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2 - Orono Weekly Times, Wednesday, September 25,2002 ^ »CNA .u Serving East Ctanngtcn and beyond since 1P3d Subscriptions $29.91 + $2.09 G.S.T. = $32.00 per year. Publications Mail Registration No. 09301 • Agreement No. 40012366 , Publishing 48 Issues Annually at the Office of Publication "We acknowledge, the financial support,#/ the.Government of Cqpada through the Publications Assistance Program (PAP) toward our mailing costs.'" > v Oronô Weekly Times i 5310 Main Street, P.O. Box 209, Orono, Ontario LOB 1M0 E-mail: oronotimes@speedline.ca • Phone/Fax 905-983-5301 Publisher/Editor Margaret Zwart The Orono Weekly Times welcomes letters to the editor on subjects of interest to our readers. Opinions expressed to the editor and articles are those of the writers and do not necessarily reflect the opinions of the Orono Weekly Times. Letters must be signed and contain the address and phone number of the writer. Any letter considered unsuitable will not be acknowledged or returned. We reserve the right to edit for length, libel and slander. If your retail or classified ad appears for the first time, please check carefully. Notice of an error must be given before the next issue goes to print. The Orono Weekly Times will not be responsible for the loss or damage of such, items. You can't legislate good taste Developing a set of architectural design guidelines guidelines unique to Clarington is an interesting concept. concept. Forcing developers of new subdivisions to use a set of design guidelines rather than letting the market decide what is acceptable raises some contentious contentious issues. Durham Home Building Association President, Victor Hume's point is well made that imposing guidelines to improve a neighbourhood's aesthetics aesthetics only pleases the person driving down the street. So too is Councillor Rowe's observation that a Courtice development of homes didn't even have front doors, has over time become quite culturally culturally diverse. Where one home owner has renovated renovated their price sensitive starter home along a Victorian theme, the next home is redone in a country style. That neighbourhood has now taken on a cultural heritage of its own, which just proves you can't legislate good taste. Designing homes that encourage families to hang out in the front of the house rather than the back, is not conducive to today's lifestyles. Hume's point was very well made. The first thing new home buyers do, is erect six foot high privacy fencing in their backyards. What once passed for taking an interest in your neighbours is now often considered as being a nosy neighbour. Streetscapes dominated by garages will no longer be the norm. Garages will now be more incorporated into the home's design. The new design guidelines will attempt to cover up the fact that we are a society dependent on the automobile. While the design guidelines are not a bad thing, they should be extended to the strip malls that litter litter our main arteries. The west Bowmahville Mall which was supposed supposed to be the gateway to Bbwmanville demonstrates demonstrates a lack of creative design. While the towers were created to give some height variation to the strip plaza, they ended up looking like guard towers towers at a penitentiary. When the LCBO a number of years ago requested permission to put additional additional signage on one of the towers, they were denied their request because it would not be aesthetically appealing. The half burnt out string of light bulbs that now decorate those towers look worse than a well designed LCBO sign would. While beauty is in the eye of the beholder, one is still hard pressed to find beauty in a row of houses. *..i 4 VIEWPOINT By Alex Shepherd, MP Durham East How strange to see former Ontario premier David Peterson say former finance minister Paul Martin is a sure thing for winning the leadership leadership of the federal Liberal Party of Canada. Peterson is the man who thought winning was a sure thing when he called an election election in 1990, only three years into his mandate, and ended up being trounced by the NDP and finishing in third place. While Mr. Martin sits on the backbenches, waiting for the keys to the Prime Minister's Office, he is making all kinds of overtures to the MPs about parliamentary reform. While 1 believe we need some fundamental changes I am leery about his follow through on his promise. Almost every prime minister minister in waiting has promised parliamentary reform and all have paid only lip service they once established in office. There is some fundamental reason why parliamentary reform is difficult. Typically, today's world is run by big organizations. We see this in business, labour and even charities. They are highly centralized centralized and weld significant lobbying power. Look at Canada Steamship Lines, a corporation owned by Paul Martin. It doesn't operate within a decentralized structure structure with uninformed people wielding decision-making power. It is very highly centralized. centralized. And now that I think of it I don't ever remember Martin's tenure as finance minister being characterized by decentralized decision making. Government is similarly organized into a highly centralized centralized control group. Moreover, in a highly specialized specialized world, a centralized government government is necessary in order to ensure public policy unfolds efficiently and effectively. effectively. . There is however * a nega tive result in that parliamentarians parliamentarians become marginalized. As you are probably aware MPs Usually bring little expertise in specific fields and worse, they are often uninformed uninformed about the issues they are confronting. This relegates an MPs role to being a conduit for his dr her constituents. Therefore, reforming parliament parliament is not as simple as saying saying I'll give MPs a larger roll in the House of Commons. You have to define the roll. Why? Because the structures of government, business and society in general, are already set. The question before Liberals and the country as well, is who can best lead us into the future? The press hasn't shown any interest in holding Paul Martin accountable for what he would do, if and when he became Prime Minister. They have given the former finance minister minister a fairly easy ride. Continued on pogo 3