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economist sunsuntribune saturday may 29 2004 suntnbune a metroland community newspaper 34 civic ave stoufmlle on l4a 7z5 publisher ian proudfoot letters to the editor give ndp chance to govern the provincial health premiums intro duced by the mcguinty government will bring more hardships to the vulnerable of our society three hundred dollars could make a world of difference to those who make 20000 while 900 would not mean anything to those who make 200000 even the conservatives had the compas sion not to tax those making less than 52000 when they introduced the fair share health care levy in 1996 however to be fair we should be grateful to the mcguinty govern ment for not taxing those making less than 20000 dalton mcguinty cannot be trusted nor can we trust the martin government in ottawa while working to eliminate tax havens for big corporations as finance minis ter paul martin chose not to close all of them his huge shipping corporation is now regis tered in one of those remaining tax havens so it does not pay canadian taxes after they came into power the liberals made the deepest cuts into our health care system and the devastating impact can still be deeply felt today whatever money he has promised is the money he has been with holding from us for all these years while the canada envisioned by the conservatives is a less caring americanstyle society ridden with crime and other social evils the ndp has offered a better alternative it will invest in social programs gutted by the liberals and due further gutting by the conservatives it will invest in cities and pub lic transit it will invest in alternative energy this is especially important in light of the cur rent skyrocketing gas prices what could be worse after all these years of liberal rule let us give the ndp a chance let us elect the ndp yiyang unionville mdhs reunion big success we would like to express sincere thanks to the volunteers school staff and current stu dents for creating a fantastic gathering of five decades of students and staff who attended markham district high school when one contemplates attending a reunion there are many things to consider costs time will it be well attended and will it be enjoyable in our opinion it was more than worth the flight from vancouver we wish it could have gone longer we still cannot believe the atten- dance and it was more than enjoyable it was a lifetime memory if you didnt attend you missed a great event in particular we want to thank past teachers for being there years ago and still being there today current staff and students one could opinion only imagine the time and effort they spent preparing for this event bushwood golf club for putting up with the golfers of dubious abilities who talked 36 holes and golfed 18 local pub owners who were swamped by busloads of old fogies reacquainting in your premises leadbetters meats for serving masses of people with quality at saturday nights din nervideo dance the website people your work allowed us to connect with longlost friends who are now all over the planet the reunion committee and volunteers thanks for your time effort and ideas and alumni just the fact we came in the numbers we did from the distances we did indicates what that building meant to us christina and greg hoover delta bc supporting family not homophobic re ad shows paper homophobic letter to the editor by john andrews may 22 since when is it homophobic to support the family surely our society hasnt slipped that badly given mr andrews logic and since the vast silent majority also supports the family they too must be homophobic and narrow minded well count me in similarly since i and the vast majority also believe sex outside of marriage is wrong that must make me adulteryphobic or some thing in the narrowminded range mr andrews should also have hurled todays ultimate epithet that people who support the family must also be bigots as a supporter of focus on the family i believe it made its point respectfully and help fully its too bad when name calling instead of thoughtful dialogue is the ultimate solution jim boehmer stouffville homophobia charge ignorant re ad shows paper homophobic letter to the editor by john andrews may 22 i was amused to read comments that the economist sun is homophobic and anti- gay because it published a paid advertise ment for focus on the family canada john i am all for freedom of speech andrews apparently places focus on the family white supremacists and neonazis in the same category only the willfully ignorant would accept such an appraisal however i believe the community should not react with anger or hostility to his diatribe rather we should shower him with laughter befitting such nonsense after all a rose by any other name is still a rose and an extremist in any other sheet is still a redneck mr andrews did conclude with the editor in chief advertising director debora kelly retau flyer sales business manager nicole fletcher robert lazurko advertising director director of classified real estate production events management johnfuthey gord paolucci thought canada was a place that was open to different lifestyles but i note he carefully omitted differing opinions pardon me while i chuckle just whose canada is mr andrews writing about his i dont believe he is speaking for the majority of canadians but i do suggest you continue publishing differing views such as focus on the family and opinions contrary to their position even ones like mr andrews canada is for freedom of speech even when it comes from a paper tiger we will leave the censorship issue to those with a bent for totalitarianism and what mr andrews calls narrowminded special interest groups hugh thomas markham tax story lacks details re ratepayers pay more for less may 15 this article is typical of modern attitudes toward the pooled buying power that we call taxes i find the tone of the article is inflam matory and unhelpful i dont see this kind of treatment of other groups that take my money for example even though i know house prices are much higher in york region than in other parts of ontario i dont see constant headlines about the developer burden it would have been much more helpful to analyse why our taxes are higher than in manitoulin as the article indicated they are i can speculate it is because the popula tion in manitoulin is small and spread out and thus more money needs to go to those regions to pay for the same often a lower level of service i have done research on services in the north and can assure you although the dol lars spent per person there for services are high actual services received are often lower than in the central region simply because of economies of scale it is not clear from the article how they were measuring services received do manitoulin residents actually have more hos pitals or doctors than we do are the residents closer to the nearest hospital thanwe are do they get higher quality care or does it just mean more money is spent per person in manitoulin to provide hospital care without an analysis of why we pay more and receive less or even what is actually measured this article is simply propaganda designed to get citizens upset about paying taxes after more than 10 years of an ontario gov ernment that did not collect and spend enough money on services and wasted money on tax rebates i am not interested in hearing about our pooled resources as a burden instead i want to talk about the society we envision and what it would reasonably cost when i go to buy a toaster or a house i know if i dont spend enough money i will simply not get the productservice i need why dont we apply the same logic to our taxes barbara herring unionville letters policy the stouffville tribune welcomes your letters all submissions must be less than 400 words and must include a daytime telephone number name and address the tribune reserves the right to publish or hot publish and to edit for clarity and space 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