The following text may have been generated by Optical Character Recognition, with varying degrees of accuracy. Reader beware!

Newmarket Aaron Keswick Oil Wed Awont IKS THE ERA Serving York County Since TERRY CARTER LOTT MA Phone Newmarket Phone Aurora Playing games of inconsistency The Ontario Municipal Board is continuing to play games with the Region of York The latest funny game was the Boards refusal to rule on the merits of a proposal to construct the Northern Lights Shopping Mall in Aurora Earlier the Board refused to make decisions on shopping complexes in Markham and Rich mond Hill The reason behind these nondecisions the Board says is that York has not approved its official plan A sentence in a statement rendering the latest boards nondecision notes York has failed to meet its statutory obligation to complete the official plan by December 1974 and that York has not given the OMB any in timation of the date when such will be done The plain and simple fact is that the Board has not asked the region when its official plan will be completed and if it wanted to know the answer could be found out by merely picking up the telephone and asking Another inconsistency in the latest Board nondecision is that it made a decision several months ago approving the location of a large furniture mart in East on Newmarkets northern border This approval was granted even though the father of regionalism McKeough Is on record of being against development of rural municipalities on the borders of urban com munities On a different note but still on the in consistency theme no wonder the Region has not teen able to present its official plan Because it keeps getting different opinions from different provincial government agencies about how large the population of York Region should be An example is the housing ministrys urging to build lots of houses while the OMBs nondecisions curbs growth Another example Is the provinces insistence that population and industry grow in the NewmarketAurora area and be restricted in the south even though the Big Pipe which Is the reason why growth will take place will pass southern municipalities first The provincial cabinet has approved a population of in York urban communities and in rural communities by the year But a provincial mandarin in letter read to regional council at its most recent meeting said Yorks proposal for a minimum population of by the year 2000 was too high It is high time the province sat down with region and spelled out exactly what direction it York to go Wellington St the classic dilemma iU By IOTI THE Readers ERA First in a twopart series Ongoing citizen unrest over the and Wellington roadwidening projects underscores a classic dilemma faced by the conscientious elected official Is the elected person a delegate of the people obligated to consult with the electors on every issue and act in strict accordance with their wishes Or does his election manifest the peoples confidence in his intelligence and good sense to the degree that he can vote according to his own conscience and still fulfill his obligation o his constituents Often the decisions he faces are straight forward and But occasionally he faces an issue in which his own reasoned views contradict theopinion of a certain body of Docs he then bow to the socalled will of the people or does he stick to his guns and vote according to his conscience This question assumes two things first that the elected person is basically honest and con scientious and second that the body of opinion he opposes is representative of the people In most cases its impossible to clearly determine whether six loud citizen voices or GOO names on a petition are representative or anything Petitions are usually worded ac cording to the old when did you stopbeating syndrome And many politicians tend to sit on the fence and test the wind of vote- getting potential before making a decision The dilemma is further heightened because the factors inherent in any important civic decision invariably come in shades of gray Citizens groups tend to state the issues in black and white terms The kneejerk response to any politician who takes an unpopular stand is How can you ignore the will of the people Well how can you It often seems to be forgotten that the will of the people put the politician in office in the first place and that should count for something What it counts for depends on how one views the role of the elected official Citizens groups also tend to regard the politician who conscientiously disagrees with them as wrongheaded or untrustworthy or both In York Region those politicians who favor the proposed reconstruction of and Wellington have been painted as blackguards of he worst order by certain vocal citizens There seems to be no room for honest disagreement the assumption is that if a politician disagrees with a vocal segment of the public he is therefore unalterably wrong and should be dismissed with contempt and put on the blacklist for the next election On the other side politicians tend to use the old I have more information than you do and I know whats best for you arguments with the They take a paternalistic attitude towards those who elected them forgetting that in fact democracy is rule BY the people Thats why elected officials are called public servants Democracy implies that the politician the representative informs the people on all im portant issues He talks things over with them assimilates their views weighs their reasoning against his own He has an obligation to be open to citizen influence The Wellington St battle is a classic case of a council failing to keep its citizens informed Yes the elected official has an obligation to listen But is he obliged to give in if the people demand it Must he violate his own conscience under prevailing public pressure Here again depending on ones point of view there are catchphrase rationalizations for just about any political action and theyre bandied about by citizen lobbyists and politicians alike Whatever he does a politician can be described as courageous It takes courage to change your mind after listening to us the citizens say It takes courage to stick to your convictions says the politician who refuses to be dissuaded Or If you change your mind you lack the courage of your convictions If you stick to your guns you are pigheaded ignorant arbitrary and you betray your mandate There are no right answers to the dilemma The appropriate response depends on the in dividual and the issue The politician must give the public a chance to speak and dissuade him In my view however a politician should not let the loudest voices of the public change his mind if he feels in all honesty that his decision is in the best interests of the people If that is con strued as a condescending view so be it A person must take a stand and live with the consequences Strangely the seemingly logical con sequences seldom follow In Aurora for example the same small group of citizens has lobbied the council repeatedly for the past four years on various issues Yet not one with the exception of new Councillor Bob Roth has offered himself or herself up to the electors as a public servant But they have other things to do Thats understandable I dont say that sarcastically However if things are as bad as these people seem to believe why dont they seek public office and try to change the course of Auroras They can They have the opportunity All they need to do is get the will of the people behind them At this point can predict the reaction of those who take an active involvement in Auroras civic protests Youre saying that one has to be on council to change things Thats not the way it should be The people should have a voice and the council should listen Youre being as arbitrary as some of our councillors by saying Put up or shut up Such a response again puts the issue in black and white simplistic terms It is not a simple issue Citizen concern for the communitys future is commendable and should be en couraged Given the prevailing mood in Aurora council without a doubt should hold more public meetings But it is a simple fact that the council has the final authority to make the decisions and it authority should be respected even if certain citizens disagree with the decision In Aurora in August of 1975 a body of voters responding to the Wellington widening plan has indicated it has no respect for council Implicit in their vitriolic comments is a lack of respect for And that is the issue the system not the specific personalities on Aurora Council Next week An alternative system Cartoon editorial are criticized some of the have shouted ore loudly than others me as you say have en rude Hut people deeply concerned really understand eyesore for lack of paini something do lend to holly issue In apathy people nuked led istr fronted with local and refuse to consider their point of Buck loves those wide highways the majority of people do rapport with the people and cosily monstrositi mi want tax money and not the en oil four laic gh civil adnimist ways through towns roid building dehumanizing effect widening of Wellington as exemplified in King Unfair treatment at Irish House About three weeks to us and said you start driving now in thai mans opinion if ago a girlfriend and 1 then you are not constantly drinking I think you 1 told him that he then cm should leave and make could take hates steps there listening to the way for someone who he had to hut wis sitting ours elf and had four wants to drink Its people right there to watch the Im sorry that this cacti dotal of like you who cause places entertainment mans apparent greed between and 1015 like this have a cover Needless lo say we has made him rude and pm Then decided charge There are steps I were both very upset by unfeeling that we had had enough to could lake to make you experience I found it I would suggest to drink and would leave at depressing think anyone going up to the the end of the next My girlfriend said someone could be so li li Hi approximately lhal site want to unfair we hadnt In any pm in Ihe middle of the drink am more because way caused any trouble a dark haired man she had to drive home to wilier manages Newmarket PRESTON They still don make greeting cards for these occasions By ROY GREEN We are living in a greetingcard society cards covering everything that happens in the today A walk through a book store or drug store local papers you of this Every Wednesday they could ink up and prepare these specialized cards with one guy writing the poems and another sketching ap propriate scenes You dont believe me Just watch Suppose we take last weeks Era and e Once you pass the usual cards like birthdays anniversaries weddings getwell cards etc you come across cards to cover a whole spectrum of events incidents and even nonhappenings You can get cards to tell people they have bad breath communist tendencies and poor posture Coutts has Hallmarks covering world wars neighborhood race riots and a series of ethnic slurs You can send cards to dogs cats former lovers and obscene telephone callers You can even Im sure obtain obscene cards in case the phone company has caught you making calls and taken away your telephone These are some of the bad greeting cards There are good ones as well There are some which lay Have a nice day or Today is the lint day the rest of you life But believe it or not the greeting card have not gone far enough missing When the town council announced that we would have to stop watering our lawns during the water crisis a while ago we could all have sent little cards to the Main Street municipal offices reminding the town fathers that we had ex perienced some difficulties They said youll remember that watering lawns was a nono except for a couple of hours one night per week Topping up swimming pools was okay because the water wasnt being Thats right I think they new field of cards The local stores should waits with little presses to print card but I couldnt mid one that fit the occasion I wanted to go right out and buy a greeting It would have been nice if 1 had found one that went something like this The grass is brown and hard and cuts My feet when I cross the lawn In bare feet The ditch is dry and eggs would fry Upon my melting street I top up the pool to keep my cool But that has proved too risky For though swim and splash about Theres no water left for my whisky Wouldnt a nice little card like that have had some impact on our councillors At least Id have felt better getting it off my chest By the same token the resignation of Jack from the Job of Chief Administrative Officer for York Region might have been ac cepted by regional councillors if hed chosen to chuck up the job in a Special Occasion Card To all the guys and gals of York Im sending out these greetings As you shout and holler and blow your cork 11 not be at the meetings And if the good ship York is scuttled Or stays there on that sand bar You just might find me doing my thing In Peel or Durham Halton or Niagara Another front page story in The Era con cerned the pay raises for three top policemen in York They could alleviate some criticism if they sent out a card York Caps are Tops the saying goes And we do our best to keep it that way Tops in radar tops in spotchecks And of course we like our pay that way And the great Wellington St affair might have caused less tension if cards had been sent What if Bob Roth Aurora councillor and Topic columnist had warned York of his fighting in tentions If you thought hard times are great unrest Were at their worst in The Grapes of Wrath You really aint seen nothin yet Till you hear the Gripes of Roth As of this writing the Wellington saga was to enter another phase as Aurora Councillor Harry Jackson returns from holidays and could break a tie vote on the whole issue Harry was away last week and has said he wont tell anyone which hell vote until the next council meeting after this was written Im not suggesting that he would purposely avoid the issue but 1 suspect he wished quite reasonably that the whole thing would be resolved while he was away If that had been the case he could have sent a card to Aurora Council something like this one To speak my thought on trees and roads While I am on vacation Would be folly of the nth degree I aint even read the petition Id hoped that you could settle it all Without me setting precedents Leave me on the fence not needing a defence For council or angry residents Finally the serious business of kids chasing garbage trucks York Sanitation on the front page is worried about it The kids should ex plain Were sorry we chase your trucks And scare your drivers on garbage day It snot for fun not at all you see Its just the price of food today Have a nice day