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All r...â€" THE LIBERAL, Richmond Hill. Ontario, Wednesday, Aug. 14, 1974 The community new MAIN OFFICE: 10101 Telephones BRANCH OFFICE: N orth 301 Markham R all” liberal Spaper serving Richmond Hill, Thornhill, Oak Ridges, ' 't , Ma 1e and Concord. ng Cl y p Yonge St., Richmond Hill. L4C 1T7, Ont, 884-8177 and 881-3401 d., Richmond Hill, L4C 1J2, Ont. Telephones 884-1105 and 881â€"3373 Established in 1878, The Liberal is pu Division. blished every Wednesday by Metrospan which also publishes The Banner in Publishing Limited - K. J. Larone, President, W. S. Cook, Publisher, Subscriptions: $7.00 by mai home delivery 15¢ per copy. Scheduled for the second half of August are meetings for each of the six wards in Richmond H111. to explain the proposed G l and Objectives”H mhlid Hill’s new Offic1al Plan, which for the first time will set guidelines for the growth and deâ€" velopment of the mumCipality as an entity. The present OffiCial Plan is an amalgamation of the old Richmond Hill plan with those of the townships of Vaughan, Markham, King and Whitchurch which affected the areas originally in those townships but now in the enlarged Town of Richmond 1111]. At the ward meeting questions will be answered and-comments re- ceived on the proposed goals and objectives. These contain long term goals and objectives to the year 2000 and call for a medium growth limit of 105,000 pOpulation for the seven and a half square mile block reach- ing from Highway 7 to Elgin Mills Road and from Bathurst Street to Bayview Avenue. The goals and objectives as set out in the new Official Plan will describe in general terms the need to pro- mote the development of Rich- mond Hill. Short term goals and objectives have also been prepared for the period until 1981. All have been adopted in prin- ciple by council and its planning committee, but both are anxious to get public input into the Offic- J. G. Van Kampen, General Man Aurora/Newmarket and the Woodbridge-Vaughan News. . . Metrospan Publishing Limited ager, North Division The Liberal and The News 1 in Canada, $9.00 to U.S.A. Single copies and No mail delivery where carrier serVice eXists. For subscriptions call 884-1105 or 881â€"3373. 0“ 5 D p Member Canadian Community ° 1’ Newspaper Association and S 0 Audit Bureau of Circulations. n z Second class mail registration ’4, \0 number 0190 cu L A‘ ial Plan and have set up these public meetings as the way to obtain this. Until August 15 members of the planning staff will be available in the planning department on the second floor of the municipal building (Yonge and Wright Streets) to answer questions and discuss the working goals and objectives Tuesday and Thursday mornings from 8:30 am to 12 noon and Tuesday evenings from 6 to 8 pm. Groups are asked to make reservations ahead of time. The public meetings are sched- uled for 7:30 pm in the Council Chambers â€" August 15, ward 1; August 20, ward 2; August 22, ward 3; August 26, ward 4; Aug- ust 29, ward 6 and August 20, ward 5 in Wildwood Public School. It is true that August may not be the best month of the year in which to hold such meetings, in order to get the maximum partic- ipation by the public, since many of them will be on holidays. How- ever, we urge those members of the public who are at home to take advantage of this opportunity to get in at the start of the planning function of the most important document in this town for the next 2-6 years. As the Official Plan is developed along the guidelines set by the working goals and objectives you will have many more opportun- ities to make your contributions. Milliken Housing. Yes? No? Town of Markham Regional Councillor Bob Adams was eiidulg- ing in a mental game of “wrest- ling” with his own thoughts out loud recently when he called a press conference to announce a proposed 28,000-population com- munity in the Milliken area of the municipality. The community scheme has yet to be officially considered by Markham Town Council and comes under the provincial’s Housing Ac- tion Program designed to encour- age such development via financial assistance. Councillor Adams was also put- ting his finger on what agitates a number of political minds in to- day’s society. Namely, how to grow and stay the way you are at the same time. The answer is obvious. You can’t. Mr. Adams put it this way: “My over-riding concern is that we might be going too fast although I realize there is a responsibility for a municipality to supply hous- ing when the need is great. I’m just not convinced that being the biggest is necessarily the best. “It’s my belief that the ideal rate of population growth is 3 per- cent each year. Markham has been growing at a rate of 25 percent over the past two years.” .He lists a number of reasons for his “concern” including the fact that the municipality is already burdened with developing its Official Plan as well as coping with proposed population growths in the Markham-Unionville and Thornhill areas. “These areas alone.” he said, “Will produce a combined popula- tion of 125,000 and I wonder if we should add to it with this Milliken scheme.” Mr. Adams noted that the cost of servicing the proposed subdiv- ision would be borne by the prov- ince but what about the “other problems created by a sudden in- flux of population?” He stated that “the province has assured us that taxes on homes now existing won’t go up as a result of the Ontario Housing Action program. I want to know why they won’t? It may be a case of the province providing financial assistance but how much will it be and for how long?” He pointed to the costs as well as the necessity for “soft service” such as parks, schools, transporta- tion, recreation centres, etc.” Councillor Adams will undoubt- edly be voicing his concerns when the Milliken proposal goes before council later in the month. The reaction of the rest of the council may or may not follow similar lines. The fact remains that there is an urgent need for housing but as Councillor Adams puts it: “How much, how soon?” It’s a continuing problem not only in Markham but everywhere. The answers aren’t easy but the questions as posed by Councillor Adams are valid. Growth may also be valid but strictly on a “con- trolled, orderly” basis and one has to wonder if the province is pre- pared to follow this dictim. Gov- ernments have a habit of creating a situation and then figuring out how to make it work. It should be the other way around. portation as into a haven Lauderdale. to Canadians. of Thornhill. many years ago. it never has been gobbled up before. open space is being held in public hands for the immediate 1n the Sp Olllghl‘e W w‘ »' i ' .p . ( By VICKERY COOK The Canadian Society Incorporated With the invention of such modes of trans- the automobile and the airplane came the breaking down of various restricting barriers as space and time. other countries of the world is most active and the world seems to be growing smaller daily. Vacations to cities all over the world are taken by families regularly. One area that has been highly developed Communication with for tourists is Florida with such notable resort spots as Miami Beach and Fort Many Canadians annually pack-up and.jour- ney down to these places. an abundance of Canadians doing this and end- ing up in Myrtle Beach, South Carolina, there is a week called “Canada Week”, devoted strictly In fact, there is such In St. Petersburg, Florida there is an association called “The Canadian Society Incorporated” with a membership of over 700. This society is highly organized and operates primarily from December through to March with an active executive of ten assisted by ten com- mittee chairmans. ***** The president of this association is a local man who is well known in the community and the surrounding area. He is Bernard T. O’Beirn Mr. O’Beirn was born in Uxbridge and has been a teacher in the area since 1925 and a principal and vice-principal in several sur- rounding secondary schools. principal in the province of Quebec in a bilingual school for seven years and then vice-principal at Richmond Hill High School and later principal at King City Secondary. He and his wife Helen travel to St. Peters- Lurg, Florida regularly from November to March and vigorously partake of the many activities provided bv this Canadian society. There is a busy schedule for members of the club with regular entertainment, picnic lunches and field games such as horse shoes. The society is funded through fees paid by its members and is a great meeting place for Canadians wishing to make new acquaintances and renew old ones. . who are members of the club and equally enjoy atllllllllllllllllll11111111111lllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllll\llllllll11111llllllllllllllll\lll11111111llllllllllllllllllll\lllllllllllllllllllllllllll\llllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllll1111111111111111111111111.llllllllllllllill11111111111lllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllll1111111111111lllllllllllllllllllllllllllullllllllllllllllllllllllllllllll11111111llllllll1111111llllllllllllllllllll'llllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllll‘ He was first a There are a few Americans A. s x I Residents of this area will be given several chances next month to visit the Re- gion 0f York’s public parti- cipation “Region Plan Cara- van" which starts out on its travels August 15 for a two- month tour to carry the sto- ry of regional planning to all interested citizens. Its first visit to Richmond Hill will be September 5 when it will be located at Richmond Heights Plaza. Two days later it will be at the Kleinburg B’mdertwine Festival. The Thornhill Farmers’ Market will be the site September 13 and 14 and the next week it will return to Richmond Hill, this time to Hillcrest Mall, where it will stay for three days, September 19, 20 and 21. It will also be at the Markham Fair for its full four day duration October 2-6 and at Woodbridge Fair October 12 and 14. Display hours at shopping centres are 2 pm to 9:30 pm and at fairs and special days 10 am to 10 pm. The yellow and white 44- fcot trailer will present a gion mised. Chief vide the he said. gestions on how to partici- pate in the planning for the region will be distributed will be constantly the-spot information and to answer questions, it is pro- ..§ free of charge to all visitors. Qualified planning depart- ment personnel from the re- in attendance provide This is the second part of a four-phase program to ex- plain regional planning to the residents of the region and provide them with an opportunity The first was a questionnaire circulated some months ago. The next phase Will be alJohnson's Motor Inn series of meetings to be held in the latter part of the year, According to the region's Administrative ficer Jack Rettie the whole program has been structur- ed to provide all possible ci- tizenship participation. “It's a two-way street for communication planners and citizens to pro- best-possible Ofâ€"i ficial Plan for the region,” to pubhc “We will be giving any-1 one and everyone the op- portunity to participate with “And when this program is completed next year, we should have a very compre- Open Space Disappearing Fast In Southern Undisturbed, peaceful rural countryside used to dominate the landscape here in Southern York Region not so very But urbanism is gobbling up the land as And still very little participate. evening betWeen ._ 4 '(‘1 (Photo by Susan Samilal Yor/c future and the generation to come. Here is one of the'most southerly and nearest Metro open prospects still remaining in a summertime view from the centre of Teston neighborhood in Vaughan Town. York Official Plan Public Input .. Sought By Travelling Caravan on- workable, we will be Plan." Aurora's loo-suite Of- way. hensive idea of what regio- nal citizens in general want for the future of the Region of York. We will listen to each and every proposal and give it serious consideration. We are not promising that all suggestions will be ac- cepted, but in the separation of the logical from the un- to develop a viable Official AURORA: Construction on Howard is ex- pected to begin by the end of the year. It will be located on Yonge south of Sterling Drug. Construction of the Aladdin Industries Products of Canada plant in the new industrial park is now under- SWORD Active In Area Collecting litter, interview. ing park visitors. correcting bank erosion, tagging fish, protecting trees from mice, spraying poison ivy, testing water. surveying marshes, netting fish. examining old quarries, sampling mud. These are just a few of the varied tasks that the 26 SWORD students (Students Working On Resource De- velOpment) are undertaking this summer while working in this district for the Min- istry of Natural Resources. At the Vivian York Reg- ional Forest where there are many acres of coniferous plantations. five local high school students are busy re- pairing f e n c e 5, painting, erecting signs, collecting garbage and spraying poison ivy. At two of the ponds in the forest they are grading the banks to reduce erosion and shoring up some badly trampled banks. Bal Singh, a biology stud- ent, who received university training in India, is survey- ing marshes. swamps, river valleys, large forest tracts and ravines throughout the district. These are the most significant biologically sens- itive areas. He will deter- mine their value and make a partial inventory of their ex~ isting flora and fauna and will carefully map and photo- graph all such areas. Such data will enable future plan- ners to present a strong case for their preservation. At Sibbald Point Park 12 local high school students are carrying out general maintenance work such 'as painting buildings, cleaning out ditches and collecting litter. They have also been involved in breaking open problem beaver dams and chasing nuisance raccoons out of park buildings. Lake Simcoe John Yates, a first year math stu- dent from Waterloo Univers- ity is helping tag small- mouth bass, largemouth bass and pickerel caught in eight trap nets. He also helps in creel census and at the of- fice in preparing fish scales for age determination. Norm Long, third year geography student from York University is trying to pin- point abandoned pits and quarries. He locates them from aerial photographs and then visits them to determ- ine whether they are still in use. He records the type of vegetational rehabilita- tion occurring and visits the owner to find out what his future plans for the pit are, and then informs him about programs available for pit rehabilitation such as tree planting. Two girls, working at the district office in Maple, are involved in the general of- fice routine of the account- ing section. able multiple family its activities. ized in St. Petersburg. services. * * * * * acrmaintances in Richmond Hill. The society is the strongest and most organ- One might think that with the present fuel shortage, there would be less people journeying down to the South but, according to Mr. O’Beirn, there are less cars but not less people travelling as they are taking advantage of bus and airway Mr. and Mrs. O’Beirn enjoy their respective positions as president and first lady of “The Canadian Society Incorporated” with their an- nual holidav in St. Petersburg where they can 1 meet new friends and enjoy the winter weather of Florida and at the same time retain their trails at 5.04 percent. Industry accounts sidential, $8,173,955; commercial, $1,179,400. of one erection Steelcase Road, Eastway Contracting, Esna Park Drive, Marwood Properties followed by single family re- sidential at 34.96 percent and residential at 12.84 percent. Commercial $11,023,710; single fairiin re- mul- tiple family, $3,001,000; and There were four permits issued for industrial in June: Anglo-York Industrial Ltd., industrial building on the west side of $700,000; indus- trial addition, south side of $500,000; Ltd.. building. southwest corner of family detached Steelcase Road and Victoria Park Avenue, $185,000; Nad- lllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllll‘F Markham Building $25,430,711 Down From 1973 $42,099,239 graphic story of the reason- either constructive input or Building construction to alini Construction, north 'ng behind regional plan- criticisms, We will be pm. June of this year in the 51de_ of Demson Street, ning and each individual ci- viding a forum for frank Town of Markham totals $365,000. . tizen will be invited to comâ€" discussion between the $25,430,711, down from the Additions to present .m- ment and contribute any neop1e living in the area andisame six month period in dustrial buildings including suggestions for future plan- the regional government 1973 of $42,099,239. one to AMP of Canada Ltd., ning. planners who are charged Continuing to lead the 20 Esna Park Drive, Brochures outlining the with the responsibility of way in industrial permits $104,000; Jeredi Investments history of The Regional Mu- developing an Official Plan issued comprising 47.15 per- Ltd., 199 Steelcase Road, nicipality of York, and sug- Mr the region. cent of the overall total $420,210; and Modern Rail- ing and Metalcraft Ltd., Mil- liken, $50,000. A public school permit was issued for a total value of $850,000 for a building on for Simonston Boulevard at Markham. Commercial building saw construction of a $150,000 structure for Mirex Invest- ments Limited, 215 Banbury Road, Don Mills; and a $67,000 renovation permit to A. J. Foster (Gem Stores), Thornhill, for erection of a new wood and metal facade on front of existing building and to erect interior parti- tions at $67,000. Permits for 15 new single residences were issued at $1,208,000 and 14 additions at $139,300. Kitchener Writer Says Provincial Redistribution“ Just Plain Politics ! (The following feature story the legislature. and any attempt commissions. so long as you assume, as you of Lake Ontario north. Now it nities and so on were to be paid written by Jo Surich a political science teacher at the Univer- sity of Waterloo appeared in a recent issue of the Kitchener- Waterloo Record â€" Editor) With the federal election and the prospect of further federal elections safely out of the way. politicos in Ontario are startlng to seriously worry about the next provincial election. You can expect one at the latest by the fall of 1975. al- though there are persistent rumors that say there will be one this fall. While the cast of characters will be the same. there is no reason to suppose that Bill Davis, Bob Nixon, and Stephen Lewis won't be around next time to head their respective political parties. A number of other things have changed. A fairly major effort was made this year to redefine the boundaries of the Ontario cons- tituencies in order to lake ac- count of differing populalion growth rates in the pmvince. It is almost a truism to say that the rural areas of Ontario are grossly over-represented in to right the balance will lead to some shifting in the support the parties get and in the num- ber of seats they might “in. The number of ridings in the province has been increased to 123 from 117. and all of the additional seats are in urban areas. Since votes for all of the parties which compete in the political system are not usually evenly distributed in any terri- tcry. the process of redistribu- tion can fundamentally affect the fortunes of the parties â€" not in popular vote. but in the number of seats that they win. Given its importance to elecâ€" toral fortunes, the process of redistribution has been subject to partisan excesses. exceeded most of the time only by the process of fund-raising for poli- tical purposes. Until very recently. redistri- butions in most jurisdictions have been undertaken with purely partisan advantage in mind, Only in the 1960s did governments start to worry seriously about the need for unbiased electoral boundaries In the latter half of the 19th century. for example. Sir Oliver Mowat was able to keep his Liberal Party in power in On- tario through the careful drawâ€" inCY of electoral boundaries with what was called “partisan in- genuity." Since the Liberal Party at that time drew most of its stre- ngth from the rural areas of the province. while the Conser- vatives dominated the cities. Mowat always ensured that there were always far more rural than urban constituencies. even though the number of people living in the cities was growing by leaps and bounds s-nd had outstripped the counâ€" try by the turn of the century. 10! * lk A word was even invented for the practice in the United St ate 5: gerrymandering. It draws its origin from the name (I an American state governor named Gerry who drew a consti- lucncy which ended up looking like a salamander. Hence we get gerrymandcr. The process of gerrymander- ing is. of course. fairly simple can in most places that people will tend to continue voting for the party they have always voted for. In other words. you have to be able to bank on the fact that most people do not change their minds very often. In modern times this is perhaps becoming a risky assumption. The principle is simple: Since the votes for the parties are not evenly distributed. you make an effort to concentrate as many of the opposition’s voters as possible in a small number of constiiuencies. If the balance between two parties is fairly even. and one tends to draw its support from working-class people while the other draws it from middle- class voters, it is a simple enough trick to take a piece out of one constituency and add it to another to either give the first party one seat instead of 3 potential two or. if possible. 10 give it none. Take for example. downtown Toronto. You will notice that almost all of the ridings run in narrow strips from the shores so happens that in Toronto the people who live at the bottom near the lake are poor, while those who live in the north are much more wealthy. If you drew boundaries which did not go north of Bloor Street, you might give several seats to the NDP or the Liberals and a few to the Conservatives. By drawing south-to-north boundaries and creating thin strips of ridings. you might be able to guarantee all of those seats. or most of them to the Conservative party. it * * A neat trick â€" and all legal. In the current Ontario redis- tribution, a number of guideâ€" lines existed which the commisâ€" sion was supposed to follow. One was the number of seats in Northern Ontario could not be reduced leven though the population might not warrant it.) Also. no riding could be more than 25 percent larger or smal- ler than the average for all the ridings in Ontario. based on the 1971 census. And three. traditional commu- attention to where possible with- in the 25-percent rule. Bob Williams wrote some weeks ago about the last point and its application or non-appli- cation to the new regional municipalities. ours included. The 25-percent rule meant that some ridings could still be twice as large in population as others based on a census which is now three years out of date. Given the rapid growth in our suburban areas, this will mean that by 1918, when the govern- ment might start thinking about another redistribution, the subâ€" urban ridings will again be massive compared to the rural ones. That, in every sense, is unfair to those who live in the cities. While it may be impossible to claim that the commission pro- ceeded with partisan objectives in mind. the effect of their work is pretty partisan. Have a look at the number of constituencies which are funda- mentally altered and you dis- cover that quite a few of them are now held by Liberals. Could it be that the Con- servative government is trying to prevent large Liberal gain in the next election? After all, the effect of the redistribution on the basis of the 1971 vote is to add NDP seats in some parts of the province. * * It Let's have a quick look at cases. Bob Nixon. the leader of the Liberal Party. has had pieces of his constituency which normally vote Liberal taken off and has highly Conservative pieces of Waterloo County and Nor- folk County added on. We can no longer assume that his seat is the safe haven it once was and has been since his father first won it in 1919. Hugh Edighoffer, the MLA for Perth. has had his riding changed sufficiently that he himself now lives in Huron. a seat already held by a Liberal. Ray Haggerty, who held Wel- land South last time by only 400 votes over his Conservative challenger. has had several highly Conservative townships added to his seat. Phil Givens has had his seat entirely eliminated. Parts of York Forest Hill were added to the new Oakwood which will probably go NDP and parts to St. Andrew-St. Patrick. which will now stay Conservative. Finally. the case of Albert Roy in Ottawa East is interest- ing. His seat. along with the one now held by New Democrat Michael Cassidy (Ottawa Cen- tre) disappears too. This situation may well leave us with two former sitting mem- bers running against each other. Neither is a Conservative. It may be, of course. that all of these changes happened be- cause of population shifts, that the Liberals suffer because they happened to hold rural seats. However. if you believe that politicians are all cynical. you can take some heavy political messages out of this redistribu- tion. What it appears to indicate is that the Conservatives want to ensure that the Liberals cannot win. Further, it indicates that they don't care whether the NDP becomes the official oppo- sition or not. since presumably they assume that they can beat them for the big prize forever.