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stquffuiue tribune thursday sept 282600 stonffville tribune a metroland community newspaper 9 heritage rd markham ont l3p 1m3 t telephone v 905 2942206 416 7987624 fax 905 2941538 email newsroomeconsuhcom publisher ian proudfoot general manager alvin brouwer editor in chief brenda larson director of advertising debra weller deputy editor debora kelly editor jim mason production pam nichols distribution director barry goodyear online publishing manager brian kirlik classified manager ann campbell retail sales manager stephen mathieu inside sales manager staceyalien business manager margaret fleming office manager vivian oneil editorial you could sum up the efforts and accom plishments of the greater toronto services board since its inception nearly two years ago succinctly its not working lets take a look back the gtsb was born jan 22 1999 with plen- ty of hype and fanfare the province the proud new parent had high expectations and coddled its new baby so powerful was the board going to be that regional governments across the greater toronto area feared its strength would wipe them out in early january 1999 one of york regions most powerful officials even speculated the birth of the gtsb empowered by its parent to handle only transportation issues would eventually squeeze the very life out of regional governments in fact markham mayor don cousens pre dicted it would take only 18 months before the gtsb would start making other important decisions on issues such as policing social programs water and sewers economic devel opment andgarbage but looking back politicians couldnt have been more wrong on january 2001 the provinces prodigy will be two years old instead of the predicted force it would grow to be the gtsb is nothing but a toothless powerless weak body that has accomplished next to nothing it has little mandate no consensus and no heart the board made up of politicians across the gta has passed one substantial report in two years last july calling for 5 billion toiease road gridlock arid increase transit options over the next 20 years so who shoukd we blame for adding this additional government tier to our already over- populated political ring first we blamethe province it initiated the gtsb to streamline services and cutcosts after ail and now its hot listen ing second we can blame the politicians who sit on the gtsb 0 theywaste time discuss issues unrelated to transportation the boards sole mandate and continue to act like spoiled nimbys who cant see pasttheirown green pastures its time for the province to slideinto the seatand drive this bus home letterspolicy stbufiville tribune y welcomes your letters all submissions must be less than 400 words and must include a daytime telephone number nariieand address the newspaper reserves the right to f publish ornot publish and to i- edit for clarity and space write lettersto the editor ivi9 heritage rd r martm onu up 1m3 email letterwecorisuncom letters to the editor joe wamback shouldnt run for office when son needs him now that it is official that joe wamback has been nominated as a candidate for the feder al progressive conservative party i want to go on record to tell you how strongly i feel that this decision is wrong and that mr wamback should immediately withdraw his candidacy i have outlined my opinion regarding this issue as follows 1 the wamback family especially young jonathan needs joe wamback now more than ever i believe the wamback family has not fully recovered from the tragic incident last year and that the healing process will take years if ever to complete the reality of run ning for office is that the campaign race takes an individual away from his or her family for commitment after commitment quality home time is rare if wamback is elected his time with his family will be virtually nonexis tent this is simply unfair to a son who only a few months ago was in a lifethreatening coma and who appears to need the active involvement of both his parents for his life time 2 joe clark and his team should be ashamed of themseivesto my way of think ing the federal- progressive conservative party has taken advantage of a victimized family to see jonathan on centre stage in the media trying to do his best to obtain signa tures for his petition surely grasps at the heartstrings of the general population for the tories to use him to raise the parlys declining profile in my view is morally wrong is this what a federal party severely lacking in leadership and focused on the past has to resort to to use the tragic plight of a young 1 man to further itself 3 the wamback family has a responsibili ty to work toward the goals of the petition to change the young offenders act this is a promise that this family has made to hun dreds of thousands of peoplejwho signed up for the cause my view is that diis family should strive toward lobbying our current governments for change and then after suc cess mr wamback could run for office to mywayof thinking this situation is simplyhotright i encourage mr wamback to withdraw his candidacy for the federal progressive conservative party imrriediately and to make his first priority the health and well being of his son second to this the wamback family should focus on the com mitment made to close to a million people regarding the young offenders act if you jremember the honourable frank 1 klees withdrew his candidacy to seek the leadership of the federal canadian alliance party because of a point of integrity a follow- up toronto star article on winners and losers slotted mr klees in the winners column because he had the strength arid fortitude to keep his principles intact as a parent of a child who really needs his father i believe warnback should do the same janet marsh aurora stoufmletribune serving the community since 1888 13eb- canadian circulations audit board member ontario press council csnarfari pumcattons m product sales agreement 1403419 v subscription mes by mat 1 year 6955 tuesdays only stoume tribune published every tuesday thursday and saturday is one of the metroland printing publishing and distributing ltd group of newspapers which includes the aiaxpickering news advertiser alliston heraldcourier battle advance barrs bay this week bolton enterprise brampton guardian burlington shopping news burlington post city parent collingwoodwasaga connection east york mirror enn advocatecountry routes etoblcoke guardian flamboiough post georgetown independentacton free press kingston this week lindsay this week midland penetanguishene mirror milton canadian champion milton shopping news mississauga news newmarket- aurora georgina erabanner northumberland news north york mirror oakville beaver oakville shopping news onllia today oshawawhilbyclaringtonport perry this week peterborough this week richmond hillihomhilvaughan liberal scarborough mirror stouffville tribune todays seniors uxbndge tnbune and city of york guardian phone 9p5 2942200 fax9052941538 classified i8ot7433353 distribution 9052948244 john cudmore should we throw our cash behind our ndtoinal athletes woe canada is there anyone out there capable of making a decision on what exacdy it is we expect bur athletes to achieve on the world sporting stage if so please forward to the branch of the canadian goverhirient in charge of sports- on second thought never mind it would take at least till 2008 to get through the maze of bureaucratic red tape and buckpassing before the right desk if indeed it exists is found which more or less explains why we seem content to send our poor strug gling athletes into competition with a snowballs chance in jamaica to win place or show against the best competi tion in the world is fourth fifth or sixth place good enough as long as theyve fought the good fight or should we strive to have our athletesstand on the upper step of the podium sporting gold medals its only logical that if we want to share in their glory the least we should do is provide them with a fighting chance and if that means supporting athletics with some sort of funding tiien lets get on with it we can either moan and groan that our athletes are grossly underfunded and thereby undertrained under- coached and undereverythingelsed and incapable of winning against the rest of the world in sports we mostly care little about other than once every four years or we can suck it up arid accept the notion diat we as a nation do little compared to other countries to aid in their efforts the dilemrna is clear if we fund our athletes with more hardearned tax dollars a portion of the populace is going to gripe can we really afford topour more monies the party line is that rhore funding is provid- ed now than for any other recent olympic games into sports if social programs are suffering simply to be able to puff out our chests for a few days every four years- by the same token if funding isnt to be provided for athletics keep in mind there is a lot to be said for sports as a national ego boost youll recall say the 1972 summit series or any of those canada cup victories in hockey it upsetspeople ideally government funding and cor porate support would be the answer to addressing shortfalls beginning at the grassroots level failing that how diffi cult could it be to involve lottery funds in a support plan or have each province contribute to a national pool raising its obligated money any- way it sees fit the bureaucratic fat cats dont seem to have a clue how to approach this dilerhma anyway theyre too busy schmoozing to realize or give a rats ass what our athletes are up against