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There was an election last week â€" do you remember? â€" and a few snowflakes and candidates fell before the evening was over. Not enough to make it a completely fresh field on both sides, however, so that when the new year begins, there will be pretty much the same faces around the council tables and the school board; status quo. revisited, as it were. But before I do. do you mind if I indulge just one last time with the old crew? I hadn't intended to; I had really planned to set down my manifesto here. like a good politician. about how it was all going to be a great, new start for all of us. How I would view the 1976-77 school board as eager, ready and untried; anxious to do what had to be done. willingly and without fanfare. ithiaVL-hb'mattér what you might have been told. is not quite the opposite of apa_tl_1y._ r How I hoped they would accept me and any other members of the press with the same adventurous spirit and without preconceived ideas. Well. there goes another old year‘s resolution. I really wanted to write on and on about that, but, unfortunately I had to break off in mid column to attend the board’s regular Monday night meeting. and, of course. the board got wrangling again in the same old way and my prejudices flowed freely once more. Still, there are those who would view the return of the old, familiar faces, chanting the old, familiar platitudes about “learning experiences," “child oriented programs" and “in-depth dialogues" â€" as reassuring. Meaningless. mind you. but obscure enough to lull those trapped by the posturings of academia into a misguided sense of security. But. as Jim Corcoran, the 18-year-old trustee-elect from Woodbridge, said at intermission :, “I just wanted to get up there and say something. I said “is that really happening." Howevah, the votes have been counted and the practical thing to do would be to accept what‘s happened. setting aside one‘s own prejudices in favor of the organized malarkey around the table; in this case. the one occupied by York board of education. One of the things that he could have been referring to was the “discussion” on Trustee Chris McMonagle’s resolution on professional development days. 'After viewing a slide presentation. proudly presented at the Nov. 22 meeting, Mrs. McMonagle felt moved to move that. if that was what professional development days Were all about. something should be done in a hurry. Some of you said you wouldn‘t votre for that soâ€"and- so under any circumstances. I thought most of these replies were acceptable. But I believed you when you all said you were going to the polls. You were just waiting until the husband or wife or kids or cat got home. The 20-minute pfesentation, which only a handful of trustees stayed around to watch, attempteed to show By Sharon Brain The election is over and my record remains intact. I have never yet backed a winner. It shakes my faith in the electoral process. I‘ve always been involved in politics. I come from a long line of political thinkers who believe that until you‘ve argued the question of sewers over the mor- ning‘s cornflakes, you haven‘t lived. Then Concession 2 (Bayview) was surveyed. A stake was planted 6,600 feet from the t0wnship line with north York. This marked the first sideroad. Similar stakes were planted at similar intervals to the northern limit of the township. When the sideroads were run énd chopped clear they should haverbeen in? line â€" but they werenjt. The same care had not been exercised in chaining Concessions 1 and 2 (Yonge and Bayview). No family gathering ever passes without the liberals taking on the conservatives, or the radicals attacking the reactionaries. It‘s Our idea of family fun. Then I spent a year as cleaning lady for a local developer. That would make anyone political. So this local election found me once again sloshing up and down a street in Thornhill to knock on doors and ask people if they needed any help to get out and vote. I was one of those people who arrived on your doorstep just as you were sitting down to dinner after fighting the traffic all the way home from work. _ I gave you my name and told you who I supported. Then I asked if you needed a ride or a babysitter. I was cold and wet and scared stiff. Some of you were very nice. You smiled and held your dog away from my frozen toes. ' Some hi you. were fair'ly rude and merely watched as your dog latched on to the hemrof my coat. ‘ Sbme of {on were encouraging and told ine you had already voted for my candidate. rggiona! Status quo V'ewpm'“ cures nought wife or kids or cat got hOme- But I knew they would be bad news if I was still Was it something I said that made you change your there_ mind? Because you Closed the door and Stayed away It was snowing. A man agreed to help push my car. from the pOHS in droves, At home, they had news of the other contests. One ‘ ' person I voted for had won. That had been a three- Flfth CalumnISt way race for two seats. Next I went to drive some voters. 0n the way home, I went to bed, a man told me why he hadn't voted for the man whose The democratic process is not always joyful. The stake for the northwest corner of the fifth lot was the south-east corner of the sideroad and Yonge Street; The same method was used to mark all the other sideroads in the township‘s first concession. To locate John Street, the first sideroad in Con‘ cession 1, a distance of 6,600 feet was measured north along Yonge from Steeles Avenue. A Stake lvas planted every quarter of a mile to mark the lots. For the township of Markham the base line was Yonge Street for north-south roads and Steeles Avenue for east-west roads. Both extended, without jogs. through the township. Where concession roads and sideroads cross, there are many cases in York County where the sideroad jogs a few feet or a few rods. ' The otherâ€" north-south rdads in the township reveal few intersection jogs. But it is a different story when one examines the sideroads. They were laid out differently. If you have wondered why so many roads in this area contain jogs, E. A. James answered the question in The Liberal in 1926. Professional development One last indulgence Street sloshing Surveyed Bayview Drew John Street Sharon's yesterdays by mary dawson sunshine '/ never yet' backed winner Why so many roads jog how professional people acted when given a chance to get together with other “pros” in their field on one of these professional outings. Mrs. McMonagle wasn’t too impressed. however. “It didn't excite me to see teachers putting up tents. . .or teaching choral music,“ she said. She didn’t feel she could support those two activities under the heading of professional development. A couple of trustees, the Rev. Craig Cribar of Newmarket. and Doreen Quirk of Markham, refused to acknowledge that there was really anything the matter. ' Later, at coffee break. he accused Mrs. McMonagle of taking a “cheap shot,” but Mrs. McMonagle countered that Cribar had only watched five minutes of the slide presentation. while she had sat through it all. So. how would he know? Cribar insisted he had stayed. too. Trustee Quirk said she wasn‘t “prepared to condemn professional development days on the basis of hearsay on a film." However, if Mrs. Quirk had stuck around to watch the “film”. she wouldn’t have had to fret about hearsay. Cribar, shooting straight from the pulpit, said that, if anyone had ever been to a workshop before. they would know “that’s precisely what they do“’ sing songs to get things rolling. A little later on, just to show. once and for all, that nothing had changed, Vice-Chairman Donald Cousens brought up something called York Educational Forum. part of whose aim was“. . .to develop the best educational system" for York students. So that‘s what it’s all about. I know the board doesn’t mean it that way, but even worrying about anything so meaningless. leaves the impression they’re not capable of dealing with something so real as education. If they want to present any sort of picture, or establish any kind of rapport with their fellow workers, they should do it through establishing a trust that is based on sound. thoughtful policies, intended less to impress. than to improve the over-all system. ‘ So, it is because of such things that I find I have once more weakened in my resolve to be magnificently knowing and charitable in my reporting of the board‘s doings. headquarters he had called for a ride. On to a polling station to scrutineer. As the votes for my candidate piled up, I began to feel a sense of accomplishment. Who knows how many of those votes I had delivered? We lost that poll. ‘ 1 went to the reception for the workers. The moment I walked in the door, they announced my candidate was losing. And what is the first aim of this Forum? “'I‘( promote the image” 0: the board “in this community.” That business of images has always annoyed me, because, what is an image, anyway? It‘s a facade, a contrived bit of hokum to give people the impression that you are something you aren't. The only person thefe I recognized was convinced I was not me, but my mother-in-law. Of, course, the flames are the same. But it was disconcerting. Finally the candidate arrived. _I knew I should leave. The jinx would perhaps be lifted while there was still time. I have never seen everyone jumping up and down and congratulating a winner. I hoped this was the night. Things got quieter and quieter. The evening grew late. The candidate looked around. He glanced at me. I felt at that moment he knew who was responsible. Sighing in resignation he ascended the blatform, gathered his wife and children about him and told us what a wonderful, hard working group we were. Leslie'Street‘s measurement was not quite as short Woodbme's measurement was nearer the mark. He was still hopeful. The last polls were not in. Someone started “For He‘s a Jolly Good Fellow“. It was too high and the voices petered out on the chorus. When you‘re losing, nothing goes right. I got my coat. Maybe those last votes would put him over the top. While both were supposed to be staked at intervals of 6,600 feet or multiples, thereof, one or both were something else. The two surveys were done by different surveyors. Assuming that the Yonge Street survey, done by Augustus J ones. assisted by the York Rangers in 1793 is correct, if we travel east along Highway 7 we find that Bayview‘s measurement fell short. Concession 5‘s measurement was exactly the same as Yonge Street‘s. Drew rail line Working in England they located their line on a strip of land half off 27AaAnd half qffhlfot V > - When- the surveys for the railway were made, however, it was found the lot lines jogged. Every mile and a quarter you will étillâ€"find a sharp curve where the railway's righmf-way in one con- cession joins the right-of-way in the next concession. This took land at the side of farms and didn't divide property. A In this part of Scarborough township, the con- cession roads run east and west and the sideroads north and south. Much the same thing happened in Vaughan, King, Whitchurch and East Gwillimbury. Etobicoke has five different surveys. Scarborough has two and Georgina one. Aninteresting jogging may be seen on the CNR line near Agincourt. r r The original railway engineers secured maps of the township. But, what' the heck, there’sâ€"always next year Image promotion again Straight from pulpit Other municipalities Surveyors differed Hope at 4 a. m. The climax Give what you’d like to give at Christmas WCTORM and GREY VIUI Ulllfland TRUST COMPANY Get your Santa Claus money now with a low interest, life insured personal loan from Victoria and Grey. Get it today! laird Ruby, Manager 884- 1 107 are among the highest In the world. However economical use of land. energy savings. reduced development standards throughout the province could significantly reduce home mortgage 10355 Yonge St., Richmond Hill the standards set by our muniCIpalitIes vary considerably, a fact which‘in some instances adds would lead to continued high quality new housmg The report points out how more realistic standards‘ greatly to the cost of new housing In a new report. "Urban Development Standards Costs.“ issued by the Ontario Ministry of Housing but at a lower cost‘ This case is strongly presented payments. and Indicates that adoption of such standards would m some areas lead to mom A Demonstration of the Potential for Reducing Your Ontario Government believes that realistic Serving Ontario since 7889 pressure on agrncultural land. and greaterfeasnbility for public transit If you would like a leaflet summarizing the main features of the suggested new standards Ministry of Housmg 56 Wellesley Street W. 2nd Floor Toronto. Omano M7A 2N5 Communications Branch THE LIBERAL. Wednesday. December 15. 1976 â€" A-s 69 DONCASTER AVE., THORNHILL - 8894434 write to w w §§