Opinion

The time for responsibility to our province is upon us once again. We are in the throes of a political campaign to help us decide who will be the next governing party in our province. I am awed by the lack of political campaign signs along the roadways and on lawns.

Does this mean that the people who are running for office don’t have the funds to mount a huge campaign with lots of signs and fliers in the mail? Does it mean that the party who has been governing most recently is complacent about this being a “shoe in?” Does it mean that there is a malaise about the whole idea of going to the polls to elect those who will be making decisions for us?

I have, over the years, thought that being “apolitical” was the way to be when one was a Christian.

What I have discovered, to my delight and to my chagrin, is that we should be very political. We should be standing up for what we believe and ensuring that those who want to be elected know precisely what we think is necessary for us to live in a province where everyone counts.
When you look at the gospel stories, Jesus was anything but “apolitical.” He wasn’t shy about telling the powers that be what needed to be done in order for there to be justice for all.

More often than not, Jesus was challenging the political leaders of his time. More often than not, too many of us cannot be bothered to exercise our right to choose.

I ask each of you, please, take the time to find out what the candidates stand for. Find out if there is someone who represents what you believe. Attend all-candidates meetings if you can.

But most important of all be sure that you have a voice on October 6th. Vote for the candidate of your choice.

Whew, now that I have that out of my system, I want to share with you that October 17th marks 10 years that the Dundas County Food Bank has had a branch in Morrisburg.

It’s difficult to know how to observe this anniversary.

If there has to be no food bank in Dundas County, let it be as a result of people having enough resources to buy food rather than there not being enough resources for us to continue to serve those people who need our assistance.

I ask you to support you local food bank in whatever way you can – through food donations, through financial donations or through donations of your time as a volunteer.

Jesus said  “when you feed the hungry, you feed me.”  Our responsibility carries on as we love one another, as Jesus loves us.

Cheers,
Rev. Sue McCullough
Anglican Parish of Morrisburg, Iroquois & Riverside Heights

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Elections supposedly give voters the opportunity to choose the person and/or party that will represent their interests in government.

I must ask the obvious: how can one person realistically represent the interests of each and every constituent? What happens when the elected official must choose between two constituents with opposing interests? Indeed, what happens when the elected official, full of good intentions, can’t actually follow through on election promises because of numerous insurmountable roadblocks?

One of the most common issues for voters, I believe, is whether to vote for a specific person regardless of the party they represent OR vote for the party regardless of the individual candidate. Oftentimes, people find that they respect a person based on past actions, but they completely disagree with that candidate’s party agenda. Or, vice versa.

On October 6th, who do we vote for? Libertarian candidate Darcy Neal Donnelly? Progressive Conservative candidate Jim McDonell? Green Party candidate Justin Reist? Elaine MacDonald, candidate for the New Democratic Party? Or, Mark A. MacDonald, Liberal candidate?

The answer is, “I don’t know.”

You might be a staunch and steady supporter for the PC’s, but do you know why? Do you vote Liberal because that’s what your parents did? Or, do you vote NDP because you want to steer clear of the PC and Liberal parties? Do you vote Libertarian or Green Party because you want to be different or take some sort of stand or make a statement…?

Life is about balance in everything we do. The same goes for voting. Make a list of what’s important. List the pros and cons of each party versus each candidate. Choose the candidate (or party) that most closely answers your needs.

The answer will undoubtedly be different for everyone. What’s important to remember is that no matter who gets elected, some promises will be kept and some probably won’t. No one person and no one party is the perfect answer to all of our problems. We must learn to take the good with the bad. Or, better yet, learn to work together as one team.

Vote. See what happens. Deal with the outcome and move on by making the best of whatever situation arises.

S.Casselman             

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Well it’s all over for another year. Summer leaves today and fall arrives, but that’s okay. It’s time to enjoy our always colourful and spectacular  autumn season, enjoy a break for a Thanksgiving get together and settle into our winter sports.

Coming up this Saturday, September 24, is the much-anticipated and long-awaited South Dundas Community playground build. A lot of people have worked very hard on this project and a lot of community-minded residents have thrown their support behind it to raise a whopping amount of money. Saturday, it will all come to fruition with the actual build.

For those who are heading down to the Earl Baker Park on Saturday to help with the build or just to check it all out, the group responsible for the Earl Baker Park gardens at the northwest corner of the park are looking for some perennials that will enable them to switch the gardens from annual plantings. If you are dividing or digging perennials of any sort….peonies, daisies, irises, phlox, back-eyed Susans, cone flowers and on and on, you are invited to share your beauties with the community in the park gardens. Plants can be dropped off for planting anytime after 8 a.m. The location of the gardens is full sun, so perennials that would do well in these conditions are welcome.

Also coming up this Saturday is the 20th annual Fall Festival at Williamsburg. The event runs Friday and Saturday,  and everyone is invited to come out and enjoy fall fun at its finest. As always the popular fall parade will highlight Saturday’s activities at noon and all of the popular events from past festivals are returning. The entire village is to be decorated in a Hillbilly Fall Theme.

On Sunday, the community is invited to participate in the Homes on the St. Lawrence House Tour 2011, organized as a fund raiser by the Park Pals Committee for the South Dundas Off-Leash Dog Park located in Morrisburg. Advance tickets at $20 each can be purchased at Mustard’s Variety in Iroquois and Cardinal Flowers in Morrisburg. For more information on the house tour see the story that appears on page 3.

Bryan Shaver and the Easter Seals Ball Hockey tournament are now looking for teams for this year’s event scheduled for Saturday, October 15 at the outdoor rink in Williamsburg. This is the 10th annual ball hockey tournament which raises some very important funds for Easters Seals children and youth who live in Dundas county. The ball hockey teams are made up of both fellas and gals and prizes are up for grabs for the top pledge getters. Funds raised provide transportation, communications equipment, camp experiences and much more for local kids.

For more information please call Bryan at 613-543-0383.

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When you are interviewing people for stories you listen to what they tell you and print what they are say. You write about what people are doing and why they are doing it. You may not agree with what they are doing or why they are doing it, but hey, your job is to write their story, not your own…like it or not.

Such was the case earlier this summer when I wrote the story that appeared in the July 20th issue of the paper under the headline: Parks Commission restores a clear path to local history. For that story, I met with St. Lawrence Parks Commission officials Dave Dobbie, manager of Upper Canada Village and Susan Le Clair, Corporate Marketing and Development Engineer.

I wrote what they told me…what they were doing at the Queen’s Garden and why they were doing it. Did I agree at the time with what they were doing? No. But I passed on the information they gave me in the story to you.

Last weekend, I pulled into the former beautiful, tranquil  Queen’s Garden/Rose Garden that has been cut down, chopped out and opened up for a better view of the Crysler Memorial. I was appalled. Actually, had a sick feeling in the pit of my stomach. What was once a beautiful, tranquil park, with trees that had been maturing for more than 20 years is now an ugly, barren grassland. What was once an area where people strolled, picnicked, snapped pictures or enjoyed the antics of the ducks and geese in the beautiful pond or just sat in the shade of a beautiful maple…is now mostly gone, totally uninviting.

I honestly don’t know how anyone can possibly think that what has been done to this former, beautiful, area is an enhancement to the Crysler Memorial. What had become a beautiful outdoor parkland that added significantly to the Crysler Memorial area is now, in this writer’s opinion an unappealing, chunk of grass.

But hey, when you are driving along County Road 2, at 80 clicks, be sure to look to the south because you can definitely see the Memorial Mound and Monument now. Unfortunately, it is what you no longer see that is so upsetting. What has been done is a shame…a real shame.

And we can’t get it back.

B. McNairn

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The countdown for the South Dundas Community Playground is on and as of Monday (September 12) the construction area is closed as site preparation has begun. Three days of site preparation have been planned and the next two are set for Thursday, September 22 and Friday, September 23. The actual build day is set for Saturday, September 24.

This Saturday, September 17, the South Dundas Community and beyond are invited to Iroquois to participate in an exciting all-day Apple Festival in honour of the famous McIntosh apple and its 200th anniversary. Events will run all day long beginning with the farmer’s market opening at 8 a.m. There will be vendors, sidewalk sales and plenty of food, entertainment and activities for all. Might even be an apple or two…

Also this weekend is the fifth Annual Upper Canada Bluegrass Festival, September 16-18 at the Upper Canada Campground located at 13390 County Road 41 east of Morrisburg. Under this year’s Master of Ceremonies, Terry Joe Banjo, the band line up includes Hard Ryde, Grassland, Dave Nichols and Spare Change, Jan Purcell and Pine Road, Bill White and White Pines, Concession 23 and Northwind. For more information visit www.uppercanadacampground.com. Day passes are available for non-campers to take in the festival.

South Dundas and area residents are reminded they can pick up pledge sheets for the annual Terry Fox Run scheduled for this Sunday morning, September 18 at Morrisburg Legion Branch 48. The local run is based out of the Morrisburg Legion.

If you think this coming weekend is busy, it gets busier as we head to the weekend of September 24-25. On Saturday, September 24 we of course have the Children’s Playground Build day in Morrisburg and back at Williamsburg is the annual Harvest Festival. We will have more details available on this event next week.

On Sunday, September 25 the Park Pals Committee has organized a “Homes on the St. Lawrence” House Tour which will feature five local homes. The Park Pals, the committee responsible for the South Dundas Dog Park, is holding the fund raiser to help with ongoing costs for upkeep of the park. In addition to the house tour, the committee has arranged to have five area businesses and individuals decorate the entries to each of the homes. The homes include those of Ian and Cathy Mackay, Marjorie Smith, Gord and Robin Lane, Mae Pederson and Claude Lavoie. We will have more information on this event available next week. The cost of the tour  is set at $20 per person.

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Imagine moving to Ontario from another province and finding out that the costs of your expensive prescription cancer medications aren’t covered in your new home. Even though the Canada Health Act provides for comparable levels of medical care from province to province, the same isn’t true when it comes to expensive life-saving medicines.

Many Canadian families still face catastrophic drug costs (defined as greater than three per cent of net household income), even in provinces where universal coverage exists.

Most provinces have catastrophic drug plans, but each has a different mechanism for determining which drugs are covered. The Canadian Cancer Society (CCS) is calling for the development of a national catastrophic drug insurance program to help create a consistent, coordinated approach to coverage across Canada. Joanne Di Nardo, senior manager of public issues for the Ontario division of the CCS, encourages Ontario voters to ask local candidates running in the upcoming provincial election about their level of support on cancer issues.

“A national catastrophic drug insurance program has been an election issue for many years,” says Di Nardo. “Ontario should take a leadership role in partnership with other provinces to encourage the federal government to establish a national catastrophic drug insurance program. Action is needed now to alleviate the gaps and disparities in coverage for cancer drugs that currently exist in Canada.”

There are no agreed-upon standards concerning which drugs should be covered or the out-of-pocket expense required from patients. Each of Canada’s 19 public drug plans, and a variety of private plans, make widely different decisions regarding listings, reimbursement, co-payments and lifetime limits. Therefore, significant disparities exist between provinces and between public and private insurers.

“These disparities result in a growing trend away from universal care towards health care by postal code and pocketbook,” says Di Nardo.

A system of catastrophic drug coverage was promised in the 2004 Health Accord, and, in September 2008, provincial and territorial health ministers issued a statement saying they held ‘a common view that catastrophic drug coverage is as essential to Canadians as physician and hospital coverage.’

“Ontarians are growing increasingly impatient that no action has been taken,” says Di Nardo. “Make sure your local provincial politician knows how you feel about this issue.”

For more information, go to www.cancer.ca/OntarioElection2011 

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September has arrived, our youth returned to the classrooms yesterday, (Tuesday) and we are just under three weeks away from the big ‘South Dundas Community Playground’ build set for Saturday, September 24. The project has resulted in massive community support through all sorts of fund raising from big to little events. Coming up this Saturday, September 10, a ‘fun’ sounding event will take place at the Canadian Tire. For the Playground fund raiser, Tribec Inflatables will bring ALL his inflatables and assemble them on the one-acre grassed area near the Morrisburg Water Tower, weather permitting. Canadian Tire owner Michel Proulx is inviting the entire community to head on over to the Canadian Tire this Saturday, for all the fun which will include, in addition to the inflatables, a barbecue and other fun items. As everyone is aware the Playground will be built on September 24 in the southwest corner of the Earl Baker Park in Morrisburg. Site preparations will begin the week prior to the building day which is expected to include up to 200 community, volunteers in the build which will have the playground ready for the kids by 3 p.m. that same day. In a story that ran in last week’s issue of The Leader, the playground committee reported that $98,000 cash and in-kind donations had been raised for the community portion of project.

Also coming up in the not too distant future is the annual South Dundas Terry Fox Run that takes place in Morrisburg on Sunday, September 18 from the Morrisburg Legion (8 a.m. until noon). Pledge sheets for this year’s run can be obtained at the Morrisburg Legion. The Terry Fox Foundation is one of the largest non-governmental funders of cancer research in Canada. This year’s run honors Terry’s mother Betty Fox for her commitment to the cause, for her dedication, for her compassion, for her vision and for persevering at all cost. Betty Fox passed away on June 17, 2011.

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On Thursday, September 15, 2011, M&M Meat Shops is encouraging Canadians to turn off the TV, log off from their computers and power down cell phones and participate in the 7th Annual National Family Dinner Night that celebrates what matters most – spending quality time with family and friends. The importance of family dinners reaches far beyond simply sharing a meal together. Research shows that gathering around the table presents a valuable opportunity to interact, strengthen relationships and affirm the value of every individual in the family and their role in their community.

A recent national study conducted by Canadian Omnibus reveals that as we become increasingly immersed in the digital age, the intrusion of electronic communication devices during traditional times, such as family meals, is spiralling. A shocking 80 per cent of Canadians admit to having at least one type of electronic communication device turned on and in use during family meals. More than half of Canadians (51 per cent) revealed that the TV stays on at mealtimes.

"Sitting down for a meal together can have a lasting, positive effect on open communication between children and parents and re-establish a sense of family unity," says Mac Voisin, Founder of M&M Meat Shops.

National Family Dinner Night, launched in 2004, attracts tremendous public and charitable support every year and has contributed significantly to the more than $21.5 million M&M Meat Shops has raised for the Crohn's and Colitis Foundation of Canada (CCFC). This year, M&M Meat Shops urges everyone in Canada to register their participation.

For everyone who registers their pledge to participate in National Family Dinner Night on the website: www.nationalfamilydinnernight.com, M&M Meat Shops will make a $1 donation to the CCFC, up to a maximum of $100,000.

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The countdown is on and we are just days away from the return to the classroom…what is that Staples commercial…it's the most wonderful time of the year….They Are Going Back. A reminder to all drivers…the kids will be back on the village streets and the buses will be running.

Speaking of going back, those wonderfully talented crooners who are members of the Seaway Valley Singers will be kicking off their new season, next Wednesday, September 7 at 7:30 p.m. at the Christian Reformed Church in Williamsburg. Anyone interested in joining the Singers is invited to call Robin at 613-543-3412 for more information.

Well we kind of lucked out on Sunday. Although we did get some rain from Hurricane Irene, it was mainly just a nice steady rain with little wind…and all of our plants, yards and wells benefitted. The Phlox have gone into a second flowering, and we are harvesting every day, from our back-deck, single potted cherry tomato plant. Our Black-eyed Susans (rudbeckia) are putting on quite a show, even if the nearby neighbouring Hostas are looking a little worse for wear thanks to the nightly-visiting slugs.

As we head into the long weekend, we caution everyone to drive carefully. In addition to those last summer get aways this is generally a well-travelled weekend as our youth head off to colleges and universities. It is a time of discovery as parents, who for the first time are sending their kiddies off into the wild blue yonder, discover that yes, you can fit everything, even the kitchen sink, into the SUV. It is the time when the kids discover how much mom and dad did for them as they embark on a solid diet of Mr. Noodles and never again wear jeans that have been ironed to remove the knee bumps…Oh well, such is life.

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