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LETTERS Canada needs a Tripleâ€"E Senate The federal government‘s recent award of a large contract to a Quebecâ€"based company over a western Canadian bidder has renewed debate about reforming the Senate. Canadair was awarded a $104 million maintenance contract for the Fâ€"18 fighter despite the fact that Winnipegâ€"based Bristol Aerospace had a lower bid and was judged more technically competent by an independent panel of experts. Westerners quite understandingly are crying "foul"‘ and are looking for a way to protect their region from being victimized I‘ve heard it from a few of my relatives, and I‘m sure you‘ll hear it from a few of yours . . . ‘"*My New Year‘s resolution this year is to stop smoking and lose weight." For anyone who has attempted to do both at once, it‘s almos laughable if not impossible. The oral gratification a cigarette provides is soon replaced with snack food, making the smoker or exâ€"smoker frustrated enough with the weight gain to go back to the cigarettes! This challenge has often been the excuse for not quitting or at least putting it on hold until some weight loss is experienced first. However, cigarette smoking is positively more harmful than the few pounds gained after quitting. Trading physical beauty, which our society places as a priority if not a necessity, above physical health, is not a smart move. Beauty won‘t take you into a ripe old age. Why not go cold turkey. Crush the cigarettes and watch what you eat at the same time. Medical research on weight gain and smoking has shown some encouraging signs. Generally the maximum weight gain of nine pounds occurs about two weeks after the smoker quits. This weight gain steadies off at about six pounds by the end of three weeks. A particular enzyme in our body, the lipoprotein lipase, regulates the growth of fat in our fat cells. This enzyme is linked to the amount of fat you gain after you stop smoking. This weight gain is NOT related to how many cigarettes you smoked daily, how many years you smoked, or your weight before you started to smoke in the first place. fFeedback This level of the lipoprotein lipase "Yes. I‘m getting married soon, so my resolution will be to make my husbandâ€"toâ€"be happy."‘ Lisa Sutton Fergus Fitness Forum Kathy Hammond Fitness Instructor enzyme in your fat cells at the time you GIVE UP smoking will determine how much weight you will gain in the first three weeks after you quit. The question is then how to control this enzyme so it will be at a low enough level to help guard against the weight gain. However, as of yet there is no determinate factor known which controls or regulates the level of lipoprotein lipase. Yet it has been discovered that smoking itself may increase this enzyme to guard against a consistent decrease in weight while smoking. Smoking, due to the stimulation of nicotine, increases the metabolic rate by three per cent for at least 30 minutes. Take these cigarettes away and the overall resting metabolism goes down by about four per cent. This would be great if not for the six per cent increase in food consumption. Food begins to taste better and the appetite, which had been suppressed by the reduction of stomach contractions and increased digestion that smoking creates, returns with a vengeance. Though studies show a definite weight gain after quitting, the weight gain is probably no more than you would have gained over the years if you had not smoked in the first place. It just shows itself in three weeks rather than three years‘! If you increase your level of activity and reduce fats and sugars for the initial three weeks after abstinence, you should be able to get a handle on the weight gain, perhaps even eliminate it at the onset. by a federal government dependent for votes on heavily populated central Canâ€" ada. The National Energy Program â€" which drove investment from Canada and cost Westerners a lot of jobs â€" is still fresh in Westerners minds. It too was imposed by a federal government dominated by Quebec and Ontario. More recently came the news that Quebec received $421 million in regional assistance grants between September, 1984 and March, 1986 while Newfoundland got $10 million despite 20% unemployment and Alberta, which is also struggling economically, received $16 million. These economic injustices create great tension within confederation and demand remedy. Stick with it‘ Happy New Year! ‘‘Sure. I make them every year, though I never keep them." Jennifer Price Elmira «* Question asked on King St. in Waterloo Are you making any New Year‘s resolutions? . A remedy dubbed the ‘"Tripleâ€"E‘"" Senâ€" ate has substantial support in Canada. The three "E‘s" stand for elected (by voters directly), Effective (veto power over house of Commons legislation) and Equal (equal representation from all provinces). The United States and Ausâ€" tralia already have this kind of Senate within their federal systems and it works well. The governments of British Columbia and Alberta have already publicly supâ€" ported the idea of a Canadian ‘"Tripleâ€"E" Senate. There is also broad popular support for the idea. An Ontario poll in 1984 found that 76.6% of decided responâ€" dents agreed that "the Senate should be elected by popular vote with equal representation from the provinces". Young women, planning on marriage, have been known to say to their doctor, ‘*My fiance is a goodâ€"looking man â€" but I‘d hate to have a daughter grow up to look like him." And the doctor says, "You‘ll just have to keep on worrying. Nobody will know what the daughter will look like until she‘s old enough for her features to form. She might look just like the feminine version of her dad, or her great aunt Tilly, and maybe she‘ll be lucky enough to look like her mother. There‘s no way of figuring these things in advance." As far as appearance goes, children will hardly ever be a combination of both parents. They will usually resemble one person in the family, maybe an aunt, uncle or grandparent, but there‘s very little blending in inheritance. Hereditary features usually appear full strength, not diluted in any way, except for the action of the male or female hormones, as the case may be. Only nature can determine these things. But, young people planning marriage also ask: If a man‘s father is a good husband, does the son inherit the same qualities? And the answer is no. But, because the boy was raised with a father who knew how to get along well with his wife, the chances are good that the boy acquired a lot of his father‘s good habits. And this is a matter of nurture. Then, again, there is the pendulum effect, in which children raised in a family where fighting is the rule can be perfectly agreeable mates because they have had enough of that nonsense and are determined not to act like their parents. _ _ Similarly, young people from broken homes often have fine stable marriages, because they don‘t want to ‘"‘No. I always end up going back on them anyway, so why bother?" Keith Dickey Waterioo WATERLOO CHRONICLE, WEDNESDAY, DECEMBER 31, 1986 â€" PAGE 9 Geoffrey Fellows put their children through what they had to endure. It all depends on the two people, whose character traits can be formed by a bad family environment, as well as a good one. But whether they choose to follow their parents‘ example, or reject it, is unpredictable, because every child is a brand new person, a unique entity with different behavioral tendencies. The study of identical twins shows how much nature can override nurture There is the case of twin brothers who were adopted at the age of one by different families living 50 miles apart in Nebraska. Neither of the boys knew that he was adopted, or that he had a twin brother until their 21st birthday. That is why some people rise out of the slums and ghettos they were born in, while the majority do not. At their first meeting, they discovered that they had each got a job with the same telephone company, and both of them were working as repairmen. Both had married in the same year to the same type of girl â€" and both had fathered a son. The chief sticking point in the introducâ€" tion of a reformed Senate in Canada will probably be the prime minister and the ruling federal party. The Tripleâ€"E Senate would decrease both the prime minister‘s personal power (he can now appoint Senators) and that of the House of Commons (which would be subject to a veto by the reformed Senate). Therefore there will probably have to be very persuasive arguments â€" and perhaps political pressure â€" brought to bear on the federal government by the provinces and citizens before a Tripleâ€"E Senate becomes a reality. Perhaps the most incredible part of all was that they each owned a dog, in each case it was a fox terrier, and both dogs were named Trixie by the brothers. One person living in two separate bodies, 50 miles apart, in different family environments. However, in many minds the time for Senate reform has come. Generally speaking, it is very important to know the family background of your prospective mate; but it is much more important to know their reaction to that background and what they learned from it. (Mr. Fellows is the founder of the Human Resource Development Institute, P.O. Box 642, Cambridge, NIR 5W1). ‘‘"No. I won‘t be making any. I don‘t have any bad habits, so it never occurs to me." Amy Nelmes Kitchener Colin Brown National Citizen‘s Coalition