Enjoy a tribute to the songs of the 1970s as The Wayne Gilpin SINGERS 

present "We are the Champions" on Saturday, May 29th at 8:00 p.m. at 

Waterloo Christian Reformed Church, 209 Bearinger Road, Waterloo.

     This 1970s tribute will feature songs like "We Will Rock You",

"We are the Champions", "New York, New York", "In the Navy", as well as

instrumental favourites such as The Allman Brothers Band's "Jessica"

and Weather Report's "Birdland".

     Guest artists include Steven Cole, Guitar; George Kozub, Bass;

Kevin Dempsey, Drums; and Andrew Gilpin, Piano. Tickets at $20 for adults and

$15 for students/seniors are available at the door or by calling 1-800-867-3281.

   The Wayne Gilpin SINGERS, a community choir now in its 12th

season, is inviting any and all singers to join them for a 

rehearsal on Wednesday, Apr. 7, Monday, Apr. 12, or Monday, Apr. 19.

   The Wayne Gilpin SINGERS have just begun preparing for their 

1970s concert, and are singing many familiar songs, including “Bridge

Over Troubled Water“, “Morning Has Broken“, “In the Navy“, “Rhinestone

Cowboy“, a medley of Queen songs, plus many others.

   Rehearsals take place at Luther Village Chapel, 139 Father David 

Bauer Dr. in Waterloo, from 7:30 to 9:30 in the evening.

   Enjoy a concert of hymns, spirituals, and contemporary Christian 

songs as The Wayne Gilpin SINGERS present “Amazing Grace” on 

Saturday, March 20th at 8:00 p.m. at St. John the Evangelist Church, 

23 Water Street North, Kitchener.

   The evening will feature well-known hymns and spirituals, as well 

as contemporary Christian songs arranged for jazz quartet by 

composer/pianist Andrew Gilpin.

   Guest artists include Bob Brough, Saxophone; George Kozub, Bass; 

Kevin Dempsey, Drums; and Andrew Gilpin, Piano. Tickets at $20 for 

adults and $15 for students/seniors are available at the door or 

by calling 1-800-867-3281.

     The Wayne Gilpin SINGERS, a community choir now in its 12th season, is inviting any and all singers to join them for a rehearsal on Monday, Jan. 18, Monday, Jan. 25, or Monday, Feb. 1.  Here are the details:

EVENT:  Open rehearsal with The Wayne Gilpin SINGERS

DATE:  Monday, Jan. 18, Monday, Jan. 25, or Monday, February 1

 TIME:  7:30-9:30 PM

 LOCATION:  Luther Village Chapel, 139 Father David Bauer Dr., Waterloo

 DESCRIPTION:  The Wayne Gilpin SINGERS, a community choir now in its 12th season, is inviting any and all singers to join them for a rehearsal.  We’re singing "Here I Am, Lord", "It is Well With My Soul", "Joyful, Joyful", and "Lord, Listen to Your Children", and others.

 CONTACT:  Andrew Gilpin, toll-free 1-800-867-3281, mail@gilpin.ca

Conservatives by definition (at least in the past)  stood for low taxes and fiscal responsibility.  Yet in his very first budget, the Finance Minister, Jim Flaherty, raised income taxes not once, but twice, by lowering the  Basic Personal Exemption and by raising the tax rate for the first level of taxes.  Yes he lowered the GST, effective halfway through the year, but the net effect of all these tax initiatives is that individuals would have to spend about $20,000.00 on GSTable purchases in the last 6 months of the year to break even.  Although Mr. Albreacht falls into that very small percentage of Canadians who could afford that, most of us don't and at the end of the day, we lost.  Short of a head tax, you couldn't have come up with a more effective way to hit the little guy and give it to the affluent.

There isn't enough room here to talk how this years deficit will wipe out the last 10 years of surpluses.

Now Mr. Albreacht and the Conservatives are working with (conspiring?) to harmoninze the PST and the GST effective July 1 2010.  Strike three will represent an even greater tax hit as many purchases that used to be PST exempt or GST exempt will now  be taxed at the combined rate.  Yes, businesses will see a benefit of larger Input Credits (reclaiming the taxes they pay on things they buy) but 95% of the businesses in this country are too small for this to make a hill of beans difference.   The large corporations however will score big time, hence the support from the Chamber of Commerce.    You and I get no break.  And unlike the Eastern Provinces who saw a reduction of 4% to 5% in the combined rate to account for the additional taxes when they harmonized, we are blessed with the full pop on everything.

That's three tax increases from the Party who says they want lower taxes.

Yes Mr. Albrecht, you are the best option.   You've just lowered the bar so low that you are not a good one. 

Dennis Wharton

Petersburg, On

To the Editor,

In Karen Kennedy's Oct. 3 letter, she ventures from opinion to misinformation. 

I have not received any letters from Ms. Kennedy.  When she e-mailed me regarding financial assistance to auto companies, she received a prompt reply.

She expresses her displeasure with my Feb. 14, 2008 member's statement in which I paid tribute to my wife Betty.  I have paid tribute to others in the House of Commons. I offered Samantha Whiteside best wishes on behalf of the Canadian government as she attempted to break a world record swimming across Lake Ontario. I thanked Larry Gravill for his service when he retired as chief of police. I paid tribute to the impact Mel Brown had on our community. Fifteen minutes each day before Question Period each day is devoted to these short member's statements.  

A video of my statement is available on my Facebook page.  I encourage your readers to view this video and decide for themselves how irresponsible my statement was.  Ms. Kennedy must have viewed it repeatedly, to have actually counted the words.

Political spouses endure great sacrifices in the name of public service. I would not be able to do my job without Betty's love and support. Your readers know I am an enthusiastic proponent of strong families. Through two election campaigns, voters responded positively to this message. Perhaps they do not share Ms. Kennedy's definition of "responsibility."

Finally, she claims that if you are not a Conservative supporter, that I will not have time for you at a public event. I can't recall a single occasion where I asked someone how they voted. Her conspiracy theory doesn't even make sense. As your MP, it is my duty to meet and communicate with as many of my constituents as possible. As a once-and-future candidate, it is in my interest.

Ms. Kennedy asks your readers to question the real meaning of political advertising. I ask your readers to test Ms. Kennedy's claims for themselves. View the statement, approach me at an event. Then, they can judge Ms. Kennedy's real meaning.

Harold Albrecht

MP, Kitchener-Conestoga

To the Editor,

In response to the letter “Conservatives are still our best choice” (Observer, Sept. 26/09), the state of Canada brings me great sadness as well but for different reasons.

“Would a man of no decency stick with us through one of the most uncertain times in Canadian history?” The answer is “Yes.” Prime Minister Stephen Harper is not concerned with decency. His number one concern is power in the form of a majority government. If he did not “stick with us” he would not achieve his goal. The $300,000-plus salary with benefits probably helps too. After all, it is not a good time to be looking for work.

The writer also implies that Michael Ignatieff is not Canadian enough. If how long a person lives in Canada in her lifetime is the only thing that makes a person Canadian or able to assess the Canadian state of affairs, Canada is in a sad state indeed. The beauty of Canada is in its diversity.

If we all remembered kindergarten, Mr. Harper would not be Prime Minister of Canada. After the 2008 election, with the promise of a coalition government and the end of Mr. Harper’s rule, he ran to the Governor General asking her to prorogue the government. Why? The Conservative government needed time to refuel the partisan Conservative government information machine and coffers to mislead Canadians regarding the legitimacy of a coalition government. For the record, a coalition government is legitimate. In fact, Mr. Harper proposed to form a coalition with the Bloc Quebecois in 2004 in an attempt to oust the minority Liberal government. How soon we forget.

The majority of Canada does not support Mr. Harper or his ideas. Only 37.3 per cent of Canadian voters who voted supported the Conservatives in the 2008 election and the voter turnout was the lowest in a long time in 2008 at 58.8 per cent.

Yes, Mr. Harold Albrecht is at many community events to lend his smile. However, if you try to talk to him and you are not a supporter of the Conservative government, he has no time. My letters to Mr. Albrecht’s office have gone unanswered. In addition, I think it was irresponsible of Mr. Albrecht to take up valuable question period time with 224 words to profess his love to his wife on Feb. 14, 2008. Regardless of the day, an MP needs to be working for his constituents.

The next time you see a Conservative ad on TV or receive the wasteful mail ads, I encourage you to ask yourself, “What is the real meaning of this message?” If we want to help Canada, we need to ask questions and keep our government accountable. Canada is supposed to be a democracy. If we want to keep it that way, we all need to educate ourselves and vote.

Karen Kennedy
Wellesley

Unfortunately the other local weekender obviously does not give a fiddlers damn about its subscriber base if it affects advertising revenues, even though many people get fooled by thinking that the ad must be legit. A week before, having noticed a couple of bogus ads, I took the time to email the editor and advertising staff at The Independent (copy pasted below) , describing in detail how these scams work (learned by sad experience). They obviously wasted their time by ignoring the warning as they continue to aid and abbet these criminals for the paltry advertising revenues gleaned from the ad. They should be 9and quite possibly are) legally liable, as a contributing factor, to any financial losses incurred as a result of answering these ads.

To the editor

20 things everyone should know about Stephen Harper and his Reform-Conservative government.

1. They rigged a self-serving and politicized infrastructure stimulus program so that most of the money could land in Conservative-held ridings, delaying projects so much that only 12% are in construction and creating jobs.
2. He called Canada a "second-tier socialistic country" and a "Northern European welfare state in the worst sense of the term."
3. They put Canada on track for a deficit before the recession hit and now holds the record of the largest deficit on record at 56 billion (and climbing).
4. They failed to plan for the H1N1 flu by delaying the order of the flu vaccine and sending body bags to remote communities instead.
5. They spent 5 times more on self-promotion than informing the public on how to protect themselves from H1N1.
6. In the past two months, he has twice failed to defend Canada's healthcare system against outrageous attacks from ultra-right Conservatives in the United States.
7. He kept Ministers in his cabinet who called the medical isotope crisis they helped create "sexy" and made jokes about the listeriosis crisis.
8. He broke his promise not to raise taxes with a $13 billion EI payroll tax.
9. They pick and choose when to protect the rights of Canadian citizens at home and abroad.
10. He called women, minorities, the disabled, and gays and lesbians "left-wing fringe groups" and Canada's independent judiciary "left-wing ideologues."
11. He keeps a Minister in his cabinet who openly mused about putting 10-year-olds in jail.
12. He denied that the country was in a recession and failed to plan for it, and only agreed to provide economic stimulus after causing a constitutional crisis.
13. He said he doesn't care if "Canada ends up as one national government or two national governments or several national governments, or some other kind of arrangement."
14. He holds the record for unelected Senate appointments for a single year - 27, more than any Prime Minister in Canadian history - after saying he would never appoint Senators.
15. He has presided over the loss of nearly a half million high quality fulltime jobs since October, with no plan to replace them with the next generation of jobs.
16. He has pushed for amending the Canada Health Act to allow for-profit-pay-as-you-go Medicare in this country and abdicated any federal role in ensuring its guiding principles of public administration, comprehensiveness, universality, portability, and accessibility.
17. He said "There will be no special status, formally or informally, for Quebec or any other province."
18. He pushed for further deregulation and less oversight over banks and financial institutions.
19. He has done nothing to address the hollowing out of corporate Canada due to a weakening in foreign takeover rules.
20. He bragged that he was opposed to government programs to eliminate child poverty and promote cultural identity.

A Liberal MP says the latest taxpayer-funded mail-out to his district promoting federal Conservative policies has gone totally off track.

Avalon MP Scott Andrews says the Conservatives sent a so-called "10-per- center" to his riding promoting the Harper government's work to improve Canadian rail service.

There has been no railway in Newfoundland since the 1980s.

http://calgarygrit.blogspot.co.....b-bag.html