HomeMy WebLinkAboutTimes Advocate, 1995-09-20, Page 4Page 4 Times -Advocate, September 20,1995
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EDITORIALS
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Education minister must step down
hen Ontario Education Minis-
ter John Snobelen proposed inventing a
crisis to whip up support for making
drastic changes in the school system
more acceptable to taxpayers he
crossed a line that will make continuing
in this position extremely difficult.
To insult the intelligence of those
who pay for education in Ontario by in-
venting crisis situations to speed reform
is basically the same as telling these
same people they do not have the intel-
ligence to make decisions when pre-
sented with ligimate information. There
is no doubt that reforms will be coming
to our educational system...but they
must be reforms that will increase value
and not just reflect the presently popu-
lar theory that "cost cutting" is the solu-
tion to all problems.
A recent feature story in the Toronto
Sun about people who come to Canada
to get Canadian citizenship and then re-
turn to Hong Kong where they can earn
more and pay less in taxes had a very'
interesting piece of information. The
returnees were sending their children to
schools that were based on Canadian
education systems.
To manufacture a crisis to reform On-
tario's education could be compared to
killing a fly with a sledge hammer. b ,
John Snobelen is an important part of
the Mike Harris team that is currently
enjoying favor with Ontario's citizens.
They have a mandate to make needed
changes. In fact, voters are expecting
they will have to take a certain amount
of "bad tasting medicine" on the road to
financial stability.
The new minister refers to teachers as
service providers, students as clients and
parents as customers. He has also advo-
cated market-based tuition fees where
students would pay the actual cost of
their education and repay their debts
from future earnings. Some have esti-
mated tuitions could jump as much as
400%.
Snobelen and his advisers could be on
the right track in some areas of educa-
tional reform but in order to have any
chance at being effective he must have
the support of taxpayers as well as those
who work within the system. To even
hint that trickery and deception could
enhance that support is an indication of
the confidence he has in his own leader-
ship.
Is it possible that someone with a posi-
tion as important as Minister of Educa-
tion can continue those duties with the
respect and trust of taxpayers after the
remarks he made last week?
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Invest a little time in Ontaro's future
he future of any province lies
with its young people with vision and
energy who, when they see a need, are
prepared to fill it. That need may be
anything from saving a friend's life, to
helping those less fortunate or
demonstrating a desire to make their
community better.In this community
and right across Ontario we are lucky
to have an abundance of young people
who fit this description. We often only
hear of the bad kids, but everyone
reading this knows at least one young
person who fits the 'good' category. It's
these young people who deserve, but
seldom receive, proper recognition. For
that reason the Ontario Junior Citizen
of the Year Awards program was
founded in 1981. We, at this
newspaper, are proud to play a part in
recognizing the youth of our
community.The program, a project of
the Ontario Community Newspapers
Association (OCNA) with the
assistance of Bell Canada, has over the
past 13 years paid tribute to 180
exemplary individuals or groups
between the ages of six to 18.
Those chosen to receive this
prestigious award, along with their
families, are guests of honour at a
luncheon in Toronto during the annual
OCNA convention. Award recipients are
joined by Ontario's Lieutenant Governor
for a family portrait at Queen's Park, and
are presented with $200 and a Junior
Citizen lapel pin.Many young people in
our community are worthy of the
attention and encouragement provided
through the Ontario Junior Citizen of the
Years Awards program. It is up to all of
us to find them and make sure they are
nominated. Every nominee receives a
certificate stating they were considered
for this distinct honour and contribute
greatly to their community. They will
also have their story.&old through the
columns of this newspaper. Invest a
little bit of time•in the future of Ontario.
Say 'thank you' to a special young
person or group by filling out an Ontario
Junior Citizen of the Year nomination
form. They are available now at this
newspaper and we will be pleased to
work with you. Deadline for
nominations is October 31, 1995.Good
kids are all around us. It's up to us to see
them.
A View From Queen's Park
TORONTO - Ontario's Liberals are searching
for yet another leader, -but don't blink or you
may miss him (or her.)
The Liberals, who are head-hunting this time
because Lyn McLeod was humbled by Progres-
sive Conservative Mike Harris in the June elec-
tion, change leaders as commonly as others
pick out a new suit.
This will be their seventh leader in three dec-
ades, on top of four interim or caretaker lead-
ers, while their rivals in opposition, the New
Democrats, have managed with only four.
Probably even few Liberals could name all
their leaders in that time: John Wintermeyer,
Andrew Thompson, Robert Nixon, Stuart
Smith and David Peterson before McLeod.
One Liberal MPP, Philip Givens, a former
Toronto mayor, justified having a different pol-
icy from Nixon by saying leaders come and
leaders go" and was merely noting brutal reali-
ty. The Liberals should advertise their job as
short-term with not much prospect for advance-
By Eric Dowd
ment, because in half a century only one of
their leaders (Peterson) became premier.
If the Liberals have learned any lessons, they
will pick someone who has ideas and strong
convictions. McLeod was an efficient ministr:l',
but brought no ideas except an ambition to do
good -- no one doubts she meant well.
She set up task forces to consult people all
over the province and find out what they want-
ed her to do, and after three years they told her
to cut government and taxes. In the election,
she unveiled a massive volume of promises on
these lines, most of which unfortunately Harris
already had made.
They never sounded much like personal goals
for which she had passion, but rather as if they
had been worked out by a committee whose
members each had added convoluted, confus-
ing provisos and reservations.
From the time he ran for leader, Harris had
firm ideas, mostly about cutting government
and taxes. He was ahead of voters' thinking,
HUH?.Yous+AY
SOMETHING?
Guest columnist
By Mona Irwin
It was a straw that broke the camel's back
Isn't it amazing the reasons
people can come up with when
they try to explain why they de-
serve to be treated better than
anyone else.
Huron MP Paul Steckle claims
that none of his constituents
have called him up to ask why
he doesn't opt out of the pen-
sion plan. (Apparently the rea-
son he got all hot and bothered
about the gun control bill is be-
cause he got just tons of calls
from outraged constituents.
How touching.)
He also says he "didn't run"
because of the pension plan, but
he has no pension plan from his
previous employment - not un-
like thousands of his constitu-
ents, unless farmers are sudden-
ly eligible for fat pension
benefits above and beyond
whatever they manage to save
during their working years.
MPs have already taken a 20
per cent cut in potential pension
benefits under legislation passed
by the Liberal government. The
Liberals also imposed a mini-
mum age of 55 before a politi-
cian could start collecting pen-
sion benefits.
Bring on the violins and hank-
ies.
The rest of the world manages
to make do on considerably less
than they consider themselves to
be worth (rightly or wrongly).
There are a lot of workers who
bring home far less than their
talent, skills and experience
should garner.
Nobody else has the ability to
set their own wages, without let
or hindrance -- only the elected
officials can, and do, vote them-
selves raises, benefits and fat re-
tirement incentives, and then
self-righteously wrap them-
selves in the mantle of the self-
less public servant who's given
up everyone just for the privi-
lege of serving the public good,
and wax either indignant, self-
righteous or piteous when they
ask how anyone can be so un-
feeling as to begrudge them
what little rewards they can
scrape up.
Mr. Steckle denies any paral-
lel in his refusal to opt out of the
government's pension plan.
He's right, insofar as that goes.
His stand on the gun control bill
cost him very little, other than
the chairmanship of a commit-
tee or two - certainly nothing in
the range of the $.5 million pen-
sion he'll have gathered by the
time he's 75. It was a sure bet: a
lot of voters' goodwill to gain,
nothing to lose.
The pension plan, of course, is
a horse of another color. Here's
where the real priorities come to
the surface.
Mr. Steckle accuses the Re-
form Party of "grasping at
straws" in their search for an is-
sue. Perhaps he might want to
recall the fable of the straw and
the camel's back.
Mona Irvin is news editor of the
Goderich Signal -Star
Help wanted
lucky a tide from many places helped sweep
them around to his view, but also converted
and impressed because he believed what he
said.
The Liberals should look for a leader who has
fire in the belly. McLeod waited for her poli-
cies to arrive by courier.
Harris was laughed at when he became leader
of a miniscule third party and even more when
he cornily called himself "The Taxfighter." He
acted like he was determined to be next premier
even when•few turned up to his meetings and
he was told there was no chance for someone in
the sameptty as Brian Mulroney.
The Qtost talked -of as candidates for
lead ' - deputy leader Sean Conway, the
Ion : *jiving Liberal MPP, who chose not to
run +)f! a d mused about quitting politics,
and P , Elston, who ran second to McLeod
and glie legislature. none of which indicates
consutnlhg ambition.
The Liberals need a leader who can commu-
nicate. As polls showed, McLeod never made
her name known despite the novelty of being
first woman leader.
Hams tried every stunt he could think of, in-
cluding taking a portable phone in the legisla-
ture and asking if he could use it to reach then
NDP premier Bob Rae, absent often on phone-
in shows, but also used more direct, often sim-
plistic, clearer language voters understood.
A new Liberal leader also will have to resist a
flood of demands that the party turn sharply left
after it swerved an emphatic right in the elec-
tion with promises to cut $4 billion fromtspend-
ing and balance the budget in four years.
Cuts in government and taxes are what voters
overwhelmingly want, as other provinces and a
Liberal federal government have found, and a
Liberal leader who suggested returning to big
spending would have as short a career as his
predecessors.
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