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

p 4 weekender february 15 1997 st hydro talks could lead our way to a supercity they should start talking hydro electric commissions around the region may work better together and on march 6 theyll get a chance to dis cuss that possibility on that day the whitchurchstouffville hydro electric commission and sis ter utilities in newmarket aurora markham richmond hill georgina vaughan king and east gwillimbury will meet and we hope talk about disbanding to form one mega utility to serve all most of york it would be nice to see honest debate on the issue paving the way to amalgama tion to the forming of a supercity our poll this issue shows support for this idea is stronger than some local lead er viewpoint jo ann stevenson or an ers may think in fact the regional chair believes in the single city goal while the stouffville mayor defies such conclusions the commissions should talk about merging because it may be the best way to serve taxpayers their creed should be as suggested last week by the manager of whitchurch- stouffville hydro that if amalgamation saves money it will probably happen that same logic hasnt spread to the councils within york region and their reluc tance is akin to the ostrich who hid by burying its head in the sand taxpayers will benefit by some sharing of resources services and by some part nering they would prefer a homemade plan to one imposed from the province we have had little leader ship from municipal politi cians even while they watch and wonder at the spectacle happening south of our bor ders toronto is in the midst of change inevitable change the status quo is not afford able we need to know the advantages of amalgamation total or partial several residents are still not sure regional government delivered the cost savings it was touted to do in the davis years regional charities such as big brothers and united way have found they need to hold events in the south where most of the population is in order to attract that involve ment will amalgamation alienate ratepayers from the political process we need answers and with so little leadership on this we havent even formulated the questions looking at the potential of amalgamation is good plan ning hydro should take the lead the tribune weekender edition ametroland community newspaper patricia pappas publisher jo ann stevenson editorinchief andrew mair general managereditor debraweller director of advertising barry goodyear director of distribution vtvianoneil business manager pamela nichols operations manager s all enquiries 905 6402100 fax 905 6405477 6244 main st stouffville ont uxbridge all enquiries 905 8529741 fax 905 8524355 88 brock st w uxbridge ont httpwwwyorkregioncom the stouffville and the uxbridge tribune published every wednesday and saturday is one of the metroland printing publishing and distributing group of community newspapers which includes ajax pickering news adver tiser alliston herald courier barrie advance brampton guardian burlington post cityparent colli ngwoodwa saga beach connection east york mirror etobicoke guardian georgetown independentacton free press kingston this week lindsay this week markham economist and sun midlandpenetanguishene mirror mil ton canadian champion mississauga news newmar ketaurora erabanner northumberland news north york mirror oakville beaver orillia today oshawa-whitby- claringtonport perry this week peterborough this week richmond hillthornhillvaughan liberal scarbor ough mirror todays seniors contents not to be repro duced without written permission from the publisher per mit 1247 the publisher reserves the right to refuse or classify any advertisement credit for advertisement lim ited to space error occupied the weekender is a member of the ontario press council sum women do have history at sea poor david alan williams all he really wanted was to immerse himself in cold water for a couple of weeks but hes landed in a vat of hot water instead alanwilliams is a veteran british yachtsman next may he plans to reenact the discov ery of newfoundland by sail ing a replica of a 15thcentury sailing ship all the way from portsmouth england to st johns newfoundland thats whats got him in hot water last month alan- williams unveiled the nine- teenman crew hes selected to help him make the voyage man is the operative word in that sentence theres nary a woman on deck youd think that wouldnt bother anybody after all there editors matt parents are the primary educators dear editor it would be difficult for me to believe that andrew mair the author of a recent and bitter ly vitriolic editorial on the topic of the school curriculum has any children of his own how else could he be so brutally dismissive of the legitimate interest of parents in what their chil dren learn at school mair seems to think we should leave the ques tion of educating our children entirely up to the professionals parents should only have a supporting role and since a supporting role seems to encompass no ability to influence the curriculum i for one fail to see what practical meaning that role could have idea of an educational utopia nowhere i want my children to be one of the most amazing things of all is mairs rationale for allowing our children to read books steeped in foul language and violence he says there is mayhem in school parking lots foul language peppers the daily speech of most teenagers i can only conclude that he thinks therefore that inculcating anything great or noble in our children is a complete waste of time since the world has already gone to the dogs weve all got to recognize that parents not teachers are the primary educators of children education is at bottom a parental not a pro fessional responsibility the buck cannot be why shouldnt parents exercise influence over passed only those parents who find the televi- the curriculum mairs reasoning boils down to this theyre too stupid to know whats good for their own children the state knows better for anyone with more than a passing acquaintance with fascism this line of thought ought to be pretty chilling any school that is deaf to the voice of parents is although perhaps mairs sion more engaging than bedtime stories would i think beg to differ as far as fm concerned if snobelen wants parents to have a larger role in the education system more power to him scott mclaren markham werent any women crew mem bers on the ships of cabot champlain or eric the red alas great umbrage was taken by various feminist members of the british sailing fratsorority they denounced the skipper for sex discrimina tion and then alan- williams really put his foot in it by declaring that women werent tough enough to endure such a voyage david david david where have you been living are you sure that youre the veteran british sailor the newspapers say you are your grasp of nautical history is a little shaky havent you heard of madame ching theres a gal who could have stood the gaff not to mention your guff madame ching was a chinese pirate who roamed the seas back in the early 19th century picking off fat galleons and treasureheavy sloops she didnt make her captives walk the plank she added them and their ships to her fleet at one point madame ching commanded a flotilla of 1600 vessels how tough was she tough enough to knock off the imper ial fleet of china the chinese emperor sent his entire navy under the command of his best admiral to capture madame ching madame ching whipped him so thoroughly that the admiral committed suicide in disgrace about the same time that madame ching was ruling the waves by waiving the rules there was a comely wench named maria cobham sailing the very north atlantic that david alan- williams plans to navigate this spring maria was not a nice person basic black arthur black even by pirates thuggish standards she made a habit of stabbing poisoning andor whipping any seaman she cap tured id like to report that justice caught up with maria the pirate and that she finished her career at the end of a rope or languishing in some dun geon as a permanent guest of her majesty id like to but i cant fact is maria cobham plied her murderous trade for 20 years amassed a huge for tune and retired to a lavish chateau in france that was not the case for anne bonney and mary read two women who served in the crew of another pirate known as calico jack thing is nobody aboard knew they were women they both dis guised themselves as men fate caught up with anne and mary off the coast of jamaica in 1720 their ship was trapped and boarded by sailors of the british navy anne and mary fought like banshees for hours but were eventually disarmed and arrested the rest of their crew were strung up the court pardoned mary and anne because they were both pregnant so i guess somebody knew there were women on board youve got to wonder if they would have considered david alanwilliams tough enough to sail with any of them