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THURSDAY, JANUARY 19, 2017 • WATERLOO CHRONICLE • 9 COMMENT WATERLOO CHRONICLEWATERLOO CHRONICLE LETTERS TO THE CHRONICLE Canadian singer-songwriter Giselle Sanderson believes in the old proverb: It takes a village to raise a child. "It takes a village to make a record also," said Giselle, who kicked o� the release of her new solo album, If You Ask Me, with a sold-out show at � e Jazz Room in Waterloo last month. I � rst met Giselle several years back at the K-W Bilingual School where she was both a parent and vocal coach for the music educa- tion program. I immediately recognized her from her videos on Country Music Television, having been a member of country trio Lace. I was fascinated when she told me about her career, and I recently caught up with her to chat about her latest work. She has worked under the direction of some of the world's most highly acclaimed producers including David Foster (Olivia Newton-John, Madonna, Christina Aguilera), Humberto Gatica (Michael Jackson, Celine Dion, Michael Bublé), and local music producer and composer Rick Hutt (Anne Murray, Beverley Mahood and The Northern Pikes). "I had the pleasure of writing all the songs on my new CD with my very good friend Carrie DeMaeyer, and when we thought the songs were finished we brought them to Rick Hutt at Cedartree Recording Studio," said Giselle. "So we start with Rick and we'll play him our guitar-vocal version of the songs, then he puts down a groove that goes with the guitar track we came up with and build it piece by piece with musicians right here in Waterloo Region, so we owe a lot to him." I told Giselle how I've been listening to the album endlessly with its beautiful melodies and catchy cho- ruses, along with the soulful harmonies on Nobody's Lying and the heartbreaking duet If You Ask Me. "When Lace was charting and we had a pretty big presence in the country music industry, Colin Amey had a solo career and we crossed paths back then," she said. "It was Rick Hutt's sugges- tion we bring him in because the key of that song (If You Ask Me) requires a tenor to sing with me, and there's not a lot of male sing- ers who can sing in that register. And what he brought to the song is a bit of angst that is perfect." Working with a publisher in Nashville, Giselle is currently submitting her songs as demos to publishing companies for other musicians to cut, she said. I told her the track Worth Fighting For sounds like a hit, with its summertime Go-Go's-esque vocals and simple Fleetwood Mac- like drums. "I'm trying to write commercially and something relatable that people would want to hear at � ve o'clock on their way home from work," said Giselle. An award-winning performer with a diverse career, Giselle has shared stages worldwide with artists like Keith Urban, George Strait, and Brooks and Dunn. "I'm so grateful for the pleasure of working with so many amaz- ing people over the years," Giselle said with a smile. "Like I said, it takes a village." For more information on Giselle's new CD, If You Ask Me, and her work as a vocal and performance coach, visit gisellemusic. com. ••• Marshall Ward is a freelance writer and artist. Email is welcome at marshall_ward@hotmail.com. MARSHALL WARD MARSHALL ARTS Let's take a look at the state of Cana-da and Ontario now with Trudeau and the Liberals versus the previ- ous Harper government. With the Harper government we were in a surplus. � e Trudeau govern- ment has sky rocketed us into a huge de� cit. Are we better o� now? � e Trudeau government has spent hundreds of millions of our dollars bringing in refugees, providing them with housing, social bene� ts, and a high standard of living while our own Native Canadians are ignored by the Liberals, living in deplorable conditions -- in some cases not even having the luxury of clean water. Shame on the Liberals. Ask our Native Canadians. Are we better o� now? How has your latest hydro bill been under the Liberals? Who knows where the price of Hydro will go? Are we better o� now? There was no carbon tax under the Conservative government. The Liber- als introduced the carbon tax cost- ing us more money at the gas pumps. This added cost will never go away. Are we better o� now? Now the Liberals are considering taxing employer bene� ts. Trudeau and the Liberals want a tax on private health and dental plans to raise $2.9 billion dol- lars. Taxing employer plans would elimi- nate tax credits that benefit higher income Canadians. Are we better off now? � e Liberals have cut back on opera- tions and health care in general. Are we better o� now? Ask yourself, was my life in Canada that bad before Trudeau? Are we better o� now? P.S. But he does have good hair. Tony Brinovec Waterloo Ian Mclean has looked at the impact of the federal government possibly taxing employee health and dental plans and concluded that: "A strong case has been advanced against taxing employer plans." Having apparently honed his meth- odology in his "How Do Turkeys Feel About Christmas" survey, he cites a number of sources. He says 20 per cent of Quebec workers lost coverage when Quebec started taxing bene� t plans. � is number appears to have come from HEAL, an organization representing 650,000 healthcare providers (actually they said almost 20 per cent). Although he doesn't mention it, it's not hard to imagine which side his own "Chamber Chairs Circle," which includes the big insurance companies, stand on this issue either. I've always felt a little guilty around folks with no coverage, knowing that not only did I have coverage but that it was tax free. I hope I would have accepted taxation without anything more than some grumbling. I must admit, now that I'm retired and have no bene� ts, that I'm jealous of those who have them, likely until they die. However, the final dagger to the heart and where jealousy turns to seri- ous resentment is knowing that many of these are employees of publicly funded institutions funded by me and my fellow bene� t-deprived taxpayers. Tax the bastards. Garnet Bruce Waterloo Who will be our shining Penny? Like many of you, I look forward to major global sporting events like the Olympics. I love the pomp and ceremony, the patriotism, and the incredible stories that emerge. Stories about dedication, adversity and excellence that make us shake our heads in wonder. I get especially excited when our Canadian athletes perform well. Who can forget the wave of national pride that erupted in last summer's Rio Olympics, as our Canadian women won medal after medal, filling our hearts with a sense of accomplishment, from coast to coast to coast of this country of ours. At the end of the event, Canada had 22 medals, finishing 20th in the overall medal count. That ranking was a huge jump from the 2012 Summer Olympics in London, where we � nished a disappointing 36th on that � nal tally. Who will ever forget our "Golden Penny" Oleksiak, our youngest Canadian Olympian to win four medals, including a gold, in the same Summer Games. Penny was one of 10 Canadian women to stand on the podium, on that pool deck in Rio. When did we become a swimming super power? When you look at the events that we currently excelling at, you can draw a rather straight line to the investments that have been made in developing our athletes in those sports. Let's look at swimming. Sometimes those investments are at the grass-roots level. Penny is a product of the City of Toronto's municipal pools. Toronto's impressive invest- ment in water -- 61 indoor pools, 57 outdoor pools, 104 wading pools, and 93 splash pads -- invites participation. Sometimes those investments come on a larger scale. When Toronto hosted the 2015 Pan American Games, it built the Toronto Pan Am Sports Centre, heralded as the largest investment in amateur sport in Canadian his- tory. � is astounding facility -- funded by the local, provincial, and federal governments -- is a designated Swim Canada "High Per- formance Centre" and, of course, is where Penny trains. But it's not just about winning gold med- als. It's about building communities that encourage children to participate in active and healthy pursuits, with the possibility that another may emerge. Recently, our local cities have banded together to bid on the 2021 Canada Games. If successful, our local, provincial and federal governments will make a signi� cant investment in local sports infrastructure and the Region will host thousands of guests -- and their wallets -- from across the nation, for almost three weeks. � e potential bene� ts are signi� cant and worth taking the plunge. Go Waterloo Region, go! ••• Karen Scian is the co-founder of the Talent Business Solutions, an educator and a recovering city councillor. She is also chair of the Waterloo Public Library Board. You can email her at beinscian@gmail.com or follow her on Twitter @karenscian. BEIN' SCIAN KAREN SCIAN Are we better o� now under Trudeau? Giselle laces up her boots with new album No problems with taxing employee health plans