Seeking CMT sufferers Dear Editor: For over cight vears my late wife, Gladys, was the provincial coordinator for an organization based in St. Catherines, Ontario, that provides information to thousands of people who have a fairly rare ncuromus- cular disorder called Charcot-Marie-Tooth dis- ease (CMT). I have just learned that this organization, CMT Inter-national, experienced a setback when one of its com- puters crashed during a back- up procedure, and took their 4,700-name mail list with it. This small organization has been working with peo- ple around the world for the past 12 years, not only pro- viding information about CMT but _sSs promoting research, giving out scholar- ships and, in general, being a friend to most of the people who thought they were the on’y ones in the world with CMT until they heard about CMT Inter-national. Linda Crabtree, a former newspaper journalist, found- ed this organization in 1984 and has CMT herself. Tn 1984, Linda wrote to newspaper editors all across Canada to find people with her disease and from the responses she conceived CMT International, and began publishing a bimonth- ly newsletter, and everything else the nonprofit organiza- tion does came to fruition. Could you possibly help her again by printing this let- ter so it will reach the people she has lost when the mailing jist. crashed, and possibly locate new ones who might not knew that CMT International exists? One parting little gem for your computer-literate read- ers: always keep two backups, and rotate them on odd and even days. Linda learned the hard way! Readers wishing further information abour Charcot- Marie-Tooth disease may get in touch with Linda at: CMT International, Springbank Drive, St. Catherines, Canada, L2S 2K1 Tel: (905) 687-3630; Fax: (905) 687-8753, E-mail: cmtinr® vdaxxine.com and website: htp://www. cmtint.org. Dr. Norman Schmidt Lindell Beach, B.C. One Ontario, Wrong Twigg from family tree Dear Editor: I was amused to read in Doug Collins’ Sunday column that I was press adviser to Dave Barrett but I have now grown up. Your colum- nist is confused and wrong. My brother, John Twigg, who publishes an excellent independent newsletter on politics” from Victoria, worked as Dave Barrett’s press secretary when Barrett was premier. He then became business editor for the Leader-Post. In his opinion column I believe Dow Collins meant to refer to my brother . John I write a weekly editorial column for the Province on Fridays and also publish an inde- pendent newspaper about books, 8.C. Book World. Your columnist has apparently got us mixed up. Or your columnist is simply mixed up. John and I grew up in West Vancouver so some of your readers might be scratching their heads after reading Collins’ column. It’s easy to tell the difference. John’s the tall onc. There are two Twiggs who write; thank goodness there is only one Doug Collins. 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Midland Walwyn is a member of CIPF. ted white, m.p. advertorial, January 22/07 NEW YEAR UPDATES Last October 4th, | introduced to Parilament a Private Member's Bill which, if passed, would give judges the power to deport criminal refugee claimants In tleu of sentence. | wrote to the Minister of immigration, Hon. Lucienne Robillard, on October 10, 1996 to ask for her support for the Bill, and on December 18, 1996 | received her viritten response. Unfortunately it was a siough off, even though the Bill had been suggested and worked on by a knowledgeabie focal Crown Counsel. The Minister, it appears, is only interested In playing politics, by blocking any ideas put forward by Reform MPs. The chances of my Bill passing are now extremely remote. ELECTING MEMBERS OF PARLIAMENT In my North Shore New Report of October 23, 1996 ! wrote about New Zealand's first election under the new Mixed Member Proportional system (MMP) which is similar to the German method of electing a government. At the time my report was published, it was not clear whether the New Zealand First Party would join the ruling National Party, or the opposition Labour Party, in order to form a Government. It took about three months, but New Zealand First eventuaily opted to form a coalition with the National Party — a move which has ensuied the survival of that coun- try's program of free market reforms and ongoing tax reductions. Although the political “worry warts" in New Zealand were proclaiming doom and gloom during the three months it took to form a coali- tion, the economy remained buoyant through- out the process, and the Kiwi dollar even rose in value. In addition, once negotiations had ended, most of the key ministers were still in place — an outcome which is consistent with the type of stability and continuity seen in other countries which use an MMP system. MMP elections tend to re-elect most of the key decision makers, rather than resulting in the massive shifts of politica! direction which are quite common under our First Past The Post system. During the June 1996 policy convention of } the Reform Party of Canada a Task Force was struck to study the various forms of propor- tional representation in operation throughout the world, and to recommend a pclicy posi- tion for the Party. | sit on that Task Force and 4 will let you know our conclusions once our report is made public in a few months from now. It is interesting to note that the vast { majority of democracies already operate under some form of proportional represen- tation, and even the Labour Party leader ir the UK is promising a referendum on propor- tional representation if his Party is voted into power after the next election. A TRAVEL JUNKET DERAILED In Ottawa | sit on the Joint. Standing: Committee for the Scrutiny of Regulations, . which is made up of members from both the Senate and the House of Commons.. The mandate of the committee is to ensure ‘that: : regulations made as a result of laws passed J by Parliament are properly drafted, and are } legal. From time to time the Committee, which: §: is one of the few which operate in a com- pleteiy non-partisan manner, makes recom-' mendations to the Minister of Justice on issues related to regulations, and on bills such: as C-25 — a complex piece of legislation presently before the House. in early December, the New Zeafand Government invited the Committee to attend a conference on regulations, to be held in New Zeaiand in early February of this year. Topics’ to be discussed include major reforms to the regulatory precess introduced by Australia, New Zealand and the UK. Unfortunately, the Minister has routinely rejected and/or ignored the recommendations of the Committee, so it § was my opinion that the New Zealand trip would be nothing more than a “travel junket" to the South Pacific summer. . As luck would have it, the trip ‘required “all party" approval, so nixed it, saving |. taxpayers about $55,000 in travel expens-. es in the process. Committee members were shocked, even angry, that ( turned down a free "business class" trip .to my: country of origin, but my recommendation: was to send only our. legal counsel, because thay are our. information resource, and will still be there after most of the rest of us have resigned or been tossed out of office. | have no doubt that ! | fost a few “friends” on the committee as a result of my decisior, but I'm there to look after YOUR interests, not theirs! ‘Ted White, M.P. , #302-1200 Lyno Valley Rd., North Vancouver, B.C. V2j 2A2, "Tel: 666-0585