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The Citizen, 2003-11-19, Page 5THE CITIZEN, WEDNESDAY, NOVEMBER 19, 2003. PAGE 5. Other Views You can just call me unsuitable Q £'W”had spent the whole of my I savings....on a suit for the wedding - -A_a remarkable piece of apparel with lapels that had been modeled on the tail fins of a 1957 Coupe de Ville and trousers so copiously flared that when I walked you couldn’t see my legs move.” - Bill Bryson Okay, men - the jig is up. Abandon your sweats and mothball your Levis. Trot your sneakers and T shirts down to the Salvation Army Thrift Shop for the delectation of society’s more desperate and less discriminating dressers. For those of us who are au courant and in the know, comfort is out. Men’s suits are officially back in style. Last week, the “Style” section of The Globe and Mail ran a whole feature on how men will shortly be abandoning the casual look for the more traditional two- and three-piece garment that ruled white-collar dress codes for most of the last century. Moreover, that journal of foppery. Gentleman’s Quarterly, concurs. GQ’s style arbiters recommend a ‘minimum’ wardrobe of three suits plus an ensemble of blazers, sports coats and assorted trousers to mix and match. So there it is, guys. Nothing for it but to go out and surrender to the first clothier you see. Let him drape and encumber you with swatches of Hugo Boss and Armani while backroom gnomes jab straight pins into your wrists and ankles and rudely measure your inseam. Oh, yeah - and don’t forget to pick up a half a dozen ties, too. Shouldn’t set you back more than, say, a grand - maybe 15 hundred bucks? Excuse me while I laugh hysterically. This menswear edict gets trumpeted from Ex-premiers drown out McGuinty Ontario has a new premier eager to be seen on centre stage, but a host of former premiers are crowding him off it. There has never been a time when the province had so many former premiers so much in the public eye. Progressive Conservative Ernie Eves, whom Liberal Dalton McGuinty defeated for premier, is counter-attacking as opposition leader, as he is required to, saying the deficit his government left is not as big as the Liberals claim and he will lead only until his party can pick a successor. Mike Harris, premier before Eves, pushed McGuinty onto back pages by announcing he was considering and later had decided not to run for leader of a proposed federal right-wing party to be created by a merger of the Tories and Canadian Alliance. Anyone who covered Harris at the Ontario legislature from 1981-2002, when he retired highly unpopular, would have felt he was no more likely to run than Sir John A. Macdonald, but dragged out his refusal as long as he could to make himself more saleable as a critic from the sidelines and company director. Harris often is heard knocking the federal Liberal government, as he promised when he stepped down as premier, particularly for its refusal to join the United States in attacking Iraq and placing lower priority on cutting taxes than he did in Ontario. Harris also has had huge media attention, unwanted, for leaving his wife and having relationships with two attractive younger women, first a former TV news anchor and later the ex-wife of a former hockey player, now in a messy court battle for custody of their children. He has appealed to media to stop bothering her. the ramparts every year about this time. The fashion fascists send out a spokesman to announce the death of ‘active sportswear’ as it’s called, and to herald the resurrection of ‘the suit’. And every year, a crushing majority of North American males blithely ignore the decree and go on wearing their Polos and turtlenecks. Dockers and tennis shoes. Every autumn some Style Stalinist tries to round us up and rein us in. like a schoolmarm with an unruly class. Fun’s fun, they sniff, but the time has come to put away our dowdy duds, form up in orderly rows and dress like proper gentlemen. Ain’t gonna happen, folks. Oh, we’ll each hang on to an emergency suit for weddings and funerals, and of course the boys on Bay Street won’t abandon their Capitalist monkey uniforms anytime soon, but for the rest of us, men’s clothing options have just become too damned comfortable - especially compared to the suit. The men’s suit was always a profoundly stupid idea - too hot in summer; pathetically inadequate in the face of a Canadian winter; and too bewildering all the time. Are lapels wide or narrow this year? How many buttons per sleeve? Are vented jackets back in? How about flared trousers? To cuff or not to cuff? And where do you put your wallet, car keys. Eric Dowel From Queen s Park New Democrat Bob Rae, premier before Harris, is having a less colourful home life, but advising the Sri Lankan government and Tamil minority on drafting an agreement to end the conflict between them that has caused many deaths. There cannot have been a more worthwhile task handed a former premier. Rae also has been caught in the furor over skyrocketing auto insurance rates and been accused of letting his party down by current leader Howard Hampton, who condemned the former premier for breaking a long-cherished, highly symbolic promise to bring in public auto insurance, which has been a burden for it ever since. Liberal David Peterson, who preceded Rae. has been a frequent commentator on the Eves's government’s demise and was about the first to say the Tories were in disarray and there was “the stench of death” around their campaign. He confessed he could recognize it because he led a similarly disastrous campaign in 1990, all of which led Eves to counter Peterson “has a vivid imagination." Peterson also added modestly people “should know better than to take advice from me on these matters - if 1 was so smart I'd still be there.” Tory William Davis, the oldest of the living ex-premiers, was one of two envoys the federal Tories sent to revive talks on merging with the note pads and cell phone without making yourself look like a walking bag of walnuts? For those who would argue that the business suit conveys a sense of authority and purpose, I have just two words: Jerry and Seinfeld. It was Seinfeld who observed: “The suit is the universal business outfit for men. I don’t know why people think it projects this image of power. “We’d better do what this guy says, his pants match his jacket!” For me, the concept of business-suit-as- Superman-cape was vaporized forever by a fellow named Chip Young, a freelance writer I knew many years ago in Toronto. Chip was known for three things: good writing, his silk- and-honey Tennessee accent, and the fact that he never, ever \vore a suit and tie. Not that he was a slob. Chip wore clean, pressed duds, but they leaned towards the sweaters and slacks end of the sartorial spectrum. Which was unusual back then - reporters and writers were expected to ‘dress up’ for interviews or press conferences. I rpmember the time Chip showed up at the door of the premier’s office in the Ontario Legislature for a pre-arranged interview. Chip was wearing khakis, a Polo shirt and a windbreaker. An officious miflion from the premier’s office stood in the doorway, looked him up and down with unconcealed disdain and asked him what he wanted. “Ah’m heah to interview the premier,” said Chip mildly. “What?” huffed the minion, “Dressed like THAT?” Chip smiled his lazy Tennessee smile and said, “Ah can affoad to dress like this. What’s yoah excuse?” Alliance, which shows the respect in which his party holds him. Earlier ex-premiers tended to fade away. John Robarts co-chaired a study on strengthening national unity, but Leslie Frost spent most of his time writing two books on local history. One reason the former premiers are so much in the public eye is there are five of them, more than ever before, because volatility among voters has produced a rapid turnover of governments. Some have skills in demand, which led to Rae trying to negotiate peace in Sri Lanka after trying to negotiate one over east coast fishing rights. Before Harris, no retired Ontario premier in decades had been sought as leader of a federal party and earlier former premiers did not live tn times when media were interested in their love-lives. Peterson also has been discovered always good for a lively quote, so there are reasons McGuinty can expect to find his predecessors continuing to compete with him for the spotlight. Letters Policy The Citizen welcomes letters to the editor. Letters must be signed and should include a daytime telephone number for the purpose of verification only. Letters that are not signed will not be printed. Submissions may be edited for length, clarity and ccntent, using fair comment as our guideline. The Citizen reserves the ngnt to refuse any letter on the basis of unfair bias, prejudice or inaccurate information. As well, letters can only be printed as space allows. Please keep your letters brief and concise. Bonnie Gropp The short of it I thank him £ y name is Michael Beresford IV/1 and 1 reside at Grand Falls- -L ▼ JLWindsor, Newfoundland. On Oct. 2 of last year my 14-year-old grandson, Donald Michael Pardy, died at the Grand River Hospital in Kitchener, Ontario.” So started a letter 1 received last week. What followed was a sad but touching story of a brave young man and a stranger who became one bright spot in an otherwise dark time. Mr. Beresford had contacted us because he felt there was a part of the story that people in this area particularly needed to know. By early fall of 2002, Donald didn’t have much to look forward to. However, thanks to the compassion of one human being, brought to him through fate, circumstances or whatever one chooses to believe, his spirits were boosted during the final days of his life. Donald was apparently fascinated with police officers. His step-father, whom I spoke with by telephone, does not know when the fascination began, just that by the time of Donald’s illness it existed. Huron OPP Const. Lincoln Dinning met Donald’s father and hearing of his interest came, in uniform to visit. According to Donald’s stepfather, the officer took the time to chat, to answer questions, share some stories and laughter. I’m not sure which story moved me more. As a parent, hearing Donald’s story from his step-father broke my heart. Watching your child suffer and being helpless to ease it, or stop the outcome is a nightmare we pray we’ll never know. Yet, in spite of their pain, Donald’s family in a show of selflessness agreed to donate his organs. It was Donald’s wish to help others and some weeks before he died they made <he decision. Only his eyes were suitable for donation, but today because of this kind and thoughtful act, two other people are enjoying a better Ufe. Then there is fhe police officer. His job. contrary to popular belief, is not an easy one. Routinely facing tragedy, danger and not exactly the most shining examples in society, it would be easy to think he might lose heart. Const Lincoln Dinning, on the other hand, obviously has a big one. And I know it warmed mine to be reminded of the kindness one human being can show to another. The third story was the foresight of Mr. Beresford in bringing the facts to our attention. We look at this world of grievance, where every little wrong is noted, where we find so much to be angry about in such t.ny issues. People take no responsibility for their own problems, they fight back at the slightest infraction, they rage against perceived injustice. And while they’re all so busy pointing out what's wrong in this world, they often forget to look at what's right. There are few good news stories because there are few people sharing them. It’s not just when things go wrong that we should be letting people know. With world news generally frightening, and local news often just as disturbing, it makes no sense to let the positive stories go unheralded. And here was one that had so many within it. I was moved by the bravery of Donald and his family. My faith in humanity was once again refreshed by Const. Dinning. And 1 was gladdened by one person’s foresight in recognizing it was a story that needed to be told. 1 thank him.