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p 4the tribune thursday april30 1998 it v t r- st thursday april 30 1998 vol 110 no 34 the tribune is a member of the ontario press council the tribune comment opinions send your letters to the editor to the address below editorial shame on mps its good to know that liberal mps across canada felt they did the right thing in tuesdays vote in house of commons concerning compensation for hepatitis c victims its good to know they think that way the reality however is that they did not do the right thing governments always talk about listening to their con stituents and taking a stand on moral issues candidates especially love to talk like this during election campaigns of course its a load of garbage tuesday provided liberal mps to put their money where their mouth was when it came to doing the right thing they failed liberal mps from across canada chose party discipline over a moral decision they chickened out obviously they were taking the lessons of past gst dis senters such as john nunziata to heart nunziata voted against the government on the gst question and was kicked out of the party he did the right thing and was rewarded by his con stituents in last years federal election by being reelected as an independent what is most galling about tuesdays vote is to hear some liberal mps saying that it broke their hearts to vote against helping the hepatitis c victims honestly they had an opportunity to make a change for the better but decided looking after their own political interests was more important and now they want us to feel sorry for them they should be hiding their heads in shame not seeking the publics sympathy vandorf committee defends position dear editor we are writing to respond to an arti cle written by elaine stewart in her column vandorf s voice it is unacceptable that this column be entitled vandorfs voice since the opinions voiced are not the opinion of vandorf but rather the opinion of elaine stewart the columns name is misleading in elaine stewarts letter to the editor published saturday april 4 she admits she chose to leave half way through a vandorf ratepayers meeting and van dorf park plan presentation choosing not to inform herself of its details stewart chooses to remain misin- formed regarding the park plans- details and a misrepresenting a well supported community project this is irresponsible the vandorf park plan has the sup port of over 150 residents in a petition the vandorf ratepayers association where the park plan has been present ed to the community twice in the last year the preston lake ratepayers association the whitchurch-stouf- fville museum and the parks and recreation advisory committee of whitchurch stouffville the vandorf park committee is an official sub committee to the parks and recreation advisory committee the park plan will be implemented over a three to five year time frame as the park plan progresses in its final stages of development the plan will be presented to the community through two final public meetings this will give people yet another opportunity to educate themselves about its details and comment on them this committee welcomes com ments and suggestions from the com munity to ensure the final park plan letters meets the needs to ensure understand ing the park plan does not and has never recommended that the willow trees be cut down but rather plans to prune them in keeping with good management and discard any dead or diseased debris resulting from neglect the parks recreation department through expert engineer consultation deemed the old jungle gym equipment unsafe several children had been injured and therefore it was removed new equipment has been implemented according to what was budgeted for that year the park plan includes rec ommendations that additional equip ment for the older child be implement ed in the future in accordance with budget scheduling which will also result in safety upgrades from past equipment the park plan has carefully consid ered all the functions that take place in the park for example the fireworks display and various events put on by the museum it is for this and many other reasons that the plan strives to make the park more user friendly safer and accessible to the broadest cross section of our society this is a goal that should be important to all of us regardless of our own personal status one way to make the park and the whole community more accessible is through pathways inside the park and along woodbine ave parents and chil dren will always have to consider safe ty where there arc cars as do all citi zens anywhere in ontario where peo ple and cars coexist the parking lot issue of safety as proposed in the- plan has been dealt with in a very esthetically pleasing manner trees along the pathway buffered with an island of grass ensures four things most importantly it keeps chil dren and families on a safe pathway while coming from or going to their cars it keeps vehicles out of the park provides shade and will drastically enhance the beauty of the park a chain link fence on the other hand does not consider the safety of people walk ing into the parking lot does not pro vide shelter from the sun and is an esthetically unpleasant institutional and a dated approach the suggestion to soften the chain link fence through the use of cedars is unacceptable cedars serve as a haven for mosquitoes which would further compound the already disproportionate population of this insect given poor park drainage and overgrown brush furthermore a cedar hedge would create a visual bar rier impairing police supervision and the watchful eyes of the community the park plan does not necessarily attempt to turn the vandorf park into a toronto park as stewarts column suggests but rather a park for all people where issues on safety accessibility and beauty have been addressed if stewart is so concerned about our community becoming like toronto perhaps she should consider working with her local ratepayers in protesting against potential industrialcommercial development instead of opposing local communitysupported park improve ments finally one must question stewarts actual last use of the park given her ref erence to bridges which are in disre pair the bridges in the park have been replaced over the past two years and brought up to standards as for the rest of the article it is clearly the opinion of the author the tribune meant well in allowing vandorf to have a voice but clearly a selfappointed spokesperson is a dangerous threat to our democratic initiatives journalism at best represents the facts and does not misinform nor does it falsely claim their opinion to be that of a whole community vandorf does not benefit from this kind of misleading journalistic representation stewarts point of view on a community park is clearly not based on the majority of the vandorf resi dents and therefore has no place in a col umn entitled vandorfs voice we suggest she abandon her fantasies concerning a park which she has so fondly looked upon from afar given past memo ries grounding herself in the needs of an evolving and sensitive community com bined of both new and long term residents will ensure our vitality as a community into the next millennium maintaining our unique rural identity elaine stewart you have inspired us to carry on and make memories for ourselves and the children of our community we hold so dear the vandorf park committee dottone n sanders l marshall c laflamme t kennedy m aprile k martino f martino editors note a column is not always based solely on fact as is an article a column can be the opinion of the writer and is the only forum in which an opin ion can justly be given elaine stewart given her many years living in vandorf is entitled to her informed opinion stouffville tribune a metroland community newspaper ian proudfoot publisher andrew mair editorinchief tracy kibble editor debra weller director of advertising mike rogerson retail advertising manager 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