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This is not a fight for the increase or decrease of the minimum disâ€" tance separation between lodging houses (MDS). This is a fight to end the direction the City of Waterloo and the university have taken to house these students. There is not a firefighter in the lahd that wouldn‘t tell you that these students should be housed in a property sprinklered building built by professionals for We should all be ashamed of the situation as it presently exists. We have responded incorrectly to a unique housing problem. We must correct the situation before people get hurt. Lodging houses have created inferior, unsafe living quarters for our children. The university has turned a blind eye as has the city and even the student federation itself. They have let these invited students down and should be attempting to correct the situation. Instead they wish to continue down the same road. As a resident of Waterloo and a father of students, I protest. Let‘s stop this madness and put the students in buildings that are safe and that we can all be proud of. These places should be designed by professionals, built by profesâ€" sionals and run by professionals. Students should not be forced to live in makeshift structures run by amateur landlords. This situation has got to be comected. The city knows there are many illegal lodgâ€" ing houses out there that these innocent students are living in. The university knows this as does the student federation. and yet they wish to increase the supply of these obviously inadequate structures. The University of Waterloo invites students from all over the world to come and live and learn in our fair city. We have a responsibiliâ€" ty to these near children (students) to ensure they have the best housâ€" ing they can have. We should make sure they reside in structures that have been designed to safely house large quantities of people. It‘s our responsibility to house students You said it CITY OF WATERLOO IMPOSE A MORATORIUM ON NEW LODGING HOUSE LICENSES? SHOULD THE QUESTION Mal BB al n the Feb. 19 article by Peter Etril ISnyder he said that he wondered why Homer Watson‘s paintings were so brooding and lacking in bright colours. I used to wonder about the same thing and asked Mr. Ross Hamilton Mr. Hamilton had planned to make the Doon School of Art into a school that would compare favourably to the Banff School of Art in Alberta. His untimely death cut short that dream. He told me that Homer Watson did not buy his oil paints all ready to use, but develâ€" oped his own, thus preventing the brnad spectrum of colours available There will come a day when one of these ramshackle lodging houses that we all know exist will burn to the ground and kill the kids inside. The next day there will be a class action suit against the landlord, the university, the city, and I hope they don‘t forget the Federation of Stuâ€" dents for turning a blind eye and letting this situation continue. They will win their lawsuit with ease. We are all on record acknowledging the inadequacies of Waterloo‘s lodging house situation. We must redirect this issue from the infighting about NIMBY to the realities of the situation. We can make all sides realize that we are all losers if we continue to promote these makeshift structures as the answer to the housing problems. The university knows the situation. The city admits to allowing unscrupulous landlords to exist. The students know that their felâ€" low students are being subjected to inadequate and unsafe housing. The fire department will definitely support anything that gets these kids out of these unsafe homes. We Homer Watson developed his own paints to make ends meet the purpose of housing people safely. "There should be more student housâ€" ing. (City) shouldn‘t limit things like that. Just because they‘re students doesn‘t mean they‘re not peoâ€" ple." "Absolutely. Lodging houses create traffic issues; they devalue our homes; and the junk around them is just awful." ) THE CHRONICL] Marcie Carnegie Don Sanders COMMENT Homer Watson may not have been a typical starving artist, but lack of funds can have a negative effect on the outcome of a project ({not only in art but in any situaâ€" tion}. His experiences as a war artist may also have contributed to his somber colours and method of painting. In his later years. Mr. Watson was sponsored and aided by the Waterâ€" loo Trust and Savings Co. in what now would probably be called a reverse mortgage In the mean time, we spread the students over a larger area, go after the unscrupulous landlords (the students could really stand up and be counted here) and get the new height and density plan started so we can build these professionally built and professionally run housâ€" ing structures as quickly as possible. The university could also stand up and be counted here by making some of its land (Waterloo does have a land problem, doesn‘t it?) available to private interests to build proper people housing strucâ€" tures. Mr. Hallman would only be too glad to assist with his expertise. We finally have a chance to do the right thing... Let‘s not get hung up with infighting and miss this opportunity. today from art suppliers went down this road in the early days and we were wrong to do so. We have come to the end of this road and realize all the problems with the road, and the last thing we should be doing is to throw down some more mud and keep going. Let‘s turn around and undo the wrongs we know exist. "If those who want a moratorium put themselves in the stuâ€" dents‘ position, I think they‘d see it difâ€" ferently." "I can see both sides of the issue. I‘m with the students and the homeowners." Robert P. Fitzpatrick, Stacey Schuett Eileen Zarnke The Liberals appear to be putting forward two slogans in the upcoming campaign. The first is "There is a choice‘ â€" a fairty obvious staternent â€" and one that speaks to the very reason we have election campaigns in this country. The other, ‘Leadership that works for you â€" for a change," is a direct ripâ€"off of the Tories‘ slogan from 1995 (‘Common sense. For a change.‘). The Liberals have also changed their colour from red to burgundy, echoing the Tories‘ switch from blue to what they jokingly called ‘revolutionary purple. Now, in 1995, the Tories had a good reason for doing so, having just watched their federal cousins being reduced to two seats. The Liberals, on the other hand, are identified with a federal party that hovers between 47 and 52 per cent in the polls. Unless the Ontario Liberals have access to polling data that tell themn that an association with Jean Chretien will drag them down, the makeover doesn‘t seem to make sense. Of course, slogans and colour choices are not the only thing that the Liberals have in common with the Tories; they also have their policies. As former Harrisite Guy Giorno wrote last October, McGuinty‘s policies are "like a bride‘s wedding outfit: a mixture of old and new, borrowed and blue. Certainty much of the content is borrowed and blue â€" ideas inspired, adapted or outright stolen from PC policies." Christina Blizzard from the Toronto Sun agrees, arguing that "On the Liberal side of the ledger, their policy platform is so close to the Tories‘ that the two are almost indistinguishable." Keep in mind that, as a huge promoter of the Common Sense Revâ€" olution, Blizzard thinks that this is a good thing, my sense is that most voters will not. On another key issue â€" how to deal with Toronto‘s garbage â€" the Tories have at least one ally in the Liberal party. In 1989, thenâ€"Liberal cabinet minister David Ramsay reportedly brought Adams Mine proponent to the Metro government to promote the project. Then Metro councillor Paul Christie (now running the Toronto District school board on behalf of Queen‘s Park) told the Globe and Mail that "Without his (Ramsay‘s) encouragement. we never would have purâ€" sued it." How reassuring. Next week: Comparing and contrasting the NDP and Liberal platforms. Meanwhile, just as they did going into | campaigns in 1990, 1995 and 1999, the " Fa Liberals are now leading in the polls. | § l They‘ve learned a few lessons from their . | ‘ee disastrous collapses in each of those | g campaigns. For example, their commerâ€" | _ y cials were the first to be aired, in an attempt to prevent what happened in ‘ SCOTT 1999 â€" when the early ads aired by the t PIATKOWSKI Tories successfully defined DAItON | zmm McGuinty in the public as weak and indeâ€" cisive. This time, the Liberals are emphasizing McGuinty‘s alleged leadership qualities in their commercials, but they‘ve chosen a strange way of doing so. McGuinty tells us in the commercials that he‘s ‘not jaded or cynical or tired". If you have to buy 30 seconds of airâ€" time to tell people that you‘re not jaded or cynical or tired, then you have an image problem that no American PR consultant will be able to help you with. In my estimation, the Tories have already conceded this election, and are concentrating on avoiding what is known in political circles as ‘a Mulroneyâ€"style meltdown. Their lack of a platform is reminisâ€" cent of what Bob Rae tried to do in 1995. The NDP argued in that election that voters weren‘t interested in elaborate party platforms or detailed promises; what they wanted was good government, or ‘more of the same‘. What Rae discovered, and what Emie Eves will soon disâ€" cover, is that the voters‘ perceptions and politicians‘ perceptions of what is good government are often vastly different. Mike Harris and Emie Eves have simply botched too many policy files for the Tories to be rewarded with a third consecutive term. Hydro bills have gone through the roof, with the temporary freeze on rates by the consumer merely transferring the burden of hydro deregulation to taxpayers. The mishandling of double cohort will exclude thousands of qualified high school students from postâ€"secâ€" ondary institutions â€" with the rejection notices arriving just as Ontarians go to the polls. The market for affordable rental housing continues to be dangerously tight, due to Tory policies abolishing rent control, encouraging demolition of existing rental housing and ending support for nonâ€"profit housing programs. The list goes on; the Tories time in government will not. 1 NOntario. Candidates are being nominated in 103 ridings across the province; all three parties are running preâ€"election television ads; both the NDP and the Liberals have released their policy platforms; and, the Ontario PCs, while they‘ve been curiously shy about releasâ€" ing a detailed platform, are using public money to run additional ‘nonâ€"partisan‘ ads and to drop funding cheques all over the province. Neady everything is in place for an expected spring election in Ontario. Candidates are being nominated in 103 ridings across A spring election in Ontario (part one) ANOTHER VIEW | > + «NB J / SCOTT IATKOWSKI