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HomeMy WebLinkAboutThe Citizen, 2015-10-29, Page 4PAGE 4. THE CITIZEN, THURSDAY, OCTOBER 29, 2015. Editorials Opinions Publisher: Keith Roulston Editor: Shawn Loughlin • Reporter: Denny Scott Advertising Sales: Lori Patterson The Citizen P.O. Box 429, BLYTH, Ont. N0M 1H0 Ph. 519-523-4792 Fax 519-523-9140 P.O. Box 152, BRUSSELS, Ont. N0G 1H0 Phone 519-887-9114 E-mail info@northhuron.on.ca Website www.northhuron.on.ca Looking Back Through the Years CCNA Member Member of the Ontario Press Council The Citizen is published 50 times a year in Brussels, Ontario by North Huron Publishing Company Inc. Subscriptions are payable in advance at a rate of $36.00/year ($34.29 + $1.71 G.S.T.) in Canada; $160.00/year in U.S.A. and $205/year in other foreign countries. Advertising is accepted on the condition that in the event of a typographical error, only that portion of the advertisement will be credited. Advertising Deadlines: Mon. 2 p.m. - Brussels; Mon. 4 p.m. - Blyth. PUBLICATIONS MAIL AGREEMENT NO. 40050141 RETURN UNDELIVERABLE CANADIAN ADDRESSES TO CIRCULATION DEPT. PO BOX 152 BRUSSELS ON N0G 1H0 email: info@northhuron.on.ca October 31, 1979 A family of refugees from Laos had settled into their new home on County Road 19 between Ethel and Molesworth after being sponsored by the Sacred Heart Roman Catholic Parish in Wingham, as well as the St. Ambrose Parish in Brussels. The family had spent over two years in a refugee camp before making their way to Canada. They left the country because they didn’t like its communist government, escaping by boat. A number of locals, including Ken Innes of Brussels, Tom Leeming and Jim Papple, both of Seaforth, and Brian McGavin of Walton were all awarded at the Huron Plowmen’s Association’s annual gala dinner. The Brussels Leo Club raised $1,000 for their tennis court fund after a successful dance-a-thon. This brought the grand total of the club’s fundraising efforts for the tennis courts to over $5,000. October 31, 1990 With the implementation of the new Goods and Services Tax (GST) many residents were quoted as saying they weren’t in favour of it. In fact, Doug Evans of Evans Hardware in Ethel said he was going to close his store, saying the GST was too much for him to bear. “It’s quite simply going to be a nuisance and I’m not going to put up with the hassle,” Evans said in an interview with The Citizen. Evans pledged to keep working, even though the store would be closed. The Blyth Festival approved the new library branch plan in principle as a special meeting held by the Blyth Centre for the Arts’ Board of Directors. The plan would see the Blyth branch of the Huron County Library have a new branch in the north wing of Memorial Hall. October 31, 2001 Improved communication was the motivation behind the creation of a new police advisory committee in Central Huron. Reeve Carol Mitchell said the municipality had been without a police contract since it was cancelled the previous Dec. 31 after amalgamation brought three former townships together under the Central Huron umbrella. Under the municipality’s level of policing, there would be no officers dedicated to serving in Central Huron. Instead, they would have to be dispatched to the area on a call from the Hwy. 21 office, just south of Goderich. A vote to progress towards further school closures under the Avon Maitland District School Board was delayed by one week due to time limitations and the lack of a full trustee support for extending a meeting past the deadline of 11 p.m. The Blyth Skating Club’s annual skate-a-thon raised over $2,100 for the organization. The success was thanks to the hard work of volunteers and the generosity of sponsors. October 30, 2014 Many members of the Blyth community and supporters of the Blyth Festival were shocked to find out that the contract of Artistic Director Marion de Vries would not be renewed. The Blyth Centre for the Arts made the announcement, saying that de Vries’ contract ended on Oct. 31 and that she would not be asked back. A statement on behalf of the Board of Directors stated that the search for the Festival’s next Artistic Director would begin immediately. In the same press release, de Vries said that she truly appreciated the talented individuals with whom she was able to work and that she was pleased to have been involved with the Festival in its 40th anniversary season. Voter turnout was the highest it had been in recent memory in some wards as municipal election results rolled in. Reeve Neil Vincent returned in North Huron with 998 votes, narrowly defeating challenger Bernie Bailey, who was nipping at Vincent’s heals with 869 votes. In Blyth, incumbent councillors Bill Knott and Brock Vodden were re-elected, while the same was true in East Wawanosh, where Councillors James Campbell and Ray Hallahan were welcomed back. In Morris-Turnberry, Paul Gowing was elected back for a second term as mayor. Dorothy Kelly, the municipality’s former mayor, was elected as a councillor, as was Jim Nelemans, the former deputy-mayor under Kelly. In Central Huron, both Mayor Jim Ginn and Deputy-Mayor Dave Jewitt were acclaimed to a second term, while all five incumbent councillors who ran again were welcomed back. Newcomer Genny Smith made her way to the table, filling the void left by Brian Barnim, who opted not to run again. The Townsend family was honoured by the Huron Federation of Agriculture for their outstanding contribution to the world of agriculture. The Townsends were honoured at the federation’s annual meeting. We acknowledge the financial support of the Government of Canada through the Canada Periodical Fund of the Department of Canadian Heritage. We are not responsible for unsolicited newsscripts or photographs. Contents of The Citizen are © Copyright Where does it end? Ontario’s nurses have joined Ontario’s doctors, public elementary school teachers and unionized school support staff in condemning the Ontario government for endangering the health of patients and the future of students through their cheapness. Their complaints are for the public good, not about their own paycheques, of course. It’s easy to side with the teachers, school staff, doctors or nurses who we know personally against the big, bad, faceless government. We simply want our kids to have teachers to supervise their extra curricular activities and our family members (or ourselves) to have the highest standard of care in hospital or a doctor’s office. Yet the province has hardly been cheap in either education or health care. Between 2001 and 2011 education spending increased an average of 4.6 per cent per year, despite declining enrolment. Meanwhile health care spending increased seven per cent per year from 2001-2010. Health care makes up 41 per cent of provincial spending in Ontario. Health care and education, besides making up the two largest expenses in the province’s budget, have one more thing in common: the major expense in each is staff salaries. Despite those years of major year- over-year spending increases, both the education and health care systems always complained they needed more money. Obviously if the government is to balance the budget as most Ontario taxpayers demand, they must curtail wage and salary costs. Either people working in those systems must take less or ther must be fewer of them. It’s no fun having to deal with difficult economic realities. Probably provincial politicians would love to have more teachers, nurses and doctors and keep them happy by paying them more. Instead they have to decide if they’d rather be the bad guys to public service employees or the taxpayers. — KR A story to celebrate Elections reveal inspiring stories and the victory of Maryam Monsef for the Liberals in the riding of Peterborough-Kawartha last week is a reaffirmation of what Canada stands for. Monsef is the first woman and, at age 30, the youngest-ever MP elected in her riding. But the story goes back further. She was 11 years old when she arrived from Afghanistan with her widowed mother in 1996, fleeing the Taliban regime. For the first while, she said in a CBC radio interview last week, she was miserable and wanted to go home. But the people of the community rallied, helping the family shop and deal with the language problems. Soon, Monsef said, she realized that she had “won the lottery” by being allowed to come to Canada. She was determined to give back to her new home. She ran for mayor of Peterborough last year and finished a close second. In last week’s federal election the count wasn’t even close. The country takes a chance on a refugee family and the grateful family works to give back to their country. This is the kind of Canadian story we need to celebrate. – KR What are they thinking? For the most part voters in last week’s Canadian federal election rejected outrageous ploys like a promise to start a snitch line to report people engaging in “barbaric customs” but such common sense seems to have fled in the presidential campaign south of the border. It would be good to think that the silly season in the battle for the U.S. Republican nomination was over on hearing another candidate has closed the gap on Donald Trump – except the man gaining on him seems just as idiotic – even if he is a brain surgeon. Ben Carson has actually gained popularity after saying things like no Muslim should be allowed to be President, suggesting the Holocaust wouldn’t have happened if more people had carried guns in Nazi Germany and that if he’d been involved in that mass shooting at an Oregon university he wouldn’t have “stood around” and got shot. Here’s hoping democracy will work eventually in the U.S. and that the nutbars will fall by the wayside before the vote actually takes place a year from now. Still, that people like Trump and Carson can get attention even in the short-term is discouraging. – KR & Letters Policy The Citizen welcomes letters to the editor. Letters must be signed and should include a daytime telephone number for the purpose of verification only. Letters that are not signed will not be printed. Submissions may be edited for length, clarity and content, using fair comment as our guideline. The Citizen reserves the right to refuse any letter on the basis of unfair bias, prejudice or inaccurate information. As well, letters can only be printed as space allows. Please keep your letters brief and concise.