~Â WITBY FREE PRESS, WEDNESDAY,;FEBRUARY 0,1988, PAGE 7 PAGE SEVEN NINE MONTHS TO ELECTION DAY While the political pundits up in Ottawa are busy speculating on the likelihood of a federal election this summer, ...or fall, ...or next spring, there is one election which will take place for certain this year. And I'm not referring to the American presidential election either - I'm talking about the municipalelections which will take place throughout Ontario on November 14. So what, you say; you didn't vote last time and you probably won't again. Local govemments are supposed to be the closest te the people - constituencies are much smaller and representatives live and meet locally - yet invariably local elections attract the least attention and voter turnout rarely passes 50%. The people we elect on November 14 - school trustees, Regional and Town Coùncillors will spend close te three hundred million dollars of your money during their three year terni of office. That's not peanuts - it warrants a lot more attention than it gets. Because of the way TV dominates our lives, residents of smaller communities like Whitby frequently know more about what's going on in Toronto Council than in their own. Newspapers and especially community papers are the only medium that provides the information we need te make the proper choices. Without an effective local newspaper, elections become a battle of flyers which are, of course, blatantly biased. Even so-called all-candidate meetings give little opportunity for discussion of issues. At a meeting sponsored by the Chamber of Commerce during the last election, questions from the audience were answered by only one candidate each - so much for debate, so much for comparisons. And the number and depth of the questions indicated a lot of deep concerns that were simply being brushed aside. Traditionally, municipal politicians get away with a lot more than their senior government counterparts. Incumbancy imparts a huge advantage, and any councillor who has kept his hands out of the till (and even some who've been caught red-handed) is likely to get re-elcted. (In virtually every election there is at least one story of a mayor or reeve who has been convicted of embezzling or mismanaging public money but who nevertheless gets returned te office.) Usually incumbents are defeated only when they challenge for a higher level of office and Whitby's councillors seem well aware of this. Joe Drumm with twelve years on Council and Joe Bugelli with ten have shown remarkable patience in waiting their turn to move up to Regional Council but Edwards and Emm have been there so long, even former mayor, Jim Gartshore, couldn't budge them in the last election. Whitby has changed drastically since most of them were elected. The pro-development stance of most of our councillors was fine back in the sixties and seventies when new development was scarce, but Toronto is now on our doorstep. Land is at a premium. Unless our council imposes a new level of sc-utiny, unscrupulous land developers will cover our community with mediocre monuments to their greed. As the surrounding communities grow and coalesce, the distinctive (dare I say, historic) character of Whitby will be lost in a jumble of non-descript boxes and strip plazas unless we get the positive leadership to stop the creeping suburban mediocrity. The development of Whitby over the past five years has been nothing less than spectacular and our councillors will no doubt be claiming credit for it this fall. But be forewarned - Whitby's growth has had nothing whatsoever te do with local policies. Those developments which are attractive and well-planned have happened in spite of Council not because of it. It is the bad developments like the medical building on Dundas St. and the apartment building leaning over the backyards of brand new homes at the south end of Glen Hill for which they have te take the credit, since they created the loose planning policies that allowed them. Yes, some of our councillors were in office way back in the sixties when these zoning by-laws were passed and no one has made much effort te change them. Whitby has grown not just in size but also in its level of sophistication. The piecemeal approach to government no longer suffices. The development of the new recreation complex (whose birth was a classic case of political bumbling) provides both problems and opportunities. A consultants' report on the future of the Centennial Building is expected soon but already the YMCA has announced that it hopes te move into the new rec complex. Likewise the library. The historic registry office next te the Centennial Building is already empty. Next Monday, the operations committee wiii finally receive the report on the Whitby Museum which was begun te determine the future of Lynde House. Since that was given te Cullen Gardens, the museum needs a new home. Can this council which has such a long record of disdain for cultural matters be trusted te make the right decisions? The main problem with our council is attitude. (You elected us for three years and were going to do what we think is best for you whether you like it or not.) Council does not represent and assist their constituents. They confront and chastise them. Citizens talk to council but are rarely beard. Whitby sorely needs a few good candidates to fill the political vacuum. But can they get elected? Yes, if they start planning now and work bard for the next nine months. Yes, if they care enougb about their community to give it their best shot. Besides, a good election scrap makes good copy. HAMLET OF MYRTLE STATION, LOOKING EAST, 1906 In the foreground of this picture is what is now Highway 12. The station, at centre was built in 1884 and was demolished 90 years later. The grain elevator was built in 1887 and destroyed by fire in 1967. Left of the elevator are cattle pens where livestock were loaded onto trains for shipment to Toronto. WhitbyArchives photo 10 YEARS AGO from the Wednesday, February 8, 1978 edition of the WHITBY FREE PRESS • A big promotion of Iroquois Park is needed to offset heavy operating losses, says Mayor Jim Gartshore. • General Motors is moving 300 office workers to Whitby to relieve crowding at Oshawa. • The Brooklin Planning Study now predicts a community of 25,000 instead of 10,000 as originally proposed. • A traffic study will consider one-way streets for Whitby's downtown core. 25 YEARS AGO from the Thursday, February 7, 1963 edition of the WHITBY WEEKLY NEWS • A plebiscite will be held on whether the sale of liquor in dining rooms, with or without meals, should be allowed in Whitby. • Whitby Public Utilities Commission has served the town for 60 years. Earle J. Bryant is chairman. • The new A & P store advertises beef roast for 59 cents a pound; two loaves of bread for 35 cents, bananas at two for 35 cents, and one-pound of margarine for 99 cents. • The Whitby Garden Club has asked the town council for $300 for civic beautification. 100 YEARS AGO from'the Friday, February 10, 1888 edition of the WHITBY CHRONICLE • Public school inspector James MacBrien gave the Myrtle School pupils a half-holiday when he paid his official visit to the school last week. • Whitby is the home of William H. Bewell, Grand Scribe (Secretary) of the Ontario Sons of Temperance. • Rates for boat trips from Whitby to Liverpool, England are $61.10 to $86.10 for staterooms, and $28.40 for steerage. • An agreement to amalgamate the Whitby, Pickering and South Ontario Agricultural Societies has failed because of partisan feelings in the groups. Rý