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6 economist suntribune thursday feb 14 2002 a metroland communityhewspaper 9 heritage rcl marktiam ont l3p 1m3 publisher ian proudfoot general manager alvin brouwer editor in chief brenda larson director of advertising debra welter deputy editor debora kelly editor jim mason production manager pam nichols distribution manager barry black electronic communications manager johnfuthey classified manager ann campbell retail sales manager stephen mathieu inside sales manager staceyallen business manager robert lazurko office manager vivian oneil editorial smart growth panel has no authority lets hold the applause for just a moment when premier mike harris and municipal affairs minister chris hodgson this week unveiled the hew smart growth advisory panel jo provide input to the province on planning in a 37000squarekilometre area radiating from toronto it should have been reason to celebrate effusively after all a super group headed by the strongwilled strongvoiced mississauga mayor hazel mccallion with representation from business environment groups develop ment academics and politicians including york region chairperson bill fisch would certainly have the background and knowl edge td the difficult challenges com munities face when planning for growth and the passion to ensure the province listens the greater toronto services board before it was axed by the province last fall was trying to make some headway in finding res olutions for some of these problems mayors met monthly to plan strategy for dealing with pressing issues focusing on transportation which they accurately identified as a crisis the new- panel will focus primarily on waste management and gridlock two critical issues again we should be celebrating but were not- not yet the panel has no timetable there is no deadline for recommendations there is no authority toefrect change the best its mem- j bers can hope is someone somewhere will finally listen to recommendations that have been made at local councils regional councils and the greater toronto services board the gtsb while arguably an unwieldy organization had been making progress now we are back atthe first step lining up the same ducks and taking aim we applaud those who have been appointed to the panel we wish mrs mccallion well and anticipate her wise lead ership we hope the group does not find the experience frustrating as growth continues to pressure our municipalities and our quality of life y and we hope the province does more than listen and nod when the advisory group pro vides its guidance for our journey into the future a smart future letters to the editor federal spending mistakes even worse than provinces re wilferts government as bad as provinces in spending habits letter to the edi tor feb 2 as much as i agree with vic stecyks point on poor government spending habits the feds far surpass the ontario tory government in this area just look at the boondoggle the liberals created when they brought in bill c- 68 gun control when initially implemented the chief architect 6f this legislation was then- justice minister alan rock mr rock clearly stated that the cost to get up and running bill c68 would be 85 million and that the firearms community would carry certain costs in future funding of c68 well as a taxpayer regardless of whether or not i am a firearms owner this illconceived law is now spiralling upwards of 700 million and still climbing how much medical equipment do you think might be purchased and health care services provided with just a fraction of these funds not to mention putting more cops on the street if prime minister jean chretien and his cronies were held accountable as in the pri vate business sector im sure they would have been shown the door long ago markstrait stouffville clements efforts prevented provincial reform wing re york tories move against clement feb 7 it seems the same red tories who liberal ized the federal party leaving blue tories no alternative but to eventually start the reform conservative alliance now want to impose the same fate on provincial tories thanks to people like tony clement and mike harris the reform party was discour aged from forming a provincial wing that would likely have ensured liberal domina- tioh at the provincial level as well as the fed- eral level clement and harris are big- tent conserva- tives who have been successful at bringing federal tories and federal alliance members together provincially ensuring that conserva tives would be able to form governments at the provincial level right across the country sinclair stevens and his cronies would seek to wipe out the tories at the provincial level across canada by dividing them into separate camps because of their federal affiliations fail ing to recognize that mahysoft federal liberals also vote conservative provincially the progressive conservative party of ontario owes people like tony clement and mike harris a debt of gratitude for being coalition builders richard j van seters president markham canadian alliance constituency association letters policy stoiinville tribune welcomes your letters all submissions must be less than 400 words and must include a daytime telephone number name and address the newspaper reserves the right to publish or not publish and to edit for clarity arid space write letters to the editor 9 heritage rd markham0ntl3plm3 email lettersdeconsuncom stouffyiue tribune serving the community since 1888 canadian circulations audit board member ontario press council canadian publications mail product sales affeement 1403419 subscription rates by map 1 year 6955 thursdays only stquffville tribune published every thursday and saturday is one of the metroland printing publishing and distributing ltd group of newspapers which includes the ajaxpickering news advertiser alliston heraldcourier barrie advance barrys bay this week bolton enterprise brampton guardian burlington shopping news burlington post city parent collingwoodwasaga 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andyet public opinion polls routine ly rank politicians hear the bottom of the scale on respect its not hard to see why watching the tories officially campaign for the ontario leadership and the liberals unofficially campaign for the national leadership- at the provincial level a gang of nine including former york region mp sinclair stevens aurora councillor george timpson and markham resident farsad kiani having failed to convince their partys executive health minister tony clement is unfit to lead are how planning to appeal to the courts his crime he fias supported the canadian alliance federally the progressive conservative consti tution requires provincial members to support the federal partyr this makes clement in the words of mr timpson ajwolf in sheeps cloth ing oh please large chunks of stockwell days platform in the last federal elec tion could have been photocopied from the common sense revolution which all candidates supported the average ontarian could not tell the difference between a harris tory policy and a canadian alliance policy 7 the average ontarian probably does- nt cafe who the premier backs federally but the average ontarian might be concerned his new premier whoever he or she might be has beenbadrriouthed by leading members of his own party and its not just the attacks on mr clement jim flaherty has all but called ernie eves a pinko ok he said there was little difference between mr eves and daltbn mcguinty but within the con fines of the tory party thats almost the same thing s then we have the sorry spectacle of allan rock and paul martin practically clawing each others eyesout fora job jean chretien shows ho sign of leaving the only leadership hopeful who came out of this debacle looking good was john mainley who suggested the best way to campaign was to focus on the job of running the country hooray somebody gets lit we elect people to do a job not to campaign for a better job we want to elect people who are focused on issues not on personal attacks if candidates cant competewith integrity for a position witiiin their own party they are likely to disgrace the party with their behaviour toward the enemy cp ma real election vi more than anything we want to elect a leaderwe respect but thats a twoway street w v v iv t i- h i