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p4 weekender july 3 1 1 993 a y numbers at right dropping gst from books gets rave review does anyone smell an election in the wind it would certainly appear that one is in the offing with the rumor mill grinding out stories of how the campbell govern ment is set to give taxpayers their first incentive to vote tory in a long time the possible removal of the dreaded gst from books would truly be one of the most wel come government policies to come down the pike since the abolition of prohibition campbell is alleged to be under substantial pressure from the publishers and her own cab inet hierarchy to do away with the ludicrous and damaging practice of taxing reading mate rial canada is one of the few coun- viewpoint andrew mair tries on earth that would see fit to tax the learning process david hunt of the dont tax reading coalition lobby group was understandably elated at the move he told the toronto star top tories were very serious about the tax break however they should have been this concerned in the first place books were always sacred cows put ahead of all political agendas as it was thousrht col lecting monies for the free exchange of ideas was tanta mount to a nazi book burning party but that is precisely what michael wilson did and now the pcs are asking to be seen in a new light campbell is doing the only thing possible if she hopes to extend the eight years of tory rule that being a complete house cleaning with most of the old guard gone campbell is looking at her partys most unpopular legisla tion and while not completely wiping the slate she is at least cognizant of the fact that if she hopes to retain her title there is a lot of backtracking to be done it may seem like a token gift to the beleaguered taxpayer slashed buses full of paying customers dear editor i am writing to protest the pro posed cancellation of the uxbridgestouffyillemarkham go express bus route to down town toronto i have been a passenger on these buses for 10 years and it is evident to me that not only is it a paying proposition but also performs an essential service for those liv ing in the markham stouffville and uxbridge areas who work in downtown toronto one wonders if our govern- mentgo transit in their com bined efforts to cost cut took the trouble to evaluate the prof its or lack thereof of the trans portation routes they were slashing uxbridgestouffvillemarkham buses are full of paying passen gers perhaps the powers that be should cast their eyes on the empty midmorhingmidafter- noon trains running to oakville and whitby the rationale for the proposed cancellation dwells on the exis tence of what is euphemistically termed a parallel route the parallel routes for the direct one hour nonstop express bus downtown are a go bus to the scarborough town centre time 30 minutes lrt to kennedy subway time 30 minutes subway to downtown time 30 minutes plus or go train to union time 50 minutes adam editors mail subway to place of work time unknown thus it is hardly surprising that the vast majority of dis placed bus passengers will resort to their cars thus adding to con gestion and pollution it has always interested me how governments often cause the situations that they love to rant about in conclusion i can only shake my head in anger and bewilder ment at a government which wildly wastes taxpayers money stumbles from one crisis and scandal to another and then as a final insult cancels a service which makes money and per forms a valuable service to the people the politicians profess to serve gerry crompton markham by brian basset sweetheart if this break on the gst but it is certainly a positive step the gst on books magazines and newspapers was a ridicu lous tax grab one which effec tively jeopardized the canadian publishing industry and likely cost many jobs closing the book on the tax would cost the government 160 million a year analysts say but it would be a small price to pay to regain the freedom from taxa tion on a precious resource finally a move by a politician that can be applauded markham economist and sun stouffville tribune uxbridge tribune weekender edition a metroland community newspaper pajriciapappas publisher jo ann stevenson editoruhchief paula cr0well editor andrew mair editor debraweller director of advertising barry goodyear director of distribution vivian otjeil business manager pamela nichols operations manager markham 2942200 sales 7987624 classi fied 2944331 stouffville 6402100 uxbridge 8529741 2948244 distribution and administration 9 heritage rd markham l3p 1m2 fax markham 2941538 stouffville 640- 5477 uxbridge 8524355 the markham economist and sun stouffville tri bune and uxbridge tribune published every wednesday and saturday is one of the metroland printing publishing and distributing group of subur ban newspapers which includes ajax pickering news advertiser barric advance brampton guardian burlington post collingwood connection etobicoke guardian the liberal georgetown indc- fiendcntacton free press kingston this week jndsay this week milton canadian champion mississauga news north york mirror oakville beaver orillia today oshawawhitby this week peterborough this week scarborough mirror the bra banner contents not to be reproduced without written permission from the publisher firm s new digs look like swiss army knife wnat nas happened to arcfii- tecturethat the only passers- by who can contemplate it with out pain are those equipped with a white stick and a dog bernard levin im not sure office buildings are even architecture theyre really a mathematical calculationjust threedimen sional investments gordon bunshaft it may be rank heresy to say so but i think levin and bun- shaft are out of touch oh mod ern architecture has been fairly horrific for the past half century or so all those monolithic sixtystorey refrigerator cartons marching off to the horizon but i think i detect a decided change for the better my firm just moved into new digs in deepest darkest downtown toronto and you know what the city skyscape is spectacu lar oh sure there are still too many boring old boxes littering the land but they are slowly but surely being upstaged by a dazzling constellation of turrets and spires and arches of glass and steel colors are coming on strong too the drab look of raw cement that was such a rage just a few years back is sudden ly as dead as the edsel some of the new buildings are forest green and cobalt blue and iri descent pink the one im in sports saucy red stripes up and down its flanks reminds me of a swiss army knife wacky and wondrous edifices speckle the hogtown landscape viewed from a distance the famous skydonie resembles some colossal galapagos tor toise lumbering through the downtown core theres a life insurance building near mount pleasant and bloor graced with flying buttresses and vaulting walkways and glittering domes it looks like some crenellated fantasy castle straight out of tinkerbeus magic kingdom and i love it all of it it looks to me like architects are finally having some fun lets hope it lasts public fashion is a fickle old fop this years toast of the town can turn into next years usedtobe quicker than you can say deely basic black arthurblack boppers and disco boots and the next major architec tural left turn might not be nearly as appealing i note for instance a nine teenth century townhouse in londons hammersmith grove the twostorey brick structure was the subject of a feature arti cle in vogue magazine recently though its hard to under stand why when you see the photographs the joint to be charitable is a dump the front yard is choked with weeds plaster is falling off the lintel over the front door the bricks in the facade are chipped and cracked it doesnt improve noticeably when you get inside several layers of peeling wallpaper fes toon most of the walls theres a blackened fireplace in the par lor that looks like it was used to render whale blubber for a cen tury or two the armchairs have stuffing leaking out of them a photo graph veiled by a cracked glass frame dangles crookedly from a nail in one wall theres dust and grime and rust and slime on just about every surface in sight nothing unusual about that just another verminridden inner city flop house right wrong this is the home of a very rich and quite famous american designer by the name of liza bruce liza and her husband nicholas vega not only live in this hole they decorated it this way deliberately when we first got the house says nicholas we poured coffee and guinness over the floors to darken them it smelled won derful like a pub after hours sounds swell nick oscar wilde defined fashion as a form of ugliness so intolerable that we have to alter it every six months im beginning to understand what oscar was talking about