The Citizen, 2007-06-21, Page 5THE CITIZEN, THURSDAY, JUNE 21, 2007. PAGE 5.
Bonnie
Gropp
TThhee sshhoorrtt ooff iitt
Aparty that a only few months ago put
an ad in a newspaper desperately
looking for someone brave enough to
run for it in Ontario’s Oct 10 election – next to
the one seeking a bartender for Whiskey
Willy’s – is now finding people beating on its
doors.
This is one measure of a sudden change in
provincial politics. The Progressive
Conservatives led by John Tory, who ran the
unusual advertisement, had been seen as
having little chance of winning the election,
particularly because an earlier Conservative
government under premier Mike Harris
decimated essential services.
Candidates are not attracted by the prospect
of sitting in opposition. Being asked to run for
the Conservatives was like being invited to
board the last voyage of the Titanic.
But the Liberals under Premier Dalton
McGuinty have fallen in popularity
particularly because they failed to guard
lottery tickets from cheats and steered money
for immigrants disproportionately to
organizations run by party friends. The
Conservatives are neck and neck with them in
the most recent poll.
The Liberals, since being elected to govern
in 2003 had been able almost to take their pick
of candidates in by-elections, although this did
not always mean they found winners.
The Conservatives hoped to have Bas
Balkissoon, a cost-conscious municipal
councillor who blew whistles on waste, run for
them in a by-election in Toronto. They talked
to him about it, but Balkissoon opted to run for
the then more secure Liberals and held the
riding comfortably.
Another respected Toronto councillor,
Sylvia Watson, TV reporter Ben Chin and
news anchor Laura Albanese, viewed as star
catches because everyone knows their faces,
also opted to run for the Liberals in by-
elections, although all three lost when the New
Democrats surprisingly revived.
Others unwilling to run again for the Ontario
Conservatives were Jim Flaherty, John Baird
and Tony Clement, who had been senior
ministers under Harris and ran federally.
They also wanted to get away from their
current Ontario party because they are extreme
right-wingers, out of tune with the more
moderate Tory, and have become senior
federal ministers.
But this was never assured and they can be
classed among those who did not rate highly
the prospect of the Ontario Conservatives
getting back in power in 2007.
Parties want candidates of substance in
ridings because, while elections usually are
won mainly on a leader’s policies and style,
individual candidates can attract votes locally
and give the appearance of a strong team and
convey this message across the province.
One minor first indication enthusiasm for
running for the Conservatives is reviving came
from a Liberal, Tim Peterson, a backbench
Liberal since 2003 and brother of former
Liberal premier David Peterson, who
announced he was leaving his caucus to run
for the Conservatives.
Peterson had been disgruntled at being left
out of McGuinty’s cabinet and never used
opportunities backbenchers have to make
speeches and introduce private member’s
legislation demonstrating they have ability.
But he would not have left if he did not feel he
had some chance with the Conservatives and
the time had come to make the switch.
Some others have emerged from their
bunkers and said they will run for the
Conservatives and the party has been able to
show it already has candidates in 80 per cent
of the ridings, including some with impressive
credentials.
They include David Shiner, a Toronto city
councillor and former budget chief, who has
high name recognition because his family has
a long record in municipal politics,
particularly of opposing more expressways,
and is already saying he once supported the
Liberals, but they have done little but dither.
That advertisement in a Kingston paper has
produced a Conservative candidate in Dr. John
Rapin, whom as president of the Ontario
Medical Association wielded a sharp scalpel
promoting doctors.
Whiskey Willy’s, Where Friends and
Families Gather, also has found its bartender
and who is to say this is not as useful a
service?
Things are happening
Confession time: You are reading the
words of one lousy global citizen. The
carbon footprint I leave behind is more
like a full-body face plant.
I don’t drive a hybrid automobile. I burn
actual wood in my fireplace that sends actual
smoke up my chimney. I leave lamps (bearing
taboo incandescent bulbs) burning needlessly
in my wake and lazily put my computer on
“Standby” while I fix myself a snack from the
refrigerator.
The door of which, as my better half likes to
point out, I leave ajar more often than not.
Bicycle? Yes, I have one. The last time I
threw a leg over it was three prime ministers
ago.
I’m bad. I’m a backslider. An ecosinner. Al
Gore would not have me in for tea.
On the other hand, I’m trying. I’ve turned
over a new leaf. Or a blade, if you like. I
bought myself a push lawnmower.
Actually, it’s no sacrifice at all – I LIKE my
push mower.
In an earlier incarnation I owned a house
surrounded by an acre and a half of lawn. I
spent most Saturdays (and often one or two
weekday evenings) grumpily prowling across
that green expanse on a big, noisy, smelly
riding lawnmower that cost me a fortune in gas
and threatened to chew my foot off if I ever
made a miscue.
When I moved to a new house with less
lawn I sold the riding monster and bought a
standard gas mower, but I found it was just as
smelly and even noisier.
My salvation came at a garage sale a couple
of years ago in the form of a Lee Valley push
mower. “How much for the mower?” I asked
the guy wearing the change apron.
“Twenty bucks, no GST” the man said. I
gave the man a double sawbuck and I haven’t
looked back since.
I have been cutting the lawn with my push
mower for two years now and here is what I’ve
learned:
(1) Mowing the lawn need not be undertaken
in clouds of noxious exhaust fumes that cry
out for a Hazmat suit.
A guy pushing a muscle-powered mower
actually gets to breathe clean, unpolluted air –
not to mention first dibs on the delicious scent
of new-mown grass.
(2) Mowing the lawn does not have to be a
blitzkrieg assault on the eardrums. Instead of
that deafening roar of a gas-powered mower,
the push mower produces only the delicate
flutter and whir of the rotating reel. Instead of
RRRRRRRRRRRRRRRR you get
fffffrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrtttttt.
It’s a beautiful, comforting sound and it’s
not loud enough to tick off your neighbours –
or even to interrupt the chatter of the robins
and finches.
(3) It’s ‘way cheaper to operate a push
mower. At a time when the cost of a litre of
gas is approaching the price of a dollop of
Chanel No. 5, the push mower requires exactly
zero gas and no oil, aside from a squirt of WD
– 40 every few months to keep things loosey-
goosey.
(4) The lawn looks better after it’s been cut
with a push mower. The experts say that’s
because the push mower clips the blades of
grass, unlike the power mowers which slash
the grass like a Viking berserker on meth. The
end result is a lawn that looks like it’s been
sculpted by a hair stylist, not clear-cut by an
army barber.
(5) You know how many people maim
themselves with lawn mowers each year in
North America? Over 80,000. The injuries
range from debris in the eyes, through
perforated eardrums to full-scale, (if amateur)
amputations of hands and feet.
Wanna guess how many of those injuries
come from push mowers? Exactly. The push
mower is the clumsy man’s friend.
(6) Although it sounds counter-intuitive, it is
actually easier to cut the lawn with a push
mower. If you’re muttering “Hah!” or an even
less polite word right now, that’s probably
because you’re remembering those old iron-
wheeled, wooden-shafted beasts we both grew
up with.
Push mowers aren’t like that any more. The
modern ones are super-efficient and light as a
feather. Some of them weigh as little as seven
pounds. Cutting the lawn with a modern push
mower isn’t an ordeal. More like a stroll in the
park.
Now don’t think I’m kidding myself. I know
that the adoption of push mowers does not
spell planetary salvation. The fact that I flutter
around my lawn once a week with an
unmotorized machine will not put Canada on
track to meet its Kyoto requirements.
But it’s a start. And it’s healthy for me and
my lawn. And a darned pleasant way to spend
an hour once a week.
Arthur
Black
Conservatives finding their team
It could be imagination, maybe wishful
thinking, even, but I really don’t believe
so.
Things seem to be happening. There’s an
energy, a tangible excitement in the air.
Perhaps it’s just the balmy breezes, the
birdsong of summer, the splash of blooming
colours that are making things seem more
vital and alive, but I don’t think so.
Our small communities are looking ahead to
a brighter future and have stepped up the pace
to get there.
Pulling in to Blyth at the beginning of last
week I noticed the sold sign on yet one more
downtown building. Also, work was
continuing just down the street on the
extensive restoration of a block of stores to
their glorious historic splendour.
Likewise, Memorial Hall has had some
health concerns addressed and is looking in
great shape for Blyth Festival’s upcoming
season.
The youth park is ready to provide a safe
place to wear off youthful exuberance. And
the campground continues to bring folks to
town from far and farther for some R and R.
In Brussels, heritage is being celebrated
with Homecoming 2007 this summer. The
village turns 135 and everyone’s bringing out
the red and white to show some festive spirit.
It’s taken some time to get to this point, but
the Optimist Club will be using the
anniversary weekend to show off the park
rejuvenation project, made possible through
the members’ efforts and the support of a
collaboration of other individuals and
organizations. The memorial garden has
created a unique focal point. The picturesque
mill and dam have always been there. It’s nice
that this village asset is finally ready to be
shown off a little.
New businesses have added some
excitement to main street, and the dressing up
of some storefronts shows the potential when
improvements are done and done well. A
heritage committee has been established to
take a look at commerce in Brussels from then
to now and is also offering a small incentive
for property owners in the downtown core to
paint the town — in heritage colours of
course.
Good things are happening.
Many community leaders need to be
thanked for some of these initiatives and
changes. They are the forward thinkers who
get an idea and take it to fruition. They are the
risk takers, who know that often you have to
take that jump. They are the ones with the
financial stability to invest, and actually do it.
But our communities need to be thanked as
well. The volunteers who pulled together to
clean, beautify or build deserve credit. The
residents who donated what they could where
they could helped make it all possible.
And even the folks who simply spread the
word about life in this blessed corner of the
world, we would have to say have done their
fair share.
This is, and has always been the essence of
our small communities. The heart beats
through the lifeblood of the people who live
there, who recognize the value in a quieter, but
no less vital place, in which to make a home.
It can often seem like the David and Goliath
story as higher levels of government pass us
by time and again. But when you look at the
achievements being made recently you can’t
help but remember how that saga ends.
Other Views Confessions of an ecosinner
Eric
Dowd
FFrroomm
QQuueeeenn’’ss PPaarrkk
It is one of the most beautiful
compensations of this life that no man can
sincerely try to help another without
helping himself.
– Ralph Waldo Emerson
Final Thought