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2 - Orono Weekly Times Wednesday, September 20,2006 Subscriptions $33.02 + $1.98 GST = $35.00 per year. Publications Mail Registration No. 09301 • Agreement No. 40012366 Publishing 48 issues annually at the office of publication. 'We acknowledge the financial support of the Government of Canada through the Publications Assistance Program (PAP) toward our mailing costs." Canada bmX ORONO WEEKLY TIMES - 5310 Main St., P.O. Box 209, Orono, ON LOB 1M0 E-mail: oronotimes@rogers.com or Phone/Fax: 905-983-5301 Publisher/Editor Margaret Zwart Sports and Display Advertising - Donna Wood Front Office and Classified Advertising - Rosey Bateman The Orono Weekly Times welcomes letters to the editor on subjects of interest to our readers. Opinions expressed to the editor and articles are those of the writers ancJ do inot nece y P ]gn . Y times. Letters must be signed and contain the address and phone number of the writer. Any letter considered unsuitable will not be acknowledged or returned. We reserve the^rght g - - Y or classified ad appears for the first time, please check carefully. Notice of an error must be given before the next issue goes to print. The Orono Weekly Times will not be respo sib 9 ■ Are you confused? We are!!! Just when things seemed to be forming into a pattern for the upcoming election, we are confronted with surprises. surprises. One surprise was the ad and article in this paper last week: regarding Richard Ward and his relentless pursuit of the ttuth.The greater surprise was that Diane Harare decided to ran for Mayor and then this week decided to pull out. The article on Mr. Ward stated that he had been banned from a public building because of threatening behaviour. This puzzled us, because a number of letters to the editor previously published in this paper an others, others, have described the v threatening behaviour prevalent at Clarington council. Thus, if Mr. Ward is banned, should that ban not also apply to those who practise threatening behaviour at council meetings? Also, we applaud any candidate who wishes to run; but one candidate is accused by another, of running to split the vote. That charge has never been fully refuted.. It should be either proven, or recanted, or both candidates candidates should withdraw. We totally agree with Diane Harare's desire to see a return to a democratic council, with open discussion on compensation and all other matters. We share her dismay dismay that none of the existing councillors stand up and disagree. She also refers to favouritism in business arrangements. Her decision to withdraw from the race, rather than split the vote is commendable. To try to find clarity on this now confusing race,'we went back and reviewed all the articles, arid all the letters letters to the editors, in this paper, in the other local papers, and in the Toronto papers. We did this partly because one letter suggested that this paper is supportive of the candidates seeking reform. We are not sure if that was meant as a criticism, or a compliment. Newspapers have a duty to report the news in an equal and unbiased fashion. We are always mindful of that. However, an equally demanding duty for editors is to express opinions on the editorial page. They are required to do that, even at the risk of financial and personal personal pain. The chain newspapers routinely fail in that duty. Yet, even those papers have carried articles and letters that directly support Diane's views. We checked every article, and every letter to the editor, editor, over the last few months in all local and Toronto papers. Only a single letter supports the current council. Not a single letter, or article-in any paper- supports or defends the mayor. One of the many critical letters to editors mentions the "I am not guilty" aspect of this situation. In our mind that has no bearing. Rather, we need to look at the facts as reported in all the newspapers: 1) every article is critical of Clarington. Are we to become the password for bad government? 2) An experienced leader (Diane) is dismayed by the current leadership. So are all the writers of letters, and all contributors to blogsites. 3) While one letter to the editor (published only in this paper) praised the Total Hockey idea, every other letter to any paper has been critical of the White Elephant. However, again that misses the point. The point is that Clarington's leaders were not elected to take us into the entertainment business. By doing so, they have betrayed the "trust of the voters/taxpayers. 4) It is now clear that the only possible solution to this mess, is to elect all new leaders. That is not only our editorial opinion, it is a fact. A 5 4 n't ry //? c rtY/Sc. i 4-1 VAW<9£R. \ ■ If Letters to the Editor "An American in Paris"... NOT! Dear Marg, ' It starred Gene Kelly, The line is "I'm singin' in Debbie Reynolds (her first the rain, just singin' in the Just in case someone film) and Donald O'Connor. It rain, what a glorious feeling queries last week's editorial was one of the first 25 films in I'm happy again." FYI. • titled Just singing in the rain, the Libraiy of Congress for its The movie name is actually National Film Registry of Yours, "Singin' in the Rain" (MGM Movies. It is considered to be . SharomMcCartney 1952), not , "An American in one of the best musical of all Leskard Rd. Paris" (1951) as stated. times. ' Hello from "Dog River, Saskatchewan" Dear Editor: beautiful countryside, and was has only made it as far as honoured to be able to partici- ' Toronto in the past, to discov- Just wanted to send a big pate in the fair parade. The er such a vibrant community, thankyou for the warm recep- community and . people of tion I received from everyone . Clarington were so hospitable Thanks Again! at the Durham Central Fair and welcoming I can't wait to this last weekend. I had a great ; return with my family next Cavan Cunningham time meeting so many people year. It was a real pleasure for "Mayor Fitzy" from the area, touring your someone from the west, who . Wake up call to Clarington voters Editor, I have read much over the past several weeks about the antics of our Mayor as it relates to Total Hockey, being a verbal bully in council towards ratepayers, our colossal colossal debt, and a number of other major issues. While it would appear that the electorate has finally been awakened to this sorry piece of work, we tiiust ask ourselves ourselves a very important question. question. Who was equally responsible responsible for allowing all this to happen over the past 3 years? Our elected councillors, that's who. Did any of them vigorously vigorously debate any of the major issues, or did they sit by quietly quietly allowing the mayor to ride roughshod over Clarington and her ratepayers? Remember, Remember, the mayor only had one VOTERS see page 5