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p4 weekender july 101993 k5irjkkjrtxritxoxixi mkst rae is going on a diet by cutting off hands prepare yourself there is going to be a major public sector strike in this province and chances are it will paralyze ontario with dis astrous results since bill 48 squeaked through the legislature this week effectively cutting 2 bil lion from the public payroll for each of the next three years the storm continues to brew in the labor sector that elected bob rae and the ndp in the first place with just three unions coming to terms with the government an enormous majority of the provinces workers are still far from the table and far from complacent the largest public sector unions are talking tough follow- viewpoint andrew mair ing the debacle at queens park wednesday the ontario federation of labor the teachers cupe and opseu among others are now issuing veiled threats that the legislation will be bucked all the way and that means job action workers will send a strike mandate to their leaders to bat tle the cuts which include 12 unpaid days off three year wage freezes and the loss of some 10000 jobs the opposition to this bill is almost unparalleled the bill itself narrowly passed and the ontario federation of labor is in complete opposition to the plan it is a sad state of affairs when three of the mpps vote against the measures taken and an even more damn ing indictment when ndp lead ers in other parts of the coun try on both a provincial and federal level are looking at ontario with a raised eyebrow rae said his government has had to make some difficult deci sions in coming up with his threetiered system to reduce the deficit what he doesnt admit is that it was this same government that placed us in this condition through some campaign literature told voters how to vote dear editor the recent liberal nomination meeting for markham- whitchurchstouflville was a big improvement on the one held on a warm summer sunday in 1988 good acoustics meant the speeches could be heard even above the din of those who appar ently did not want to listen and the balloting was efficiently han dled so that the lines moved quick- i think though that the number of signs posted by two of the candi dates in and around the school where the meeting was held was a waste of money and an affront to the environment surely after weeks of selling voting member ships the number of undecideds would be minimal but a more serious matter was the prevoting agenda with three parts the nomination and second ing of the candidates the candi dates speeches and finally an explanation of the balloting pro cess this latter was most impor tant because a preferential ballot was being used for the first time the rules were spelled out simply and clearly then the audience was turned loose in the corridors leading to the voting hall to be met by one candidates workers handing out hundreds of sample ballots listing the four candidates with three of them ranked as to first second or third preference the fourth apparently did not even merit being ranked fourth out of four but it was the statement at the bottom of this sample ballot which stunned me it presented another rule one not mentioned from the platform must vote exactly all three candidates as shown above from what central american banana republic have we borrowed the election manual that allows voters on the way to the ballot box to be told that they must vote exactly as indicated on the hand out the results of an election where this was allowed should of course be declared invalid but we know that this will not happen and the candidate responsible will keep his nomination he should realize however that there are still many canadians including liberals who do not like being told that they must vote in a certain way and that this fall they will have a chance to vote for whomever they please fredfarr thornhill editors note mary mcgowan returning officer at the nomi nation said its up to the voter to recognize campaign litera ture all candidates were allowed to hand out material up to the gymnasium door where the voting occured myg0d f isthat the 4coised frfi m hto m i twt it best ifvechekcwnifeikicwle qm ivt0 if its btfvtbfcser very shaky months at the beginning of the ndp tenure granted the recession played a part true transfer payments were cut to the province admittedly the previous gov ernments books were not as clear as it said but some seri ous bungling at the outset has left us in a terrible bind and now matters are going to get worse this legislation is somewhat like going on a diet by cutting off your hands but now the hands are going to fight back markham economist and sun st0uffville tribune uxbridge tribune weekender edition a metroland community newspaper patricia pappas publisher jo ann stevenson editorinmef paula crowell editor andrew mair editor debraweller director of advertising barry goodyear director of distribution vtvianoneil business manager pamela nichols operations manager markham 2942200 sales 7987624 classi fied 2944331 stouffviue 6402100 uxbridge 8529741 2948244 distribution and administration 9 heritage rd markham l3p 1m2 fax markham 2941538 stouffviue 640- 5477 uxbridge 8524355 the markham economist and sun stouffviue tri bune and uxbridge tribune published every wednesday and saturday is one of the metroland printing publishing and distributing group of subur ban newspapers which includes ajax pickering news advertiser barrie advance brampton guardian burlington post collingwood connection etobicoke guardian the liberal georgetown inde- eemtaitacton free press kingston this week indsay this weeh milton canadian champion mississauga news north york mirror oakville beaver orillia today oshawawhitby this week peterborough this week scarboroupi mirror the era banner contents not to be reproduced without written permission from the publisher dumb crooks folder saves drawing blanks the most common question peo ple ask when they find out that i scribble for a living is where do you get your ideas i always tell them that i steal them which is true i steal my column ideas from books maga zines tv programs things i see on the street conversations i deliberately overhear in the super market unfortunately sometimes even theft isnt enough every once in a while a guy will find himself hunched over his word processor a deadline dangling hke a damo- clean switchblade over his neck his fingers poised like twitchy talons over the keyboard and nothing no inspiration no ideas not even the ghost of a notion to fill the blank gaze of the monitor before him scary but all is not lost theres always the dumb crooks file to fall back on its a manila folder that i keep beside my desk bulging with news clippings about ruined rob beries fouledup felonies heists gone haywire and gormless gang sters gang agley the daily papers are full of them tiny little filler stories about wouldbe crooks whose walk on the wild side turned into a prat fall such as well such as the story out of fort erie ontario last month a woman working late in an accounting office looked up to see a man armed with a club he demanded money then ordered the woman to get into her car she did he waited for her to unlock the passenger door she didnt instead the woman drove straight to the police station the cops immediately issued a bulletin in which the details were sketchy officers were alerted to be on the lookout for a man who was not too swift speaking of not too swift how about donald m thomas mister thomas escaped from jail in california after serving 89 days of a 90 day sentence he was captured he now faces up to 20 years in prison ah yes but hell go down as a legend of crime as the bird- brain of alcatraz and let us never forget the basic black arthur black of albertan butch and sundance wannabes who made canadian criminal history of a sort the night they knocked over the petro cana da gas station just outside vancou ver they surprised the atten dant tied him up and left him in the washroom escaping with the contents of the till but they were as i say from edmonton and a little bewildered by the bright lights of vancouver which is why 20 minutes later they pulled into a gas station to ask directions apetro canadagas station the same petro canada station theyd knocked over earlier the station attendant just removing the last of the ropes from his ankles looked up to see his worst nightmare happening all over again i guess they didnt recognize me or the station he stammered out directions then quickly called the cops just as he was hanging up the atten dant looked up arid saw the same two guys coming towards him their car wouldnt start could the mechanic alas the mechanic wouldnt be on duty until 8 am the edmonton two were wait ing for a tow truck when a police cruiser pulled in and graciously offered them a free ride down town lets give the last word to thomas russell in the san joaquin county jail mister rus sell who was doing time for bur glary was startled to receive a government cheque for 26447 startled but not paralysed he immediately used 6500 to post his own bail and promptly left town with the remaining 20 grand which no doubt really ticked off the san joaquin county tax col lector hed sent the cheque to the wrong thomas russell not exactly a story of dumb crooks you say true m but the bad guys have to win famousedmontontwo- a couple ma while