The Citizen, 2012-10-04, Page 1CitizenTh
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$1.25 GST included Serving the communities of Blyth and Brussels and northern Huron County Thursday, October 4, 2012
Volume 28 No. 39
FIRE - Pg. 13Locals honoured forFire Prevention Week FESTIVAL - Pg. 27 Eric Coates bids BlythFestival farewellFALLFAIR- Pg. 10Results from the BrusselsFall Fair are listedPublications Mail Agreement No. 40050141 Return Undeliverable Items to North Huron Publishing Company Inc., P.O. Box 152, BRUSSELS, ON N0G 1H0INSIDE THIS WEEK:
Trudeau meets with
Huron supporters
Huron East discusses
potential restructuring
Another successful haul
Blyth United Church’s Rev. Gary Clark, left, and Brad Mourao were among the handful of
volunteers at the church on Saturday collecting bikes for the third incarnation of Bicycles for
Humanity Huron-Perth. Between collection points in Blyth and Stratford, 250 bikes were
collected and will soon be sent to Oshakati, Namibia. For more information, visit the
organization’s website at www.b4hhuronperth.org (Vicky Bremner photo)
Huron East Council has shelved
the discussion on council
composition for the time being,
deciding instead to re-examine the
structure and distribution of
committee positions.
Late last month Seaforth
Councillor Nathan Marshall asked
for a report on the composition of
council, saying that he had changed
his mind since the topic was last
debated in 2011. Initially he was
comfortable with the composition,
but his opinion had shifted, he said,
and he felt fewer councillors should
be sitting at the council table going
forward.
Councillor Les Falconer agreed
with Marshall, saying he felt the
issue warranted another look.
“Things change over time,” he
said. “I think it should be looked at
again.”
Falconer, who is a representative
for the Tuckersmith Ward, said he
saw the lack of representation
by population as a problem. He said
that if Brussels (population of
just over 800 electors) has two
representatives, a larger area like
Tuckersmith (over 2,200 electors)
should surely have three
In only his first week with former
Blyth Festival Artistic Director Eric
Coates gone to his new job in
Ottawa, interim Artistic Director
Peter Smith is acting on some of his
grand ideas.
A Country Carol is an adaptation
of Charles Dickens’ A Christmas
Carol prepared by Blyth’s Duncan
McGregor, who has been working
closely with Smith on the script.
Smith is hoping that the Christmas
play, set to hit the stage at the end of
November, will be the first step in
reaching out to the Blyth community
and getting them involved with the
Blyth Festival once again.
Open auditions were held at the
end of September, but Smith is
calling for all members of the
community, young and old, and of
varying skill sets to come out
and participate in the stage
production.
Rehearsals are currently being
held between 7 p.m. and 9 p.m. on
Tuesday nights and Thursday nights
and through the afternoon on one
day over the weekend, which has yet
to be determined.
So far the talent Smith has
recruited spans the sands of time
with the cast incorporating a six-
year-old as well as village historian
and North Huron Councillor Brock
Vodden.
Smith said it was important that he
reach out to someone like Vodden to
act as the dramaturge for the play.
The origin of the dramaturge
position, Smith says, was an elder
from the area who could help set the
scene for the play; a person who
could explain the culture and the
politics of the society at the time.
“I couldn’t think of anyone better
than Brock to fill that role,” Smith
said in an interview with The
Citizen.
Smith said that after he discussed
the role with Vodden, it took some
convincing, but Vodden also agreed
to act in the play. Also signed on is
local business woman Anne Elliott,
who has also made a name for
herself on the stage through the
annual Dancing with the Stars
fundraiser.
Smith’s hope is that Elliott, in
addition to acting in the play, will be
the production’s choreographer and
that she’ll be able to teach members
of the community how to dance in
preparation for the play.
Rehearsals are ongoing at the
Phillips Studio in Blyth (formerly
The Garage).
A Country Carol will hit the
Memorial Hall stage for 8 p.m.
shows on Nov. 29-30 and Dec. 6-7
and 2 p.m. shows on Dec. 1 and Dec.
8. If the demand is high, Smith says,
a final 8 p.m. show will be added on
Dec. 8 to close the production.
Smith’s strategy in developing the
show, he says, has been to say yes to
every suggestion that has been
made, which has resulted in “a lot of
fun”.
“There’s been a real educational
component to this for everyone; for
me too,” Smith says.
The play is set in the winter of
1899, the coldest on record and the
story follows EB King, a wealthy
barrister who lives alone in the
biggest house in the fictitious Huron
County town of Drummond. Smith
is still on the hunt for the perfect
person to play King.
King’s assistant is Bob Dinsley,
whose family involves a young boy
named Tiny Tim. They are a large,
poor family that lives on the other
side of the tracks. The age-old story
of A Christmas Carol is then told
through a Huron County lens.
For more information, come out to
one of the rehearsals or call Smith at
the Blyth Festival at 1-877-862-
5984 or e-mail outreach@
blythfestival.ca
After a delayed flight caused by a
scare on the tarmac, Papineau,
Quebec MP Justin Trudeau made his
way to Seaforth to talk with local
constituents about Canada’s future.
Trudeau is expected by many
analysts to make a bid for the
leadership of the Liberal Party of
Canada. If the announcement was
made, it would have been held after
press time on Tuesday, Oct. 2.
With approximately 300 tickets
sold, the Seaforth and District
Community Centre was filled with
individuals anxious to hear
Trudeau’s stance on present politics
and the future of the Liberal party.
Murray Elston, former MPP of
Huron-Bruce, introduced Trudeau
after a brief speech was made by
Huron County Warden and Huron
East Mayor Bernie MacLellan
welcoming the crowd and Trudeau.
Elston spoke on Trudeau’s
“phenomenal work” stating that he
had the “vim and vigor” that made
his father, one of Canada’s most
well-known Prime Ministers; the
late Pierre Trudeau such a successful
representative for Canada.
“[The Trudeau] family has a lot
invested in Canada as do all of our
families,” Elston said right before
welcoming Trudeau to the stage.
Trudeau, after commenting on the
number of people who apologized
for the lack of Liberal representation
in rural Ontario, said that, for the
purposes of the evening, he wasn’t
interested in being partisan.
While he could stand and
comment on the current government
and point out all the things the Prime
Minster hasn’t done right or has
done wrong, Trudeau said he wasn’t
going to and he was going to,
instead, focus on the problems that
face Canada as a whole.
“[Criticizing Prime Minister
Stephen Harper] is not the point of
what I’ve been telling people,” he
said. “Canadian politics has become
a situation where people aren’t
picking the best team, they are
picking the least worst team.
Canadians are voting against who
they don’t want in office.”
He said that facing down the
cynicism created by modern politics
has resulted in a different political
landscape than the one he would like
to see.
“As a party, Liberals can’t think
about micro-targetting for several
reasons,” he said. “The first is, we’re
just not good at it. The second is, it
doesn’t work.”
Trudeau was referring to the
practice that he claims current
political parties are involved in of
aiming to get a certain per cent of
the vote and allowing other parties to
squabble over the remaining voters
leaving no one able to stand up to
them.
“It doesn’t work for us because I,
and Liberals still have this old
fashioned idea that someone who
gets elected has to represent
everyone in the riding, not just those
who voted for us,” he said.
Harper is proof that the politics of
strategic targeting, fear and division
can work to get someone elected
according to Trudeau. He also said
that Harper is proof that those kind
of politics lead to a situation of
winners and losers and he believes
that isn’t what Canada should be
about.
“You take a country as vast and
diverse as Canada and you have to
realize that we’re strong not despite
our differences, but because of
them,” he said. “Having all those
voices; the urban voice, the rural, the
French, the English, all of them is
what has made Canada a
By Denny Scott
The Citizen
Continued on page 16
Christmas play needs actors
By Shawn Loughlin
The Citizen
By Shawn Loughlin
The Citizen
Continued on page 24