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PAGE 6THE CANADIAN STATESMAN, OCTOBER 10,2001 &Opinions FOR 146 YEARS. OUR FIRST CONCERN HAS BEEN OUR COMMUNITY Publisher - Tim Whittaker Editor-in-chief - Joanne Burghardt Managing Editor - Judi Bobbitt Advertising Manager - Brian G. Purdy Advertising - Laverne Morrison, Christian-Ann Goulet Office - Junia Hodge, Nancy Plcasancc-Sturman Editorial - Brad Kelly, Jennifer Stone, Jacquie Mclnnes Œlje Cattabtan Statesman Former Publishers and Partners Rev. John M. Climie and W.R. Climie 1854-1878 M.A. James 1878-1935 • Norman S.B. James 1919-1929 G. Elena James, 1929-1947 • Dr. George W. James 1919-1957 John M. James, 1957-1999 Produced by Mctroland Printing, Publishing & Distributing Ltd. Also Publishers of CLAR1NGTON THIS WEEK P.O. Box 190, 62 King St. W„ Bowmanville, Ontario L1C 3K9 TEL: 905-623-3303 FAX: 905-623-6161 HOURS: Monday to Friday 9:00 a.m. until 5:00 p.M. E-mail: ncwsroom@durhamrcgion.com Publications Mail Registration No. 07637 EDITORIAL e-mail letters to nc\vsmom@ditrhamregimt.cam This is Canada's war, too We must do all we can to wipe out terrorism Any doubts about Canada's involvement in Operation 'Enduring Freedom' were eliminated in just a few hours Sunday. Shortly before the cruise missiles began firing on military military sites in Afghanistan, President George Bush and Prime Minister Jean Chretien spoke on the phone about the impending military campaign. As he has since Sept. 11, our Prime Minister promised Canada's full involvement involvement - we will stand 'shoulder to shoulder' is what he repeated repeated Sunday - in any campaign against terrorism. Let there be no wavering in our commitment to this goal. In a world where you are either with those who stand for freedom or with the terrorists, to paraphrase the President, President, how can we have any doubts? Inaction now would only offer comfort to Osama bin Laden and his gang of thugs, bent on destroying innocent people around the planet who do not share their warped views. Mr. bin Laden has upped the ante year after year in his desire for blood. In 1993 he murdered several people in the bombing at the World Trade Center. In 1998 he slaughtered hundreds in the explosions of U.S. embassies in Tanzania and Kenya. On Sept. 11 his terrorist network wiped out thousands in the suicide flights in New York City and the Pentagon. Mr. bin Laden and other terrorists across the globe have absolutely no interest in negotiation or diplomacy. They want complete submission to their whims, nothing less. Compromise is a word they sneer at. How can you talk to people who are not bothered by the prospect of dying for their cause? To allow Mr. bin Laden to continue his evil killing sprees, to allow him to recruit more young, impressionable, impressionable, naïve men to his cause would be totally irresponsible and would place western nations at the mercy of terrorism. That is not acceptable. It shows a total lack of respect for the thousands cut down by terrorism. War is a last resort, one not taken lightly by members of NATO. It is costly, puts many lives at risk and leaves the stability of governments and economies in jeopardy. But the constant, unending worldwide threat from terrorism terrorism leaves our government with no choice. The 2,000 soldiers, six ships and six aircraft which make up Canada's contingent to 'Enduring Freedom' will work largely behind the lines. However, the highly secretive secretive Joint Task Force 2 may enter Afghanistan to fight on the ground. Our prayers and hopes are with them. www.dollEhan.com LOOKING BACK WITH . THE STATESMAN 25 YEARS AGO Oct. 13,1976 Repairs are planned for the Newcastle Arena, after the Ministry of Labour dictates the arena must be brought up to standard under the building code. The estimated $30,000 worth of repairs are to be undertaken by a local carpenter and the arena is to remain open during the winter season while repairs are made. Council awaits a report on the Orono arena to see if it can open for the season. 50 YEARS AGO Oct. 11,1951 Rotary club guest speaker, OPP Inspector Albert Witt told a Bowmanville audience motorists are killing their own children during a presentation of accident reports that included three incidents in the fall of 1950 when parents accidentally ran over their own children in their driveways. In 1950, 146 children were killed as a result of automobile accidents, the inspector reported. 75 YEARS AGO Oct. 14,1926 The Dominion Store moves to the Cowan Block, opposite opposite the Post Office after a staff of men from Toronto came to town to assist the local manager with the task of transporting transporting goods to the new location. The move is heralded as a "distinct improvement to the four corner" as the space had been vacant for some time. The store is described as "striking" in appearance with its "bright Wool worth red paint." Information taken from the archives of The Canadian Statesman $oim. LETTERS TO THE EDITOR Red Cross says thanks for the help To the editor: I want to congratulate the Red Cross volunteers, donors and staff in our area for their extraordinary extraordinary effort in the weeks following the horrifying terrorist attacks in the United States. They truly lived up to their promise to help when help is needed. The Red Cross was flooded with calls from donors and volunteers as Canadians reacted' reacted' with horror and then sought a way to lend a helping hand. The Red Cross had activated its disaster services network nationwide nationwide within hours of the bombings and stood ready to provide assistance to the American American Red Cross. Working with -mail letters to nc\vsroom@diirhamrcgion.c local emergency and airport authorities, authorities, we were poised to help diverted air traffic passengers brought to our area or offer assistance assistance as needed. Red Cross volunteers in Atlantic Atlantic Canada operated 16 reception reception centres to help more than 15,000 passengers on more than 100 flights that were rerouted to Newfoundland, Nova Scotia and New ' Brunswick. Their 24-hour a day operation provided food, shelter and personal assistance to those • passengers unable to continue to their destinations. We are working working with all major banks in Canada to accept donations and are operating a 24-hour hotline at 1 -800-418-1 111. Cheques can also be directed to the local Red Cross office and earmarked 'U.S. A Appeal.' Locally the region of Durham has approximately 50 trained volunteers on standby ready to be dispatched if needed. We are also providing 'Tracing and Reunion' services for anyone anyone trying to locate family members in New York City or Washington. The response from the people of Durham has been amazing: we have handled over 3,000 telephone inquiries, most of which were people asking how they could help, and where they could make donations. We also received offers from many local families to billet stranded travellers (due to airport closures) closures) in their homes. We wish to thank our community community for their support. Anyone interested in finding out how they can become part of the Red Cross team should call the local office for information on volunteer opportunities to assist assist those in need in our community community and around the world. Heather ]Boyd Red Cross Disaster Services Chairman Durham Region Branch Ontario Liberals play with fire Candidates are sometimes dictated to riding associations Ontario's poll-leading Liberals Liberals very much favour having more democracy in their party - they just don't want to rush into it. Liberal leader Dalton McGuinty told a party think- tank a few months ago he is committed to bringing it 'democratic 'democratic renewal.' He said this would include making governing more transparent transparent and accountable and giving giving MPPs more opportunities to show independence and vote the way they believe, rather than merely having to follow the party line, which among other benefits would attract a high calibre of candidates. The Liberal leader had a chance to show his version of democracy in action when his party chose a candidate in a recent recent byelection in Bcaches-Easl York riding. Half-a-dozen local Liberal stalwarts, including appropriately appropriately their unsuccessful candidate candidate in the last general election and a former riding association president, sought the nomination nomination and went through the traditional traditional grind of calling residents and signing up new members, believing they were in a process that would lead to the best among them being chosen. But they were wrong, because because Mr. McGuinty quietly called Bob Hunter, a minor celebrity because lie helped found the environmental group Greenpeace and became a TV reporter. A party spokesman announced announced all the other potential candidates quickly agreed he was the best for the job and stepped aside. The spokesman had ap pealed to them to put their party before their personal ambitions and told them Mr. Hunter had the best chance of winning, but he could not prove it because Mr. Hunter lost the byelection and it could even be argued one of the others might have won. This was not the first time a party hierarchy has told a riding association who should be its candidate, but such interventions interventions normally are conducted in private and hidden from the public gaze. The most notorious was more than two decades ago, when Tory premier William Davis was trying to get a close friend since university, Roy McMurtry, now Ontario's chief justice, into the legislature. A traditionally safe Tory riding riding opened up in a byelection in 1973 and Mr. Davis warned off several others who would have tried for the nomination and Mr. McMurtry got it, but in a huge upset lost to a hardworking Liberal Liberal municipal politician who knew her constituents, Margaret Margaret Campbell. Mr. Davis was determined to get Mr. McMurtry in and when he called a general election in 1975, quietly told one of his MPPs, Leonard Reilly, in an even safer riding, he would have to step aside for his friend. Mr. Reilly, who lmd been an MPP for 13 years, had no op tion, because he could not have won the nomination against Mr. McMurtry with his aura as an influential insider and the premier's premier's backing. Mr. Reilly went quietly, unwilling unwilling to be seen publicly as having been forced out, and Mr. Davis gave him the sops of being chairman of the Ontario Science Centre and a testimonial testimonial dinner. Morley Kells, a current Tory MPP and backbencher under Mr. Davis, was told by the party's then executive director he could run only in a riding where he had previously lost, but instead ran in a riding where he lived and won, and when they met thereafter Mr. Davis looked away and refused to recognize recognize him. Leaders in the New Democratic Democratic Party, notwithstanding its slogan of brotherly love, also have tried to steer candidacies to political friends, not always with success. When Bob Rae was chosen leader in 1982, the future premier premier had a reputation as a prodigy in the Commons but no seat in the legislature and some senior party members privately pressed the veteran Jim Rcn- wick, then 64, to give up his scat in Toronto to let Mr. Rae in. But Mr. Renwick had held his riding for 18 years, winning it from the Tories and making it his own. He was a former corporation corporation lawyer who gave his party much credibility, knew his value and had the confidence confidence to refuse. Former party leader Donald MacDonald eventually stepped aside for Mr. Rae. Jacquie Mclnnes Staff Writer jmcitmes(adurhamregion.com War too close to home So this is war. Impossible. In my lifetime, wars arc things fought far away over someone clse's home. It is not my kids whose school lessons might include evacuation drills. It's not my children who must be protected from people who leave their respect for humanity behind when they travel to foreign lands. It is someone clse's men who are put in danger as they go off to fight, see and do the unspeakable. It is something our grandfathers paid dearly dearly for whether they perished or whether they survived to remember the atrocities, the things human eyes were not meant to see. But it is not our fathers, husbands or sons who will be forever changed by the call of duty. And, certainly it is not our daughters, now equal in every sense, including equally responsible for protecting our country. It is someone else who must fear what might drop from the sky while she sleeps, someone else who must wonder if her body will be poisoned by the air she will breathe tomorrow. It is always nameless faces on some other continent. That is the way for Canadian civilians of my generation. We are not programmed for fear. War "is something we read about in the world, section of the paper or watch from a distance on CNN. Like others my age, I do have vague memories of one war close to home, of television news giving the latest update on Vietnam. But it was American men who were being killed and I, a little Canadian girl, was far too young to understand. And there was Iraq. But it was short and quick; victory was sweet. Nothing suggested it would touch civilians here. Our prayers were for our servicemen servicemen and women overseas. September 11, 2001 was the day 1 the unthinkable really did happen. Unthinkable Unthinkable because it brought someone else's world to North America. In our reality, it's someone else's buildings' that blow up, someone else's air that is; poisoned, someone else's skies that' are invaded. ' It has never been our place to won-; der if the person who lives down the street is all they seem or if the plane overhead is friend or foe. ; As we fight this war on terrorism -' and most of us believe we must - we; should reflect on how the problems of! the world ended up on our doorstep., 1 And at the same time, we must call on: our leaders to turn their minds and; h'earts to solutions for peace for the! civilians in Palestine and Israel, in the! Balkans, Ireland and Afghanistan and all of those people in too many coun-. tries who have lived their entire lives... ! as someone else. ' THE CANADIAN STATESMAN is one of the Metroland Printing, Publishing Publishing and Distributing group of newspapers. The Statesman is a member of the Bowmanville Claring- ton Board of Trade, the Greater Os- lmwa Chamber of Commerce, Ontario Ontario Community Newspaper Assoc., Canadian Community Newspaper Assoc., Canadian Circulations Audit Board and the Ontario Press Council. 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