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HomeMy WebLinkAboutThe Citizen, 2012-08-02, Page 4PAGE 4. THE CITIZEN, THURSDAY, AUGUST 2, 2012.Editorials Opinions Publisher: Keith Roulston Acting Editor: Shawn Loughlin • Reporter: Denny ScottAdvertising Sales: Ken Warwick & Lori Patterson The CitizenP.O. Box 429, BLYTH, Ont. N0M 1H0 Phone 523-4792 FAX 523-9140 P.O. Box 152, BRUSSELS, Ont. N0G 1H0 Phone 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; $115.00/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: Monday, 2 p.m. - Brussels; Monday, 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 August 5, 1987 Ken Anderson of RR1, Londesborough was named to fill the recently-vacated seat on Hullett Township Council. The seat was vacated when Councillor Harvey Stewart resigned in mid-July. Anderson beat out three other candidates for the position, Hugh Flynn, Don Greidanus, both of RR1, Londesborough and John Flynn of RR1, Clinton. Anderson had served on the Seaforth Arena Board, but had never been interested in a council position. However, he said he felt he could help council with the problems it had been facing. “After hearing about some of the problems [council] has been having recently, it just came to me that maybe there is something I could do,” he said. He added that he had “lots of confidence” in himself taking the position. On Sept. 10, North Huron residents would have a new MPP, regardless of the outcome of the election, due to redistribution. After the restructuring, Huron County residents would now just have one MPP, where the county had been split between the north and south earlier. Murray Elston, a Morris Township native living in Wingham, had represented the northern part of Huron County as a MPP for Huron- Bruce and Ontario Health Minister, but he had decided that he would move to the riding of Bruce for the Liberals. August 10, 1994 Young soccer players in Blyth would soon have a field to call their own, whereas they had previously had to travel to Belgrave to play home games. A group of four local service groups, spearheaded by the Blyth Lions Club, began working in co- operation with the Huron Pioneer Thresher and Hobby Association to create a field for local players. “There are more children registering for soccer than for baseball or hockey. They need a field in town,” said project co-ordinator and Lions Club member John Stewart. Two Belgrave-area children were hospitalized with E.coli food poisoning according to the Huron County Health Unit. After being sent to London for treatment, the children were back at home recovering while the source of their illness was still under investigation. Chris and Judy Lee were pictured preparing their Walton-area property for the fourth annual Walton TransCan. The couple’s sons Matt and Jeremy were busy digging post holes for fencing and building pedestrian bridges for the many spectators expected at the event. The Brussels Tigers wrapped up their Huron County Fastball League season with a 10-3 win over the Zurich Rangers. August 2, 2007 Hundreds of firefighters were making their way to Blyth for the 106th annual Fire Fighters Association of Ontario convention on the weekend. It would be the third time the event had been held in Blyth, having been held in the village in 2001 and 2004. Blyth Fire Chief Paul Josling said between 400 and 500 firefighters, along with their families, were expected to be in Blyth for the weekend. Brussels’ 135th anniversary was celebrated with a Homecoming weekend that was said to be very successful. Thousands of people made their way to the village with 900 people feasting on a Saturday night beef barbecue and 800 people taking in the breakfast cooked and served by members of the Brussels Fire Department. Police all over the province were searching for 22-year-old Jesse Imeson who had been charged with killing three people, two of them from Mount Carmel. Police found the truck he was believed to have been driving, a 2006 silver GMC Sierra between Pembroke and Ottawa. The vehicle was said to have been stolen from Stephen Township on the same night Helene and William Regier of Mount Carmel were found shot to death. July 28, 2011 A by-election was called for the Brussels Ward of Huron East after the sudden resignation of Councillor Joe Seili. Because of the amount of time left in the term (just over three years at the time of the by-election), councillors felt holding an election was the only fair way to find a new representative. Huron County was being split due to a lawsuit launched by Ashfield- Colborne-Wawanosh, Bluewater, Goderich, Howick and Morris- Turnberry, forcing Huron East, Central Huron, South Huron and North Huron, as well as Huron County, to defend themselves in court over the issue of Huron County Council composition. “We can’t just do nothing and hope it goes away,” Huron East Councillor Bill Siemon told the rest of Huron East Council. The Kitchener Selects won the 40th annual Brussels Tigers Fastball Tournament, defeating Harwood by a score of 6-4 in the AA final. The Walton Brewers lost to Harwood in the AA semi-final, ending their shot at repeating as tournament champions. 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 Well done! All reports say the Brussels Homecoming, celebrating the village’s 140th anniversary, was a roaring success. That the community really got behind the party is demonstrated by the parade which lasted two hours. It takes a lot of planning, building of floats and preparation of costumes to have enough entries for a two-hour parade. A high participation rate in other events shows, equally, that people really got into the spirit of Homecoming. All of which is the best reward possible for the many volunteers who have devoted long hours into planning Homecoming. With their leadership and hard work, these citizens have given a wonderful gift to their community. Brussels has suffered some knocks lately, particularly with the closing of the public school. But a community can’t be knocked down if it won’t let itself be defeated. The success of Homecoming shows Brussels still demonstrates the spirit that has gotten it through good times and bad for 140 years. Well done everyone! — KR Why didn’t our votes matter? Rural taxpayers in Ontario can be doubly angered by the Liberal government’s decision, in the middle of last fall’s election campaign, to cancel a gas-fired electrical generation plant in Mississauga. It’s bad enough that taxpayers here will have to pick up their share of the $190 million cost of cancelling and relocating the plant. The more insulting side of the cancellation is that Premier Dalton McGuinty made the decision to help save Liberal ridings in Mississauga and Oakville, but wrote off Liberal ridings in Huron, Bruce, Perth and Lambton Counties and elsewhere in the province because of unwillingness to listen to local concerns about wind-farm developments. With the seats of cabinet members like Carol Mitchell and John Wilkinson on the line, the Premier didn’t even bother to visit these ridings during the election campaign. For rural residents, the symbolism of spending big money to save urban seats while writing off rural ridings is just too evident. Certainly the money itself is a waste but no matter which party had formed the government that money was going to be wasted. Despite attacking the government now, both the Progressive Conservative and NDP parties had also promised to cancel the Mississauga plant in the hope they could take advantage of local discontent to win those ridings. The real issue from the standpoint of rural voters is that the Premier didn’t care as much about rural voters as he did urban ones. It’s a perception that will not only hurt the current government, but could dog the Liberal Party for years, if not generations. — KR Is this a deal we want? A strange thing about human beings is that we can convince ourselves that black is white when we want to. Take the proposed sale of Canadian energy giant Nexen Inc. to China National Offshore Oil Corp. for $15.1 billion, pending Canadian government approval under the Investment Canada Act. Canadians in general might want the federal government to block the sale of yet another Canadian energy company but the Calgary oil industry seems all in favour. The most free market of free-market capitalists, the oilmen support this deal to a company that is owned by an autocratic communist government. These are the same people, remember who were horrified when Pierre Trudeau created Petro-Canada owned by the Canadian government. But oilmen see themselves as having more oil than they know what to do with and their problem is finding buyers. They see it in their best interest now to sell as much of their oil and oil infrastructure to China, the world’s fastest-growing economy, as possible. For the federal government the problem is seeing into the future and a time when Canada might need that oil itself. Countries have gone to war to protect oil security in the past. Would we ever want to be in the position of trying to tell a huge country like China that we didn’t want to export oil anymore because we needed it ourselves, especially if they own the oil company? — 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.