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HomeMy WebLinkAboutThe Huron Expositor, 1970-10-22, Page 18Ifour kids don't take drugs, then how come there's such a serious drug problem? A lot of good kids are using drugs. Our kids, Nice kids. And they're taking lots of them. They sniff them. They smoke them. They shoot them with needles into veins. They swallow them. They get_ so they can't live without them. They i!el hurt. .Pushers get rich. And the kids'? They 'die. Or maybe even worse. they-damage themselves forever. What do vou know aboul drugs? Do you know what speed is'? What it can do'? What LSD is'? How' it reacts? Do you know what amphetamines are'? Heroin'? Cocaine? Mescaline? HashkIVDMT'? Do you know what a -head- is'! A A "Drop"? Or "Acid"? Well. on should know . All of us had better Lind out and we'd better find out fast. just what we're doing. And no one is immune because drug abuse is happening everywhere. We're trying to help. We've put all the drug facts we can think of in easy-to-read pamphlets. And we've put the booklets in almost ever .y drugstore in this Province so all you have to do is pick them up, Y6u don't have to buy anything. You don't even have to ask for them, Just pick up the pamphlets and read them until you start to understand smite of the things that are going on, ' Then start looking around you, Seriously. Look for kids whose eyes look like they're s'ornewhere else. They probably are. Look for kids who are borrowing more mbney than is usual. Keep on looking and looking and looking. And listen. Listen to what the kids have to say. Why they are saying it. Then start doing something. &Calm., that's what ,this whole thing is about. Doing something Antit serious and widespread problem. Serious because this problem is self-inflicted. 'Serious because somewhere something is very wrong when the alternative is a drug, Serious because a lot of good kids aren't so i2ood,anymore.. They're our kids, Let's help them. Not fight them. 3 Do you know what you're doing? CODA Council On Drug Abuse. This Advertisement has been made possible by the members of the Medical Staff of Seaforth Community Hospital 04— THE HURON EXPOSITOR SEAFORTH, ONT OCT 22 1970 History Tieci With Huron Politics McMillan • 0 a 4 Er by W. E. ELLIOTT A Scottish immigrant stood on the bank of the Ottawa River in 1843 and wondered when, if ever, he would return to Bytown. He did not dream of going back as a Member of Parliament. The seat of government, after two years in Kingston, had' just been transferred to Montreal, and Ottawa - so named in 1855 - had to await Confederation. Yet that is what happened to John McMillan, late of Kirkconnell, Dumfriesshire. When he next re- turned in Ottawa, In 1882, It was as member for South Hur- on. In that year, the riding of West Huron had been set up, and Malcolm Colin Campbell, who lived in Goderich, chose to contest the new seat. He had represented South Huron from Confederation, with 171 as his largest majority. John McMillan, chosen as his successor by South Huron Liberals, won by 507 and was successful also in the next three general elections. When he first took his seat, behind Liberal leader Edward Blake, men who had been ac- tive in Confederation were still in the House. To right of the Speaker were Rt. Hon. John A. Macdonald, prime minister; Sir Leonard Tilley, Sir Charles Tupper, Sir Hec- tor Langevin, Hon. J. J. C. Abbott, a future prime minis- ter anti other stalwarts. Mr. McMillan served under Laurier when he accepted the Liberal party leadership in 1887, and was returnedZto. support him when he attained office 1896. His tenure in the House was interrupted, however, when he resigned to permit Sir Richard Cartwright to re-enter Parlia- ment. Finance minister in the Mackenzie administration, Sir Richard had been defeated in his home riding of Lennox and Add- ington, had received the hospit- ality of Ceptre Huron for one Parliament and then, in 1883, was given an acclamation in South Huron. ,John McMillan's son Thom- as represented the same con- stituency in three Parliaments -1925 to 1932 - as a Liberal,of course. The father-son sequence is by no Means unusual in Can- adian history. What John McMil- lan could not have foreseen was that his eldest son, Robert would forsake the Liberal party and in several campaigns carry a ban- ner with a strange device, once' running against his brother Tom. Son of a Liberal MP and brother of a Liberal MP, Rob- ert at one Progressive gathering demanded: "Show me anything that either of the old parties has done for the farmers in the past 25 years." In 1925, the Seaforth News, a Conservative weekly, Chortled that it was "the first time in Canadian history that brothers had run against each other , in a Dominion electiOn." John McMillan was born at Kirkconnell in 1823;in his bio- graphical sketch contributed to the Parliamentary Guide it is stated: "Family came to Canada from Dumfriesshire," but his parents were not named. Accord- ing to the' same sketch, John was "educated at the parish school," but it is known that he toiled almost incredibly long hours in a Lanarkshire mine to earn money for passage to Can-, ado. - He settled in Hullett town- ship, Huron county, probably soon after arrival, obtaining Lot 2, Concession 5, on the Canada Company's customary settlement terms, and received 'his . deed in 1855. There is a spring creek north of the present barns and house, which may have influenced choice of the lot in the first place. Mr. McMillan bought Lot 3, next west, in 18'78. In 1849 he married Janet McMichael, who was the mother of his eight children, and in 1868 married Mrs. Jameson. When he died in 1901, aged 77, only one daughter and two sons survived: Grace, Mrs. Eli Bateman; Robert, then 43, and Thomas, 3'7. In 1889 Mr. McMillan sold the homestead, Holm Farm, to Tom, and Lot 3 to Bob. As in the Scripture parable, he "div- ided unto them his living," and one son later "took his journey into a far country," politically. Robert left his farm at the age of 40 apd took employment with the UFO Co-Operative in Sea- forth which he represented in bulk buying and selling transac- tions. This was purely a com- mercial operation, but Robert ev- idently became actively interest- ed in the UFO political arm. It has been said that John McMillan. was an atheist, ready to "take on" any clergyman who wished to debate. In the Par- liamentary Guide sketch he did not state church connection, but at the time it evidently was not general practice to do so. On the other hand, it was cus- tomary to insert some brief de- claration of policy, and John announced ( in 1883) his belief that "a revenue tariff is nec- essary." but that he was opposed to the National Policy. His son Tom was a Presbyterian, he told me, and that information ap-' peered in his Guide biography. The family attended the Pres- byterian church in Seaforth, and sled' the one hi EgtriOndeille,noW United. 'the grandfather evidently todk the platform occasionally . for the tediperance Cringe. AC. &stint* id tut item in five ilitrOn Zittitielhir iii 1111.00 , &Art McMillan MP Is expected to ad- dress the Gospel Temperance meeting in the Temperance Hall on Sabbath afternoon next." Thomas McMillan married Mary W. McLean, of Tucker- smith, in 1891, and probably built the big brick house on Holm Farm the previous year. A frame kitchen at the back was part of John McMillan's house, which had a living room, dining room, and a ladder to the upper floor with Its four bedrooms. The 12-pane windows in the re- maining part authenticate its age. There was a partial basement reached by a trarkloor. Today, Holm Farm is the home of Margaret B. Whyte, daughter of Tom McMillan, who in 1934 married William Lyall (Nick ) Whyte. Mr. Whyte, an Ontario Agricultural College graduate, assumed direction of the McMillan farms and carried on an extensive operation. He participated in many community enterprises, served as president of Huron Federation of Agricul- ture, president of Huron Flying Training School and was chair- man of several Victory Loan campaigns. In recognition of his wartime services he was made a Member of the Order of the British Empire. An active Lib- eral, he served as president of Huron Liberal Association and at one time as a member of the provincial executive. It would have been an interesting se- quence of events, in the McMil- lan tradition, had he become a candidate for Parliament, but it would have been very difficult in view of his business respon- sibilities. He died in 1969 at 61. Operation of the four farms is carried on by Mrs. Whyte and three sons, Thomas, Wilfrid L. Jr., and Bill. John works with Maple Leaf Mills and lives in Oshawa; Mary Jane is Mrs. Frank Van der Molen, living in Oakville, and Margaret McMillan Whyte is a student at the University of Guelph, where her great-grand- father, John McMillan, was on the advisory board (of the OAC) in 1880. All the children attended the OAC and University of Guelph in the course of their academic careers. The house on Lot 3 was built by Robert McMillan, probably in 1891. It is of white brick, with slate roof, of a style simi- lar to that on Lot 2. After Rob- ert retired, his father bought -tile farm and various persons helping on the farm lived in the house until John married and lived there with his family, but he died only three years later, at the age of 29. After that, the land was conveyed to William, then 27, but tragedy struck again; William was found dead in bed in 1931 at the age of 36. Just a year later, their father was crushed by a colt and died June 7th. Thomas McMillan had been MP for Soutlf Huron since 1925. The London Advertiser in an editorial, said: "The House of Commons will miss him deer) 1 3', and the. Liberal party has been deprived of one of its most use- ful, respected and beloved parlia- mentarians. The agricultural community loses an eloquent and zealous champion." When this writer, in the House of Commons Press Gallery in 1926, was preparing biographi- cal sketches of new members from Western Ontario, for the Free Press, Toth McMillan was interviewed. He said that more than 40 years previous he and Bob had been extensive import- ers of Clydesdale horses, and that the brothers had also en- gaged in the export of cattle. Mr. McMillan told me that at the age of 15 he was per- suaded to, Join a debating club, a.nd for 10 winters took part in its activities. The Farmer's Ad- vocate offered a prize for the best 'essay op farm topics, and F, W. Hodgson, then on the Ad- vocate staff, upon becoming' sup- erintendent of farmers' institutes remembered his essay and In- vited him to go on the road lecturing. From time 'to time in the next 15 years he addressed the institutes on a great variety of topics with the advantage of practical experience in Hullett. From 1902 to 1908 he was reeve of the township, as his father had been, and likewise served on a number of commissions. As re- sult of a farm accident, he lost an arm, and had to have a spe- cial fitting in his car. Tom McMillan's first contest came in 1917, when he accepted the Liberal nomination in South Huron and lost the wartime elec- tion to J. J. Merner, running as a Government (Unionist) candi- date. Bob by this time was a United Farmers speaker, and at an East Middlesex provincial convention told the gathering that "the farmers are organizing to obtain equity, justice and fair play, something they have never got in the past, living as they did upon the promises of politicians of both parties, promises they had never kept." Merrier, a Zurich business- man, lost support of many vot- ers of German origin in the 1917 election. In 1921, a bad year for the Tories anyway, he ran third, and Tom MeMillan second, by only 44 votes, to William Black, Progressive. Black went to Ottawa as one Of 64 elected by that party. The total was never thereafter no big. When the 025 election was John Mc Milian called, there were a half-dozen aspirants for the Liberal nom- ination in South Huron, but the party thought Mr. McMillan well entitled to another chance. He told the convention that "many of our Progressive friends" had promised him their support if he were chosen. Among these was not his brother, Rob- ert, who caught the mantle thrown to him by Mr. Black. Agnes Macphall, MP for Southeast Grey, of whom Bob was said to be a great admirer, came to Hensall to speak for him. With Merner again the Tory candidate, the electors went to the polls on October 28, and this time Toni McMillan was ahead of Merrier by 254 votes. Bob ran last and lost his deposit. It was Mackenzie King's idea at the time that three-cornered contests were dangerous to the Liberal cause. At Exeter on Lab- or Day, for example: ''To those Progressives who would seek to bring about three-cornered con- tests I would say, remember what happened to Mr. Drury's government in Ontario. If Pro- gressives should follow this in any number in our province I should see the sinister hand of Toryism at work." In the 1926 election (Robb budget, constitutional issue and customs scandal) the Progres- sive party in South Huron did stay out. Andrew Hicks of Cen- tralia, former UFO member, was the Conservative candidate and Tom McMillan's majority went up to 1,153. In this year, Robert McMillan sought the Progressive nomination for the legislature, but lost to W. G. Medd, of Ex- eter. Medd won the seat by 32 votes over George Elliott, Con- servative. in 1930, with R. B. Bennett as new leader, the Conserva- tives won 137 of the 245' Com- mons seats. Only 88 Liberals were elected across Canada, half of them in Quebec, but South Huron returned Tom McMillan by 349 over Nelson Trewartha, of Clinton, Conservatives' for- mer provincial member. Thomas McMillan Following the death of Mr. McMillan, South Huron Lib- erals lost no time choosing a byelection candidate, W. H. Golding, longtime mayor of Seaforth. By this time, Pro- gressive, Liberal- Progressives and United Farmers (Alberta) altogether totalled only 15 in the Houde. The Progressives at a Hansen meeting voted to enter a candidate in the byelection and voted on nine names, including that of Robert McMillan, William Black,, former MP, accepted "conditionally," but in the end did not run. McMillan, who had been on a delegation of some kind to Ottawa, said at this meet- ing: "They resented us being there. We farmers are to a large extent to blame. The manufact- urers get together and have the cream of this country." The Conservatives put up' Louis H. Rader, warden of Huron that year (1932) but Gold- ing had almost a 2,000 majority.. Then came the 1935 election, with the handwriting on the wall for the Bennett government. Golding was opposed (in Huron- Perth) by Frank Donnelly, Con- servative, later a judge of the Ontario Supreme Court, and by Robert McMillan, running as one of Hon. H. H. Stevens' Recon- struction candidates. Golding's Majority was an unprecedented 3,255. The new party elected only one candidate in the whole of Canada, and it was not Bob McMillan, who again lost his deposit. In Seaforth, he lived in the house formerly owned by B. B. Gunn, who represented South Huron from 1904 to 1908 as a Conservative. He never married; had housekeepers, Miss McIn- tyre, when on the farm, and in Seaforth, Mrs. Netta Mae Col- bert. He died there on May 8, 1948, in his 91st year. His small estate, after a half -dozen personal bequests, was left to Mrs. Colbert, "in recognition of her services in caring for me during my declining years." 4 A .