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| Group Sales Director The Waterloo Chronicle is published every Wednesday by the Fairway Group, owned by TDNG Inc., a subsidiary of Torstar Corp. °* 886â€"2830 Fax: 886â€"9383 editorial@waterloochronicle.ca sales@waterloochronicle.ca composing@waterloochronicle.ca Dwayne Werdendort Associate Publisher/ WATERLOO CHRONICLE The views of our calumnists are their own and do not necessarily represent those of the newspaper. The Waterioo Chronicle welcomes letters to the Editor They should be signed with name., address and phone number and will be verified for accuracy No unsigned letters will be published . Submissions may be edited for length. so please be brief Copyright in letters and other mate tials submitted to the Publisher and accepted for publication remains with the author. but the publisher and its licensees may freely repro duce them in print. electronic or other forms Our mailing address is 75 King St S. Suite 201. Waterioo N2J 1P2, our eâ€"mail address is editorial@waterloochronicle ca, and our fax number is 886â€"9383 Regionai Classified Classified Manager Sales, £23â€"6617 Andrea Bailey Bob Vrbanac Reporter, Ext. 227 Sports Editor, Ext. 229 Manager, Ext. 225 Assistant 75 King St. South, Suite 201 Waterloo, Ontario N2J 1P2 International Standard Serial Number ISSN 0832â€"3410 Sales, Ext: 223 Manager, Ext. 230 Norma Cyea Blaic Matthews _ Fabienine Viemmix Deb Duffield Jean Van Volkenburg Canadian Publications Mail Sales Product Agreement Number 40050478 [+mn Barte Letters Policy Composing. Audited circulation: 27,538 Deborah Crandall Editor, Ext. 215 Laurie Ridgway Gerry Matiice C | leig) 3 e first priority for the Voter Support Comâ€" Tfiflnee from the beginning was to encourage our citizens to consider offering their services as a candidate for city council and other elected positions in our November municipal election. And now for the good news â€" we can now report that for the race for mayor in addition to the candidate already declared, there will be two othâ€" ers declaring shortly. A threeâ€"wayâ€"race, or more, for mayor is a guarantee of voter interest. In addition, in regard to the ward councillor election, there are seven candidates declared for ward councillor in the five wards with another to declare before Aug. 15. It is interesting to note that for the total of 11 declared and pending names, none are presently serving on council, and nine are running for the first time for city council. Our only immediate conâ€" cern is that there is only one registered candidate in Ward 2 NorthWest and Ward 5 Uptown. An acclamation is unthinkâ€" nbfe thls your, All members of the | GUEST | voter support committee s t are delighted see to such . [[OMBIANIESH aninterest in municipal | | politics. It is a fact that a x | compelling issue such as “ «e\ the sorry tale of the RIM P Park financing can be a |I af { trigger, but we feel very | * 7 strongly that issues such | K1 | as how the city will deal | |, ’_ [ | with possible tax increasâ€" | ' | es, public transit, urban | P | sprawl, student housing, || ~ | the library and the | BOB | uptown are primarily | WAGNER \ dependent on the mayor 3 showing the leadership to build a respected team with staff as vital partner. This positive atmosphere is the critical starting point for council to deal with its agenda, with the ongoing support of an informed Public. The second priority was for the committee to do everything possible to help the voters be informed and knowledgeable about the issues and the candiâ€" dates. Four major sources of ongoing election information will come from the partnership of the VSC and the Waterloo Community Council (WCC), the executive of the 22 neighbourhood associaâ€" tions in Waterloo. * The first initiative is a new Web site presence on www.mywaterlooregion.com which will have the pictures and biographies of all registered candiâ€" dates and the office and ward for which they are running. This will be updated as new candidates declare and will provide for questions and answers between candidates and voters online. It will also allow the interactive discussion of subjects imporâ€" tant to the voters. Look for this information ready on line by Aug.15. Secondly, look for a regionâ€"wide special election issue of Exchange Magazine to be distributed in midâ€"August. We know this will be an illuminating issue for everyone throughout Waterloo region and we congratulate Exchange Magazine for its comâ€" munity support. The committee is now finalizing plans for a series of town hall meetings after mid October which will include two cityâ€"wide events for the mayoralty candidates, and five additional ward candidate meetings. It is going to an exciting elecâ€" tion. This excitement about the upcoming municipal election is extremely gratifying to the Voter Support Committee. All the volunteers of the VSC are excitâ€" ed by the prospect of real democracy â€" that is, a choice of candidates, each of whom has his or her ideas of what needs to be done in Waterloo. The assessment of these proposals is the responsibility of the voters â€" we have every confidence that the public will rise to their responsibilities during the election period. Bob Wagner is chair of the Voter Support Committee. The election race is heating up COd | COLUMNIST\ _ 0 x a SU | VIEWPOINT Let‘s hold off on selling RIM Park End of a Saga: Bob Hope has surely been given a great sendoff after his century of living. Everyone seems to have menâ€" tioned a meeting, and I suppose I should do no less. Of course, I said the city * should wait and see how the park turns out. By the way, a person‘s or a city‘s character is put to a severe test when he or it suddenly acquires or quickly loses a considerable chunk of money. It was during his 1953 visit to the Kitchâ€" ener Aud. Hope, as always, was seeking some local references which might be funny, funny, funny. So I was taken to his suite at the Walper and a fleeting conversation with him told me what he wanted. It wasn‘t much of a meeting because he was making sure the show was put together. So he wasn‘t quite Mr. Jolly, but I could understand, given the pressure he was under. Incidentally, he was also reputed to be one of California‘s richest men, and after seeing him direct his staff it was easier to understand. And all of the career from a sense of humour. Ah, yes, it‘s the stuff which makes you laugh at something which would get you mad if it happened to you. What About It? Coun. Morty Taylor, chair of the city‘s finance committee, says even the sale of RIM Park should be considered in grappling with the city‘s deficit. Still Rolling: With the Rolling Stones, the No.1 collection of musical antiques, heading the show. the whoopâ€"teeâ€"doo Ontario‘s SARS presentation came off a winâ€" ner. It‘s 10â€"hoursâ€"plus offering was sure big enough. There were enough acts to keep the audience banging their palms almost nonâ€" stap. The rest of the time may have been spent trying to find a vacant portable john. It was great to see such the triumph of such an ambitious project. They rolled the In fairness, he‘s got a lot of other ideas to be examined and the sale of the park is only one. He concedes this may be a poor time to sell it, and you have to agree with him on that. One thing he mentioned is hiring of a professional team to run the park, and 1 sort of menâ€" tioned that a couple of weeks SANDY BAIRD If it weren‘t so grim an admission, it‘d be amusing how the United States is now strivâ€" ing to line up countries to share the burden of rebuilding Iraq. Dubyah better start taking lessons in forâ€" eign affairs. He already has one advantage. He knows how to stretch the thin skin of falsehood tightly aver a baldâ€"faced lie. Think of all the things that could have gone wrong. The weather, for example. A few dozen bartels of rain could have made a might of difference. It‘s no special secret that some of our sourâ€"apple senior citizens weren‘t wishing them well. Of course, when they smell flowâ€" ers they always look around for the casket. Most of us seniors are mystified by the size of the crowd and what draws them. Quoth one: "You couldn‘t get me to attend at the point of a gun." * Inasmuch as no guns were wielded at seniors, there were no grounds to fret. Apparently to seniors, rock groups seem to be made of a hot guitar, a cool organ, and a drummer who doesn‘t like music. The brothers got what was coming to them, but it did seem a bit much to kill four _â€"____ people with 200 heavilyâ€"armed BM troops and copters. 1t would )\ }R have been much better had l[ hV they taken them alive so they + could face trial 4 One thing that remains to haunt George Dubyah is the l almost daily toll of Americans slain in what amounts to an Iraq guerrilla war. It‘s pathetic to DY have your men picked off day D by day. And pathetic, too, to be pressed to admit that your occupying force is going to stay, and stay, and stay. This from a nation that scoffed at the nonâ€"participants when the war against Iraq was joined. Now it seems to be recruiting any country with a spare rifle. Ort maybe he doesn‘t really lie: He merely presents the truth in such a way that nobody recognizes it. dice and they came up withâ€"HUZZAH!â€"a Catching Up: With two Hussein sons in the bag, it looks as if the American forces are nearing the capture of Papa Hussein. Anyhow, it‘s certain they‘ll catch up to Papa Hussein. His places to hide are thinning out and there‘s a $25 million bounty on him.