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p 4 weekender januarys 1997 stux tougher legislation needed for truckers driven by a big truck lately did you step on the gas ever so slightly as you were passing it just to get by that much quicker were you thinking the whole time look at the size of those wheels what if one came loose right now did you find your self playing a game of mental highway chess if that wheel comes loose ill dodge left then back right again to get around the truck large trucks should not be on major freeways other than at offtimes like late at night for the most part they hog the lane rarely remain in the far right lane and follow too close for the speeds of their rigs viewpoint andrew mair and now with flying wheels to contend with it makes even more sense to limit their trav el times there are some wonderful truck drivers out there and- largely they are to be com mended for their safety records it takes a great deal of skill and stamina to drive the long lames and gentlemen a k5tr0nio welcome fbr thetwo tenor if haul and maintain a clean driving record however the roads are becoming more and more congested as well trucks being enor mously expensive to purchase and maintain are suffering the same difficulties plaguing airliners they cost a fortune to fix but far more to replace so there are many ancient rigs on the road past their prime it is no wonder that the inspections which took place in the last year found so many defective vehicles s that number is only going to rise as trucks get older and companies continue to squeeze all they can out of their rigs new tougher legislation does not seem to be working there are still hundreds of unsafe vehicles on the road today two more flying tire incidents in the past week only serve to bring home this point it has now been a year since the first tire incident occurred on the queen elizabeth way killing one person since then four more people have died several more were injured and the tires continue to fly what is needed is even tougher laws serious fines even jail if need be and again tighter restrictions on the times a truck can be on the road as fleets continue to age this problem is only going to get worse happy motoring the tribune weekender edition a metroland community newspaper patricia pappas publisher joann stevenson editorinchief andrew mair general managereditor debraweller director of advertising barry goodyear director of distribution vtvianoneil business manager pamela nichols operations manager stovf all enquiries 905 6402100 fax 905 6405477 6244 main st stouffvule ont uxbripge all enquiries 905 8529741 fax 905 8524355 88 brock st w uxbridge ont httpwwwyorkregioncom the tribune published every wednesday and sat urday is one of the metroland printing publishing and distributing group of community newspapers which includes ajax pickering news advertiser barrie advance brampton guardian burlington post city- parent collingwoodavasaga connection east york- mirror etobicoke guardian georgetown indepen dentacton free press kingston this week lindsay this week midlandpenetanguishene mirror milton canadian champion mississaiiga news newmar ketaurora erabanner northumberland news north york mirror oakville beaver orillia today oshawa- whitbyclarington this week peterborough this week richmond hillthornhillvaughan liberal scar borough mirror todays seniors contents not to be reproduced without written permission from the pub lisher permit 1247 the weekender is a member of ihe ontario press council u3l3jffia mounties and cbc dismantled just because youre paranoid doesnt mean that theyre not out to get you anon there are more of them than us herb caen ah sweet paranoia im sure it has to be the major growth industry of the nineties there was a time when being paranoid was a committable offense nowadays it qualifies as a lifestyle consider one in eight americans think that the entire nasa space program is a hoax that all those moon walks and mars probes and space shuttles were performed by actors on a movie set some where in rural arizona a signif icant number of americans believe that the bodies of space aliens are being kept on ice at a secret us air force base in editors mail watch for onetrack bias in public process dear editor like it or not with each passing day this municipal area will do what most towns do they grow one of the most difficult aspects of the municipal politicians jobs is in dealing with want to be politicians who havent been elected yet and who find a soap box to stand on specific to their narrow neighbor hood concerns i encourage everyone to attend public planning sessions observe the dynamics of the approval process at work prefer ably do it when the issues being discussed arent directly related to your own back yard it is then you will truly see what can be the onetrack bias and selfserving tactics used by some groups and the difficulty elected representatives have with balanc ing these narrower interests with the needs of the whole community the region and more than ever the gta it is also a good insight into the high costs of develop ment and similarly the costs for new homes david ton on markham letter hits the mark dear editor hooray for tracylyn onderisins letter to the editor dec 28 1996 sometimes it appears that the pendulum of political correctness and the refusal to take responsibility for your own actions has swung too far she forgot to point out that in these times we are also financially liable if we allow someone else to eat red meat her comments hit the mark and she did it with the touch of humor that many of us lack nowadays s bremmers stouffville nevada that jfk was mur dered by assassins hired by his own vice president that elvis is alive eating burgers and working the gas pumps at a ser vice station in wyoming poor gullible americans just a few weeks ago we were treat ed to the spectacle of pierre salinger once press secretary to the president railing on about how he had proof that twa flight 800 was shot down by a us missile he didnt and it wasnt but that wont quench the flames of galloping american paranoia the internet is cur rently awash with every kind of conspiracy theory you can imagine ah those dopey gormless americans why couldnt they take a lesson from their more mature rational neighbors to the north to wit us canadians we canucks would never fall for that loopy halfbaked paranoid conspiracy stuff were far too sensible way too wise to the ways of the world and why wouldnt we be i mean we canucks live in a land where our official government oppo sition is a party whose mandate is the destruction of canada our national hockey league is composed of 26 teams six of which are canadian our canadian football league is populated almost exclusively by american play ers our government fisheries experts have managed to com pletely destroy the east coast cod stocks and all but obliterate the west coast salmon fishery not that our glorious leaders confine their depredations to fish those same twofaced politicians marching lockstep with our business leaders have over the past several basic black arthur black years embarked on a frenzy of coasttocoast downsizing and social program slashing they clearly believe that the best way to make canada healthy is to put as many people out of work just as quickly as possible not including themselves bien sur this cunning economic strategy from a party of tliber- als who got themselves elected on a promise of jobs jobs jobs we canadians are blessed to live in a land in which the last two physical structures that serve to hold our country together to ensure that prince edward islanders have some thing in common with north west territorians to make canadians somehow different and distinct from nebraskans or new hamshireites im talking about the railways and the canadian broadcasting corporation are being sys tematically dismantled and gutted by politicians who were elected specifically to keep us together it is our dubious fate to inhab it a country in which the royal canadian mounted police the very symbol and essence of what canada stands for at home and abroad has been for the purposes of advertising and marketing turned over to the walt disney corporation of florida now cmonwhat are you nuts what do canadians have to be paranoid about