‘Productive relationships’ will continue

Ontario voters returned the Liberal government to power in yesterday's quadrennial election, giving Dalton McGuinty another term as premier and keeping the Progressive Conservatives in the role of official opposition. Conservative leader John Tory lost his own seat as the Liberals won comfortably despite losing some votes to the third-place New Democratic Party and the fourth-place Greens.

As in most Ontario elections, a minority of the total vote brought a majority government. And that's the way things will likely continue, as voters solidly rejected a proposal to replace the traditional "first past the post" electoral system with a more elaborate "multi-member proportional" formula.

Heading back to Queen's Park along with McGuinty will be most of the prominent Liberals from the previous legislature, including the minister of training, colleges and universities, Chris Bentley, reelected overwhelmingly in his riding of London West.

Also staying on the McGuinty team is John Milloy, MPP for Kitchener Centre, whose status as the Liberal member nearest to the Waterloo campus has put him front-and-centre representing the government at a number of UW ceremonies lately. (He's pictured at left greeting Daryoosh Saeedkia of the Microwave Integrated System Lab at a research funding announcement in June.) Milloy held off Conservative and NDP challengers in yesterday's voting.

Kitchener-Waterloo riding, which includes the main UW campus, reelected Elizabeth Witmer, who served as minister of health and labour in previous Conservative governments. Reelected in Cambridge was another Conservative, Gerry Martiniuk. In the outer ring of Waterloo Region, voters in the new riding of Kitchener-Conestoga chose Leeanna Pendergast of the Liberals. (The Conservatives' Ted Arnott, who had been member for the old Waterloo-Wellington riding, won last night in Wellington-Halton-Hills.)

"We look forward to continuing our work with the Government of Ontario," says Meg Beckel, UW's vice-president (external relations). She points out that UW "enjoys productive relationships with many provincial ministries, and in our work together we have advanced the needs of the university and enhanced the quality of life for many Ontarians."

Government policies — especially on financing and student fees — are tremendously important to the university, to the point that UW's provost told a recent senate meeting that it would be a "nightmare" for a future government to reduce fees without providing extra funds for university operations. More than half of the annual budget comes from provincial grants, and most of the rest is from provincially-regulated student fees. In addition, the province is a major source of research funding, and has supported UW capital projects ranging from the Research and Technology Park to the Kitchener health sciences campus.

Back to top

St. Paul's names honorary board chair

from the UW media relations office

The former lieutenant-governor of Ontario, James Bartleman, will be installed tonight as honorary chair of the board of governors at St. Paul's United College.

Bartleman, the province's 27th lieutenant-governor from 2002 to 2007, was widely noted for his initiatives to reduce the stigma of mental illness, fight racism and discrimination, and encourage aboriginal young people. The installation will take place in the college's MacKirdy Hall at 7 p.m., preceded by a reception and dinner.

"We are very fortunate to have a person of Mr. Bartleman's calibre assume this new position," says Graham Brown, principal of the UW-affiliated institution. "By creating the non-voting position of honorary chair, our board of governors provides a way for an eminent and highly qualified individual to advise and assist the college with its mission without having to assume all the responsibilities of a voting member of the board." The appointment links Bartleman, who was the first aboriginal person to hold the highest post in Ontario's government, with the college that is the home for UW's Native Studies program and aboriginal student office.

In 2004, Bartleman launched the Lieutenant Governor's Book Program, which provided 850,000 used books to First Nations schools and native friendship centres throughout the province. To encourage literacy and bridge-building, he set up a program in 2005 to twin native and non-native schools in Ontario and Nunavut, establishing literacy summer camps in five northern First Nations communities as a pilot project.

A year later, Bartleman expanded the literacy summer camps program to 28 fly-in communities and secured funding for the next four years. St. Paul's, UW and Sheridan Institute of Technology are collaborating to sponsor a literacy camp at Attawapiskat First Nation.

Bartleman's first book, Out of Muskoka, published in 2002, was a memoir of his early life and won the Ontario Historical Society's Joseph Brant Award in 2003. A second book, On Six Continents, gave his account of an adventurous foreign service career. And the third volume of Bartleman's memoirs, an inside look at Canada's international relations, was published as Rollercoaster: My Hectic Years as Jean Chrétien's Diplomatic Advisor 1994-1998.

Bartleman had a career of more than 35 years in the Canadian foreign service. He was Canada's ambassador to the European Union from 2000 to 2002 and served as high commissioner to Australia in 1999-2000 and to South Africa in 1998-1999.

Born in 1939 in Orillia, Bartleman grew up in the Muskoka town of Port Carling and is a member of the Mnjikaning First Nation. He earned a Bachelor of Arts degree in history from the University of Western Ontario in 1963.

Back to top

'Rebirth in a Harsh Land' is among the paintings by Hong Kong artist Annie Wong that are on display this month in the Theatre of the Arts gallery in the Modern Languages building. The exhibit is open Monday, Tuesday and Friday afternoons. It was launched at the end of September as part of the annual Renison College East Asian Festival, and Wong will receive an honorary degree at the October 20 morning Convocation ceremony.

A few other notes, the morning after

The on-campus United Way campaign is rolling along, with $60,764 raised as of yesterday toward this year's $170,000 goal. The bulk of the money comes from cheques and pledges by faculty and staff members, but the most visible part of the campaign each October is the special events, such as today's "continental breakfast" in the statistics and actuarial science department, or tomorrow's bake sale organized by the housing and residences office. Tomorrow is also the second in a series of Friday "dress-down days" arranged to raise the profile of the United Way, which supports 42 local agencies from the Immigrant Employment Network to the Multiple Sclerosis Society. United Way organizers have posted another online profile of a UW person who's involved with one of the agencies: this week it's John Rempel of St. Jerome's University, who serves as a board member for Kitchener's House of Friendship.

A ceremony this afternoon will dedicate a garden outside the Tatham Centre to the memory of A. S. (Bert) Barber (right), one of the pioneers of co-op education at Waterloo. Bruce Lumsden, a later director of what's now the co-op and career services department, recalls that "Bert led the department for 13 years, 1958-1971, through a tremendous period of growth where co-op played a key role in developing the culture, the co-op brand and reputation of the university. The relationship that UW has with the business community, nationally and internationally, and with the world of work generally, is due in no small part to the efforts of Bert and his colleagues. He emphasized the 'education' part of co-op education and built a university-wide reputation for healthy and robust relationships with business, industry, and government. Last year he was inducted into the Co-op Hall of Honor at the University of Cincinnati." Marjorie Barber, his widow (he died in 1982), "thought a memorial garden would be fitting," says Lumsden, "so she donated some money and there it is." She'll be attending today's ceremony, scheduled for 2:00 outside Tatham. Lumsden adds that "Marjorie donated some Bert's memorabilia when she was here at the opening of the Tatham Centre."

Today is World Sight Day, held each year to focus attention on the global issue of avoidable blindness. “Every five seconds one person in our world goes blind, and a child goes blind every minute,” says a note from UW’s Unite for Sight Club. “It aims to make people aware that 75% of blindness is avoidable (preventable and/or treatable), and to encourage governments, corporations, institutions and others to invest in global blindness prevention.” To mark the day, club members will be in the Student Life Centre from 10:00 to 1:00, “encouraging students to sign the vision 2020 Right to Sight petition, which aims to get 20 million signatures by the year 2020. This petition is aimed to show governments and decision makers around the world the number of individuals who believe that ‘the Right to Sight' should be a fundamental human right.”

UW president David Johnston is the speaker today at one of the more exclusive events of Kitchener-Waterloo Oktoberfest: the Presidents' Invitational Luncheon, to be held at noontime at the Kitchener Delta Hotel. He'll be talking (to local and visiting business figures) about Waterloo as "intelligent community" and the partnerships that made it so, the grain-to-brain progress of Waterloo Region over the past century, and the value of higher education as part of what moves the region forward. "Canada's Great Bavarian Festival" continues through Saturday, and though partying is a major theme of the annual event, it's also a big opportunity to promote economic development for K-W. Charity and community spirit are in there too: Oktoberfest has announced that a total of 20,084 pounds of food, along with $16,924 in cash, was collected along the route of Monday's Thanksgiving Day parade.

A funeral service will be held this morning for Brian O'Riley, who had a strong influence on UW's physical shape during his 31 years (1965 through 1996) as foreman and then supervisor of the grounds crew. He had a special affection for the north campus, actually living for a time in one of the historic houses north of Columbia Street, but also knew and shaped the plantings on the south campus as it developed from the mud-and-dreams era to maturity. After retirement, he maintained a hobby farm near Maryhill, east of Waterloo. O'Riley came to UW immediately after graduating from the Niagara Parks School of Horticulture, and the family is suggesting that donations in his memory should go to that school. The funeral is scheduled for 11:30 a.m. today at the Henry Walser Funeral Home on Frederick Street in Kitchener.

CAR

Back to top