After a decade of unspectacular government decision making one begins to wonder if there are people within our population who have the will and the capacity to reason beyond the immediate and to deal with the long-term consequences of issues that impact the future of Canadian society.

Most political programming and decisions are made to garner votes, usually at the taxpayer's expense and we have witnessed this corrupt and costly practice by government, including the recent funneling of $1,000,000 plus to a cricket team that requested only $150,000.

Clearly it was expected to return a substantial voting block.

The latest fiasco is the simplistic approach to dealing with the frequent gun violence in the GTA and the many deaths, to innocent bystanders.

The Provincial Government, supported by Mayor Miller, want to introduce legislation that will ban handgun ownership. This, they insist, will effectively reduce gun crimes. Like hell it will! Britain tried this simplistic plan and the result was an increase in gun crimes. Why do we not learn from the costly experiences of other nations? Why do our leaders think that they know the answers and the lessons in other countries will not, or do not, apply to Canada?

Of course, there might be a less obvious agenda at work here: completely disarm the Canadian population except for the police and population management becomes less onerous. Such being the case would bring us closer to a police state and the total loss of hard won freedoms.

Furthermore, take away all handguns and the market for them goes underground and big profits accrue to the underworld. Remember the roaring 20s when booze was illegal and Prohibition led to criminal profit and many killings?

The problem today lies with and imported culture that revels in violence and has no compunction about killing the targeted victim or the innocent bystander. It would be more effective to infiltrate these gangs and destroy them from within. Information gives to the police a real advantage.

Why risk making law abiding citizen's criminals and depriving them of a deterrent to violence by these creatures that currently plague our society? Leadership requires more than just a soft job and a substantial income: it requires character and concern for the province or country in which the incumbent was elected.

Today we are facing 70% increases in electricity charges. Why? The government decided to phase out our coal fired generators before replacement generators were constructed and went on-line. Surely it would have made more sense to have invested in modern technologies designed to scrub clean the contaminants that coal produces.

Most of the air pollution endured by this province comes from the 31 coal fired generators in the USA Border States. It would make more sense to negotiate an agreement with the U.S. to recognize what they contribute to poor air quality and devise a method to clean up this ongoing health problem.

K. Hayward

Mono