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Home My WebLink AboutHuron Expositor, 2015-10-28, Page 9Wednesday, October 28, 2015 • Huron Expositor 9 Hurricanes splash into the season! The Hurricanes came together in Vanastra on Monday night for our first Purple and Black, in-house meet of the season. The Huron Hurricanes represent all of Huron County and even have some members travelling as far as Sarnia, Kincardine and Exeter to be part of our team. This Purple and Black mini meet was the first chance for our swim- mers to get to know each other. With groups training in Vanastra and in Goderich some don't cross paths other than at these meets and our FUN social events! Purple and Black mini meets are a great chance for our new, younger swimmers to watch our older, advanced swimmers show what they can do! Everyone gets a chance to show their par- ents, and sometime grand- parents, what the 4 different strokes are, how much they have learned, and how fast they can go! Coaches get a chance to see their swimmers race and have time to help with technical skills, turns and dives to be sure they are ready for travel competitions. They are also a fun opportunity for parents to practice helping officiate in order to be ready to help out at our sanctioned, travel meets. Congrats to everyone on a wonderful evening of FUN and racing the next mini meet is in December and we are all looking for- ward to it! The Huron Hurricanes Aquatic Club travelled with 16 swimmers to London, Ontario last weekend to par- ticipate in their first compe- tition of the season. Only 4 weeks into training the team surprised Coach Kristy and raced AMAZINGLY fast! Cameron Gauthier, Maddie Ivatts, Emma Nethery and Walker Teal all had 100% personal best times over the 5 races, and as a team the Hurricanes achieved 82% personal best times!!! Congratulations to Anna trick, our newest competitive swimmer, who did very well at her first meet. Swimming competition levels are based on times, and you can qualify a time at any meet we attend. The Hurricanes had 9 swimmers qualify for Western Region Championships in February already with times from the first competition of the sea- son. We are well on our way of qualifying more swim- mers this season than ever before! We also had one swimmer, Maddie Ivatts, qualify for Provincial Festival in February with her time for her 50 freestyle! Congrats to Maddie on her first Provin- cial Festival Time! Overall this was a great team building competition. The Hurricanes cheered for each other, helped each other when things were tough, and rose to the chal- lenge of racing so early in the season! What a great way to start the Olympic Season!!! Huron -Bruce Conservative MP Ben Lobb re-elected for a third term GODERICH — Huron - Bruce Conservative MP Ben Lobb is back in the House of Commons for a third con- secutive term in what was expected to be a tough battle. The 39 -year-old Goderich native outdistanced Liberal Allan Thompson 24,971 to 22,196 with 238 of 246 polls reporting early Tuesday morning. That worked out to a 44.8 per cent share of the votes to Thompson's 39.8. "Obviously, (it's) bitter- sweet because it's sad to see prime minister leave govern- ment," Lobb said on Mon- day. "I'm very thankful I was re-elected." NDP candidate Gerard Creces was third with 7,231 votes while the Green Party's Jutta Splettstoesser was fourth with 1,357. Lobb spent election night in the Candle Light Restau- rant, a spot where he's been through a number of ups and downs. He first ran for federal office in 2006, losing to Lib- eral Paul Steckle in a tight race. He rebounded to take the riding two years later and again in 2011 where he claimed 54 per cent of the votes. "You always want to leave something better than you found it ... we have a really strong economy in Huron - Bruce," Lobb said. "About two years ago my spider sense told me we were in a big fight. I believe in the Conservative Party (plan to) lower taxes, expand trade, (be) tough on crime, and (stand) up for Canada:' Thompson's supporters gathered at Kincardine's Ainsdale Golf Course, cautiously waiting what was thought would be a close result. So close that he had just one speech ready for Monday night regardless of the outcome. "I feel very strongly, that the people of Huron -Bruce have spoken, and so has Canada," Thompson said to applause. "A Liberal majority government. I think that's something we should all be celebrating. It's a watershed in Canada's political culture. Justin Trudeau has demon- strated that the nice guy can finish first. The Glammis native is a veteran political journalist who worked as a reporter at the Toronto Star and fol- lowed Prime Minister Jean Chretien on the campaign trail. He was a journalism pro- fessor at Carleton University before he took a leave of absence to run for office. "That is a huge change on the Canadian political scene," Thompson said."They said this riding was unwinnable. I'm not convinced they're right. Ben Lobb won tonight. Ben deserved a victory accord- ing to the polls, and the final polls and according to the results and we have to respect that. It's very impor- tant that everyone walks away celebrating a remark- able victory for Justin Trudeau and the Liberals." The NDP's Creces was hoping that voters would do more than just talk about making a change, at least locally. "A lot of people really do believe that we need change or something different," said Creces. "There were two camps -- the anyone but Harpers and the ones who wanted something different but they did not want to vote for Trudeau:' But strategic voting never really materialized in Huron - Bruce as Lobb returned to office rather easily. Creces said he's not a fan of voting against a candidate rather than for someone. "This whole concept of strategic voting is getting people involved in politics for the wrong reasons," aid Creces. "You're not standing up for what you believe in, you're just expressly stating what you don't like. There's got to be more to it than that. I think with strategic voting people are compromising their stances just because they don't like somebody instead of standing up for what they do like." The Green Party's Spletts- toesser was hoping for a solid showing but she knows that raising her party's pro- file in Huron Bruce is a long- term proposition. "A lot of people still had an understanding of the Green Party that it's all about the environment," Splettstoesser said. "In this election, people really appreciated to see that the Green Party actually addressed the economy in a different way (than the other parties). I found a lot of peo- ple prescribed to that that themselves and they see that the environment and the economy are connected:' And she tried to spread that message as widely throughout the riding as possible. "I tried to be in every com- munity and not forget our Shaun Gregory A head to head political battle ends with a hand shake at the Candle Light Restaurant in Goderich. Ben Lobb Huron -Bruce Conservative MP (left) shakes hands with Liberal Allan Thompson. Ben Lobb said a speech after his win at the Candle Light Restaurant in Goderich October 19. smallest communities," said Splettsoesser who even visit- ing Whitechurch near Luc - know on a Saturday morning during the campaign. "People were super sur- prised and they told me that they'd never seen a candi- date (in their community). There were quite a few communities that were forgotten by the other major candidates:' With Files from Troy Pat- terson, Shaun Gregory