WATERLOO CHRONICLE " King St. South, Suite 201 Waterloo, Ontario N2) 1P2 Publisher: Cal mm 88621130 Far. 386-9383 E-mail: wctuonicieesentecnet The Watertoo Chromde is published every Wednesday try The Fairway Group. a division of Southern Ontario Community Newspapers Inc,. a division of Soumam Publications. a CanWest Company. The views ot our columists are their own and do nol necessarily represent those of the newspaper. (Indian Ptd6catwns Mail Sales Produa Wm Number HES?!) tsteesoasumtal Staodud Serial Number ISSN 0832-300 0-:de 'e11t.ettr Andra Bailey Pmvtty.ec Audited circulation: 26056 Letters Policy The Waterloo Chronic le welcomts Imus to the Editor They should be signed with name, address and phone num- ber and will be verttted lo: astu- lacy No unsigned letters will be wwmed, Submissions my be ,-_..,, - edited fol length, so please be brbet Camila-I in mun and other materials submitted to the Publisher and accepted for puhmn remains with tho author. but the whim: and its Iicetasees may freely reproduce them In prot, electronic or other Forms Our mulling address " 75 King St s . Sun: 20) . Waterloo N2,r IP2, our email address n wihmnKleWMcx nan and out (a number is 3068st Transit help is needed now for seniors, the disabled and the working poor n July 3, 2001, supported by Brian Norris, vice-chair of the 55+ Advisory Committee of Waterloo. Irene deBlock (who has a son on disability), Mary Ann Wasilka of a transit user group (who originally brought up the free bus pass issue in 2000) and Paul Danzer who uses Alternative Transport and I addressed the Waterloo region community services committee. -a---r- We were con- cerned about a new regional staff report which includes reduced fares for women. physical accessi- bility to transit, and accessibility to major destina- tions and residen- tial centres. Our concerns were that our orig- inal request for free bus passes for seniors, disabled and the working poor, made in luly 2000, will not be submerged in this enlarged transit report, or put back beyond the 2001 budget. Solutions will acts of Bravery not be easy to Ftnd given the cam. and courage... plexity of the issues and variety of the stakeholders. However, we are still hopeful that after waiting over a year, the region will give seniors, disabled and the working poor free passes to travel during non-peak hours by 2002. Help is needed now! Now for a different topic. As an ex-serviceman and member of the Canadian Legion 530 in Waterloo, I cannot understand how a politician of any party can put private member's Bill C-300 which, - . . I. t _ t8_, ._....L...... on u... pm rm-.- if passed, would allow family members to wear deceased veterans' medals and deco- rations. To my and many veterans' minds, this would degrade and devalue the Canadian honour system. Medals are won and awarded for individual acts of bravery and courage or for service of extraordinary personal contributions to the nation. Medals represent the highest forms of recognition; that is why it is a criminal offense to wear someone else's medals. When you see someone wearing a medal, he or she will be recognized for having earned the medal by serving Canada in a special way. Families can honour the valor of veter- ans who have died by ensuring they have the medals properly mounted, framed and displayed. Future generations would then come to remember, with gratitude, the sac- rifices made by those who have gone before them. I would urge you to let your federal MP know you would not support such legislation individual acts of bravery and courage. . . Medals are won and awarded for VIEW_P_Q_INT anada has lost out on the Olympics, and at this point that's all to the good. Until the sports Jamboree fully cleans up its act, we should have no part of providing the venue. The 'iiiy'riiirlii- ia'," iai, Keen riddled by haud. Take past German swimming teams where men were merp-and so were ttte gummy. Still Good: Whoops! Canada has slipped to third place in the UN's best-places-to-live com- petition. and surelyyawns will greet that result. Aside from giving Canadians that warm and may feeling it amounts to very little. An award like that and a tNt-buck bill will get you a coffee and a mullet at Tim Horton's almost any time. The Status Quo: In keeping with its long- standing madman of hurrah for the status quo. Cambridge thinks the present governmental arrangement is just tint thank-you. _ . " _., r, ._...\. u-" and '"""MP""'"" - "" ---. W, - _ At least when all was said (a great deal) and done (absolutely nothing), 43 per cent thought so in a poll which followed aamlrridge's epic examination of various routes to regional reform. Before making that earth-shattering judg- ment, Cambridge folks had a variety of ideas on a smattering of ideas. w . Heeding Mayor Doug Craitts '] * I pleadings, 51 per cent either I " "strongly agreed" or "somewhat _ agreed" with getting rid of Waterloo mu"... Oddly, only 30 per cent favored the heavily-touted recommenda- tion by the task force for a manage- ment board. A regional manage- ment board (read carefully now because this gets silly) of 13 would decide the basic level of police set- vices, social services and public SAI health councillors. BA As noted previously, the final count in the poll was that 43 per cent favored the status quo. Only l5 per cent favored a one-city region running everything. Were number three, heh! Bur-and this is significant-only 26 per cent knew much about the task force report. Only eight per cent had read it. and only 18 per cent had mad something about it. But the whole exercise is academic anyhow sini2iirderissreisn'trtpgtodot1aae.,th,iH with the region The poll alone cost $15,000. but Mayor Cmig with his Womble 20120 vision saw the report as an important "urmerstone" in future discussions. Well, If the mayor ttft up between a rock and a hard place, the ulder may well be this "comerstoryr" iiitiiiy: Never let it be said that this col umn is one dimensional. It should include recipes, you say? I'm glad you asked. Herewith a barbecued-chicken which combines non-diet cola and ketchup for its seasoning. w... a.†"Mâ€, .-. -- - ,_, - Yup, like non-diet cola and ketchup. Tty it; you'll like it. Amazing Chicken Barbeque one chicken, cut up one cup flour Shortening for frying 1 /3 cup ketchup One can non-diet cola (your choice) Shake chicken pieces and flour in plastic bag Remove chicken and brown in shortening. Combine cola and chicken in casserole dish. Add chicken pm. mm“... P"--. Bake, uncovered, for one hour and 15 minutes at 350 degrees Enjoy! Enjoy'. How', s Zat Again: Most WUtedoo folks will be forgiven if they have had their fill, at least temporarily, of comment on the RIM deal. Still, there's one point in an interview with ex-mayor loan McKinnon that deserves spe- Ill- cial mention. grasping at straws Do you think maybe that the financing con- tract followed the hallowed pattern of life-insur- ance policies: The big giveth what the small print taketh away. Neveran End: It's fully to write anything firm about Stockwell Day and the Canadian Alliance aGuseeventsareGwingsoswiftirthataimost anything written will be overtaken, Both factions are acting like peevish lids, and can anybody seriously suggest we should entrust the running of the country to such a collection of no-iudgmem yahoos? .» . . _. WW; "_..-.'?.'., ..., ,..._ P._____ ,_V-V, air/Gu keeping the Alliance in turmoil is the peculiar attraction strong lungs have for weak minds She said that city treasurer John Ford assured council that the city was getting a low interest tale of 4.73 per cent and that the financing costs would total $113 million over 30 P..- A representative of MPF ranch] Services, the other party in e deal, attended the meeting and did NOT contradict those numbers. It seems to me a lot could pivot on the silence of the MPF Financial Services. I'm not a lawyer so I guess you'd call it a hunch. There's also this point: The amount involved is so large it may be that Waterloo is