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HomeMy WebLinkAboutThe Citizen, 2013-05-23, Page 4PAGE 4. THE CITIZEN, THURSDAY, MAY 23, 2013.Editorials Opinions Publisher: Keith RoulstonAssociate Publisher & Director of Sales: Ron Drillen Acting 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; $130.00/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 May 25, 1961 Brussels United Church was set to hold its annual flower service on Sunday, May 28. The theme of the service was “God of the Universe” and the guest speaker was scheduled to be Rev. A.I. Lavender D.D. of Mount Forest. Danny Kaye starred in The Five Pennies at the Capitol Theatre in Listowel, showing on May 26-27 and Henry Fonda took to the screen in The Tin Star as part of the double feature. May 25, 1988 Canadian National applied to abandon the Brussels line once again. The hearing was set for June 2 in Wingham and it would give users a chance to argue against the abandonment of the line. Blyth Public School student Tammi Medd came home from the Canada-wide Science Fair in Winnipeg with three top awards from her project on “The effects of insecticides on soil”. Tammi won the silver medal in her division, Junior Life Sciences, and overall. She also won the Brandon (Manitoba) University award for the top junior agriculture- related project as well as the Dr. Grant McEwan Nature Protection Fund Award. Branch libraries in both Molesworth and Dungannon were set for closure by the Huron County Library Board. Circulation at both branches had declined dramatically and both supervisors are past retirement. However, the branches could not be closed without consent of Grey and West Wawanosh Township Councils. In 1987 only 363 books were taken out of the Dungannon Library while 763 were taken out of the Molesworth Library. Most of the users of the two branches destined to close travel regularly to Wingham, Lucknow or Goderich for shopping and so using larger library centres would not be inconvenient. Three Brussels-area students and their Teeswater partners did well in the stock market and were to be recognized for their feat at a gala dinner. The students received $500 in prize money for placing ninth in the nation and second in the region in the Stock Market Game. The four F.E. Madill Secondary School students, Tara Parker, Don Hastings, Katrina Somers and Scott Stobo were to be presented with their cheque at a banquet at Sir Wilfred Laurier University in Waterloo on May 27. May 25, 2006 Huron East Council passed a bylaw limiting all outdoor water use from May 1 until Oct. 31. The bylaw limited all outdoor water use to between 7 a.m to 9 a.m. and 7 p.m. to 9 p.m. every other day. Helena McShane of Blyth returned on May 18 from a two- week trip in Zambia, during which she visited the Kondwa Preschool Centre for Orphans and Vulnerable Children. Her husband, Dr. Maarten Bokhout had returned from the trip earlier in the week. Their eldest daughter, Jessica Bokhout was completing a placement in Zambia with CARE, part in her international Development program at the University of Toronto. Bokhout began a campaign at Christmas to raise money to support the orphanage. Over $8,000 was raised. On May 26 at the North Huron Wescast Community Complex in Wingham, over 100 girls aged 13-15 were scheduled to meet over 15 professional women from a wide spectrum of fields. The event aimed to enlighten girls to the possibilities available to them as they met and talked with each woman who acted as a career coach. May 24, 2012 Paul Dawson bet the members of the Brussels Cadets they could not fill a 15-litre jog with change. He was wrong. The reviewing officer for the Brussels Cadets told the charges that he would walk from Brussels to Walton if they filled the jog in three months, thinking they would only have it filled half way. Dawson’s walk began on May 19 at 9 a.m. at the Brussels Legion and ended in Walton, but he was not alone. When the Cadets realized he would have to walk, some of them wanted to do it as well. They started collecting money and raised between $650 and $700, $588.37 coming from the change jar that weighed nearly 115 pounds. After the May 15 performance on an episode of Canada Sings on Global, a team made up of OPP officers trying to raise money for the Dave Mounsey Memorial Fund was defeated by the WestJet team, but they did not leave the competition empty-handed. Although the team lost to WestJet, their charity was still awarded $15,000 for its trouble, a $5,000 consolation prize from the program, and a $10,000 donation from WestJet. The Dave Mounsey Memorial Fund was created after fallen OPP officer Dave Mounsey of Blyth, was killed in a single-vehicle collision while on his way to answer a call. 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 Fairness trumps local politics At least Kathleen Wynne put one fear to rest about Ontario having a premier from Toronto when she killed the idea that Toronto should get a better deal than other cities for hosting a casino in the downtown area last week. In a bid to sell the idea of a casino to councillors of cash-strapped Toronto, Paul Godfrey, chairman of the Ontario Lottery and Gaming Corporation (OLG) had proposed a sweetheart deal that would have paid Toronto $100 million a year. When they heard the offer, mayors of cities like Windsor and Niagara Falls, which are already home to casinos, demanded their agreements be reopened to provide fairness. Last Friday the province and OLG announced a new hosting fee formula which will reward cities based on a share of revenue. Toronto will be offered $53.7 million annually under this deal while Windsor will get an extra $6 million and Niagara Falls, which has two casinos, will get $15 million more. It’s unlikely Toronto will get a casino at all. Even with $100 million dangled before them, many Toronto councillors didn’t want a downtown casino. Now it’s almost sure they won’t be bribed. Former Premier Dalton McGuinty and former Treasurer Dwight Duncan had bought into Godfrey’s plan to locate 29 new casinos in larger centres across the province. No doubt they were lured by the promise of an extra $1.3 billion in revenues for the deficit-laden provincial government. Part of that plan also involved reneging on deals with racetracks that had hosted slot machine casinos. OLG and the McGuinty government played this not as a money grab, but as an end to “subsidizing” the horse racing industry. Communities like Clinton and Hanover, and the owners of race horses, knew the money was being sucked out of their communities. Other potential hosting cities have caught on too, with city after city turning down the chance to have a casino located there. They realize now that it will mean local dollars vacuumed out of their communities. Close to home, a side effect of casinos can be seen in reduced attendance at the Blyth Festival. In the days before casinos, there would often be eight or more buses parked outside Memorial Hall with tour groups from all over the province taking in a matinee performance. But casinos began offering visiting groups free bus rides and a free lunch and people looking for what they thought was a cheap day out, went along for the ride. Of course enough of those people must have lost enough money through gambling to make it worthwhile for the casinos. Gambling revenue seemed like a free lunch to McGuinty, Duncan and other governments before them. Hopefully Wynne’s new deal and her decision to fire Godfrey as OLG head, based on philosophical differences, is a sign she realizes there’s no free lunch. –KR Is this what we’ve come to? Employing attack ads and sowing fear that electing her opponents would lead to an economic collapse, B.C. Premier Christy Clark surprised pollsters and punsters by winning re-election last week. Going into the campaign it seemed the NDP had an insurmountable lead over Clark’s Liberals, but her miraculous turnaround won her a strong majority, even if she lost her own seat. Sadly, her victory also confirmed again for political cynics that voters are easily manipulated when politicians play on their fears and step up the attack ads on their opponents. We’ve already seen the reputations of two federal Liberal Party leaders destroyed by attack ads during the last two elections and Prime Minister Harper is working hard to pull the same stunt on current leader Justin Trudeau. But it’s not just the targets of the attack ads, but democracy itself that is being damaged. In last week’s B.C. vote, only 52 per cent of eligible voters cast a ballot. Three decades ago 70 per cent voted. Tired of the viciousness and becoming cynical themselves, voters are staying home. Things will only change, however, when they decide to go out and vote and punish politicians who play dirty instead of rewarding them. –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.