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p 4 the tribune tuesday november 25 1997 st the tribune tuesday november 25 1997 vol 109 no 77 comment send your letters to the editor to the address below editbrialy time for public to pick regional chair in just over two weeks york regional council will vote in its new chair right now the candidates are reported to include markham regional councillor bill fisch former newmarket mayor john cole georgina mayor rob grossi richmond hill mayor bill bell and outgoing richmond hill regional councillor gail blackburn the process used to select the regional chair has been much crit icized in the past the position is voted on only by members of regional council and this years proceedings clearly highlight what some of the problems are if fisch wins the job and he is considered one of the favourites then the results of the justfinished municipal election are thrown into complete disarray if he becomes regional chair fisch s seat on markham council becomes open it seems the town must appoint one of the sitting ward councillors to fill that regional post and will then hold a byelection in whichever ward becomes open what a costly confusing game of musical chairs there would be a similar effect in other towns should another sitting politician be chosen eldred king has served as york region chair with dis tinction since 1984 but flow that he is retiring its time to change the process the way things are going with the provincial government and its pen chant for amalgamation the vote for regional chair dec 1 1 may the last one ever held if by some miracle york region still exists in its current form come the municipal elections in 2000 we say its time to let the voters chose the regional chair directly are we really tha over the past few weeks the tri bune has been criticized for what a large number of callers have described as a newspaper bias or proteacher approach to the contro versial education reform issue one caller who assured me the silent majority is actually in favour of bill 160 said five letters published in the uxbridge tribune on the subject were actually written by teachers another parent in stouffville said six of the letters flogging bill 160 were kibbles bits tracy kibble also from teachers if that is the case then those teach ers should be ashamed for writing biased letters under the guise of joe q public when in fact their com ments arc anything but teachers should have the confidence to admit yes im a teacher and heres what i think when they dont sign as a teacher it is simply union propaganda which is serv ing the best interests of no one the tribune however is not blameless while we do verify letters are signed and have con tact telephone numbers we just dont have the staff to investigate the professions of every letter writer beware the simple pasta dinner my son celebrated his 1 9th birthday in style with a formal dinner party at chateau gildcrdale we took his request to dress up seri ously mr wallcthead donned his tux your correspondent shimmied about in a silver pantsuit and clare wore a black velvet dress with stunning stilettoheeled shoes malcolm was resplendent in an elegant suit from the care and share shoppe the silverware and crystal still intact despite the best efforts of poc and spasm glittered impressively on the table which was adorned with candles and poshlooking napkins mentally cataloguing my tiny inven tory of gourmet recipes i asked mal colm to name the menu of his choice spaghetti and meatsauce he said promptly martha stewart might have cringed but i smiled bravely with garlic bread added clare in a rare display of organization i made the sauce and prepared the bread the day before to avoid a last- minute panic that evening i warmed up the sauce put on the water for the spaghetti and popped the garlic bread kates corner kate gilderdale into the oven two minutes later you couldnt sec across the kitchen garlic butter was dripping through the foil onto the oven floor and smoke was pouring from the vent i opened the window just as the alarm began its bloodcurdling tuncup the water began to boil so i absentmindedly added a bunch of spaghetti i have prepared this simple dish countless times but i have never yet managed to cook the appropriate amount sometimes i end up with enough to feed goodwood on other occasions i underestimate how much is enough to make it worse by the time the pasta was cooked my concentration was shot i drained it too long caus ing it to become a glutinous mass clare and i were laughing hysteri cally as we attempted unsuccessfully to separate and distribute the noodles evenly meanwhile the garlic bread was soft rather than crisp because id turned off the oven during the afore mentioned smoke storm despite these little challenges everyone tucked into dinner with gus to we were about to attack dessert a storebought chocolate cake i know my limitations when the phone rang as clare made to leave the table her heel became lodged in the heating vent next to her chair she repaired to the kitchen bearing the shoe still firmly imbedded in the vent by the end of dinner mr wal lcthead was trying to coax the heel from its vise while the rest of us wiped tears of laughter from our eyes and got stuck into the cake before i cook pasta at a dinner parly again ill consider the advice given by miss piggy to a frustrated cook who asked whenever i cook spaghetti it always gets tangled up in clumps what am i doing wrong 1 am not sure replied miss piggy but you might try a light cream rinse followed by a quick onceover with a blowdryer achers the tribune did receive a flood of letters in favor of the education reform moves and ones which nicely lam basted teachers for their move to ig nore what must be done but 95 per cent of those letters were unsigned we cant publish letters signed con cerned parent mad as hell or not going to take it anymore when i personally asked at least seven callers why they didnt sign their letters or why they wouldnt write us a letter stating all the facts we discussed on the phone the answer was always the same arc you kid ding i wouldnt be able to send my sondaughter to school i cant sign my name stating my true feelings if thats the case its a sad day for parents arc we that afraid of union members or leaders that we cant speak our minds without fear of retri bution against our innocent children arc teachers really perceived as people who would take out their polit ical fight on kids it seems so in stouffville and uxbridge anyway maybe union leaders have held such a stranglehold on the public for so long without any interference from spineless past governments that were actually afraid of them the fact i cant get past in all this mess is that during the past 10 years education spending has increased nearly 85 per cent while school taxes rose a revolting 120 per cent all the while the teacher pension plan grew fatter and fatter parents have been wondering about the quality of education for years and teachers have been complaining about fewer classroom resources for years this isnt a new problem so why arc school unions insisting it is let the calls begin stouffville tribune a metroland community newspaper patricia pappas publisher andrew mair editorinchief tracy kibble editor debra wellcr director of advertising mike rogerson retail advertising manager stacey allen classified manager barry goodyear director of distribution vivian oneil business mdnuver pamela nichols operations manager about us news 905 6402100 retail sales 905 6402100 classifieds 905 6402874 distribution 905 6402100 fax 905 6405477 email thetribistarca 6244 main st stouffville ont l4a1e2 the stouffville tribune pub lished eery tuesday thursday and saturday is one of the metroland printing publishing and distribution group of commu nity newspapers which includes ajaxpickcring news advertiser aihston heraldcourier bsrrle advance brampton guardian burlington post city parent coll ingwoodava saga beach con ncction east york mirror etohi coke guardian georgetown indc- pendcntactou free press kingston tihn week lindsay this week markham economist sun midlandpenetanguishcnc mirror milton canadian champion mi sisauga news newmarketaurora erabanner northumberland news north york mirror oakviuc beaver oriiha today onhawa- whitbyclaring tonport perry this week peterborough this week bichmond hillathonihillvaughan liberal scarborough mirror and uxbridge tribune todays seniors contents cannot be reprinted with out written permission from the publisher permit 1247 the pub- lisher reserves the right to refuse or classify an advertisement credit for advertisement limited to space the error occupied letters policy the tribune welcomes your letters to the editor please keep letters to no more than 300 words note that letters may be edited for space libel spelling grammar while we endeavor to print as many letters as possible we regret that not all letters may be printed