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4 -- PORT PERRY STAR -- Tuesday, September 15, 1987 ~~ Editorial Comments The Election The people have spoken. | It's a phrase one often hears when the final ballots have been counted after a long election campaign. Waell, the people of Ontario didn't speak last Thursday night, they | roared. Anyone who can corner the market on red ties should turn a tidy | profit over the next four years. David Peterson and his Liberals painted the Province bright red last Thursday with an astounding 95 of the 130 seats in the : Legislature. All realistic polls pointed to a Liberal majority in the days leading up to the election, but even the most optimistic of Grit prognosticators would not have dared to predict such a thorough sweep: a sweep that caught Conservative leader Larry Grossman and came within a handful of votes of doing the same to New Democrat leader Bob Rae. The NDP, however, with 19 seats will form the official Opposi- tion, while the Tories with a mere 16 victories and leaderless, must obviously spend the new few years rebuilding a Party which at one time in Ontario was thought to be nearly invincible. When the people roar as they did last Thursday night, there is more than just a desire for change. Mr. Peterson, to his credit, ran a skillful campaign. He avoided any major faux pas, he was a bit fuz- zy on some issues like bilingualism. He worked his charm up and down the main streets of rural Ontario, often in shirt-sleeves, and more importantly, read perfectly the pulse of a changing Metro Toronto. The Liberal Party was most successful in attracting high profile, well known personalities to contest key ridings like Chaviva Hosek, Metro councillor Ron Kanter, who destroyed Larry Grossman, and York Mayor Alan Tonks, who came within an eyelash of knocking out Bob Rae. They snagged former marathon swimmer Cindy Nicholas (now a lawyer) and she rolled to an easy victory in a Scarborough riding that had been Tory Blue for 44 years. Closer to home in Durham York, Ross Stevenson was unable to withstand the onslaught and fell to former Uxbridge Mayor Bill Ball- inger. George Ashe, at one time, one of the most powerful ministers in the Cabinet of Bill Davis, finished a poor second behind Nora Stoner in Durham West. In Durham East, Sam Cureatz, had a surprisingly strong show- ing to hang onto this riding for the Conservatives. He won by a com- fortable 1400 votes, but it wasn't easy. He had to run hard, banking on the fact he's been the MPP for the past ten years and is known as a strong constituency worker. His cause was no doubt helped by the fact that both the Liberals and the New Democrats ran strong can- didates in this riding. The Liberal victory was total. Ontario, in the middle of a pro- sperous economic boom from Niagara Falls right through to the na- tion's capital, obviously was not prepared to radical change in either direction. Mr. Peterson has a pleasant image so suited to the electronic "¥nedia. The entire election campaign never ignited. There were no flashes. It was as laid back as a hazy Saturday afternoon in late August, and it suited the mood of the province to a tee. The people wanted a change, to be sure, but they wanted a change that sticks pretty close to the centre line. Mr. Peterson has promised a fight on free trade. That helped a great deal, mainly because there is so much confusion and lack of focus in Ottawa on this issue. It is fair to say the people of Ontario have sent a rather loud message to the man running the show these days on Parliament Hill. A lot of Tory candidates had to carry the Mulroney cross through this provincial campaign. (Turn to page 5) "J arrAID NOT, LARRY Tus 7imE THERE'S No way YOUR SEATS AN MINE ARE ENOUGH TO GIVE Him) THE OL'HEAVE-HO / Jra--" Port Perry STAR 235 QUEEN STREET - PORT PERRY, ONTARIO Phone 985-7383 PO Box90 LOB INO J PETER HVIDSTEN Publisher Advertising Manager {# CNA | 6) cn | | 3 Member of the Canadian Commumty Newspaper Association and Ontano Community Newspaper Association Pubnished every Tuesday by the Port Perry Star Co (td Port Perry Ontarnia J.B. McCLELLAND Editor Authorized as second class mail by the Post Office Department Ottawa and tor Cash payment of postage in cash CATHY OLLIFFE News & Features Second Class Mail Registration Number 0265 AN (CO wh? hal J Subscription Rate In Canada $20 00 per year Elsewhere $60 00 per year Single Copy 50 Prey arvyQ8 COPYRIGHT All layout and composition of advertisements produced by the adver ¥ 4 ising department of the Port Perry Star Company Limited are protected under copyright and may not be reproduced without the written permission of the publisher Chatterbox by Cathy Olliffe EMPTY CELLS The wind whistles through the empty cells at Burwash, an eerie, haunting sound that sweeps over the peeling walls and down darkened corridors. The cell doors are long removed, but bars still line the panelass windows, and a broken string of barbed wire runs along the tall mesh fence outside. It's an imposing place, Burwash, a two-storey H-shaped structure, about twice the size of Port Perry High School. And it's completely abandoned. The only prisoners in its walls are bats and other wildlife. The only sounds are the wind and visitor's hollow footsteps. Gone is the clinking of cutlery and raucous conversation in the mess hall, gone are the designer crew cuts from the barber shop, gone are the hundreds of people who once inhabited this desolate place. The prisoners, and the people who looked after them ---- guards, doc- tors, nurses, the prison chaplain, social workers and their families. The paint, blistered by northern Ontario's ex- treme winters, hang like icicles from the walls and ceilings. The prison's recreation centre, built in 1969, is only in slightly better condition. The actual prison facilities at Burwash In- dustrial Farm are almost beyond saving, but the village of Burwash, only steps away from the awesome prison on the hill, looks as though it was abandoned only a week or so ago. It was here that the provincial government's correctional service employees lived, raised their children, went to church, played baseball, and fished in a nearby river. These people were undoubtably proud of their small community, which boasted sewers and underground water, its own school, fire depart- ment and police station. Not to mention hydro, telephones, sidewalks and beautiful homes. The main street of Burwash is lined with these homes, now boarded up and empty, but still fresh with relatively new aluminum siding, shingles nd paint. These are homes that, in Port Perry. would cost upwards of $100,000. } The school, slightly smaller than Prince Albert's, would make local parents green with envy. The apartment buildings, of which there are several, are built around a courtyard, adjacent to the main street. These are beautiful structures built before the tacky architectural style of the 1950's or 60's. Looking as though they belong in England, or maybe even Yorkville, they each con- EA Youn or fous families, and feature details such as bric fireplaces, with built -i . and plaster walls. b With built-in bookcases Al 28 ¢ /é | of the houses at Burwash are in move-in condition. Sure, the power would have to be recon- nected, and the furnaces refilled, but that's all it would take to make these homes liveable. Somehow, vandals have stayed clear of this ghost- ly community, despite the absence of guards. On my recent trip through some of Ontario's best ghost towns, I visited Burwash, and must con- clude it is the biggest and most fascinating of the lot. Not that it's a "'traditional" ghost town. It's not. Unlike many others, it wasn't built in the 1800's, it doesn't contain ruins or crumbling foun- dations. Burwash is remarkably intact because itis a recent ghost town, abandoned on March 31. 1975 by politicians who decided it would cost them more to keep Burwash open, then it would to close it down. According to a press release at the time, it cost taxpayers more than $3 million to run Bur- wash in 1973, and with renovations and repairs desperately needed, the Ministry of Correctional Services opted to close rather than repair. And because Burwash (located 25 miles south of Sudbury) is so far away from southern Ontario (where 90 per cent of the inmate's families lived), few relatives could afford the cost of travel to visit. So, just as the snow was starting to melt, the inmates of Burwash were transferred to other cot- rectional facilities throughout the province. The families of staff packed their bags, removed their worldly possessions, and said goodbye to a com- munity that was 61 years old. The plate glass doors of the school were 'boarded up, the power was shut-off, the phones disconnected, and No Trespassing signs were hung everywhere. Even the church, with its beautiful hardwood floors, was boarded and locked. Only the three magnificent barns were left as they were. It didn't take long to change the bustling Bur- wash into a ghost town. A representative of the Ministry says the com- munity has been used since for "training pur- poses,' but during my visit, Burwash was com- pletely empty. Back in 1914, Burwash hecame something of a first for the Ministry of Correctional Services. Called a "progessive" idea, prisoners under supervision cleared a "arge acreage on this rugg- ed Crown land, logging and creating a booming lumber industry until enough space was cleared for agricultural purposes. The barrs, no doubt, were also built by prisoner labour, and it was these barns that created work for the men guilty of drug, theft and other relatively minor offences, the kind of of- fences that still overcrewd medium security in- stitutions today. (Turn to page 9) a» TTT ITTY a