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The Waterloo Chronicle is published every Wednesday by the Fairway Group, owned by CityMedia Group Inc., a subsidiary of Torstar Corp. WATERLOO CHRONICLE 886â€"2830 Fax: 886â€"9383 editorial@waterloochronicle.ca sales@waterloochronicle.ca composing@waterloochronicle.ca The views of our columnists are their own and do not necessarily represent those of the newspaper. Canadian Publications Mail Sales Product Agreement Number 40050478 International Standard Serial Number ‘Rob Leuschner _ Dwayne Weidendorf Group Publisher @-qs-h-mr 75 King St. South, Suite 201 Waterloo, Ontario N2J 1P2 Andrea Bailey Bob Vrbanac Reporter, Ext. 227. Sports Editor, Ext. 229 Manager, Rxt. 225 Assistant Manager, Ert. 230 _ Sajes, Ext. 273 Letters Policy The Waterloo Chronicle welcomes letters to the Editor They should be signed with name. address and phone number and will be verified for accuracy. No unsigned letrers 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 freety reproduce them in print. electronic or other forms. Our mailing address is 75 King St. S.. Suite 201, Waterloo, NZ) IP2 Blair Matthews Gerry y[at_m- Deb Duffield Jean Van Volkenburg lynin Bartol Manager Sales, 623â€"66 1 7 Bxi. 221 ISSN 0832â€"3410 Audited circulation: 27.538 Launie Ridgway Norma Cyca lanne Dean at you do in the next few months will Wcmte what happens in your life the next three to five years. That‘s a spin on a lesson one of my old high school history teachers gave us every time we walked into his classroom and the same holds true for the upcoming provincial and municipal elections in October and November. So if you weren‘t paying attention to either of those campaigns it might be time to wake up from that extended summer siesta we were all enjoying last week. With all the races going on there is no more time for us to have our heads in the clouds when we need every voting citizen‘s feet planted firmly on the ground. Not that the powers that be are making it easy for us with all the mudâ€" slinging going on at the provincial level. And it promises to be just as dirty locally in the City of Waterloo‘s municipal runoff. But voters worried [ | & $ 2. 8P about getting any of that | , & 4 | mud splashed on them e are playing into the | h I | hands of those politicians " | who know low voter BOB | turnout gives them a bet | VRBANAC | 1e3 CHANCE Of WIBNINLE: â€" aooooocommmemeneneregee And there are too many people willing to let them get away with it and not exercise their democratic franchise. Freedom comes with a price, and that price is participation in a representative democracy. We can‘t continue to have 60 per cent turnout in provincial elections with governments elected with less than 45 per cent of the popular vote. That‘s not responsible government, and it creâ€" ates situations like you had in the U.S. where a president can get elected even though he lost the popular vote. It‘s even worse at the municipal level with less than 30 per cent of our fellow citizens going to the polls every year. They feign indifference yet comâ€" plain the loudest when their property taxes go up, or an important service is scrapped in their neighâ€" bourhood because of cost cutting. Or the worry is that we‘ll have single issue canâ€" didates. There is more to talk about in the city of Waterloo then the continuing saga of RIM Park. . Wouldn‘t it be better to debate the role of the mayor and council. Are"they simply stewards dependent on guidance from staff? Or are they the CEO and board of directors that guide and shape the municipality? And a healthy debate is better than seeing no debate at all as we‘re seeing in the run up to the school board elections with no declared candiâ€" dates and a week to go in the nomination process. Now before I tell you this might be the most important provincial/municipal election you‘ve ever voted in, more of you than not know the sun will still rise the next morning. But there is a solar eclipse going on when it comes to role of governâ€" ment and you have to wonder just how dark it has to get before people realize there‘s a problem? And for the folks out there that say there aren‘t any issues that catch their fancy, their missing the ever increasing debate of tax cuts versus governâ€" ment services. We‘re being sold good fiscal manâ€" agement but not the vision of where the politiâ€" cians want to take our society over the next three to five years, nevermind the next 25 years. And some of those changes are irreversible. QOnce the foundation for these institutions is destroyed you wonder if they ever can be rebuilt. So what are you going to do in the next couple of months to influencee what goes on in the next couple of years? What are you going to do about it? VIEWPOINT Politics are a lot like wrestling I don‘t know who‘s paying for it, but the rejigging of Waterioo watermains must be costing a big buck. _ â€" Sometimes it looks as if every street is involved, and the months on the calendar slip by. They‘d better have the project finâ€" ished before the frost comes. 1 hope 1 made myself clear, as the water said when it passed through the filter. _ On the Hustings: it looks like I made the pick too swiftly when I wrote that Emmie Eves and friends would win reâ€"election. Well, judging by all the papers Ernie is running like a dry creek, and 1 may be revisâ€" ing my opinion by now. At best, I‘d call it a dead heat. The fact that all the papers seem antiâ€" Tory is ominous for the premier. Incidentalâ€" ty, the election should be at full boil by now, but there seems to be precious little converâ€" sation about it. Most folks seem reluctant to say much which indicates that it‘s a closeâ€"run thing and too risky for comment. In _ , any oneâ€"sided election, they‘ll call the winner months in . [fM )NCI advance. h Say, the various glection blurbs don‘t seem worth the wait. The Tories are against Mr. McGuinty on the basis that he isn‘t up for the job. That‘s news? It‘s something that was said in the last election. They say, too, that repetition sells adverâ€" tising and on that basis the PCs are doing a real sales job. The Liberals seem to be talkâ€" ing sweet reason in their TV stuff, but whether it adds up to much is something else again. The NDP blurbs seem tuned to the Hydro issue, but that seems about as murky as the rest of the election mix. Honestly, there doesn‘t seem to be one stickâ€"out issue. True, there are issues aplenâ€" ty, but there doesn‘t seem to be the one on which an election can pivot. It could still emerge, but you‘d think it has to be soon. The way things stand, every voter has picked up an item on which he or she feels strongly and will vote on it. _ _ Of course, someone will be elected. Then the other guys will immediately start running for the next election. Incidentally, the Russians want their peoâ€" pie used to casting a bailot, but the winners will still be determined by the people in power. _ _ â€" _ Something Else: Waterloo has its RIM Park, but Kitchener has its Moneyâ€"Don‘tâ€" Count new market. _ It‘s a kind of cross between our political system and our wrestling on television. _ I‘ll bet the eyes of Kitchener voters popped when councilors gave the builders a big wad of dough so they‘d break even on the project. That‘s a kindly gesture if you‘re a builder, but it‘s less than that if you‘re a taxpayer. You should rise or fall on your pricing, the way it‘s usually done. If success of the market was assured, it‘d be different. A lot of folks, you know, figure it‘s going to be a tough haul to make it pay. So council should quit playing Santa Claus, and try to make like a business unit. Gosh, pretty soon if pickpockets went through taxpayers‘ pockets, all they‘d get would be exercise. W I But in some ways things are getting better. A haifâ€"century ago the Preston police were something speâ€" cial. They‘d tag you for anything. You could get a ticket for having your windshield wipers going the wrong way on a On the Walk: Say, if you want to go on an exhausting walk, book yourself in for a tour of Grand River Hospital (formerly known as Kâ€"W Hospital). Take the Galt, and Kâ€"W facilities together, and the region sure is well equipped from a hospital standpoint. Say, we might as well admit it, but at one time the medical care here wasn‘t that great. One chap got the hospital‘s best for variâ€" cose veins for about a year. It turned out he had a leaking fountain pen. Road‘s Scholar: More than ever in the past Kâ€"W drivers are steamed about the rippedâ€"up condition of local streets. With the price of gasoline hugging the stratosphere, think of all the extra klicks your faithâ€" ful jalopy is chugging, making it around the detours. The Highway 8 tangle is curâ€" rently taking the fleeceâ€"lined flagon for the biggest mess. The lineups on that strip are so long that often the carâ€"licence regisâ€" tration run out while the cars are boiling in the lineâ€"up.