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2 - Qrono Weekly Times, Wednesday, April 23,2003 } Subscriptions $29.91 + $2.09 GST = $32.00 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. " Orono Weekly Times 5310 Main Street, P.O. Box 209, Orono, Ontario LOB 1M0 Email: oronotimes@speedline.ca • Phone/Fax 905-983-5301 Publisher/Editor Margaret Zwart 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 and do not necessarily necessarily reflect the opinions of the Orono Weekly 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 right to edit for length, libel and slander. If your retail 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 responsible for the loss or damage of such items. You know it's spring when... 1) Flu season's over. 2) The trails at the Forestry are ripe with dog droppings. 3) Tax bills are in the mail box. 4) The Berkenstocks come out and the socks come off. 5) The Clarke's are out painting the fence again. 6) Jodie at the Cafe is making salad plates for lunch. 7) They start pulling trees at the Forestry. 8) Jonesy pretends he's actually going to show up to race this year. 9) Baseball season starts... hockey season is still carrying on. 10) Leaf fans still think this might be their year. 11) They're digging graves again at the Orono cemetery. 12) Joggers come out of their holes and hit the streets. 13) Any other year but this year, Jimmy Tabb would be out sweeping the sidewalk. 14) The Horticultural Club resumes their monthly meetings -Lorna Atkins informs us this week's guest, Christine Male, is a master gardener and dynamic speaker. 15) All the garments in Blueberry's front window are pastel shades. 16) Driver Blckle has parked the snow plow and is out filling pot holes. 17) They're fishing at the Wilmot Creek out of season. 18) Yard sale season is under way. 19) Ray Brown's lawn is greener than green. 20) You really know Spring is here when Clifford talks about maybe falling in love again. Letter to the Editor "We are different" Dear Editor, Re: You've got the last word - "The Americans" by Myno Van Dyke (April 16, 2003) "Your last word" re: The Americans left me very disgruntled. Our government decided to go through the United Nations re Iraq. The U.S.A. decided to bully it's way to a conquest galore with all the gore and with very little world approval! Let's not kid ourselves. Canada is not a militarily-minded country at present, but it wasn't in the two World Wars--at first either. It became a power and a force equal to any in the world. I love to visit the U.S.A and do and have many times but tensions tensions are prevalent: You have the South--you have the North. You have the poor ghettos and the ever-present guns. Truly it kind of scares me to go down there. It is a different country in so many ways and we, being different, see things and feel things contrarily to them. Thank God! You brought up Quebec. Kind of racist I think. Eveiy country has their histories of discontent. Think about the north and south U.S.A., the Scots and Irish versus the English, the Flemish versus versus the Walloons and so on. 1 say thank God for Quebec. It has a "joie de vive" that no. other province has. Go and see Montreal---it is full of life. Quebec makes us very diffent from the U.S.A. Veve le difference! Now about your trip to your car meets-- don't change the flags but do make sure the Maple Leaf is twice the size of the other one. Rolfe Wakefield Orono Ringing the Regulators The telephone companies' regulator is furious as of late. Claiming the major telephone companies - think Bell and Telus - have been acting in an "anti-competitive" sort of way, the regulatory body has plans to threaten with fines and pursue random inspections inspections to ensure this sort of behaviour doesn't continue. What sort of behaviour? The kind that elicits this sort of incredible reaction from David Colville, vice-chairman of the Canadian Radio-television Radio-television and Telecommunications Commission (CRTC): "We simply can't tolerate this," he is quoted as saying in the Globe and Mail. "We've reached the point where we feel we must take even stronger action." In the same article, Allan Rock, federal Industry Minister, had this to say: "We would like to sec the CRTC consider what additional measures it can take to promote promote competition." Here's a wacky suggestion: Do exactly nothing. That's right, leave the telephone companies be to do whatever it is they've been doing over the last few years since - as most people will agree - our telephone services have been improving, getting cheaper, and becoming more versatile to consumer needs. This is a disconcerting suggestion suggestion for some. The initial elimination of the government-granted government-granted Bell monopoly was done, in large part, as a consequence of the theory that competition was what was going to keep telephone companies companies from ignoring consumers. consumers. Competition was to substitute for direct regulation and the political process as the way to keep telephone companies companies responsive to our needs. Thus the elimination of direct regulation took the form of indirect regulation - ensuring ensuring 'competition' and no 'anticompetitive' 'anticompetitive' behaviour. That this is a bad idea is based on a simple confusion. You see, competition isn't worthwhile in and of itself. Competition is what happens when someone thinks they can appeal to our desires better than existing companies do. Maybe they have figured out a way to make something cheaper. Or maybe they think people want better service. Or are fed up with the current - company. Or can offer it in prettier colours. Or make it faster. And so on. Competition or the threat of competition drives prices down, improves options (not necessarily between different companies, but also within companies - think of the many different kinds of features, features, accessories, colours and so on you can get with your Nissan, or General Motors vehicle), and ensures good service. All of this is a conse JAWORSKI continued page 3