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6 stouffvme suntribune thursday oct 11 2007 suntnbune 6290 main st stouffville on l4a1g7 vwwyorkregioncom publisher ian proudfoot editor in chief debora kelly business manager robert lazurko director interactive media technoijogy john futhey director advertising york region printing distribution general manager barry black bob dean director circulation systems lynn pashko editorial campaign of missed opportunities we will look back on this election as a watershed on two fronts first it appears ontarians want their school system the way it is despite the underlying unfairness that it funds catholic schools and not other religious schools yes we are a multicultural society but we want our children to be together instead of investing money to perpetuate our differ ences the parallel catholicsystemremains at least for now an historic precedent that most of us are willing to tolerate while results were not known as of this writing polls suggested we think our sys tem to elect people to represent us is good enough ourfirstpastthepost system may not be perfect but it has served us well since the 1800s and brings us some stability in government even if the smaller parties do not end up with representatives in the leg islature the system keeps fringe elements on the fringes where it appears we would like them to stay that being said this was a disappointing election campaign so many concerns from strains on our health care system to congestion on our roads from high taxes to low government credibility were not resolved with a governing party labelled as the fiberals for a string of broken promises and the 30million grants scandal on the eve of the election one would think their oppo nents could make gains while john tory appears to be a good man who wants to serve at the highest level he and his pc team ran a poor campaign becoming mired in the faithbased schools funding controversy howard hampton though an earnest politician got sidelined by the debate meanwhile dalton mcguinty educat ed in catholic schools his wife a catho lic school teacher by his side steadfastly repeated how much we all believed in the public school system and how it must not be jeopardized by funding religious schools other than catholic schools of course it was a superficial attack by a liberal leader who again proved he will say any thing to get elected perhaps more impor tantly the pcs campaign ads and overall message did little more than criticize with out offering a vision of what a tory regime would be like the same goes for the ndr criticism is necessary but so is the alter native we are being offered it wasnt clear what a john tory ontario would be like while the race is over we cannot let key issues die the doctor shortage care for the elderly commuter chaos runaway growth its a long list on which the province could be doing a far better job we must remind the liberals we have not reelected them because of the great work they have done but because of the weak campaigns of their opponents no im hot an installation on the stouffville studio tour you probably want the house next door letters to the editor meanspirited bartnon not worthy of ridings support re sherbans defection doesnt bother bannon oct 4 i read with dismay your article quoting con servative candidate phil bannons remarks about former mayor sue sherban she doesnt have any support in the community and she was mayor for only one term you can fool them once but not twice to my knowledge mrs sherban does not hold and was not running for any elected office mr bannons unwarranted sneering mean- spirited attack clearly demonstrates that he is not worthy to represent the citizens of this riding margaret grant stouffville will small groups be able to afford stouffvilles arts centre susan brown who is known to many in stouffville for her beautiful voice and music at various churches and shows will be performing a concert at the dundalk olde town hall oct 26 at 8 pm the evening includes a dinner at the united church before the concert of particular interest to the folks in stouffville may be the similarities of the town hall building in the respective towns both built in 1900 era both closed up in the 1950s dundalks hall reopened in 2000 at a cost of about 150000 patrons and donors paid for the seats it is run by a volunteer board of manage ment patrons fill the theatre for a show each month sometimes the show is for a week or weekend sometimes its for local theatre and other times for the likes of john mcdermott mark curtis or the beckett family tickets usually cost 10 or 15 the cost to rent theatre is 350 the cost for a private school to rent markham theatre is prohibi tive to small groups using it will small groups be able to afford stouffvilles theatrearts centre dennis seeley whitchurchstouffville alice in wonderland opinions useless re anyone bu mcguinty liberals after pit bull hearing law sept 29 and more reasons to not vote liberal federal gun control legislation oct 6 i believe the suntribune has done a disservice to not only the newspaper but to its readership by publishing the letters these opinions are nothing more than that they provide no backup data and are meant to confuse hopefully your readership will see through your obvious political support why not run an article on the number of dog attacks before and after the pit bull hearings and resultant legislation what does federal gun control legislation have to do with an ontario provincial election the icing on the cake was blaming the election system when politicians have two jobs at the same time in the real world this is called conflict of interest to me these are alice in won derland opinions and hopefully represent a small percentage of our population art woodruff stouffville off the top with jim mason our little main st resting up from celebrity buzz take a breather main street maybe even another long weekend you deserve the rest the last two months couldnt have been easy for the old girl yonge street in toronto hasnt seen this much high- profile action first ft was brad may and his caval cade of friends family and fans carting the stanley cup along the main drag traffic jammed up like the flea market was back in full fashion again early last month the cbs movie the russell girl took over shops and stopped traffic joan of arcadiasisterhood of the traveling pants star amber tamblyn dined on a madefortv patio last week it was ontario progressive conservative leader john tory walking the street and popping in on shoppers diners and merchants not bad for a downtown core to which many a stouffvillian is ambiva lent it looks nice with a few exceptions and the merchants are friendly but not everyone frequents it instead taking short cuts and selfmade detours our office had a frontrow seat for all the hoopla mr tory stopped by with his charming wife barbara handlers and a few dozen media types ms tamblyn didnt pop in for an inter view but members of the movie crew worked right outside our front windows and as if on cue brad mays corvette stopped out front too others dont notice you just moved your offices back downtown eh longtimers say about 16 months ago i reply really i guess i dont go down there as much as i used to comes the reply the grocery store hardware stores and video outlets have moved west on main but theres still plenty of action three banks several fine eateries a large furniture store and boutiques are some of the highlights and thats before 19 on the park the muchanticipated arts centre opens next year jim mason is editor of the sun- tribune letters policy the suntribune welcomes your letters all submissions must be less than 400 words and must include a daytime telephone number name and address the suntribune reserves the right to publish or not publish and to edit for clarity and space letters to the editor the suntribune 6290 main st stouffville on l4aig7 jmasonyrmgcom editorial editor jim mason jmasonynngcom interactive media marketing advertising manager dawna andrews dandravsqyrmgcom advertising retail manager staceyallen sallenyrmgcom classified manager ann campbell acampbellyrmgcom assistant classified manager bonnie rondeau brondeauyrmgcom production team leader sherry day sdayyrmgcom fdsag canadian orotkjora anftbovd ifaator ccab editorial 9056402612 f 9056408778 advertising 9056402612 classified 18007433353 fax9056408778 distribution 9056402612 suntnbune a york region media group community newspaper the suntribune published every thursday and saturday is a division of the metroland media group ltd a whollyowned subsidiary of torstar corporation metroland is comprised of 100 community publications across ontario the york region newspaper group includes the liberal serving richmond hill and thomhillvaughan citizenthe erabanner newmarketaurora markham economist sun georgina advocate york region business times north of the city yorkregioncom and york region printing