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

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 responsibleioHheJoss^o^damage^ofsuchhems^ Keep 'rural' in the fair In Orono, back to school also means it's Orono Fair Time. t By now most of those entering items into the various categories forjudging have their entries almost in competition competition form. The Fair ground has been very busy all week with the carnies rolling in and setting up their rides. This summer's weather will again play a major factor in items entered for the field and garden crop categories. This has not been a banner growing season with the cold spring giving many plants a late start, however everyone is in the same boat. While this area is the bread basket for Clarington, there is no doubt that basket is constantly decreasing in size. So too are the field and garden crop entries. Fred Obrist is usually the lone competitor in the apple and pear section, yet there are quite a few orchards in the area-- granted the Fall is a busy time for apple growers. The changes in agriculture are naturally reflected in the line up in the agricultural Fair. Where the Fair once offered a Tug-of-War, Farmer Olympics, horse racing, pig races, these events have been replaced with such as the ATV pull and Demolition Derby. The Fair Queen competition has been replaced by the Fair Ambassador Competition where the winner is now chosen on their agricultural knowledge rather than how they look in a swim suit. The Fair does have to keep up with the times, and as agriculture becomes more fragmented and stressed in the area, the Fair will continue to lose it's agricultural flavour. The rural roots of the agricultural fair is what makes it unique. Without that it's just another carnival. "In December 2002," reads Premier Ernie Eves' website, "the Ontario government passed legislation to lower your hydro bills." Then it adds that "The plan protects families, families, small businesses and farmers from volatile electricity electricity bills." Unfortunately, what the website doesn't inform you about is that the plan also "protects" you from having reliable energy as well. The Ontario government's decision to cap electricity prices at 4.3 cents per kw/h was not only a silly ploy at your vote, it also demonstrates a profound ignorance of basic economic principles. As any first-year undergraduate economic economic student will tell you, 1 i i j'j 1 J i i'.i i • • • » « cap the price, you get a shortage, shortage, increase the price and you get excess. Basic lessons of supply and demand economics. economics. The power outage was essentially predictable. And here's why: Take any product, good, or service. Find out its current price. Now take that price and make it lower. What happens? Well, people consume consume more of it-you get more of a deal! This works with pretty much anything; computers, computers, chickens, wallpaper, chimney sweeping, books, razor blades, and so on. Now take something as vital and necessary as electricity electricity or gas and try to think about what happens when the price goes cither- up or down. Unlike with non-necessary things-for which greater demand at a lower price isn't in absolutely every case a certainty, certainty, what economists call an 'elastic demand curve'-neces- sary items will almost always be overused at lower prices. People used to think just the opposite; necessary things, they thought, have an optimum optimum amount of use no matter what the price. People will only want so much health care, they thought, no One is going to get sicker just so they can make use of cheaper health services! Similarly with things' like electricity and water-people need those things, and will only'use as much as is necessary. They' were wrong, of course. What we've found is that as health care prices drop, people Will demand more of it. Healthier people; in fact, tend to use Canada's health care system more frequently than sicker people; It being one of the reasons why they tend to be healthier. So, too, with JAWORSKI continued page 3 Letter to the Lditor Dear Editor: I sit on the bench and look up and down the Main Street here in Orono. The whole Main Street of the village seems to have fallen into a deep depression. The beautiful trees that grace the sidewalks are slowly dying. The one in front of the hardware store is dead for sure. .Weeds • grow, .everyv .where. Main Street depression for shoppers or even less so for the merchants that are trying to make a living. How about the railing? Doesn't it look lovely rusting away? Another eye sore we neither need nor want. Thank you for letting me rant. J. Clifford Francis, P.S. At least the planters look good thanks to the rain. tvvm h m m m m Wherever there is a crack the weeds grow in abundance. The garbage cans spill over with garbage, and the wind blows the newspapers that someone keeps stuffing in doorways that people neither read nor want. Store fronts with dirty windows windows and stores either half empty or abandoned all- .together arc not very .appealing