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w at er lo oc hr on ic le .c a W at er lo o C hr on ic le | T hu rs da y, A pr il 5, 20 18 | 8 Waterloo Chronicle 630 Riverbend Dr. Kitchener, ON N2B 2G1 Phone: 519-886-2830 Fax: 519-579-2029 Web: www.waterloochronicle.ca Letters to the editor All letters must be fewer than 200 words and include your name and telephone number for verification purposes. We reserve the right to edit, condense or reject letters. Delivery For all delivery inquiries, e-mail customerservice@metroland.com or call 519-894-3000 CONTACT US VP, Regional Publisher Kelly Montague Regional General Manager Nelson Parreira nparreira@metroland.com Regional Advertising Director Bill Ford bford@metroland.com Sales Lead Michelle Stevens ext. 795062 Advertising Representatives Cassandra Dellow ext. 795066 Zach Peters ext. 795068 Jan Bodanka ext. 795072 Editor Bob Vrbanac Reporters Adam Jackson Bill Jackson Namish Modi WHO WE ARE The Waterloo Chronicle, published every Thursday, is a division of the Metroland Media Group Ltd., a wholly-owned subsidiary of Torstar Corporation. The Metroland family of newspapers is comprised of more than 100 community publications across Ontario. The Waterloo Chronicle is a member of the National NewsMedia Council. Complainants are urged to bring their concerns to the attention of the newspaper and, if not satisfied, write The National NewsMedia Council, Suite 200, 890 Yonge St., Toronto, ON M4W 2H2. Phone: 416-340-1981 Web: www.mediacouncil.ca editorial@waterloochronicle.ca waterloochronicle @wlchronicle ABOUT US ® Chronicle.WATERLOO $1.00 CONNECTED TO YOUR COMMUNITY WATERLOOCHRONICLE.CA OPINION Last week's provincial budget is setting up a show- down about how to spend your money that will ultimate- ly be decided on June 7 when Ontarians go to the polls. The dichotomy is stark as the governing Liberals are betting that people want things like more universal daycare, extended dental care and more seniors covered by the province's pharmacare program. A lot of those programs were originally NDP policy platforms as Kath- leen Wynne and her party veer to the left in the hopes of shoring up their support with progressive voters and leaving the Conservatives as their only real challengers. The Liberals say they want to make life more afford- able for people. The funny thing is that's what the other parties say they want to do with their plans. The Conservatives have signalled they will be veering to the right under new leader Doug Ford, arguing that now is the time to tackle the debt and deficit instead of adding the province's record levels of red ink and paying more than $1 billion a month in debt servicing by the end of the year with the Liberals projecting a $6.7 billion deficit. They think that more of that money should remain in taxpayers pockets, and that they should have tax relief instead of more spending promises. They called the budget an attempt to bribe people with their own money, and the current government is making life unaffordable with tax grabs like cap and trade. The government plans to hike taxes on higher earn- ers retroactively to Jan. 1, which works out to about $168 a year for someone earning $95,000 a year. They also increased tobacco taxes by $4, plus HST, a carton, effec- tive last Thursday and will do so by another $4 a carton in 2019. Even with the tax increase, the Liberal budget will run deficits until 2024, with Ontario's debt projected to rise to $325 billion after the province ran a nominal surplus last year. The NDP has been left on the sidelines pointing out that once again the Liberals have stolen their policy platform and are only funding things like an increase to hospital funding to win an election and not because they're committed to stable funding of our health-care system that at least matches inflation. That leaves most of us, the voters, at the centre won- dering what direction to go as the parties diverge to the extremes and battle over the fundamental philosophy of responsible government. There has to be a more balanced approach to govern- ment than either giving us goodies in services or good- ies in tax breaks. How about all these parties strive for good government. Delivering on that would be the best promise they could keep. Where is the promise of good government versus goodies? Is anyone else getting tired of Prime Minister Jus- tin Trudeau's apology tour and wondering if our Hug- ger-in-Chief has hugged it out with enough people yet? There was another apolo- gy last week for a group of B.C. chiefs that were execut- ed after their involvement in a territorial dispute that left people dead on both sides. Were they railroaded. Yes - in what should have been a dis- pute between nations, their lands were unceded and there were no treaties in place. There was also a fear on their part that new settlers were spreading smallpox in the area which already saw the local Indigenous popula- tion decimated, with almost 80 per cent dead. This was an event from our dark past when under- standing was at a minimum and distrust and outright racism was the course of the day. It also happened 150 years ago, and I hope that our relations are much more well informed and that rec- onciliation is being practised in not just in word but deed. But all these apologies are just starting to meld into one another and are no lon- ger distinct. They take on the tone of something being done by this government when the reality on the ground is not much has changed as past wrongs and the mechanism to address them haven't seen much movement. Now the prime minister is taking it upon himself to insist on an apology from the Pope, when Pope Francis said no formal apology was coming after Trudeau and the Truth and Reconcilia- tion committee demanded it from him last year. First off, this is another test of the divi- sion between church and state, which this prime min- ister constantly confusing by insisting his secularism should supersede the spiri- tual. Someone should remind Trudeau his term in office is four years whereas the papa- cy and the church has been around for more than 2,000 years and doesn't need his helpful guidance. Instead the papacy said it wants to engage in true dia- logue and come to an under- standing with Canada's In- digenous on a nation to na- tion basis, and let what comes out of that process be more organic than forced. What a novel concept to let actions speak louder than words. - Managing Editor Bob Vrbanac is an award-win- ning columnist. Has the prime minister hugged it out yet? Another stop on the apology tour makes me wonder how sincere it is says Bob Vrbanac BOB VRBANAC Column • EDITORIAL •