The Windsor Star from Windsor, Ontario, Canada • 1

Thursday, March 15, 2001 TheWindsor tc Serving Windsor Showers, high 7 and Essex Co WILL THE REAL CHER A vr) PLEASE STAND UP impersonators give stars TORONTO RALLIES Leafs edge Mighty Ducks SPORTS Fl a ENTERTAINMENT E5 1 Elephants to adorn riverfront Drag tab baitoomis the garden, but Odette would not divulge their cost. "Plenty," he laughed. So why giant elephants? "We want to make half the sculpture garden for kids," said Odette from his home in Florida. "What else can you think of? We've got penguins, we've got birds, we've got swans, we've got dancing Please see New sculptures A2 By Mary Agnes Welch star staff reporter Let's see them steal THESE statues. Three massive bronze elephants will arrive at Windsor's Sculpture Garden later this year courtesy of businessman Lou Odette, the sculpture garden's godfather.

The new additions are expected to be placed next to a family of three penguins, one of which was bird-napped last month. The life-size African elephants a mother and two babies are still being cast at MST Bronze Ltd. in Toronto, the same foundry that made the penguins. The babies will be small enough for kids to play on, but the parental pachyderm will be Canada's largest bronze elephant; standing nearly 10 feet tall. "She's gonna be big," promised Joan Dickson, a spokeswoman for MST Bronze.

The sculptures will also be the priciest in fo) LQ) 4 FEEDS ALL 1US Troubled farmers demand more aid 1 National program needed to control costs: Experts By Mark Kennedy the ottawa citizen OTTAWA Canada's prescription drug bill soared by a whopping 344 per cent over the past 15 years, a new report has found. The study, released Wednesday by the Canadian Institute for Health Information (CIHI), also reveals that patients and their private insurers are increasingly bearing a larger burden of the 2 iltli I DRUG DATA The Canadian Institute for Health Information's report noted: Canada ranked fifth among G-7 countries for spending on drugs as a proportion of total health care in 1997. France, Japan, Italy and Britain spent more. Canadians spent $9.3 billion on prescription drugs and $3.1 billion on over the counter drugs in 1998, up 10.6 and 6.6 per cent respectively over the previous year. The Canadian Press costs.

The country's tab grew to $9.3 billion in 1998 from $2.6 billion in 1985. Although the most-recent figures are not yet final, it's believed the bills continued to increase by about 10 per cent in each of the last 5UPSHML i iW I 17 ljll 0 By Star Staff and News Services From small Prairie towns to the nation's capital, angry farmers took out their frustration on the federal government Wednesday, burning the agriculture minister in effigy and rallying for more aid. The so-called National Day of Protest came just two weeks after the government announced $500 million in new farm aid about half of what activists said was needed to ease a crippling farm-income crisis. Lakeshore' grain grower Mike Gaudette, 52, was one of the disgruntled farmers who had never joined a farm protest before Wednesday's provincewide convoy and rallies. "I am fed up," said Gaudette, who drove his pickup truck in the rally.

"I'm fed up enough if they asked me to drive my tractor up the 401, 1 would." Slowed traffic About 20 tractors briefly slowed traffic on Huron Church Road as more than 200 farmers kicked off the southern end of the Ontario protest at 7 a.m. Wednesday. Because tractors aren't allowed on the highway, they veered off to allow farmers in transport trucks and pickups to start the convoy on Highway 401. With signs saying "Farmers mean business" and "No Farmers, No Food, No Future," they headed to a rally outside Toronto and picked up thousands of vehicles along the way. At Guelph the convoy was 22 km long.

Without at least $900 million in federal dollars plus help from the provinces, farmers say they will go out of business because they can't compete in world markets with higher government subsidies given to U.S. and European farmers. U.S. grain farmers get $63 per acre more in subsidies than their Canadian counterparts. Please see Frustrated All utm -T- ii 1 sJp ib two years to an expected $10.3 billion in 1999 and $11.4 billion in 2000.

In 1985, 43.4 per cent of the costs were borne by governments, while 56.6 per cent of the bills that year were picked up either out-of-pocket by patients or through their private insurers. By 1998, the government share had slipped to 41.4 per cent, while the "private sector" share had risen to 58.6 per cent (34.6 per cent from insurance companies, and 24 per cent from patients themselves). Please see Drug costs A2 Star offers readers more news, features You'll notice some exciting changes in your Star over the next few days. Thursday editions will now include a business section front, while the Entertainment listings of what to do around Windsor and Detroit, which historically ran on Thursday, will move to Friday Saturday will feature a new section called Discover. It will include more travel, lifestyles and gardening, plus two new columnists: Randy Cohen writes on ethics, while Dr.

Dave takes a humorous, yet informative, look at your health. Saturday will also include a new Entertainment front section, anchored by our irreverent columnist Karen Hall. Also starting Saturday, you can look forward to an expanded live news section, plus improved stocks and mutuals coverage. Farmers slow traffic with their tractors along Huron Church Road In Windsor Wednesday during a day of national protest against high taxes and low prices. star photo: Kristine Racicot INSIDE TODAY Gardeners urged to plant banned weed for monarchs Editorial A6 Entertainment.

E5 Horoscopes. Life B3 Dollar Dealings The following rates for normal transactions were quoted Business El Classified Comics F7 County A5 Crossword. Lotteries A2 uteathor' r.i Wednesday by Windsor banks for the Billions down the drain By James Baxter for southam news OTTAWA A "negative wealth effect" threatens to plunge the North American economy into its worst recession since the 1930s, said Stephen Roach, a Wall Street economist. Hundreds of billions of dollars of perceived wealth, much of it stored in retirement nest-eggs, has simply vanished over the past 12 months amid relentless declines in stock markets around the world. North Americans, who once felt rich as their portfolios and retirement plans grew, are now showing signs of preparing to tighten their belts.

Please see Vanishing wealth All See also Stock market El U.S. dollar: Banks are buying U.S. cash for 1.5304 and selling for 1.5655. Banks are buying U.S. cheques for 1.5283 and selling at 1.5673.

The park, which has made the butterfly one of its icons, became an International Monarch Reserve in 1995. Break the law "I don't want to recommend anyone break the law but even if you just do a little in your yard," says Sarah Rupert, a naturalist at Point Pelee National Park. "If you have a little spot you can take precautions so the seeds don't spread." Please see Milkweed A5 By Doug Schmidt star environment reporter point pelee national park Local naturalists are advising landowners to ignore provincial legislation and fill their yards with a noxious plant banned under the Weed Control Act. 1 The plant milkweed is the favourite food of the monarch butterfly, a federally listed at-risk species which funnels through Point Pelee National Park during its fall migration. "000701 canada.com Home Delivery 255-5774 www.southam.comwlndsorstar e-mail lettersQwln.southam.ca t'Aii iinv' ii Mill" Hi.

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