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

economist sunsuntribune community saturday jan 31 2004 local author captures immigrant experience by joan ransberry staff writer james mcpherson has made a huge success of his new life in a new country he has a thriving business a wife and three daughters a beautiful home a public image and a private shame mr mcpherson is the main charac ter in the book magpies and sunsets written by whitchurchstouffville resi dent neil alexander marr the 238page paperback the first book published by mr marr has been picked up by a british publisher id almost given up on it and then i sent it to a publisher in my hometown in scotland mr marr said he sent it to an editor and they liked it magpies and sunsets is very much the immigrant experience he said you have to know where you came from to know where your are going he added a voice from mr mcphersons secret past kept calling him the voice was from 1000 miles across the atlantic ocean it was in the thick dialect of the neil marr whitchurchstouffville res ident had almost given up on finding a publisher edinburgh gutters the voice haunted him so he returned to his native scotland to confront his personal demons and exorcise the evil memo ries that bedevil him can he ever recapture the simple guiltless pleasure of watching magpies and sunsets for giving the past and laying to rest its ghosts once and for all the publisher describes magpies and sunsets as a magnificently crafted and courageous book neil marr makes no concessions to the english language as he throws the reader into the deep end of heavy rough tough dialect the publisher writes a delight for all scots a journey of adventure for millions of expatriot caledonians around the world mr marr was born in edinburgh in 1959 and emigrated to canada in 1974 he and his wife prescilla have lived on ivy crescent for 14 years the couple has two daughters mr marr teaches english and history at bayview secondary school in richmond hill magpies and sunsets will be officially launched sunday from 230 to 530 pm at the headquarters of christian blind mission international 3844 stouffville rd new leader has local ndp optimistic mtoresults jmajmi mothers against drunk driving 1800665madd this message brought to you as a community service of the economist sunsuntribune bymikeadler stftff writer growing more confident behind a new national leader local new democrats are preparing to wage the next federal cam paign with new boundaries in york region the party is staging founding meetings for oak ridgesmarkham and richmond hill at 2 pm feb 22 in the richmond hill central library yonge street and major mackenzie drive a federal commission last year broke up the overpopu- lated oak ridges riding and made richmond hill into a riding on its own it created oak ridges- markham by combining the northern arid eastern edges of markham with king vvwtchurchstouffville and richmond hills north end oak ridgesmarkham is massive and mainly rural but it will start with a good core of ndp activists said adam de vita president of the oak ridges ndp were looking to turn some heads there soon janice hagan the partys 2003 provincial candidate in markham and pamela cour- tot who ran in oak ridges both live in the new riding neither has stepped forward as a potential candidate mr de vita said but michael crang an environmentalist from gormley has expressed interest in running election results in richmond hill for 2000 show the town has been of a york region strong point for the party mr de vita said youll find a couple of polls around 15 per cent and a couple around 1 the new richmond hill riding has greater housing density said mr de vita adding that helps the ndp which relies on legwork to spread its message the more we can do door-to- door the better it is for us perennial underdogs in suburbia new democrats in local ridings took 6 per cent of the vote in 2000 double some previous showings its clear stance against the iraq war and jack laytons leadership should help the party make further gains in york mr de vita said local ndp associations can be reached through wwwndpca 0p917days awfflc- cau store for hours markham 5328 hwy 7 east unit 3 905 4714116 c a n a d a s s o u r c b for mississauga toronto newmarket 600 matheson blvd w 2760 yonge st 17480 yonge st 905 7559000 416 4400244 905 8367618 oakville pickering vaughan 166 south service rd e 1755 pickering pkwy 3240 langstaff rd 9058150123 9054265700 9056604888 0ac on selected merchandise may not jcomjtijed wjth any other products wwwfitnesssoiirceca selection may vary by store administration fee of 49 see store for details betz pools pools hot tubs backyard living 5688 main street stouffville 9056401424 4