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PAGE 4, WEDNESDAY OCTOBER 20, 1982, WHITBY FREE PRESS ýlIshed every Wednesday 0whtby Volce of the County Town The onlv Whithv newsaner jnalont-nIantl ni. Miihaellan Burgess, Publisher - Managing Editor by M.B.M. Publishing and Photography Inc. Phone 668-6111 The Free Press Building, 131 Brock Street North, P.O. Box 206, Whitby, Ont. LESLIE BUTLER Communlty Editor ELIZABETH NOZDRYN Advertislng Manager Second Class Mail Reglitration No. 5351 Local politics can have largest affect on individual Municipal politics may seem like small potatoes compared to the high power, high price activities of the federal and provincial govern- ments. The guy that's running for council may be your next door neighbor, someone you know at the of- fice, or your son's hockey coach. Instead of being vague names performing un- clear functions in far-off places, municipal politi- clans are visible in the here and now. They're so earthly as to be positively pedestrian. But don't let the seemingly casual nature of municipal politics take away from its importance. The people we'll all be electing November 8 have perhaps the greatest impact on the lives of their constituents precisely because they are the people next door. They'll decide whether a high-rise apartment building-can be put up next to your cosy private home. They'll tell you when and if you'll be get- I've been reading Simon Winchester's new book on British peers, called "Their Noble Lordships: Class and Power in Modern Britain." Early in the book, Winchester deals scathingly with the House of Lords. He says that stepping into the Lords is "rather like passing through a number of airlocks into some antique submarine." Once inside, he continues, "The fanciful can conjure up all man- ner of fantasies: about the only suggestion that seems perfectly ridiculous is that this antique chamber is in any way connected with the manufacture of laws for the teeming masses outside its doors." And he suggests that the House of Lords, whose occupants are legislators of a sort, merely because of birth or appointment, must be unique in the world's democracies. It was at that point that I put the book down, sighed, and found myself think- ing about the Canadian Senate. It is filled not with peers, but with those annointed by the federal party in power. Because of the peculiar whims of the Canadian voter in recent years, the majority tend to be of one political stripe. There are good men and woman in the Senate. Perhaps they all are. But if they are, it's despite the way they're selected. Fortunately, not all retired politicians and faithful party men are hacks. Also fortunately, recent Prime Ministers have had attacks of conscience. But the quali- ty of its inhabitants in no way saves the Senate from the kind of gentle opprobrium that Simon Winchester heaps on the House of Lords. Both institutions have been defended from time to time as the chambers of sober se- cond thought. But on the rare occasions when the sober second thought has produced a radically different con- clusion than the impestuous first thought, the lower houses in bath countries have become threatening. If Win- chester is right to ridicule the House of Lords - and its hard to fault him on that - what excuse is there for our Senate beyond the crippling inertia that exists at our federal centre? If the original plant is itself in some jeopar- dy in the mother soil, why should the colonial transplant continue to have a lease on life? The House of Lords is at least a homegrown British anachronism. The Senate is a borrowed one, and largely unreformed. And the fore- most reform being bandied about now, is that at least some of the senators should be appointed by the pro- vinces. This system, it's true, would end the Liberal stranglehold, but it would also probably tend to diminish the appointments of real Canadian nationalists. We'd merely be exchanging one kind of nightmare for another, when the real solution may simply be to wake up. That's not news but that too is reality. ting sidewalks. Whether your neighborhood will havea school, how much you'll have ta pay for it, when you'll get it. Whether the downtown will have more or fewer traffic lights, how the core will be developed and whether your favorite building on the corner will be demolished. Whether your road will be gravel or paved, if your sewers are upgraded or left to pour sludge in- to neighboring land. The list is endiess. Sewers and roads may not be as exciting as the bringing home of the Canadian constitution, unless of course it's your road that's ,full of pot- holes. Zoning by-laws may not peak your interest as much as the National Energy Program, unless it's your private neighborhood that is allowed to be made Into another gasoline alley. Municipal politics can be pretty exciting when a scrappy waterfrant is turned into a chic shopping area with restaurants and shops. Or when that creaky bridge you've been taking your life into your hands with every time you cross it becomes a wider, safer overpass. It can be pleasantly surprising to actually get through to your municipal representative on the telephone, and have him have first-hand know- ledge of your problem because he lives on the same holey street. It can be immensely satisfying to blast the same representative in person because nothing was done to fill the holes. If federal and provincial politics are the heady heights of government, municipal politics are the hands and feet. Where they walk, who they walk with and where, what their left and rights hands are doing should be of great concern to every resident of municipalities about to make electoral decisions. If the Spadina Expressway in Toronto is any example, municipal politics is the, one level that the argument "There's nothing I can do anyway" just doesn't work. If you run up against a brick wall on the muni- cipal level, at least you know whose wali it is. And you may even be able to work a few cracks in it. When all is said and done on the federal and provincial levels of government, it is most often the municipalities that interpret and Implement legislation. They're right in our own back yard, so let's use them. UNICEF Week for Safe Drink ing Water Dear Sir: Again this year, I note with interest that the On- tario UNICEF Commlttee has declared the week of October 24 to 31, 1982, to be UNICEF Week for Safe Drinking Water. During this week UNICEF will promote citizen awareness of the United Nations "International Drinking Water Supply and Sanitation Decade, 1981 - 1990", and I wish the Committee every success on behalf of the Government of Ontarlo. The goal of this U.N.-declared Decade is to ell- minate*by 1990 the threat of death and disease which continues to endanger the lives of approxi- mately 500 million children in the developing world. During 1981, the first fundraising year of this decade, UNICEF Canada supported eleven pro- jects in all parts of the developing world to provide safe water and sanitation for more than one mil- lion people. Ontarians, through their donations to UNICEF, contrIbuted over $400,000 toward these projepts. I urge the people of Ontario to join with me again in offering encouragement and support to UNICEF during UNICEF Week for Safe Drinking Water. Your generosity will help UNICEF to achieve the goal of clean water for ail, thus ensur- Ing a healthy future for children less fortunate than our own. William G. Davis, Queen's Park, Toronto. -- ----., ..Kre i i wnanaiu petuedoy WflitWyresidents for Whitby rsdns