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[ 14- Orono Weekly Times, Wednesday, November 8, 2000 parents Queen's Park - Working parents could spend a full year with their new-born babies and still hold on to their jobs under the provisions provisions of a private member's bill introduced by NDP Children's Critic Shelley Martel. Martel's bill would change existing legislation to offer a full year of combined parental and maternity leave, up from the current 35 weeks. The Nickel Belt MPP is taking the action because the Conservative government does not consider parental leave a priority. "New parents shouldn't be penalized just because they want to take care of their babies," Martel said. "Everyone but the Premier understands that the first year of a child's life is crucial to their healthy development." development." The Fair Parental Leave Act would amend the Employment Standards Act by increasing parental leave to 35 weeks from the current 18. Combined with the existing existing maternity leave, it would allow a parent a full year's leave without losing their job. "The last thing a new mother should have to worry about is whether she'll still have a job to go back to. Making this change is the best way to provide children with a healthy and secure start in life," Martel said. Letters (continued from page 2) to photocopy. (2) The ballots, and the voter declaration forms are on plain bond paper. It would be child's play to create a large number of ballots and voter declaration forms, and with ' the addition of the security envelope and return postage envelope, have complete voting voting kits. I have personally obtained a fist full of the security envelopes and return postage envelopes just by walking up to the clerks department and asking for them. (3) The controls relating to the handling of completed ballots are virtually non-existent. non-existent. The vote by mail system was designed so that the taxpayer taxpayer places the ballot in the mail and Canada Post returns these to Town Hall. Canada Post has reasonable systems in place to ensure that the mail is properly delivered back to the town. As an alternate, alternate, you may take your bal 7 lot back to the town hall and drop it in the drop box. Are you aware, however, that a number of candidates have been offering to deliver these ballots back to the town for the taxpayers? Literally hundreds hundreds of ballots have been delivered by candidates and their party members back to the town hall on behalf of ' taxpayers. This is much the same as asking the wolves to watch the sheep. No decent candidate has any business attempting to touch your ballot, or could be so politically inept as to not understand the consequences of having handled your ballot outside of the voters sight. If you're found naked in my bedroom, no matter what you say, suspicion will always remain. The stakes in any election are always high, in terms of money, political power and even prestige. It costs a great deal of money to run a campaign, campaign, for a mayoral candidate candidate in excess of $25,000, and it is not a difficult concept concept tp imagine a candidate, or even a well meaning party member, modifying a ballot to ensure success. Having hundreds of ballots sitting on a candidates kitchen table does not leave me with a sense of comfort on the election results. Even if you actually voted for the candidate you should not allow the candidate access to the completed ballot, as most candidates have people they prefer to work with, and would have a Vested interest in making sure the ballot'was voted with the "X" beside their "friends 1 '. If you remember the polling stations used in the past, a number of rules were followed to ensure that the voting process could not be suspect. This involved personal personal appearance at the voting voting station, addition to the voters list only with identification identification showing address, the requirement to vote behind a voting screen, no ballots outside outside of the polling area, and the fact that you personally insert the ballot into the ballot box. These are rules that, have been enacted to protect the genera! public from even the suggestion of irregularities. The vote by mail system contains contains too many areas where the concept of a fair and orderly election have been substituted for a cost saving, easier approach. If the General Motors production production line had this many flaws, all thé cars coming out of the Oshawa plant would be lemons. You must have faith in the system that actually builds the cars. Only when the system is perfect, can the results be perfect. Mark Hendrikx Newcastle SUBSCRIBE TO THE TIMES $25.00 NEWCASTLE FUNERAL HOME Family owned and operated by Carl Good, Funeral Director, and Joyce Kufta 386 Mill St. S., Newcastle 987-3964 www.newca stlefuseralhome. com "Caring for our Community" Re-Elect for Public School Trustee Bob Willsher Municipality of Clarington 987-4845 VOTE FOR OUR CHILDREN S FUTURE O N MONDAY, NOV. T3th we will elect School Trustees to watch over what 'and how our children learn. Now, more than ever, we need strong Trustees to stand up for public education and local accountability. Here are three easy steps you can take to make that happen: 1. Make sure you're on the municipal voters' list. 2. Check out all candidates' positions. 3. Vote. e VOTE NOVEMBER 13 Kawartha Pine Ridge Teachers 9 Local ^Elementary Teachers' J Federation of Ontario www.etfe.onxa