Whitby Free Press, 14 Jul 1971, p. 5

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

WHITBY FREE PRESS, Wednesday, July 14th, 1971, Page 5 "I feel I am not leaving the town, nor leaving the town in a lurch as has been suggested, but that I am providing for the town on an even greater dimensÎionI", he told reporters during the campaign. Mrs. Newman, who canvassed door todoorduring her husband's campaign, shows a glimpse of his dedication in an excerpt from a statement in the Oshawa Journal.. . "Desmond is entirely unsel- fish. He dedicates everything he has to what he is doing. He goes to bed at 2:30 a. m. and gets up at 5:30 a. m. to meet workers at plant gates. " In the three-way race 413 votes sep- arated the Ieader Ed Broadbent from the third place liberal, Des Newman. Edward Broadbent, M.R New Denocratic Part y Sai-d Broadbent ina comment for this a r t icl1 e : "Mr. Newman was a diligent spokesman for the liberal party in the lastelection, I suspect that he might be once again". Mr. Newman called the "architect of amalgamation' is also commonly refer- red to as "a man decades ahead of his own time". Some predictions made by him in the earlier days of his career are as uncanny as the "memory for detai " spoken of by John R. Frost. One of them appeared in newspaper print on February 9, 1967. "The seven municipalities in South- ern Ontario County will be reduced to three boroughs of a regional government in five to ten years". He also suggested openly at that time, a proposed amalga- mation between Vhitby Township, the first realistic step taken by a munici- p a l i t y in preparing for regional gov- ernmen t. His outlook for Whitby at that time was op t i m i s t i c: "Exciting and chal-. lenging that is the way I see the Town of Whitby in the next few years. It is excitingbecause we are on the brink of remarkable development in this area, and challenging becausewe will require all our ingenuity andskill to control that development and make it work for us. The top icof ne wspaper editorials not only across the province, but across the Dominion, Mr. Newman is said ta be one of the leading voices in regional gov- ernment. .. . 'Newman twisted the tail of the metro lion on this most auspicious and historic occasion', was a timely head- line at the time of the speech which won him a standing ovation at the Mayors- Municipalities Convention. It was the only such honour bestowedon any speak- er at the get together. . .0.. "I suggest to those who have been most vocal in their cries for Metro ex- pansion to cons ider their responsibility to the people of Toronto and the prov- ince, let them reconsider whether their aim should notrowbe the improvement in thatwhich they so successfully created by a reduction in the human misery rat- her than expansion which will ineviatab- ly lead to a stockpile of the explosive called social unrest. " On the homefront, an elated Whitby during the strain of strong Oshawa mer- ger proposais heard his words to the easternmunicipality: "I would hope that the City of Oshawa could find the pat- ience and the wisdom to leave us free to make our own decisions. " As a municipal representative at the meetingof ail ten provincial ministers, hesatatthemostsignificant meeting for municipalities since confederation. StilI later, he was chosen to represent aIl Ontario municipalities on the planning committee, and recently he has known the additional honour of being chosen Executive Vice-President of the Cana- dian Federation of Mayors and Munici- palities. As much has been said of his great imagination as has been said of his elo- quence and impact in speech. "Radical approaches for area devel- opment once again merged from Wh i tby ", ran a lead line in an area daily, "when Whitby Mayor Desmond Newman revealed proposals fora major international air- port in the northern part of Whitby and a unique university on the site of Camp Xi. Againnewspaper editors, recogniz- ing the statesman, filled columns. Anoteworthy columinist, Jack Gear- in in 'Good Evening', wrote. . "Whitby Mayor Des Newman is getting as much press coveragethesedays as Paul Hel- lyer and Terence V. Kelly combined. He's a rare type of political crusader and refreshing too". W h i I e a c o I I e ague expressed his views in this way: ... îîNewman's plans are among the most ambitious in Ontario. Let'sgetbehindhim to see that he pulls it off. We all stand to gain. " Peter Brower, editor - Contemporary comment comes by way of the somewhat radical and always read Peter Srower of Oshawa's This Week: "To a journal i st on any of the Oshawa- Whitby area media, Des Newman means "goodcopyl". He'soutspoken, not afraid to comment off the cuff and knowledgeable regardingnotonly municipal politics but the state of the nation in general. " "Sometimes it appears Mr. Newman does a lot of dreaming out loud. Some have confused this with irresponsible statements. I think with Mr. Newman it is a matter of vision and imagination. Thisgoes for most public politicians of Newman's calibre. I wonder why they bother with it. " Ross Gibson, news director, Radio CKLB Ross Gibson, the area's leading on- air newscaster and provocative Oshawa comptroller had this to say of Newman: "The scope of my knowledge of Des Newman t ak e s me b a c k eight or nine years. I have always found him a very s i ncer e and dedicated politician, al- though I don't al1ways agree with his opinion. " Through personal deal ings as a news- man, I find him most co-operative ta the point where he is willing ta spend con- s ider able lengths of t ime with any news- ,(continued pa~e C ) i

Powered by / Alimenté par VITA Toolkit
Privacy Policy