Times Advocate, 1995-01-25, Page 5Page 4 Times -Advocate, January 25, 1995
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inion
No longer just an expense
4.
lowly, but surely, it is happen-
ing just like they said it would.
Few may realize just how significant
the antouncement made this month by
Bluewater Recycling really is. The fact
that the local recycling group is pre-
pared to actually pay to receive card-
board these days is a dramatic reversal
from when it was believed that recy-
cling was an expense society could ill
afford.
Only a year and a half ago, Exeter
businesses were arguing for the right to
be able to continue sending their card-
board boxes to the dump. It was not
worthwhile to set them aside for recy-
cling.
Today, they are worth money.
The key to the whole scenario is that
there are more companies seeking card-
board to recycle. The more they want,
the more they have to be prepared to
pay for it. The laws of supply and de-
mand suggest the price will fluctuate
from month to month - after all, what if
every cardboard box in Toronto were to
be put on the market?
Still, this is the shape of things to
come. It makes no sense to cut a tree
down in a distant forest to grind it down
to make cardboard, not if excess card-
board exists already. The same applies
to plastics, glass, paper. and metals - if
not now, then in the near future. And
why bury what may be useful?
Not all products are recyclable. But
we humans are a resourceful lot. If it
can't be recycled now, we are bound to
find a way, or find a way to use alterna-
tive, friendlier materials.
We look forward to the day when a
bright row of blue boxes set out at the
curb are not seen as a necessary environ-
mental expense, but as a source of mon-
ey.
Disbanded in disgrace
The disbanding of the Canadi-
an Airborne Regiment, fast on the heels
of yet another round of nauseating vid-
eotapes revelations, is not a response
that comes as too much of a surprise.
Certainly there will be those who will
call the announcement merely a sacri-
fice, a scapegoat for a more deeply -
rooted problem in the military. They
will argue that the disbandment of the
Airborne is only a means to quiet an
annoyed populace, and that other atroc-
ities in the armed forces will be al-
lowed to go unchecked.
It is, however, more than that. The
disbandment is a clear demonstration of
power - of a government that realizes it
cannot allow the military to play by its
own rules.
For far too long, the public has sus-
pected the military has been able to
sweep its problems under its own rugs,
to deliver less than harsh verdicts in its
own courts, to choose the outcomes of
its own inquiries. Whether those per-
ceptions were accurate or not, it was
clear to everyone that a military -led in-
quiry into the actions of the airborne
would not be adequate. A civilian in-
quiry was promised, underscoring the
lack of trust.
That will not be necessary now, al-
though it may prove a useful exercise.
The disbandment was clearly the result
of the embarrassing videotape releases,
even though the real crime had been
committed months before - the beating
death of a Somali teen. .How peculiar
that a murder called for al trial and
investigation, but it was dre home videos
that provided enough rope fora lynch-
ing.
Canada can expect the main role for
her armed forces to be a "peacekeeping"
brief. Soldiers trained to kill have to fill
a role of preventing the spread of blood-
shed. Inciting hatred and finding rea-
sons to kill are not part of that role.
Faith in our armed forces to fill that
role needs to be restored. The disband-
ment of the Airborne confirms how seri-
ously that task needs to be taken.
A _View From Queen's Park
By Eric Dowd
A dirty tricks campaign of sorts is being
fought as the parties jostle toward an Ontario
election bnly months away, but all the blame
should not be heaped on the only leader who
has apologized.
Progressive Conservative leader Mike Harris
admitted he 'went too far' in two attacks on
New Democrat Premier Bob Rae.
In one the Tories edited a video of Rae trying
to make him speak, they said, in the staccato
style of rap musicians, because Rae fancies
himself a singer, but instead made him look
like he was stuttering.
It was not much of a trick because no politi-
cian wants to be thought making fun of an-
other's disability, especially after the anger at
federal Conservatives for trying to capitalize on
Prime Minister Jean Chretien's facial twitch.
In the other incident Harris rashly charged
that an outsider 'commandeered' Rae's com-
puter system to put an obscene message in his
name on the Internet network, when all that
happened was that a message, clearly bogus,
was placed where anyone can put messages.
Rae was caught temporarily off guard and
handicapped in explaining technical differenc-
es, but news mediahad no doubt that Harris
distorted and the Tory agreed they had a point.
Harris oddly had been the leader most con-
cerned that others would commit dirty tricks
and predicted the election will provide 'the
most vicious, personal, negative campaign ever
seen in Canadian history, by the Liberal party
against Mike Harris personally.'
The Liberals under Lyn McLeod have not yet
lived up to this worry, but they punched the To-
ries below the belt at least once, when a fax
sent to Tory riding associations notifying that a
party rally was being switched to a different
time and place was traced to a Liberal caucus
machine.
The Liberals explained it was sent by an over
zealous summer student, which is believable
because an experienced aide would have cov-
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Your Views
Letters to the editor
New park may be burden to farmers
I question the wisdom of taking
excellent farm land in the centre
of Biddulph Township
out of production...
Dear Editor;
On December 23, 1994 the Township of Biddulph
sent out notice to all adjoining land owners of a pro-
posed zoning amendment. This proposed amend-
ment would change the zoning of a parcel of land
being described as Part Lot 25, concession 4, from
an "A1-3" General Agricultural Zone, to an "OS"
Open Space Zone. This parcel, 10 acres would be
developed to support two full size soccer fields and
four mini soccer fields.
I question the wisdom of taking excellent farm
land in the centre of Biddulph Township out of pro-
duction to create a private park for the use of the
Lucan Soccer Committee. All adjoining lands at this
time are used for agriculture.
I'm an adjoining land owner and my concerns re-
garding this zone change are:
Pm involved in agriculture as a primary producer
of corn, soybeans, wheat and hogs. My production
schedules depend on the weather when I am able to
work my land. I don't feel that I should be exposed
to complaints due to regular farming practices. I
have not received any as yet, and do not want to ex-
pose my livelihood to any. Farming today is diffi-
cult enough without having complaints because of
odor from the spreading of manure, dust from work-
ing land, or practicing proper chemical application
to produce higher yielding crops. The use of some
chemicals, example Banvel in corn, has risk factors.
Risk = Exposure x Toxicity.
All my professional application does not prevent
volatilization, drift or absorption of chemicals. I do
not want to expose myself to the liabilities I may in-
cur from an adjoining park. I feel, better utilization
of existing facilities within the village of Lucan
would accomplish this for the safety of everyone
concerned.
On the question of economics, should we not
practice fiscal restraint. The. Taxpayers of Lucan and
Biddulph have enough to contend with, without add-
ing more financial burden. Tighten the purse strings
on special interest groups. NOT LOOSEN THEM.
Haskett Farms Inc.
Sharon R. Haskett.
A bag of dirty tricks
ered his tracks, but they have to take some re-
sponsibility for this trick that failed.
Rae also has been sticking out his elbows. He
claimed months ago he had information that
McLeod asked the popular Chretien to cam-
paign with her in the election but the prime
minister turned her down, worried that being
seen with her would hurt his image. Rae claims
McLeod could not win a vote on her own.
But it does not make sense that a provincial
leader eight months or so before an election
would seek a commitment from a federal leader
to campaign with her. She would at least wait
to see if the federal leader lost popularity so she
could avoid taking on a liability.
Rae has tried to picture Harris, who promises
to slash spending, as on a path that is 'not the
Ontario way' as if he was from some other
planet, reminiscent of how earlier Tories
dubbed a Liberal leader, psychiatrist Stuart
Smith, 'that shrink from Montreal' to win
votes.
Union leader Sid Ryan of the Canadian Un-
ion of Public Employees has even complained
specifically the NDP is using 'dirty tricks' to
discredit him because he refuses to lie down
over Rae's cuts in public service pay.
These so-called dirty tricks pale beside some
in the past, when Tory premier Frank Miller
had to be ringed by police because of phoned
bomb threats, Roy McMurtry in a Tory leader-
ship campaign found an opponent cancelled all
his meetings and Larry Grossman found an-
other phoned hotels he was to stay at and de-
manded kosher food be put on the menus and a
rabbi be present for all his meals, hoping being
labelled a Jew would handicap him.
But the opposition parties are edgy, con-
vinced the NDP with 15 percent in polls is
ready to be replaced, and the,NDP suddenly be-
lieves it hasa chance because some media are
saying nice things about it -- it would be sur-
prising if someone does not pull a few fast
ones.
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