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The Sunv'h’ibune welcomes your let- ters. All submissions must be less than 400 words and must include a daytime telephone number. name and address. The Sun-Nbune "curves the d t to publish or not publis and to edit for Char ity and space. utters to the Edlton The Sun-mm 6290 Main St. Stouflvllle. 0N LM l6? Sun. Georgina Macaw. York Region Business Tunes, North of the City, yorkregiomcom and York Region Printing. is comprised of 100 community publications actoss Ontano. me York Region Newspaper Gmup also includes The Liberal. sewing Richmond Hill and Thomhill, Vaugtan Citizen, The Ela~Banner (Newmarket/Aumra), Markham Economist York Region Media Group community newspapers The Sun-Tribune, published every Thursday and Saturday, is a division of the Metmiand Media Group Ltd., a wholly-owned subsidiary of Torstat Corporation. Meooland lmuonOyrmg.com Classified Classified Manager Bonnie Rondeau DISTRIBUTION Circulation Supervisor Carrie MacFarlane cmada rlane@>yrmg. co m @fi-mbd lETTERS POLICY Manager Dawna Andrews dandrews®yrmgrom mommn©ynngcom Mike Banuille mbanuilleét’yrmgrom brondeau®yrmg.com Stouffville er Carolyn Norman PRODUCTION Manager Sherry Day Fax Advertising jmason@yrmg. com 1mm ADVERTISING DISTRIBUTION 905-640-2612 I \ i I Sif-Tfibfine 1 Stat/7W]: 0 905â€"640â€"2612 , T b 905-640-8778 ‘ . Sun- r1 an 6290 Main St. ‘ " StoufMlle ON. MA 167 LDIIORIAL , ADVERTISING WWW-00m 905-640-26l2 M ,_300_743_3353 ‘ PUBLISHER Ian Prou u: 905â€"640~8778 MEDIA Marketing Enrmm Editor Iim Mason After the first day, my dad would look like a lobster that had been held over the pot and cooked on one side. After a few days, his left side looked much more nicely tanned, but you stillwantedtotumhimoverand pophimbackinthetoasterdllhe was done nloe and even. Either way we didn’t really came that dad looked odd, because that’s Or at least we thought of the trips as exotic, even if we didn't look like exotic travellers ourselves. There were six of us, two parents and four kids (later to become five kids) hud- dled together so close we were read- ing each other's thoughts â€" par- ticularly my mother’s, who not far into each trip was always thinking, “Never again!" That’s what my father looked like for most of my summers as a young- ster, as the driver on camping trips to exotic spots in the US. -- like many Whitchurch-Stouffville resi- dents will do this summer. sometimes wonder if Ameri- cans think our red and white flag is inspiredby what Cana- dian travellers look like after hours behind the wheel with the window down, left arm resting on the door, left side of the face exposed to the sun. Obesity stats no longer set us apart from neighbours When it comes to the York Regional Police chief, maybe it would be good if he got out and drove around to observe the vehicles being parked or If real figures cannot be pub- lished, an accompanying chart made from typical deductions that all employers have access to can be presented, including Ontan’o surcharges and prob- able health tax. These figures might show what these people can and probably do contribute to the community and economy, even if some of it is used to keep cottage country alive. Along with the 2009 and 2008 salaries, the media should also print the net amounts after income tax deductions, CPP and El and any other manda- tory amounts paid to public services and government. Top earners contribute to economy, community Re: Ain’t no Sunshine for rest of us, editorial, April 8 lETTERS TO THE EDITOR b What do you think of these issues or others? E-mail letters to the editor to jmason@yrmg.com The total disregard for pedestrian safety and mobility is almost a hate crime, but how does one tackle it? He may be doing a great job on crime but not on safety in traffic. If we want to get people out of their cars and walking to the transit stop or the stores. the sidewalks have to made safer. driven on sidewalks so that he can have his team do a much better job. Then it was back through Minne- sota andWisconsin, which is known for We saw everything, from North and South Dakota to North and South Carolina, Florida, Georgia, Pennsylva- nia, Washington, DC, and all its awe- inspiring federal buildings, Kentucky, Tennessee, Ohio and Michigan, and many points in between. That included the Kennedy Space Centre. gleat muse- ums. huge sporting venues and more roadside food outlets than you’d care to mention. the kind of tan you get when you're a Canadian piloting a station wagon on great adventures of cultural and geo- graphic exploration across the United Steaks of America. HAVE YOUR SAY, WHITCHURCH- STOUFFVILLE Bernie O’Neill NICK BIRD RICHMOND HILL Likewise to the Americans. Canadi- ans were a special breed and they liked talking to us, even if for some of them Although all the waitresses said the same thing after you said thank you. “Unhuh,” they‘d say, from Michigan right down to South Carolina. Like the Kentuckian named Kyle who called me 'ya'll,” so I'd literally be turning around to see who else he was speaking to. And the people from "Bah Haba, Mayin" (Bar Harbor, Maine) who I could understand even less. It wasn’t just accents, it was how people dressed, how close they stood to you when they talked, how loud they talked, the expressions they used. Canadians like to believe that Amer- icans are all the same. But on those trips 1 often found the opposite to be true â€" that if we met fellow travel- lers from Halifax or Winnipeg we all seemed to find ourselves to be very similar. But the Americans were differ- ent from us and each other. its acres of dairy farms, with an odour to match. We actually saw a bumper sticker that read, “Smell our dairy air,” which said something about Wiscon- sin's pride and bilingualism, or so it seemed to us. But most of all, it was the people we met_ that {nadthhe‘ tn'ps fascinating. PUBLISHER Ian Proudfoot Tribune Stouflvifle resident Bernie O'Neill is Region Media Group editor A problem n0w on both sides (if the border. Says Southlake Regional Health Centre cardiac prevention and rehab services manager Terry Fair: “People are eating wrong and too much and there's not enough physical activity." But recent studies suggest that’s no longer true. In fact the Heart and Stroke Foundation says that in the past 30 years obesity has doubled in Canada. And it’s éfiecting young adults and even children. me” portions, where food was cheap thanks to an abundance of farmland and government subsidies of agri- culture, was that most of them were heavier than most of us. As in, we were thin and they weren’t. I always felt good about that. One thing I alivays noticed durifig those days, in what would become the lang of McDonald's and “super-size Typical wasthat we all played hock- ey (I played a lot of hockey), put vinegar on gut aqd gpoke French fluently. it was their chance to boast about the US. And yes, while they still think we’re all trappers and loggers, some had a better sense of Canada than others. Burm- m Camp Debora Kelly Busnwss MANAGER Robert lazurko szcron, Anvumsma, DISTRIBUTION Nicole Fletcher Dumamn. Oran/mom Barry Black York