The following text may have been generated by Optical Character Recognition, with varying degrees of accuracy. Reader beware!

p4 tribune january 22 1992 st stouffville vv tremendous support for canada r anadians are apathetic v canadians are meek mild and generally not concerned with the welfare of their nation not so say whitchurch-stouf- fville residents this was evident at saturdays constitutional reform meeting sponsored by mp bill atteweu at parkview village the turnout alone would be enough to signify that stouf fville is a veritable heartbeat of national vitality and pride the residents who offered views and comments on the constitution its reforms and the future of canada should give politicians inspiration that yes in fact there are still some canadians who care what becomes of this land the suggestions put forward by the large crowd saturday will definitely add grist to the constitutional mill these are historic times for canada and it is encouraging that whitchurchstouffville res idents want to play such an important role in that history amw residents attempt to unravel constitution reform as the governments constitu tional road show sweeps through the country ordinary canadians are getting a feeling of what elected officials are up against as they attempt to unravel the web which is constitutional reform but more importantly the politi cians are getting some very con structive and imaginative feedback from the large numbers of individ uals who are flocking to these town hall constitutional meetings to express their feelings about whats right and wrong with our country whatever the outcome of these meetings which will ultimately culminate with a first ministers conference on the constitution we can all take heart that public opin ion is alive and well in this country no other issue gets the juices of canadians flowing like constitu tional reform especially when you consider the alternatives to reform are sepa ratism along with economic and political chaos by and large the tone of these meetings has been a conciliatory one this hasnt gone unnoticed by constitutional affairs minister joe clark who has been given the unenviable task of putting the many pieces of the country back together again as illustrated in some of his comments recently clark is hoping compromise will sals soap tw box be the glue that holds the pieces together clark was buoyant following a weekend constitutional conference in halifax where the ideas of dele gates who attended seemed to mesh well with proposals put forth by the government one of which would allow quebec to flex its political muscle without federal interfer ence im surprised by what weve seen here clark said later if this attitude reflects the country or has a chance of reflecting the coun try then i see no reason in prin ciple not to take a look at an asym metrical political science jargon for giving special powers to que bec approach he said but clark is an astute enough politician to realize the message coming from the people is two fold firstly if the government gives special powers to quebec dont weaken the role of the central gov ernment secondly whatever hap pens ensure that all canadians are treated equally during the process and in the final analysis clark is working hard not to repeat his governments meech lake blunder when some of the provinces rebelled against prime minister brian mulroneys blatant attempt to push through an agree ment in light of the meech lake fiasco and the very real issues the govern ment has to deal with during this constitutional process it will take nothing short of a miracle to pound out a solution everyone can live with stouffville tribune publisher editorinchief editor advertising director business manager promotionsdistribution mgr operations manager patricia pappas jo ann stevenson andrew mair debra weller vivian oneil jennifer hutt pam nichols publication mall registration pending stuff- neoorterr tracy kibble jufie caspersen roger belflrave photographers sioerd wiaeveen ciuo stmarvllle real estate joan marshman classified doreen deacon debbie amundson nsbridgej ttall joan marshman doreen deacon heather hill gibson uxbrldge dfewfiu- tton arienemaddock dnhbchnd even wednesday by metroland printing publishing and distributing at 9 heritage rd uskham ontario l3p 1 m3 tel 2942200 second class registration numberl247 vsssutmoetribune published every wednesday at 6244 main sl stouffville is one of the metroland tutpumshtoa and kstributing group of suburban newspapers which includes the acton free inbnmr aurora banner brampton guardian burjngton post etobicoke ktisiasgewgetown independent kingston this week undsay this week maikham 2j22s indsuri wsovtchamplon msslssauga news newmarket era oakville beaver oshawa- 6402100 6405477 fax snow sent us backio stone age i ast tuesday we awaited what cbcam gleefully predicted would be the worst snowstorm of the year with january a scant 14 days old and one of the mildest in the provinces history i felt that panic was premature a friend remarked dryly that the threatened snowstorm was probably just media hype a necessary relief from the constitu tion the economy and the tense moral debate surrounding bare- naked ladies real snowstorms as we all know are a thing of the past when men were men and snow buried tele graph poles and stranded hapless commuters in the city for a week for this cosseted immigrant how ever last tuesdays effort was quite impressive enough watching the stormlashed scene from the safety of chateau gilderdale i was able to enjoy the spectacle of natures wrath in the grape vine wmmmmmmmmittims warmth and comfort of my own home until the heating expired it was my son who alerted me to the problem by pointing out that the house was more than usually frigid hunched over my computer deep in thought i hadnt noticed put another sweater on i said auto matically getting up to check the thermostat this computerized gadget is as much a mystery to me as our pre- programmable vcr but i could tell from the blank readout that it wasnt working i turned it briefly to cool whereupon it obligingly displayed a bracing 14 degrees my friendly serviceman suggest ed pushing the reset button on the furnace there followed an encour aging whoosh and blissful draughts of warm air surged through the vents the hydro meanwhile was going on and off at frequent though irreg ular intervals as though controlled by a deranged technocrat the next major blackout caused the furnace to cease functioning altogether and whenever the lights came on we were surrounded by an arcade of flashing electronic clocks and a terse message which read reset on the microwave despite the excitement of cooking spaghetti sauce byflashlight on the gas stove and almost crushing the cat underfoot during a dark journey to the basement my sense of adventure was soon exhausted now the heat is back on the lights dont flicker and everything is perfect if i could just open my mailbox