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Dwayne Weidendorf . Deborah Crandall \Group Sales Director! Edttor, Ext. 213 886â€"2830 Fax: 886â€"9383 editorial@waterloochronicle.ca sales@waterloochronicle.ca composing@waterloochronicle.ca WATERLOO CHRONICLE The Waterloo Chronicle is published every Wednesday by the Fairway Group, owned by CityMedia Group Inc., a subsidiary of Torstar Corp. * Manager, Ext. 230 _ Sajes, Ext. 223 > The views of our columnists are their own and do not necessarily represent those of the newspaper Andrea Bailey Bob Vrbanac Reporter, Ext. 227 Sports Editor, Ext. 229 The Waterioo Chronicle welcomes letters to the Editor. They should be signed with name, address and phone number and will be verified for accuracy. No unsigned letters will be published. Submissions may be edited for length. so please be brief Copyright in letters and other materials submitted to the Publisher and accepted for publication remains with the author, but the publisher and its licensees may freely reproduce them in print. electronic or other forms Our mailing address is 75 King St. S.. Suite 201. Waterioo. N2J 1P2 75 King St. South, Suite 201 Waterloo, Ontario N2J 1P2 International Standard Serial Number Gerry Mattice Deb Duffield _ fean Van Volkenburg Canadian Publications Mail Sales Product Agreement Number Lynin Bartol Manager Sales, 623â€"6617 Letters Policy Bxt. 221 . Sales, Ext. 222 ISSN 0832â€"3410 Rob Leuschner 40050478 Laurie Ridgway Norma Cyca Janne Dean Audited 27 “- ‘rou know you‘ve just been on a eastâ€"coast vacation when â€" at a petro station someâ€" where this side of Cornwall â€" you say to yourself, "Well, would ya look at that. Gas is only 79.9 cents a litre!" ~, I just can‘t get enough of Nova Scotia‘s clifty coves, pounding surf, historic lighthouses and humpback whales. It‘s simply breathtaking. But the gas prices? Geesh! At one station, somewhere around Liverpool I think is was, petroleum was going for upwards of 90 cents a litre. n QOuch! e + par M I was starting to wish ‘L\'\\()ll]}R‘ I‘d taken advantage of one C | of Westjet‘s reasonable TH]N("" fares. But I really do enjoy j h the drive. \ | Now before you, gentle readers, pick up the phone to blast me for taking jabs at la Belle Province, hear me out. Except, that is, for Quebec. First off, it‘s an awfully wide province, don‘t you DEBORAH think? Goes on for darn CRANDALL nearly ever. It‘s a heck of a long drive from Montreal to Riviéreâ€"duâ€"Loup, where I "hang a right""for New Brunswick. And what makes the drive even longer js the smell. The Trans Canada passes through some lovely, picturesque farmland along the Saint Laurent. But said farmland renders the province at bit, um, malodorous. Or as a friend who once made the drive with me summarized, "Quebec stinks!" But if the journey east through Quebec was smelly, the return voyage was downright frustratâ€" ing. I‘d pulled out of Halifax at about 1 p.m., figuring I‘d keep at ‘er for about nine or 10 hours and then find some cheesy, I mean economy, motel east of Quebec City. But it wasn‘t to be. The phrase, "no room at the inn" was about to become all to familiar to me and the old boy. For more than 300 kilometres along Route 20, we made stops at just about every motel/hotel we could find. But no luck. Mike insists the HABZUK (with Maple Leafs logo) licence plates had nothing to do with the shortage of lodging available to us. But 1 swear I saw a couple of "no vacancy" signs suddenly light up as we drove into view. We never did find a place to rest our heads until, at about 3 a.m., we crossed the border into Ontario. Turns out that, despite the smell, the province of Quebec is a popular place on the last long weekend of the summer. Take heed, fellow travellers. Anyway, I‘m home now. What‘s been happening around here? Well, speaking of gas prices â€" they‘re up and down like a bride‘s nighty. Same as usual. I won‘t even pretend to understand why. nane â€" Actually it‘s not as boring as all that. 1 hate them, though. They tend to bring out the worst in otherâ€" wise relativelyâ€"butâ€"notâ€"altogether harmless politiâ€" cians. And this provincial election in particular is testâ€" ing my usual patient demeanor. It‘s that voice. I don‘t know what it is, but Emmie‘s voice is like nails on a chalk board to me. (And of course, during an election, we hear more of any one candidate‘s voice than we ever care or need to.) It sneaks into my home via the airwaves before I know what‘s hapâ€" pening. One more time, 1 swear 1‘ll snap. And candidates in the municipal election are starting to stir. They tell us they‘re concerned about all sorts of issues, but all I‘m hearing is, "biah, blah, blah, RIM Park, blah, blah, blah, RIM Park, blah, blah, blah, RIM Park..." What‘s up with the price of gas? 1 recently drove to our fair country‘s right coast. What else? Oh yeah. A provincial election has VIEWPOINT No more nearâ€"hits for RIM Park fiasco right to the end. _ But good sense finally triumphed and the dinner was scrubbed. But, please, let this be the last nearâ€"hit on such an event. Ah, RIM Parkâ€"never in the field of histoâ€" ry have so few loused up so much for so many. _ > _ â€" â€" The election will split the voters into two groups: the appointed and the disappointed. Which party will be the appointed? The Tories will win a slim majority. (You never thought you‘d get a flatâ€"out answer, did you?) On the Hustings: So you think the votâ€" ers will split into, say, three groups on Oct. 2? But no, heavens, no. The answer is a bit elusive. Heaven knows Emie Eves doesâ€" n‘t come across as that appealâ€" ing. Maybe we‘ve listened to him in so many commercials that we‘ve become used to him. Most pundits are calling the Liberals to win, but I don‘t think so. For all his efforts, Dalton McGuinty hasn‘t caught m What about Howard Hampâ€" ton? He‘s worked hard, but the big knock on him is that he‘s a successor to Bob Rae. It‘ll take yea unto the fifth generation to undo that legacy. The prospect for a minority government? Slim to none. _ Don‘t forget that voters can‘t set out to elect a minority; it‘s a freak that just emerges. Anyhow, most politicians campaign in the same way. They promise to build bridges where there are no rivers. Their task, of course, is to keep ahead of several crowds each going in a different direction. And so a good politician has to have enough prejudices to meet the dreams of all his constituents. But if the politicians don‘t stop calling each other idiots, crooks, morons and liars, folks will begin to believe them. Still, we should always remember that no politician was ever so bad as painted by his enemies or so glowing as whitewashed by his friends. Looking for an Encore: Lynne Woolsâ€" tencroft is in the mayoralty race, and her pursuit of a second term shows some bout that City of Waterloo dinner for Tom Stockie: Gosh, it looked as if the RIM Park fiasco was going to blossom 1 take it then, you‘re not in favour ? SANDY And now the biggest boot in the ear of all: sAfter the Excited States climbed down from its majesty and agreed to accept help in Iraq from other (is it MBX appropriate to say lesser?) t18 Y nations, things went so bad * Colin Powell had to go back to the drawing board. With all the abuse she took over the RIM Park deal, it would have been understandâ€" able had she quit. Big projects spawn heroes, but the park project has spawned nary a one. It‘s been so bad that if they were to recâ€" ommend a Waterloo politician for an honâ€" orary degree, it would have to be from an elementary school. The Bush Gets Clipped: The sad, sad days continue for George Dubyah. The bombs keep exploding; his trpops keep falling; a lot of them want to go home. Back there the voters are nattering. They don‘t like the way the nonâ€"war is going; the neverâ€"ending casualties; how many troops it requires; how much it costs. n And he‘ll have to crank up D another of his epic U.S.â€"savingâ€" theâ€"world harangues. Ah yes, when a politician spouts about the great moral issues it‘s because he‘s been too busy trying to make sense of the cold, hard facts. We‘re Looking Good: The overwhelmâ€" That‘s despite the fact that consumer confidence dipped a bit in August. The surâ€" vey measures several aspects of economic sentiment including people‘s intentions to buy homes and bigâ€"ticket items. Naw, as noted previously, when a Canadiâ€" an smells flowers, he starts looking around for a casket. So that makes the survey doubly impressive. We‘re Looking Good: The overwhelm ing majority of Canadians think the econo my is in good shape, a new poll suggests. Say, of all the issues, politicians fear unemployment most â€" they fear they may be next. And if things get any worse he‘ll have to don that windâ€" breaker again and make another landing on an aircraft carrier somewhere. So at the time of this writing, things don‘t look good for our hero George. It looks as if he‘ll have to cede more authority.