: "You hockey hockey puck!" ; I'm sure there arc a lot of great individual Olympic stories out there, talcs of bravery, of young people overcoming injuries, illness illness and tragedy to ascend the podium, Of 39-year-olds roaring face- first down a chute to capture a silver medal in skeleton. Of speedskaters capturing three medals and a pair of cross-country cross-country skiers getting a helping hand from a Norwegian coach to earn a medal. Yes, all of these are great. But they just aren't Olympic men's Tim Kelly hockey, fn among all the tales about athletes failing drug tests, about cost overruns and poor attendance attendance at some events, and set against the inevitable discussions about security threats and terrorism terrorism worries, 1 just want to make sure that, come Sunday morning, our boys win Olympic gold. 1 really, really, really want this to happen. 1 mean I really do. That's provided that, after our deadline, the guys in red-whitc- and-black won their Wednesday quarterfinal to make it to Friday's semifinal. Please, make it so. Anyway, I know the players are over-paid, they're spoiled for sitting out a year and killing an NHL season and the results so far haven't matched with the anticipated anticipated march to a gold medal. But we're just getting warmed up. I hope. 1 can recall silting up at all hours of the night during the 1998 Olympics and being incredibly incredibly frustrated when we lost in the playoffs to Dominik Hasek and the Czech Republic. Damn shootout! It was all I could do to avoid coming into work - bleary-eyed and downcast - without wearing a black armband. Four years ago, of course, it was ecstasy. What could be better better than whipping those arrogant Americans right at their own Olympics? I mean, wc just dominated, And it didn't hurt that our women's women's team got revenge for its loss in tlie 1998 Olympics by beating the U.S. in Salt Lake City, It was nice Ip see our women win their second straight gold medal on Monday taking apart the surprising Swedes. Anything was heller than yet another Cun- ada-U.S. showdown, Bui now, with the medal round upon us, our men's team may just need n Wayne Gretzky press conference meltdown to get it back on track. Remember four years ago when the Great One gave it to the media and talked about how the world was against us and none of us understood how much pressure the players were under. All true, but it's not likely the same kind of tirade would work this time, Been there, done that. Now we just need to score a few goals when it really counts, I'm not saying it would ruin the Olympics for me if wc came home without a medal in men's hockey, like wc did in 1998. Well, yes it would. Copy editor Tim Kelly's column appears every other Wednesday. E-mail lkelly@durhamregion. com. Joe Finch "Yes, the curling team is doing well, both the men anc women, and the speedskat- ers." The-Canadian Statesman is one of the Metroland Printir Publishing and Distributing group of newspapers. The Statesman is a member of the Bowmanville Clarington Board of Trade, the Greater Oshawa Chamber of Commerce, Commerce, Ontario Community Newspaper Assoc., Canadian Canadian Community Newspape Assoc., Canadian Circulations Circulations Audit Board and the Ontario Press Council. The publisher reserves the right to classify or refuse any advertisement. Credit for ad vertisement limited to space price error occupies. Editori; and Advertising content of the Canadlan Statesman Is copyrighted. Unauthorized r production Is prohibited. A°cna RT- (jcna ooc ^