The following text may have been generated by Optical Character Recognition, with varying degrees of accuracy. Reader beware!

A6 The BraThe Banner Thursday Jan 2010 NION Established 1S53 THE ERATHE BANNER 51 Sums Crt Newmarket ON 1 N Aurora ON Publisher Ian Proudfoot Robert EDITORIAL Cabinet shuffles more about image than substance ISSUE Prime ninistfr and premier give cabinets new looks in face of resignations Prime Minister Stephen Harper and Premier McGuinty shuffled their cabinets this week Although both lead ers needed to make a few moves to fill cabinet vacancies both also made changes that appear to make little sense Mr McGuinty had to fill two vacancies in his cabinet as former energy and infrastructure minister George Smitherman and former municipal affairs minister Jim Wat son stepped down to run in munici pal elections Both of those are highprofile roles so its understandable Mr McGuinty would want experienced ministers filling them As a result several moves had to be made Mr Harper on the other hand only had to replace one relatively minor cabinet minister as Greg Thompson resigned as veterans affairs minister Those were the only moves he needed to make but he made a few more cosmetic changes likely to give the appearance his government is doing something while Parliament is prorogued Mr Harper moved JeanPierre Blackburn into the role and gave cabinet newcomer Keith Ashfield Mr Blackburns old job as minister of national revenue Those were the only moves he needed to make but he made a few more cosmetic changes likely to give the appearance his govern ment is doing something while Par liament is prorogued Both cabinet shuffles include moves that show just how little impact some ministers have on their departments For example MP Peter Van Loan was moved to the role of minister of international trade Its Mr Van Loans third new position in just more than three years He became government house leader and minister for dem ocratic reform in 2007 then was moved to the Ministry of Public Safety in Scarborough Centre MPP Brad Duguid had a similar rapid progres sion He became minister of labour in 2007 moved to the Aboriginal Affairs Ministry in 2008 and is now minister of energy can someone be expected to lead a ministry effectively with just more than a year on the job How can someone be expected to lead a ministry effectively with just more than a year on the job The answer is these ministers arent really pulling the strings While a minister might come forward with some ideas ultimate ly those ideas must be compatible with party policies and party a leader or a party has clear ideas on a particular ministry the minister has little Impact Ultimately bureaucrats do most of the work in any ministry and the minister is only there to tell those bureaucrats the will of the govern ment These cabinet shuffles like many others have more to do with the image of the governments involved than actual policy Kelly he Conservative the shuffle A A A A LETTERS TO THE EDITOR Ward system fair for everyone He Residents push town for ward system Dec 6 A ward system for East Gwil- is the only solution for fair representation of all resi dents Under the atlarge system if you need to have your concerns met you need to locate one of the councillors In a ward system a council lor is elected to represent your ward How wonderful would that be to be able to hold someone accountable If the councillor could not represent hisher ward appropri ately he may not be reelected With the future growth of our community I vote yes to the ward system and would like to thank the Sullivans for their initiative to begin this process MARYANN THOMAS BOTTOM LINE Making moves for the sake of making moves makes no sense Belinda should consider getting back into politics An open letter to Belinda Stro I would like to commend our former MP Belinda Stronach This evening I read about her incredible effort to provide relief to Haitians in which she teamed up with FirstAir and is sending a combined donation of 125000 to this ravaged country Kudos to this terrific lady who has donated so much to help this community ranging from Southlake Regional Health Cen tre to volunteer group Neigh bourhood Network Ms Newmarket needs you and so does the Lib eral party Now that Margaret Black is officially out as a candidate please consider running Plowing policy needs clarification Re Slippery sidewalks fan 7 I live on the deadend of Ave nue Road More than a year ago our area was the proud recipient of about 200 yards of sidewalk When winter arrived I inquired to the town about its cleaning of the small piece of walk In the past I believe the town was plowing from Lome Avenue but stopped at Carol Avenue The response was there was no room in the budget for the extra yards of plowi Having looked at the plowing of many walks in the surround ing neighbourhoods I have been struck by the fact there seems to be no obvious reason behind which sidewalks are plowed and which arent In some areas walks on both sides of the road are plowed in others only walks on one side is side is plowed To clarify the towns policy I have emailed the mayors office twice but am still waiting for a reply The only possible conclusion I can reach is either the town does not have a policy or the mayors office doesnt know the answer Either conclusion is unsatis factory Harper not first PM to prorogue Parliament Im not sure how many of you are liberal NDRTory Green or another party follower but I think its high time the air was cleared I am a Tory supporter and proud of it I have always been and probably will always be I am neither pro nor con Prime Minister Stephen Harper but he is the best leader com pared to other party leaders He is not the first leader to prorogue Parliament Why is it when thenprime minister Jean Chretien pro rogued Parliament during a judi cial inquiry for the beating of a Somali teenager by the Canadian Forces in the early 1990s no less there was no such uproar as what we see today Everybody needs to remem ber MPs are not vacationing They are in fact working in their constituencies and available if anyone should need to contact them And for those who say Mr Harper prorogued Parliament because he is afraid to deal with crime I respond with the obvi ous any tough crime bill will never be passed in a minority government Airport body scanners stop racial profiling When is Toronto going to smarten up and get the new air port body scanners This would be a lot less of a hassle than getting a pat down or the use of a handheld scanner This Christmas a man got on board a plane with a bomb in his underwear He never completed his mis sion thanks to the actions of flight attendants and passengers Would a patdown have stopped this man horn doing this I dont think so lb stop racial profiling this body scanner would be helpful and ease the minds of innocent passengers just wanting to get to their destination Taking off our shoes and put ting small liquids into plastic bags just slows down the board ing process We have scanners for our carryon bags why not bring in the body scanners Too expensive for us My sense is our government doesnt care about our safety that But I care I want to live and enjoy my life to the fullest That is why I love to travel The airport should have brought these body scanners in just after the 1 1 attack We need to send a message to the world that we do care about air travel safety I would love to be the first to go through a body Decrease speed limit before more people die Re Region stalls on plans to lower speed limits Jan For more than 18 months I have lobbied regional council and the mayor of East Gwillim- bury to review the speed limit on Green Lane at Yonge Street My reasons are twofold First I believe 80 kmh is too fast for vehicles to proceed through that Secondly Id like confirm it was intentional that the eastbound speed limit would not be the same as the west bound limit for the same stretch of Green Lane- Proceeding eastbound on Green Lane from the limit is kmh until just east of That is much too fast to pro ceed through the intersection of the Costco exit Proceeding westbound on Green Lane from Main Street North the limit is 80 kmh until a point just before the traffic light for the entrance to Lowes where it drops to 70 kmh While I understand develop ing a speed limit policy for the region may proceed at a snails pace it seems in the interest of road safety a review of the speed limit in one specific area should be possible without having to wait more than two yean Within the last two years there has been at least one traffic fatality on Green Lane just west of While I cannot say the speed limit was a contributing factor to that death I am fully convinced 80 kmh is too fast for that stretch of road I ask the transportation com mittee to review this particular speed limit before another death occurs Honour the good character in our communities The driver deliberately moved his vehicle Into the lane in which I was driv ing drawing my eyes away from his screaming face to his SUV mere inches away from my vehicle As we stopped at the red light he leaned across the passenger seat his face twisted and red spittle frying and despicable obscenities spewing from his mouth The light turned green and he sped off leaving me shaking in shock and disbelief over the sheer force of the toxic rage that was an ballpark to a minor incident in a parking lot I had pulled out from a lane in the parking lot to join a line of cars wait ing to turn onto Yonge Street seeing his approaching car but admittedly misjudging actually not expect ing the careless speed at which he was tearing through the lot Our vehicles hadnt even come close but as he pulled up behind me he was blaring his hom gesturing wildly and shouting I had raised my hand to genu inely acknowledge his courtesy in allowing my vehicle a place ahead of his but quickly dropped it as he continued to honk Take a pill buddy I thought whats the big deal and waved him off very As my car moved to the front of the line he got out of his SUV I let this ticking time bomb stomp his way up to my door before I drove off Thats when he chased me trying to run me off the road endangering not only me rout the other drivers around me His road rage was the most extreme 1 had personally experienced the icing on the cake of the aggres sive cutting off and third- finger raising behaviour on our roads that is now so common its expected if not accepted We all make mistakes with nei ther intention nor spite do they real ty merit this contemptuous disregard for common courtesy In the week following the guys ugly spittle- marred face came to mind each time I observed yet anoth er roadway discourtesy Its dispiriting to see this onslaught of rudeness impatience frustration and general lack of manners and not only on We see it in the political arena in neighborhoods and schools at malls and grocery stores on TV at hockey rinks and the workplace Not to men tion MTV awards It seems as if weve resigned our selves to this coarsening of our cul ture After all what can we do about it but live our own lives and raise our children with civility Its too easy to feel helpless if not frustrated and angry ourselves against the bar rage of rude angry mean disrespect ful and hurtful behaviour But we can do more We can hon our the good in our communities Compassion courtesy rrsponsi- bility courage integrity and optimism abound in the political arena in neighborhoods and schools at malls and grocery stores on TV at hockey rinks and the workplace And even on our roads sometimes Its important to recognize what is right about our communities which is why the York Region Character Community Foundation hosts an annual awards celebration in April The event honours individuals and organizations that have dem onstrated attributes such as courage fairness integrity opti mism compassion and initiative Please join the celebration by sponsoring an award or making a nomination there are 22 catego ries Including the citizen of charac ter business leader neighborhood of character and Clark sports award Nomination forms available at wwwcharactercommunitycom must be submitted by Feb LETTERS POLICY All must be Ion than wore and a daytime telephone number name and The Era The Banner reserves the right to publish or not publish and 10 edit for dart and space rttt to Dm Editor Tm Boa Bonnie Rondeau Administration fokn MacKinnon EDITORIAL ADVERTISING Fax DISTRIBUTION 057a75i7t Fax 057a7a0 THE ERATHE BANNER 1 ON r