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Home My WebLink AboutThe Times Advocate, 2007-10-03, Page 44 Times—Advocate Wednesday, October 3, 2007 OC =CNA T. TIMES ADVOCATE Editorial Opinion PUBLICATIONS MAIL REGISTRATION NUMBER 07511 We acknowledge the Financial support of the Government of Canada, through the Publications Assistance Program (PAP), toward our mailing costs. Canada Jim Beckett — Publisher Deb Lord — Production Manager Scott Nixon — Editor CNA 2007 BLUE RIBBON t The Times -Advocate is owned by Metroland Media Group Ltd. Metroland 424 Main Street South, P.O. Box 850 Media Group Ltd. Exeter, Ontario NOM 1S6 • 519-235-1331 Doug Rowe -General Manager, Southwestern Ontario Division EDITORIAL Heading to the polls Most of the all candidates meetings have taken place, the politicians have been out shaking hands and kissing babies, getting their message out trying to convince you they are the right candidate. Only a week remains until the Ontario provincial elec- tion, with the latest poll suggesting the Liberals are close to winning another majority government. It seems the gains made by the Liberals have been at the expense of the New Democratic Party. Leader Howard Hampton has had a relatively quiet campaign and saw his party slip from 18 per cent support to 15 per cent in the latest poll. The Liberals, meanwhile, climbed three points to 44 per cent, while John Tory's Progressive Conservatives remained stagnant at 34 per cent. The Greens have also failed to make a significant move into the mainstream, landing in fourth place at seven per cent support among decided voters. What does all of this mean? If the numbers in the poll hold true until election day, it means the Conservatives failed in their attempts to paint Premier Dalton McGuinty as a promise breaker and one who couldn't be trusted. At least, they failed to convince Ontarians that Tory would be better. The Conservatives can deny it all they like, but Tory's faith -based funding plan and his talk of creationism was probably the fatal flaw in the Conservative campaign. But while the Grits have a healthy lead provincewide, closer to home it's tougher to predict who will come out on top in Huron -Bruce. Liberal MPP Carol Mitchell car- ried herself fairly well in an all candidates meeting in Holmesville last week; as the incumbent, she faced the usual criticism from the other candidates, but seemed to take it all in stride. Conventional wisdom would suggest a close race between Mitchell and the PC candidate, former South Huron mayor and county warden Rob Morley. This is Morley's first leap into provincial politics and, while he's well known in Huron County, Mitchell has the advantage over Morley, in terms of name recognition, in the north- ern portion of the riding, particularly in Bruce. Former Huron MPP Paul Klopp, running again for the NDP, is another well-known name It was hard to judge at last week's all candidates meeting who had the most sup- port, although unfortunately the loudest applause of the night resulted when Family Coalition Party candidate Dave Joslin sounded off on the environment, saying there is no evidence global warming or climate change is caused by humans. "Don't let the government suck your tax dollars in on something that doesn't exist," he said. Independent candidates Ron Stephens and Dennis Valenta also seemed less than concerned about the envi- ronment, both of whom suggested we "pray for rain" during the dry summer months. How has that helped in the past? Comments like those are discouraging for environmen- talists, and in particular for Green Party candidate Victoria Serda, who responded in kind, but if the reac- tion of the crowd is any indication, many of you agree with Valenta, Joslin and Stephens. The show will go on . . . without me Monday came and went and the e-mail didn't arrive. Oh, I received tons of work-related e-mails Monday, like I do everyday, but the only e-mail I was looking forward to (no offense to the rest of you who e-mailed me) never showed up. And in this case, no news was bad news. What e-mail had I eagerly been anticipating? It was an e-mail telling me that I had been among the only 20,000 or so people lucky enough (among the tens of millions who applied) to be given the option of buying tickets to the Nov. 26, long-awaited Led Zeppelin reunion show in London, England. Because organizers knew demand for tick- ets would be so high (and let's face it, only a Beatles reunion would be bigger), they opted for the lottery option — you could register on a website and then names would randomly be drawn, giving the win- ners the opportunity to buy two tickets to the concert, a tribute to Atlantic Records late founder and the man who signed Led Zeppelin way back in the stone ages, Ahmet Ertegun. The concert will act as a fundraiser for education programs, although frankly us Zeppelin fans are more concerned that the band will be on stage again for the first time publicly in 19 years. It will also presumably be their last performance as a band, although one never knows. Front man Robert Plant, who has long resisted a Zeppelin reunion, has repeatedly denied there will be a tour after the November reunion show. But alas, I won't be going to see my favourite band and I guess I'll have to hope there is a DVD released. One organizer said the official website for the concert received 89 million hits on the first day from those seeking tickets. I then real- ized my odds of being chosen were perhaps not very good, but a minor miracle would have been nice. Hey, who wouldn't want a trip to England to see the best rock band in history? (Sorry Mick and Keith, your band isn't the best, just the old- est.) Led Zeppelin, of course, broke up in 1980 short- ly after their drummer, the incomparable and irreplaceable John Bonham died. There have been rumours ever since that the band would reunite, but they have smartly avoided temptation, save for a couple of disappointing one-off performances at Live Aid in 1985 and the Atlantic Records 40th Anniversary concert in 1988. Plant and Zeppelin guitarist Jimmy Page recorded a couple of albums in the 1990s and toured twice, but didn't use the Zeppelin moniker. The reunion concert will be the band's first full concert since 1980. Original bass player/keyboardist John Paul Jones and Bonham's son Jason on drums round out the band. Will it be the same? Will they be as good? Can Bonham's son fill his old man's drum seat? There will no doubt be some rust and and we're cross- ing our fingers that the band is putting in plenty of rehearsal time. This is huge, and it's the band's one last chance to go out on top. But I won't be there, unless I decide to put a second mortgage on the house and attempt to buy a ticket from a scalper, which would cost thousands. Donations will be gladly accepted and much appreciated. SCOTT NIXON AND ANOTHER THING About the Times -Advocate Address & Office Hours Times -Advocate, 424 Main Street South, P.O. Box 850, Exeter, Ontario NOM 1S6. Our office is open Monday to Friday, 8:30 am to 4:30 pm. Closed on Holidays. 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For example, Jim Beckett's e-mail address is <jbeck- ett@southhuron.com> Our general e-mail address is ads@southhuron.com. The Times -Advocate Team Publisher Jim Beckett ext. 109 ADVERTISING Deborah Schillemore ext. 112 EDITOR Scott Nixon ext. 105 REPORTERS Pat Bolen ext. 113 Nina Van Lieshout ext. 107 CUSTOMER SERVICE Sue Rollings ext. 101 Jennifer Skonieczny ext. 102 PRODUCTION DEPARTMENT Manager Deb Lord ext. 103/114 Nikki Cyr ext. 103 Kelly Gackstetter ext. 103 ACCOUNTING STAFF Anita McDonald ext. 104 Ruth Slaght ext. 106 Marg Pertschy ext. 108 Heather Clarke ext. 111