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1 approached two ladies, one in about her midâ€"sixties, and the other maybe in her early seventies, and asked if they would mind scooching their chairs together. I thought it was a simple request. After surveying the crowd from the street, there was a section of chairs with about six or seven inchâ€" es between them â€" great! If they can move their chairs together, we would have enough room to fit three little bums. The problem was, after having laid out the plan the day before in great detail, the increase in people left no place for my children to view the parade. t was one of those "gotcha" Imomcms again last week when the federal Liberal government showed that they were more than just a little bit conservative in estiâ€" mating the budget surplus numâ€" bers this year. They were mistaken by almost $8 billion, and most have greeted the news as a boon, as the money will be well spent in terms of debt reduction. Iwnlu- up carly last Monday mornâ€" ing â€" about 5:45 a.m to preâ€" pare my three young children who were full of excitement for the Oktoâ€" berfest parade. Upon arriving, we were amazed at how many people had shown up for the parade so early. How wonâ€" derful â€" or not? Ottawa holding out on Canadians And while applying that surplus will save almost $3 billion in interâ€" est costs in managing Ottawa‘s more than $500â€"billion debt, it does come at some social costs. WRAPSC represents school councils Kids should come first during parade s the new chair of the Waterâ€" Aoo Region Assembly of Pubâ€" lic School Councils,(WRAPâ€" SC), I‘d like to share some general information about school councils and WRAPSC. The Ministry of Education, in its document "School Councils, A Guide for Members®, states that parent and guardians must form the majority of members on the council. Further, it limits membership on school councils to include at most one school staff representative since board employees have avenues other than school councils to influence decisions. WRAPSC was organized in 2000, with the support of the director of education, to provide an indepenâ€" dently run organization to support school councils and to provide input to the board on significant issues WRAPSC is comprised of parent members of school councils, from all vocations. including board The one lady, in her midâ€"sixties, nabbd :h While beltâ€"tightening is one thing, reducing these areas to starâ€" vation diets have caused some cracks in the social safety net that holds Canadians together. And while Finance Minister Ralph Goodale argues over the semantics of whether the surplus was revenue generated or came from costâ€"cutting, it‘s time for Ottawa to meet some of those responsibilities they have let lapse. Look at the areas of health, highâ€" er education and poverty reduction that all went without while Ottawa got its books back into shape over the past decade. During the past four years WRAPSC has provided input to board committees and trustees, on issues affecting all students in the region. flatly refused while the other just stared at me. So I then proceeded to explain that 1 had three very small children and they wouldn‘t be able to see any of the parade. She rudely told me that they had been there since 5:30 a.m., and that if I wanted a spot for them to watch from then I should have been there at that time too. In jawâ€"dropping shock, I explained that I was not asking them to relinquish their front row seat, nor was 1 asking that they move so that I could see. With the entire crowd now witâ€" ness to this whole scene, some peoâ€" ple a little further up yelled down to me that they would squish together with no problem. After getting my three children seated, I perused the crowd to make I am disheartened by the aggresâ€" sive nature of Mr. Moffitt‘s recent letter, attacking a group of volunâ€" teers who are working with trustees and board staff to improve educaâ€" tion in Waterloo Region for all stuâ€" dents. We have made a conscious deciâ€" sion not to become a political lobby group since there are other venues that individuals may use, if they are interested in that type of action. The other lady, who had been very quiet, started to scooch her chair over when her very vocal and arrogant friend told her to stop! She looked at me and said, "I guess I am not allowed". employees. WRAPSC has made many preâ€" sentations directly to trustees, requesting support for important issues of concern to parents. Some recent examples include support for atâ€"risk students, increased access to library resources and user fees. WRAPSC, along with board staff and trustees, worked in partnership TH COMMENT HE CHRONICLE | i) \\ \l |.[1.OO CHRONICLE We saw in the recent healthâ€"care summit that Ottawa said it wasn‘t all about the money, yet it is the most important salve in treating things like long wait times and access to necessary medical serâ€" vices. While the balance sheet is healthy, there is no proof that Canaâ€" dians are, and the feds can no longer hold out. Sacrifice should come with some reward, and Ottawa should ask the people of Canada what some of their spending priorities are before they start socking it away again. After all, it is our money. After the parade was over, I could barely wipe the smiles from my children‘s faces and they talked a mile a minute with undiluted excitement. I wondered about how many other children had struggled to see the parade along the route. After all, they don‘t exactly have height working in their favour. Imagine if every one scooched their chairs together and every adult let a child sit at their feet, 1‘d bet that everyone would have a great view. to create a presentation to the Rozanski Commission (dealing with funding issues in public education). The presentation was delivered by Wendy MacMillan, then chair of WRAPSC, on behalf of all educaâ€" tional partners in our region. sure that all the children in the crowd could see. After all, is it not really about the children? The shaking of each clowns hand, the wave from Oncle Hans, the balloons? To the two selfish ladies, shame on you‘ To the people who made it a great experience for all the children, thank you! WRAPSC‘s role is to represent school councils in our region. If there was a committee set up to represent all the different groups in our region, WRAPSC would be more than happy to provide representaâ€" tion on that committee. WRAPSC consults with and encourages school councils to proâ€" vide feedback on issues. A position is only taken when consensus is reached. We will conâ€" tinue to work on behalf of all stuâ€" dents in our region, so that they receive the best possible educationâ€" al experience. Sandra Bromberg St Jacobs Steve Bongellii Kitchener The major caveat was of course that any new library would have to be located near the boundaries of the two cities. In the meantime it has become apparent that the existing library system can do much more in terms of sharing books and resources. ‘So let me get this straight. Your computer over there gives me the option â€" right on the title screen! â€" of searching the catalogue of a differâ€" ent library, just so that I can see all the books they have that I can‘t get?‘ Thanks for all the eâ€"mails and suggestions on how the Waterâ€" loo public library (WPL} can improve services. If Waterloo decided to build a new library, the eâ€"mails were overwhelmingly in support of an amalgamated library with Kitchener. KB from Waterloo tells the following tale of a recent experiâ€" ence at the library: "Your suggestion regarding this city‘s libraries is also welcome. Here‘s something you might find interesting: a couple of months ago, I entered the McCormick branch of the WPL 1 was looking for a particular book, which their catalogue informed me did not exist in their collection. But I was able to check the Kitchener public library (KPL) cataâ€" logue on the same terminal, and they did indeed have the book I was looking for. Excited, I asked a librarian to obtain this book for me. ‘I‘m sorry, we can‘t do that," she said. ‘Why not?" I asked. ‘Well, it‘s in the Kitchener system, and you‘re in a Waterloo library.‘ "She shrugged. I‘ve seen that shrug before. It means ‘abandon all logic, ye who enter here.‘" For some reason, the KPL has I oBAN | refused to participate in the borrowâ€" STRICKLAND ing program and hence Waterloo library patrons are unable to get a book from a Kitchener library. Since January 2004, the WPL has had a reciprocal borrowing arrangeâ€" ment with the regional library system and Cambridge public library (CPL). Not so for Kitchener library users, the good folks at the WPL allow Kitchener residents to access our books free of charge. According to my sources at the Waterloo public library, our library serves five times more Kitchener residents than KPL serves Waterloo residents. & Waterloo of course does this free of charge; but if a Waterloo resident wanted to borrow a book from the KPL, you would have to pay a separate fee. The fact that our two libraries share a computer system but don‘t share borrowing privileges is especially frustrating. Obviously. the KPL needs to get with the program and join the other libraries in a reciprocal borrowing agreement. Any resident of the region should be able to go into any of our libraries, including the universities, and check out a book as long as they are a resident of the region. Are you concerned d about the future of our library? Please visit the WPL Web site, www.wpl.ca and eâ€"mail your views to expansion@wpl.ca. Presidential debate â€"Round 3 Well there you have it, three debates later and it looks like John Kerry won the first and third and battled to a draw with President Bush in the second debate. (My Conservative friends point out that whenever a "biased" Liberal media reports a Conservative candidate is in a debate that ends in a tie, it‘s the media‘s way of saying the Conservative candidate actually won,) Apparently the problems with the voting machines have not been fixed in Florida and, with another close election on the horizon, we may have a repeat of the debacle in 2000. Let‘s hope someone wins the presidency clearly and decisively. I obviously don‘t hold this to be true. And regardless, Presiâ€" dent Bush lost the presidential debates in 2000 and still won the presidency. Well, he won the office, but he didn‘t actually win the vote. In the quirky U.S. system of checks and balances, a candidate needs to gain the majority of Electoral College votes {each state has an assigned number of Electoral College votes) and not necessarily the majority of popular votes. More people actually voted for Al Gore in 2000, but he didn‘t carry enough States and well, you know the rest of the story. We all know about Florida, but if Al Gore won his home state of Tennessee in 2000, he would be president today. Eâ€"mail your questions/comments to sean@seanstrickâ€" land.com. Last word on the library (for now) | &