WITRY FREE PRESS. WEDNESDAY. JUNE 28, 1989, PAGE 7 PAGE SEVEN IT COULDN'T HAPPEN TO A NICER BUNCH The trouble with government is politics, specifically party politics. The theory of dernocracy is that political parties present a variety of points of view to the public at election time and that John Q. Public then makes an informed choice. The party that wins is supposed to serve the public by implementing its platform while the other parties form the opposition to act as a watchdog to ensure-that the government protects the public interest. Where governments get into trouble is in failing to distinguish between the public's interest and the party's interest.The two are very different yet deceptively intertwined. The Liberal government of David Peterson is currently enmeshed in just such a problem - the Patti Starr affair. Patti Starr is a zealot. Anything that helped Liberals was worth doing. There is nothing particularly sinister in that except that to herthe end justified the means.-Helping Liberals was right; therefore anythingthat helped Liberals was right. Like a true zealot, it would never have occurred to her that she could he doing anything wrong. She would never have considered that political donations fron a registered charity were illegal, or that getting charitable status for a building that didn't qualify was wrong, or that conducting political activities from the office of a major developer who dealt with the government on a daily basis was inappropriate. She was helping the Liberal Party, the government, women, Jews, the needy - all the right trendy causes. And she did it very well, so well that she was rewarded with political plums like the chairmanship of Ontario Place and membership on the board of the Toronto Housing Authority. But while Patti Starr was naive about what she was doing, there were people around ber who were not. She was used to channel favours to key people in the government. In return, she gained an influential status and was in a position to return those favours. That's how corruption works. On the surface, each element of the Starr affair is pretty trivial. Even the revelation that Peterson's own executive director, Gordon Ashworth, had received a refridgerator and a house painting job from Tridel with a total value of probably a couple of thousand is pretty small when compared with the billions invested in the development industry. But that small 'donation' carried leverage. At the least, Ashworth would be expected to give a sympathetic ear to Tridel. At the worst it could be held over his head in order to extract more tangible forms of support. The development industry in Ontario has reaped a fortune in Southern Ontario and its success is inextricably entwined with government policy. Many developers contribute heavily to political parties. In the case of Tridel, its principal owners, the DelZotto brtothers, are very active in the Liberal party - Elvio is president of the Ontario wing of the federal party There certainly is nothing illegal about a developer belonging to a political party or with becoming its president. As a citizen, he has every right to play an active part in creating partypolicy. But governments, once elected, are responsible to the entire electorate not just the narrow interests of the party. Politicians, especially leaders, have to believe in the importance of what they are doing. Their supporters, how- ever, may lack such motives. Gordon Ashworth was the fixer who bridged these two worlds. He had immense power - he said who saw the premier, who got what appointments, and which pieces of legislation got priority. That trust and power seems to have been abused. Every action of the. Peterson government is now suspect. Was it done in the public interest or were there private partisan considerations? When Chaviva Hosek fired John Sewell as chairman of the Toronto Housing Authority was she influenced by Mrs. Starr whom she.had appointed to the board and had contributed to her campaign? Starr and Tridel had already crossed swords with Sewell over the very same National Council of Jewish Women building which started this whole affair. Certainly Gordon Ashworth was involved in the firing of any person with the profile of John Sewell. Was the government's handling of the impending garbage crisis influenced by prominent Liberal developers who were promoting their own billion dollar scheme? Do the personal guarantees of some of those sanie developers in the sale of the Peterson family business for $9.7 million bear any relation te this? With the exception cf Patricia Starr's use cf charitable funds for political donations, nothing that bas happened was technically illegal. Seeking faveurs is perfectly legal and se is giving away refridgerators. When the two are specifically connected, there may be grounds for prosec-ution, but simply betraying a public trust is something that only we, as electors, can punish. Paticia Starr bas naively led us into the murky heart cf a governmxent that has failed to differentiate partisan interests fromi their public responsibilities. i1 AN AIRPLANE BEING TOWED INTO WHITBY HARBOR, 1930 . This view shows the west pier with the old Port Whitby Lighthouse, which operated from 1857 until it was removed from the ier in 1958. The plane may have belonged to Norman Irwin of Red Wing Orchards or one o his associations. Whitby Archves photo 10 YEARS AGO from the Wednesday, June 27, 1979 edition of the WHITBY FREE PRESS • Mayor Jim Gartshore officially opened the Port Whitby Marina on June 22. • More than 2,000 former students attended Henry Street High School's 25th anniversary reunion last weekend. • Oshawa Pair will open at its new site on Garrard Road near Brooklin on July 5. • Royal Canadian Legion Branch 112 Ladies' Auxiliary will place flags on the graves of voterans in Groveside Cemetery on July lst. 25 YEARS AGO from the Thursday, June 25,1964 edition of the WHITBY WEBKLY NEWS • A Centennial Projects Committee has been formed to select one of three proposals,for a 1967 Centennial Project for Whitby. • A special meeting of the Town Council will be called to review progress on amalgamation of Whitby Town and Township. • Terrence M. Moore, a Whitby lawyer for 13 years, has been appointed associate senior Judge of Metro Toronto Juvenile and Family Courts. 75 YEARS AGO from the Thursday, June 25, 1914 edition of the WHITBY GAZETTE AND CHRONICLE • Rev. J. W. Aikens, of Metropolitan Methodist Church, Toronto, delivered the Ontario Ladies' Colege Baccalaureate Sermon in the Whitby Methodist Tabernacle. • A balcony has been added to the Methodist Fresh Air Home at Port Whitby. • A public meeting to abolish bars in Whitby was well attended, sponsored by the South Ontario Temperance Alliance. • Coal for heating homes sels for-$6 to $7 per ton, 50 cents less if picked up at E. R. Blow's coal sheds at the harbors. r-Lid