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p4 weekender october 23 1993 write us or fax us numbers at right vote for canadas future canadians voted no to meech lake and no on the constitutional referendum both of which would have blocked the bloc effectively bloc power is probably overestimated but its exis tence at all is due to the window presented by recent history clyde wells once the hero of english canada for his stance against meech lake palls he came to markham this week to offer a boost to the markham stouffville rid ing liberal candidate jag bhaduria a dubious m viewpoint jo ann stevenson advantage as oct 25 looms isnt it ironic that jean chretien is popular every where but in quebec that english canada can embrace a federal quebe- cer with more warmth than it could either meech or the referendum yet had the up and com ing jean charest won the pc leadership he would likely have been spurned were a weird breed of cat we canadians we sit on the threshold of history the next five years will be dynamic ones bring ing sweeping world changes yet petty partisan posi tions threaten to break the fault line clean away reform and bloc voters will change canada radi cally if they follow through with their geteven strate gy- education is parents job first dear editor as taxpayers and parents in the 90s we are very much into accountability how are the tax dollars being spent do our chil dren get pushed through the sys tem without learning the basic skills we want value for our dol lar and are always measuring others it keeps people on their toes it has occurred to me that we are overlooking the accountability of perhaps the most important group of people when it comes to children and education parents parents are not doing their job of preparing their children for school if they dont know it is their job maybe they should learn about it are parents aware that a childs peak learning years are from birth to five the preschool years i am amazed when i encounter children in kinder garten who cannot recognize numbers or letters of the alpha bet so many children are not being stimulated by their first teachers mom and dad counting and letter recognition are learned by simple games at home reading books singing songs pointing to everyday words printed around the house fetching the correct number of forks and knives to set the kitchen table these simple tasks when reinforced at home every day produce a solid ground ing for a child to enter school and jump into learning when presenting safety pro grams for block parents in our local school i always ask the kindergarten children how they would ask for help if they were lost could they tell a police offi- editors mail cer their full name telephone number and street address most children cant many dont know their last name and havent a clue about the street they live on this is shameful neglect on the part of the parents unless there is a severe learning disability all kindergarten children can learn these simple things at home neither of my parents went to high school yet i knew numbers letters and printing all before i entered school it doesnt take special talent to sit for a few moments with a child talking about lifeessential skills turn off the tv and relax for five min utes with the beautiful children you chose to have yes we must insist on account ability in all levels of education lets get tough on parenting as the first and most important stage of tbe learning process its smart to begin at the beginning susan lyons unionville v bh adam by brian basset right andltnaigrtjtewvmkt nfeuuwqw idfcnim lvto w4tusttmat vita 1 toim lost yotras ftp suwchis feel uke mat classic gsrwnikbtn of 6dod miles itft but of latest mopel v aws ph i smttdtalkvnwm tme khrmetalwhe hai iutowvufe must we lose our country before we know what we had lucien bouchard was caught in the national tele vision debate admitting that he enjoys canadas good reputation when abroad when you mark your bal lot monday make sure youll be proud to tell your grandchildren the part you played in history markham economist and sun stouffville tribune uxbridge tribune weekender edition a metroland community newspaper pairiciapappas publisher jo ann stevenson editowihchief paula crowell editor andrew mair editor debraweller director of advertising barry goodyear directorof distribution vivian owl 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 l3p1m2 fax markham 2941638 stouffville 640- 6477 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 barrie advance brampton guardian burlington post collingwood connection etobicoke guardian the liberal georgetown inde pendentacton free press kingston this week lindsay this week milton canadian champion mississauga news north york mirror oakville beaver oriltia today oshawawhitbv this week peterborough this week scarborough mirror the era banner contents not to be reproduced without written permission from the publisher a tale of two cities each with an attitude this is a story about two human settlements one of them is called astakos its in greece the other one is known as hog- town zurichonthehumber the queens city taranna the good or just toronto i dont know a whole lot about the settlement called astakos its not listed in my world atlas so i figure its safe to assume that its smaller than toronto in some ways at any rate as for the other settlement i know a fair bit about that one i was born there for one thing and in the half a century since i have called it home from time to time worked there studied there got married and divorced and hired and fired and drunk and happy and sad there i dont live in toronto any more and i never will again but i still hop an eastbound gray coach bus three times a week a bus that crawls in along torontos lakeshore underbelly to deposit me in the bowels of the burg there to grub for my paycheque so i have my own hardearned opinions about toronto but then breathes there a canuck from the queen charlottes to signal hill who doesnt we all know what we think about ontarios capital and generally speaking the farther away you live the less edifying the senti ments its an easy city to dislike toronto doesnt have the easy beauty of vancouver or the joie de vivre of montreal it lacks the architectural grace of ottawa the mountainscape backdrop of calgary the down home warmth of a st johns a winnipeg or a windsor to the outsider toron to feels fast and brittle and cold and more than a touch arrogant toronto feels like it is about money or perhaps even less after all las vegas is about money too but at least people enjoy them selves there torontonians sel dom look like theyre having a good time torontonians dont take easily to new cultural concepts either remember the archer its a sculpture created by the late great henry moore a vast shining nugget of bur nished bronze that glows and catches the sun in nathan lbijup3 square moore wanted basic black arthur black so badly to see it standing in front of torontos new city hall that he slashed the price to a bargain basement 100000 torontonians freaked out what is it they squawked looks like a chicken with its head cut off cant tell the front from the back one city council lor grumbled how much art and culture can we have shoved down our throats well that was more than a quarter of a century ago and toronto has more or less grown grudgingly accustomed to that stunning bronze brooch pinned to its bosom it isnt loved it just isnt talked about any more instead theyre talking about the rock the rock is a massive slab of muskoka granite thats being installed in a downtown park once again torontonians are bleating about the extravagance of featuring something as unpro ductive as precambrian stone when the space could be used to make money another parking lot say or maybe a mcdonalds and if it must be a damned park then as city councillor tom jacobek imaginatively suggested whats wrong with simply lay ing some sod and planting a few bushes ah yes thats the toronto weve all come to know and loathe which brings us full circle to the greek settlement of astakos greece that i mentioned way back at the beginning do you know what they do in astakos every time theres a rainbow in the sky the city fathers serve free glasses of wine to everybody in the town square i dont know how astakos wracks up against toronto in other respects garbage pickup sewers and sidewalks public transportation but i know which town id rather be hayings iinneraw jtonigbtrrr t 2 virfrx s s vrr