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INI HIRI HT HTH SH eH 6 - PORT PERRY STAR - Tuesday, October 31, 2000 "Scugog's Community Newspaper of Choice" Member Canadian Community { N Newspaper C A Association Publications Mail Registration No. 07881 We acknowledge the finanaal support of the Government of Canada, through the Publications Assistance Program (PAP) towards our mailing costs BUSINESS OFFICE: Judy Ashby, Kathy Dudley, Heather Callan, Janet Rankin, Lesley West PUBLISHER . . . J. Peter Hvidsten GENERALMGR ....... Don Macleod MANAGING EDITOR _ Jeff Mitchell OFFICE MANAGER = Gayle Stapley ADVERTISING MGR ...Deb McEachern PRODUCTION MGR .. Pam Hickey REPORTER . .. . = Chris Hall PHONE (905) 985-7383 ADVERTISING: Ginni Todd, Cindy Jobin, Gail Morse, Heather McGregor, Linda Clarke, Lisa Monk, Janet Archer, Malcolm Lennox Member Ontario Community Newspaper Assoc PRODUCTION: Trudy Emprningham, Daryle Wright, Published every Tuesday by the Port Perry Star Company Limited, 188 Mary Street - Port Perry, Ontario - L9L 1B7 Arlene Cheel, Robert Taylor, Richard Drew FAX (905) 985-3708 E-MAIL: port.perry,star@sympatico.ca SUBSCRIPTION RATES: 1 Year - $37.45 (includes GST) Six Months - $19.79 (includes GST) Foreign 1 Year - $96.30 (includes GST) freelance Writers Heather McCrae, John B Mc( lelland, Rik Davie EDITORIAL POLICY: Opinions expressed by columrusts, contributors and letter winters are not necessarily those of The Port Perry Star Letters must be signed and the telephone number (which will not be published) included. Requests that a name be withheld wall be honoured only if there 1s a compelling reason to do so Errors will be corrected if brought to the editor's attention. We reserve the night 10 edit or refuse publication of any matenal submitted. ADVERTISING POLICY: The publisher is not kable for shight changes or typographucal errors that do not lessen the value of an advertisement. The publisher is not hable for other errors or omissions in connection wath any advertisement in any subsequent issue or the refund of any monies paid for the advertisement. All dams of emor in publication must be made by Wednesday, noon, POOc 10 the next week's publication, and, if not made, wall not be considered No dain wall be allowed for more than one insertion Editorial Comment Bugs in this system Scugog Township joined numerous other Ontario municipalities in the new vote-by-mail system for this year's municipal elections, attracted by the notion of increasing voter participation, and saving money. The exercise so far has proven that it's a system with negative and positive aspects. Foremost on the positive side of the ledger is the potential for the system to increase voter participation. Turn-out for municipal votes is notoriously low, hovering around the 30 per cent mark. That's a disgraceful number, considering the importance municipal government plays in the lives of all residents. Whether or not more people are encouraged to vote with this new system remains to be seen, but it stands to reason that if folks can simply vote and then pop their ballot in the mail, they'll be more likely to take part. On the negative side, there is the time frame for mail-in ballots. Residents have been instructed that to ensure-timely delivery of their ballots, they ought to be in the mail by this Friday, Nov. 3. That's a full 10 days before election day, Nov. 13. And it makes no sense. The early deadline seriously curtails the campaign for candidates, particularly mayoral, regional council and school trustee hopefuls, who must cover all of this sprawling township. And it seems to us an admission by Canada Post that the corpo- ration cannot be trusted to perform its task - delivering the mail in a timely fashion. A week and a half to get an envelope from Nestleton to Port Perry? Come on. ~ And of course there is the ballot problem in Ward 5, which can be dismissed as a glitch in a new system, we suppose. But tell that to the people running for trustee. If voting by mail gets more people to cast ballots, we're all for it. But there's a problem when a week and a half of a four-week campaign is rendered all but moot by Canada Post. THAT VACANT EXPRESSION! \ THOSE CRAZED ENES! WHAT ARE. "THEY? THE LIVING WORSE, THEY'RE { POLITICIANS! DEAD? VAMPIRES? GHOULS? - - . v 3 4: ) =< NET NT WN ® mm em- -. NN NJ NN \ RH AN AN SAR NNN AN Rood Por T PerRir STAR Port Perry Star Letter of the Week Article was irresponsible To the Editor: In reply to your article dated Tuesday, Oct. 24 regarding the "Tavern" that was charged in con- nection with the tragic death of Mr. Wingate on the Island Road in Port Perry. First of all no one has estab- lished that this person was in our restaurant on Friday, Sept. 23. None of my staff remember either of these gentlemen. The accident took place on a Friday night, well- known to be an evening when most patrons are not over 25- years-old. This person would have stood out. ~ Your article failed to mention that the firemen on the scene were told by the witness that they had been to a house party all night. The story has apparently changed after one month of probing. You also failed to mention that this man, Mr. Wingate, was driving while under suspension, had no insurance, no plates, no license Why was this man behind the wheel of a car? Why did the person who was with him that night, if they saw him intoxicated, wherev- er they were, allow him to get into his car? On Friday nights at Trader Sam's we have six door men stationed at all exists. No one without proper [.D. gets in and no one gets into a car who is intoxicated We have had this establishment for 14 years, we are predominately a restaurant except for Friday nights when there isa D | In all these years we have never had an over serving charge For good rea- son. We would never serve some- one |2 beers, shots or whatever this man drank. It is just not worth losing our license for a few extra dollars. We are busy enough that we do not need to resort to such measures as pushing alcohol on Please turn to page 16