May 10
20
Child abuse and elder abuse in McGuinty’s eco-agenda
Excerpts from: “Keeping Ontario ugly: The residential pesticide ban, one year later,” by Peter Shawn Taylor (National Post – May 18, 2010). Read the complete article here.
Provincial politicians often promise that their province won’t look the same once they’re done. Usually, they’re talking about taxes, jobs, education or the laws of the land. While these are all important issues, they frankly don’t have much physical presence in everyday life. Your street generally looks the same regardless of who’s in power.
Not so in Ontario. Over the past year Premier Dalton McGuinty has managed to alter the physical appearance of his province. Every front yard is now uglier.
It’s been a year and a month since the McGuinty government introduced legislation banning the use of pesticides everywhere except golf courses and farms. As a result weeds, primarily dandelions, have become the dominant ground cover for lawns, parks, school yards and sports fields across the province. …
Yet a weed-free lush grass lawn or field has many practical benefits. For one, grass acts as a natural cushion. It is also an effective sponge for rain water. A sports field entirely overrun by dandelions provides none of these benefits. When it rains it becomes a slippery mud bog. In hot months: a concrete-like surface. Not only does this make it difficult to play sports, but it’s dangerous as well. Falling on hard-baked playground mud is, speaking from parental experience, the direct cause of numerous skinned knees and twisted ankles. McGuinty’s crusade on behalf of children’s health is actually hurting kids on a daily basis. …
For elderly residents, many of whom take great pride in their gardens and yards, hand pulling may not only be unproductive, but physically impossible. Denied the use of better, labour-saving methods of weed control, many retirees have simply lost the ability to tend to their own yard. All of which suggests we haven’t heard the last on this issue. And heaven help the politician who ends up taking the blame for everyone’s ugly lawn.
Read the complete article here.