STANDARD TRANSMISSIONS
Picnic tables and bland ballots
By Rik Davie/The Scugog Standard

First, let me get the money out of the way! And here’s what I’m picking: the pockets of my Scugog readers... Just wait Uxbridge, your time is coming!
mThis year, we lost one of the great ones when local volunteer and Operation Scugog founding member Anne Wanninkhof passed away. This lady did more to feed the poor of North Durham than any other single human being in my 20 years of residency. But how to honour her?
mScugog Mayor Chuck Mercier and I have come up with the way to do just that. With ‘Anne’s Tables.’ A whole slew of new picnic tables are about to be placed in Palmer Park on the shores of Lake Scugog. We want to put a plaque on each one of them, sponsored by different local businesses or groups or even individuals. For a donation of $200, you can adorn a table with a brass plaque that reads: ‘Anne’s Tables: A place for families and friends to gather and share food and their good fortune. In memory of Anne Wannimkhof, founding member of the Operation Scugog Food Bank.”
mAny amount left over from the purchase of plaques will be donated in Anne’s name to the Operation Scugog Food Bank. What more fitting way to remember Anne than to have her name on a place where families share a meal? Her church has already purchased a table and her good friends at Vos’s Independent are on board. Quick, get out your cheque books! Cheques can be dropped off at The Standard offices on Water St. in Port Perry or at the Municipal Offices on Perry St., made out to the Township of Scugog with ‘Anne’s Tables’ in the memo line.

I have the same problem that many voters have.... Who the heck do I vote for when I personally support one person but detest the leader of his party and everything the party stands for?
mDo I vote for the man/woman based on my belief that he/she will do the job of constituency advocate better than anyone else and run the risk that my vote may put into or return to power a government I think will mess up my province?
mOr do I vote for someone who may or may not handle local issues and constituent complaints in a timely manner and forget the voters once he/she is elected to try and get the government I believe is best for the province as a whole?
mDo I vote for one fringe party candidate who seems to think there are black helicopters from the government hovering over us or do I vote for the other one who doesn’t care about the black helicopters so long as they are privately owned and operated?!
mDo I, as a huge number of people may well do, vote NDP just because I liked good ol’ Jack Layton? (Kind of like voting Democrat in the States because I kind of liked FDR.... And people still do!)
mWhere are the leaders? Where are the dais-pounding rabble-rousing men and women of conviction who stir the crowd with their ideas and give us hope for the future of Ontario?
mWhere have all the leaders gone?
mWe are left with empty suits who spout party line dogma with the book in front of them, and blame everyone else for the problems we face while giving no hint of a plan or a belief in what they are doing.
mI will have voted by the time you read this, because I reserve my right to complain by doing so. But it will be without enthusiasm and without excitement. Stop giving us public relations exercises and give us leaders! Please!