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If THE ERA Serving York County Since 1152 Phono ft JOI mm St WED BETTER APPROVING SOME OF THESE WEVE ALMOST RUN OUT OF PLACES TO PUT THEN Election off to slow start Well theyre off and walking in what is shaping up as a quiet provincial election cam paign With the Sept 18 voting day less than a month away there is very little voter interest in the election As a matter of fact the Liberals of Durham North riding only got around to nominating a candidate last night But if you talk to the candidates there is a beehive of behindthescenes activity Voter interest and public activity on the part of the candidates will naturally increase as the threeday enumeration which starts today is completed Already there are two allcandidates meetings for York North riding scheduled One of them is in Newmarket on Sept sponsored by The Era the other in Aurora on Sept sponsored by the Aurora Banner York North will see two of last elections candidates on the voters list Incumbent Bill Hodgson who lost a large number of votes in East Gwillimbury through redistribution of the riding will tnki on Bob Lewis again along with KIiik Township Mayor Margaret York North went to the Progressive Con servatives with the NDP second and Liberal George Timpson third in the last election In Durham North it appears that Liberal Clare Morrison will give Minister of the En vironment Bill Newman a good run for his money Durham North for many years was represented by the PCs Dr Dymond But he retired from politics leaving the riding up for grabs Under redistribution Durham North is a strange hodgepodge of urban in the south and rural in the north voters PC Newman is well known in the south and Liberal Morrison well known in the north Lesley Griffin Is the least known of the three So the riding of Durham North will be won by the candidate who gets better known in the foreign lands And just so theres out at the polls as vote the eat There will be three advance polls Sept 12 and with of course the big day Sept 18 Hold election for vacancy A replacement WhitchurchStouffvilles representative on the York County Board of has not been made And the board is considering appointing a THE Readers ERA Bowes and John Does the board have someone else in mind Are there any other candidates for the job The board should not appoint a successor but instead call an election for Whitchurch and let the electorate decide who should represent them Sheridan defends PC members withheld Hit regular picnic but many many limed and part thai d they slop to Ihtnk maybe writing NEWSROOM NOTES An alternative to The System J lax Do you realize that liefore wo can get money from Hie government we llic people have to first pay thai money into the government before they urn gel the government to pay money There is nickel miles each year in his riding and up to a year ago had an ordinary car like the average citizen Mr Stevens docs not go around in a flashy car as Liberals always told me how busy ihey were question The DP parly always wrote a rice letter back praising me for taking the time to language Mr Trudeau has and ihe luxuries of life but then thats his Second In a twopart series During a particularly emotional moment at a recent public meeting on the Wellington St widening project Aurora Councillor Bob Roth accused York Region of blackmail The region along with several Aurora Councillors claimed the Wellington work had to be done this year or not at all If thats all they can offer its time for a new system of government Councillor Roth said Im getting sick of it Perhaps the system should be changed As an alternative the people of a community such as Aurora could assume the responsibility and power of the council To encourage active ongoing citizen par ticipation weekly town meetings could be held attended by all eligible voters with a pro tem pore chairman elected at each session Then in all likelihood the people would discover that certain matters required indepth study so committees would be formed And each committee would have a chair man who would take on most of the workload And then it probably would be necessary to choose a chairman of all the chairmen to co ordinate the operation The result a town council Full circle The present system is loaded with im perfections but the admittedly extreme example cited above would be disastrous also makes the basic assumption that the people care enough to take an active regular and committed role in their local government But the people by and large most of the time simply do not care The dozen or so who do care and who marshal likeminded people to fight such proposals as the Wellington widening argue that more residents would care if council would encourage public input But its a simple fact that most of councils business is mundane and boring Widening Wellington can elicit emotional eloquence from the most apathetic citizen preparing a town budget would drive most people to sleep or distraction The system imperfect as it is does work It worked in the Wellington widening battle The people had a chance to be heard albeit belatedly the council listened albeit reluc tantly and the council made its decision If that decision is sufficiently unpopular the offending members presumably will not be back in office There are plenty of potential candidates for Aurora Council And yet as noted here last week the most likely candidates seldom emerge at election time The winds of controversy catalyze them into action when the winds wane their public profile fades until the next con frontation Doug Worling Hal and Ann Gibbard Les Oliver John Lewis Len and Ursula Ostlck Sid Bntton all are bright conscientious com munityminded people who honestly believe their views represent the people of Aurora They are articulate and outspoken and if they got themselves elected to town council they could turn things around But they dont run and the same politicians keep getting elected which may say something about the will of the people in Aurora Still the present system has a niche for the citizen activists In Aurora more by default than anything else they have become the other side the adversaries in confrontations with council Both sides share the blame for this unfortunate phenomenon Its the same citizen adversaries vs the same councillors time after time so that the issues become clouded with personal Oh its and Gibbard again certain councillors snap We cant get anywhere with Buck she wont even listen carp the critics of the mayor as they run to talk to Councillor Roth while Councillor Timpson scurries along behind to catch the bandwagon So the people and their personalities obscure the issues and the system It need not be that way And Aurora Council has the chance to The town meeting concept mentioned at the outset of this piece still has merit Councils do call public meetings when a controversial matter arises or when they are obligated by law to do so but such meetings regularly turn into verbal brawls and politicians prefer to avoid Council should consider calling a public meeting every six months or perhaps every four months for the simple purpose of keeping the public posted The mayor could present a state of community message the people could respond and ask questions Council and the people could then talk WITH each other rather than scream AT each other mall proposal and Wellington St to take and enlightened attitude towards citizen par ticipation Continued perhaps even increased public interest in civic affairs is going to happen in Aurora regardless of councils attitude which this far has been largely negative Public participation can and should have a positive influence but only if both the electors and the elected are willing to display a reasonable degree of tolerance At this point the council and the core of concerned citizens assume that when they disagree an acrimonious confrontation will follow Mr Bntton for example thrives on this phenomenon should harmony evolve he might be at a loss for words I disagree with the suggestion that council should appoint citizens advisory committees to shadow the standing committees of council The system provides for the election of one council imperfect as it is that process provides the people with an adequate mechanism for official representation One council is enough And the members of that council are vested with the authority to take the final decisions after listening to what the people have to say The councillors moral obligation at that point is to act according to his conscience Placards petitions marches and name- calling may be the fashionable modes of public input but to gain credibility not only with council but among themselves the citizens of Aurora would do well to heed the words of Mr and Mrs who recently wrote in a letter to the editor It is not enough for us as citizens to rise to special occasions and then slip back into apathy We should be concerned citizens at all times So let us the general public get involved and STAY involved in what goes on iniiie Hit for the one 1 feel will do lh best job regardless of what jiil lliov for um hears at election time I strongly in limes phoned Mr ihe buildings iinrl written him iiiiiters slot to me jKTsmiiily and have received prompt If thewnUr read would see each week column written what happening at lildings business What I I therefore could and pick off fruit concerned with is how hoy have to pick it off for Hodgson as I am not going to kill the goose that he does for the fabulous wage doc without a have dealt with I w have proof short break regardless c its length All the tax money goes back lo us one way or another All She money the mis get out of this is their wages as all of us do The lot liberal parly the Con- not just at election time parly and the They all received the party either and the Con- put back into the economy in roads grants building etc and regardless of who runs ihe country they have Be more considerate of blind reader urges Mr first get Ihe money from girl in my early t should he spend his money for us am sure IT ll 1 ill Ml I going price for a weekends five per Mr Hodgson and Mr people were blind They Freedom that they Stevens have weekends Hall lauds vouch who umpired their game We would like to have d to make an official is letter published so if our team agreed ay extend agreed and so mI1i II- ore or less we the town league would like lo say that The go lo the Held Boyd I have ach of the opposing been more fair Un- Kays or sing to them Oh how those people enjoyed it costly and I might add very well trained They problem for the general public educate These people deserve much equal rights enough general public educate those of us who a scared because I had eyes Let never been around a lot of general pi ourselves to help by these people They Wei tad appeared After our coaches and discussion about kn or postponing especially he game the coach about know ihese two teams ar THE LADIES be treated any dif we eke lerent walk a I heard the other I want about discrimination me It against blind people and their guide dogs Ap- read it many of these A few free tips on summer electioneering ROY GREEN Summer is a lousy time to try and campaign to win an election I dont envy Premier Bill or I Bob Nixon or Stephen Lewis at all Its been a long time since we last had an election at this time of year and there a whole new set of rules for campaigning In the summer I hope all the candidates realize this In the first place you cant go around shaking hands with the workers outside the factories This is always one of the first things a candidate for the top spot usually does In the summer most companies have only the employees there The rest are legally on vacation or pretending to be sick Its amazing hew many cases of flu are reported In the hot months shut down for a couple of summer and a candidate who wasnt awe of teat could wait an awful long time for neat sW is come on and shake bit Sand ft true with cam people have escaped to the cottage or camping and those that are home can usually be found In the back yard Campaigners then have to be reasonably agile to climb fences duck through hedges and still appear casual as they try to talk to people over a seven foot fence You can see that its pretty difficult to wage an election campaign In the summer It can be done well only If the candidatea and their campaign people give a little thought to handling this unique situation and taking advantages of the weather In the first place they will have to realize where they can find a lot of people in the sum- Sporting events are a good place to start and you can figure on moat of the people being from your riding The key though la to work your way around the issues In a clever fashion Its not enough to say Whos winning than charge right ahead with a heavy discussion on regional government But If the pitcher grooves one right down the middle you can make some oblique comment about it being down the pipe and right away youre talking about the Big Pipe Besides at a ball game they might ask you to throw out the first ball or something and youU get noticed Or you can always go up to the public address announcer and slip him a buck or two to have him page you over the system Beaches are a good place to go if you can be sure that some of the people there are from your riding Ill bet BUI Hodgson and and Bob Lewis have already thought of that one will be all for going to the beach while Biils crew might think It a bit of a disadvantage to be caught in a bathing suit competition with the lady from King Of course if you wanted to participate in some campaign dirty tricks you could always hire a couple of bullies in the other guys straw hats to kick sand at weaklings Summer campaign people should always carry a fly swatter and a mosquito net when hitting tome of those areas near rivers and back to the car creeks Another good thing to have is a loud That way you can talk to a voter while he cuts the lawn Thats a good time to talk about development and you can remind the voter that developers would like to see all that grass turned into pavement Then if you are antidevelopment you can ask for his support and promise to keep his grass A note of caution here If its a big lawn and the guy looks almost dead from cutting it you might be better off not to mention the Issue at all There is another good source of people for candidates in the summer but I recommend It to only the seasoned veteran A candidate who is tactful and fast on his feet might try this source drivein movies WhUe the intermission is on you can hang around the pop corn stand and shake hands Or you can offer to help people carry the goodies A sharp campaigner might also try some cardoor knocking during dull spots in the movie but as mentioned earlier fast feet and a sharp mind are needed in this last endeavour Hi there Im BUI your candidate for sorry doctor I didnt realize you were making a house call Hope the young lady is feeling well You can see that you have to be a quick thinker to work the driveins Summer cam paigners should take a note about television advertising in the summer a rerun You might try the same thing and use old film of yourself campaigning on old issues People are so used to seeing the seme old things over and over again dont think its a good idea to try and jog them awake with say startling new issues One final note about summer c Keep your cool