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i PAGE 6 ♦ THE CANADIAN STATESMAN ♦ January 25,2006 Tim Whittaker Publisher Joanne Burghardt Editor-In-Chief Chris Bovie Managing Editor Fred Eismont Director of Advertising Eddie Kolodziejcak Classified Advertising Manager Kirk Bailey Distribution Manager Lillian Hook Office Manager Janice O'Neil, Cheryl Haines Composing Managers Clarington's Award-Winning Newspaper Since 1854 Efte Canabian Statesman Opinion J JANUARY 25, 2006 durhamregion.com Phone 905-579-4400 Classifieds 905-576-9335 Distribution 905-579-4407 General Fax 905-579-2238 Newsroom Fax 905-579-1809 E-Mail newsroom@durhamregion.com 865 Farewell St., Oshawa ON L1H 7L5 Publications Mail Registration No. 07637 infodurhamregion.com EDITORIAL e-mail letters to ncwsroom@durhamregion.com Tory tide sweeps over north, east Durham So, Canadians have voted for change, but with strict reservations. reservations. New Prime Minister Stephen Harper, 46, will have a minority minority government to work with. His problem, with 124 seats, is that he has no natural ally to ensure his legislative platform succeeds. . Mr. Harper will have to find common ground with a mixture . of Liberal. and NDP members -- the Bloc Québécois is not an option - in order to ensure Canadians Canadians are not heading back to the polls within a year's time. The Conservatives, down to only two seats after they were slaughtered at the polis in 1993, got their fractured party together over the past decade with. Mr. Harper deservedly getting much of the credit. Now, they have a chance at government. Ontario has still - not fully bought into the Conservative platform or Mr. Harper's ideas. The party was not able to take a single seat in Toronto and won just six out of 44 seats in'the Greater Toronto Area. It did break through in Quebec in winning winning 10 seats, almost all of them from the reeling Liberals. The Conservatives still have a large power base in western Canada. If they really want to earn a majority, they'll have to continue to gain seats in Ontario, Quebec and Atlantic Canada. The Liberals, who were looking looking at oblivion just a few weeks ago, benefitted from Paul Martin's Martin's voracious campaigning in the past 10 days and were able to deny Mr. Harper his majority. In earning 103 seats, the Liberals remain a strong opposition. Mr. Martin, an MP since' 1988 and prime minister since December 2003, has announced he will step down, allowing the Liberals to find a new leader and a new direction. Perhaps the happiest group of the night were Jack Layton and his NDP. The party earned 10 more seats to get to 29 and had its best showing since the 1988 election when it scored 43 seats under Ed Broadbent. Mr. Layton was able to offér himself and his party as a strong national alternative alternative to what he called the option of "Conservatives or corruption" and Canadians listened. So now, Mr. Harper will have to navigate the minefield of a minority Parliament. He'll be expected to bring forward his Federal Accountability Act, which will give the auditor-general auditor-general wider powers, protect whistle-blowers, whistle-blowers, improve campaign ' financing and ban former MPs, ministers, staff and civil servants from lobbying for five years after leaving office. Mr. Harper will be honour bound to bring forward his one- per cent GST tax cut immediately, immediately, to implement mandatory minimum minimum sentences for gun crimes, to institute his child-care plan that sees all parents of children five and under receive $1,200 each year for each child; and to attempt to work more closely with the U.S. on bilateral issues on trade, security and diplomacy. diplomacy. He'll have to listen closely to the concerns of Liberals and ' NDPers to get his programs passed and there will need to be some compromise, but Mn Harper has been given a chance and it is his to make the most of. Mr. Harper will have support support in Whitby-Oshawa riding as high-profile candidate Jim Flaherty traded his provincial position for a federal one after beating incumbent Liberal Judi Longfield. Mr. Flaherty, who has plenty of ministerial experience in Ontario government, should get a cabinet seat, perhaps even, ' finance' He'll also be able to look to Durham riding, where Bev Oda ' was an easy winner over Liberal challenger Doug Moffatt. Ms. Oda, the Conservative Heritage critic, is tabbed by some to take on that ministry now. In Oshawa, Conservative Colin Carrie won a tough two-way battle with NDP candidate Sid Ryan. Mr. Carrie, who beat Mr. Ryan by less than 500 votes in 2004, won by more than 2,000 this time. In Haliburton-Kawar- tha Lakes-Brock riding, Conservative Conservative Barry Devolin easily won re-election as expected. The Tory quartet can take a strong Durham presence to Ottawa Ottawa and remind Mr. Harper of the issues which matter most to Durham. At the top of the list is help for the auto industry and the imposition of an auto strategy which protects GM and supplier jobs. Mr. Harper must work to fix the trade imbalance faced by Canada with Asian auto-producing auto-producing countries and offer incentives to keep GM jobs in Durham. Help to clean up the Oshawa Harbour is necessary, as is money for local governments - think of the gas tax and other , incentives - to make sure services here do not suffer. While some issues, like doctor doctor shortages and health care, fall under provincial jurisdiction, support in the form of funding can come from fhe feds. And the region's farmers need help too. The local government members will have to make certain they. are not forgotten. Two local Liberals, both strong candidates, won re-election on Monday night. Dan McTeague (Pickering-Scarborough-East) and Mark Holland (Ajax-Picker- ing) were expected to win and both were re-elected easily. It will be an interesting Parliament. Parliament. We can only hope another campaign is not soon in the offing offing -- Canadians have made a choice, now the politicians of all stripes must make it work. LETTERS TO THE EDITOR e-mail letters to newsroom@durhamregion.com Restructuring health system not in our best interests To the editor: I have profound concerns about the potential loss of local health: services and the chaos in my workplace that will be caused by the Ontario Liberals' new Local Health Integration Networks (LHINs). The LHINs have the potential to severely restrict local access to services, forcing patients in our area to travel out of town for many services. The LHINs will also open the door to what is called "competitive "competitive bidding" where private businesses will compete on the lowest price, to win contracts to deliver an increasing proportion of our health services. Further, the LHINs are not local: control of health care in our region will be in the hands of an unelected board appointed by the government and answerable to the Health Ministry and cabinet cabinet - not the local community. Our local MPP and municipal leaders will - no longer have the influence to affect changes to decisions about health service delivery and program cuts in our community. It will all be in the hands of the unelected LHINs. So when the LHINs move services services from (our town) to another city down the highway, what recourse will patients have? None -- unless we act now and stop the LH1N legislation in its present form. Bill 36, that will set up these large health networks, is scheduled scheduled for committee hearings this winter. I ask your readers to please consider carefully the changes changes coming with these LHINs. Please call or e-mail your MPP today and be ready to attend an information meeting. It's bur .public health care that's at stake. Let's act now. ; Jacqueline King j Whitby We have to be fair on auto trade with China To the editor: Re: Worker fears imports from China, Tim Lepine letter, Jan. 13. I feel I must question the accuracy accuracy of Tim Lepine's letter to the editor concerning vehicle imports from China. General Motors has just announced a 27-year, high in vehicle sales. It also states that half of its sales are now outside of the United States and China is its second-biggest market. This being the case, what type of trade agreement would Mr. Lepine expect? Would it not be \ one that would allow equal units of trade between the two countries? countries? If so, how many million vehicles vehicles should China be allowed to import into the North American market? .• We constantly hear of the superior superior quality of the vehicles produced produced in Oshawa and I accept this. However, the problem is it appears to be only GM employees employees who can afford to buy them. The fact that Oshawa is manufacturing manufacturing vehicles that very few people can buy is not Joe Public's Public's fault. Start to compete, do not try and hide behind tariffs. Why not consider this when you tell your union to get you more money and benefits at con- tract time. Larry Jandron Bowmanville Let's have referendum on regional chairman To the editor: Re: Regional chairman referendum referendum rejected, Jan. 18. Recently pur local council voted against having the referendum referendum put on a ballot regarding election at large of the regional chairman come the November election. I class this as abuse of power and not listening to the taxpayers taxpayers and inform these people that democracy is alive and well. Let's have a vote and let the people decide what they want. Come November, let's show these people how democracy works. Ernie Roberts Bowmanville LETTERS We welcome letters that include name, city of residence and phone numbers for verification. Writers are generally limited to 200 words and one submission submission in 30 days. We decline announcements, poetry, open letters, consumer complaints, congratulations and thank you notes. The editor reserves the right to edit copy for length, style and clarity. The newspaper newspaper contacts only those people people whose submissions have been chosen for publication. FAX: 905-579-1809; E-MAIL: Newsroom ©durhamregion. com. Harper gets tryout with Canadians So, how do you like your Stephen Stephen Harper file government? One thing these last two elections elections - or perhaps we should look upon them as one long continuous continuous campaign from December December 2003 when Paul Martin became prime minister up to Monday night -- was that Canadians Canadians aren't really sure about what they really want. Minority governments seemed extinct in this country after continuous continuous majorities from 1980 through to 2000. Liberal and Conservative governments governments earned large mandates from an electorate content to pick a clear winner each federal election, But all of that has now changed and politics has become a trickier business than ever at Tim Kelly the federal level. Mr. Harper will have to wade through a nasty minefield of problems, not the least of which is that he has no natural policy alliance with any of the three parties in opposition. Some of His platform promises - especially especially his child-care plan to give $ l ,200 per year for each child under age six -- are likely dead in the water since each of the opposition opposition parties is totally opposed to it. Other plans, like a GST tax cut of one per cent, might be saleable saleable to the NDP and Liberals, if the Tories can convince them the Conservative platform won't take the country into deficit. Mr. Harper's idea to implement mandatory minimum sentences for gun crimes, to strengthen the Canadian military and to institute other tax cut measures have a better chance of success with opposition parties, At the local level it's good to see strong government representation, especially especially if a political heavyweight like Jim Flaherty finds a seat at the cabinet table. Durham elected elected federal Liberals by the score from 1993-2000 but we were largely plagued by' lightweights who failed to deliver much of substance especially when they were lost in a massive red tide. Mi 1 . Flaherty could find himself in finance or justice in a Harper government. He is one of the strongest Tories to come out of Ontario and will provide a voice in national affairs. Bev Oda, who has a chance to sit in cabinet, likely in Heritage, was also reelected reelected in Durham as was Colin Carrie, who fought off a tough challenge for the second straight election from union leader and NDP candidate Sid Ryan. This group of Tories has a chance to bring Durham's issues to the table and they should encourage Mr. Harper to initiate policies to help the auto industry, to help clean up Oshawa Harbour, to help correct the Ontario fiscal balance that sees this province contribute many billions more than it gets back from Ottawa. These initiatives will boost Conservative Conservative fortunes in Ontario. One last word about the campaign: campaign: If you listened to the federal federal leaders, especially in the last few weeks, you'd think they were all monsters, While it's part of the game of politics, it will be interesting to sec how they work together to deliver programs to all Canadians, That's what voters have demanded, Copy editor Tim Kelly's column appears every other Wednesday. E-mail tkelly@durhamregion.com. • CLICK AND SAY Today's question: What top priority do you feel the new government should have? Tax cuts Child care Reduce wait times Electoral reform Better relations with U.S. Cast your vote online at infodurhamregiori.com Last week's question: Have you found advantages in the new transit system yet, disadvantages or is it just service as usual? Improved service 25.7% No change 34.6% Difficult to use 39.7% Votes cast: 136 HAVE YOUR SAY What do you want the new government to accomplish? Barb McMillan A "Every promise that they have ever promised." Bev Jones "Going in and doing what they say they are going to do." Pauline McKnight "Stiffer sentences for criminals criminals and better amendments to the Youth Justice Act." Jake Schaap 1 "I don't care, they are all the same. Nothing will .change. They are all corrupt." The Canadian Statesman is one of the Metroland Printing, Publishing and Distributing group of newspapers. The Statesman is a member of the Bowmanville Clarington Board of Trade, the Greater Oshàwa Chamber of Commerce, Commerce, Ontario Community Newspaper Assoc., Canadian Canadian Community Newspaper Assoc., Canadian Circulations Circulations Audit Board and the Ontario Press Council. The publisher reserves the right to classify or refuse any advertisement. Credit for advertisement advertisement limited to space price error occupies. Editorial and Advertising content of the Canadian Statesman Is copyrighted. 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