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HomeMy WebLinkAboutThe Citizen, 2013-10-17, Page 4PAGE 4. THE CITIZEN, THURSDAY, OCTOBER 17, 2013.Editorials Opinions Publisher: Keith Roulston Acting Editor: Shawn Loughlin • Reporter: Denny Scott Advertising Sales: Lori Patterson & Sue Brindley The CitizenP.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 October 19, 1988 The Progressive Conservatives of Huron-Bruce nominated Ethel-area cash crop farmer Murray Cardiff as its candidate in the upcoming federal election. In the election, Cardiff would be seeking his fourth term in Ottawa, but faced a new challenge as he hoped to represent the newly-formed Huron-Bruce riding, as opposed to the previous Huron riding. Ken Dunlop, mayor of Port Elgin, was named the Liberal Party’s candidate for the upcoming election. Lisa Boonstoppel of RR1, Auburn was named 1988/1989 Huron County Dairy Princess at the Huron County Milk Committee’s annual competition, which was held at the Howick Community Centre. Chris Palmer, an East Wawanosh farmer, was acclaimed as the president of the Huron County Federation of Agriculture at the organization’s annual meeting, which was held in Blyth. Seven hopefuls were vying for Brussels Council seats in the upcoming municipal election. Barry Engel, Dave Hastings, Bruce Hahn, Gertie Kellington, Ruth Sauve, Mary Stretton and Greg Wilson were all running for the positions. Henry Exel and Gerry Wheeler were acclaimed to the two positions on the Public Utilities Commission. Auburn’s Knox United Church helds its annual anniversary service and welcomed the Seaforth Harmony Kings as the service’s entertainment. October 18, 2000 A home care nursing business based in Belgrave made Chatelaine magazine’s list of the top 100 businesses owned by a woman. CarePartners, and its over $6.3 million in total company revenue for 1999, placed 57th on the list. Owner Linda Knight employed 150 full-time and 350 part-time staff members through her business and said that making the list would be great public relations going forward. The business began in 1983 when Knight employed three nurses to cover patients in Wingham and Clinton and ran the business from her home. She would expand to include 12 nurses by the end of the year. The business continued to grow through the 1980s as it expanded into Perth, Grey and Bruce Counties. As North Huron residents prepared to head to the polls on Nov. 13, they were going to have some decisions to make. In the East Wawanosh ward, incumbent councillors James Campbell, Judith Gaunt and Murray Scott would be jockeying for just two councillor seats, while in Blyth, voters would have to choose two out of a potential three candidates. Blyth Reeve Mason Bailey decided to run for a Blyth seat, and was facing off against Councillors Jeff Howson and Murray Nesbitt. Wingham Councillors Doug Layton and Bruce Machan were both running for the municipality’s reeve position. October 19, 2006 Dave Mounsey, a well-respected Huron County OPP officer who called Blyth home, was involved in a serious one-vehicle collision. Responding to a transport truck rollover, Mounsey’s cruiser left the road on Brussels Line, just north of Browntown Road, and struck a hydro pole. The crash left Mounsey in serious condition at a London hospital after he was airlifted from the scene of the crash. Becky Rapson of Brussels spoke to a group of people collected in Brussels as part of the Millenium Campaign’s Stand Up event. People were encouraged to “stand up” against poverty and wear a white band on Oct. 17, the International Day of Poverty Eradication. Blyth Festival Artistic Director Eric Coates led the Huron County Historical Society on a tour of Blyth’s Memorial Hall. As part of the tour, Coates provided a “dramatic” history of the building for the group. October 18, 2012 Charging stations for electric cars were installed across Huron County as part of the Sun Country Highway initiative that was touring across the country with hopes of installing charging stations from coast to coast. Stations were installed at The Old Mill in Blyth and McGavin Farm Equipment in Walton. Four vehicles that had previously been used by high-ranking Huron County employees were up for debate by Huron County Council. After council cleaned house, dismissing three employees and accepting the resignation of a fourth, their county-issued vehicles had been sitting in Wingham for weeks, which concerned several councillors. Council passed a motion that county staff prepare a report listing council’s options for the vehicles “from using them, to selling them and everything in between” Councillor Paul Klopp instructed. Central Huron Council decided that it would proceed with its appeal of the Huron County Official Plan and would assign the job to a yet-to- be-hired independent planner. “I don’t want the public left feeling they’re on the outside looking in,” said Councillor Burkhard Metzger. 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 At the centre of the universe Huron County found itself at the centre of the literary universe last week when local author Alice Munro was announced at the 2013 winner of the Nobel Prize in Literature, a rare distinction given to the world’s greatest writers for their lifetime of work. Often when a person with local ties does something outstanding – say Paul Henderson’s famous goal in the 1972 Canada-Russia summit series – the connection to his or her home community is somewhat tenuous. There are “I knew him/her when” boasting rights but the individual has gone on to build their career and fame elsewhere. Munro is different. There’s the fact, of course, that the Wingham native came home to Huron more than two decades ago when she married Clinton native Gerald Fremlin and they returned to his home town. Much of the literary output that earned her the Nobel Prize was written in their Clinton home. But the ties to Huron County go much deeper than merely the geography of where she makes her home or where she was born. Her family’s long Huron ties (her father was Robert Laidlaw, born near Blyth, and her mother, Anne Chamney), and the type of people she remembered from growing up in Wingham and the people she later lived among made up the raw material for her stories. In fact, for Munro fans around the world, this area has become known as “Munro country” and people come to see what it is that influenced her to write the stories she did. A couple of years ago a crew making a documentary on Munro for German radio spent several days in the area interviewing people. Of course it is the genius of a great writer like Munro that it isn’t easy to see the threads that make up the tapestry of her stories during a quick trip to Huron County. She saw the same things that we see in a very different way, putting our “ordinary” lives under the microscope and seeing the extraordinary that made her stories famous around the world. Her intense vision isn’t always appreciated in her own county. There was a good deal of resentment in Wingham early in her career because her view of the world she grew up in – the view that was presented in wider society – was not the way local people thought of their community. People felt their town was demeaned by her stories. That changed, of course, as her fame grew and the older generation passed on that had so much invested in the time when she was part of Wingham. Today Wingham is proud of its native daughter, building a park in her honour and organizing a literary festival and mapping out tours. Still, Munro is not widely read among county residents. For one thing, her work isn’t easy reading. It’s based on deeply internal emotions of characters, with little plot. For another, the people she has made remarkable for the world, to us are just our neighbours. But we are in Munro and she is in us and though it is the genius of Munro’s way of seeing and expressing things that brought her this greatest of all literary awards, there’s a bit of Huron County and its people that will stand on the podium in Stockholm when she receives her prize. –KR When democracy works As this is written early Tuesday morning, there is hope that by the time your read it on Thursday, there will be a solution, at least for the short term, to the standoff in the U.S. Congress that endangered the world economy if feuding politicians failed to extend their nation’s borrowing limit. The change of heart, that strengthened the backbone of more moderate Republican politicians to stand up to the stubborn, reckless Tea Party faction of their own party, seemed to come after they read the polls. They had tried to put the blame on President Barack Obama for refusing to back down from his health care reform bill but the American people weren’t buying the argument. Polls showed voters were blaming the Republicans and suggested Republicans might pay a heavy price at the next election. Given that, they were ready to be moderate. Democracy can be messy but once again the voice of the people seems to have brought reason to the unreasonable. –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.