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The Citizen, 2012-11-29, Page 4PAGE 4. THE CITIZEN, THURSDAY, NOVEMBER 29, 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 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; $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 December 2, 1965 The Brussels Skating Club began its third year in late November with 57 registered skaters. Mrs. Cecil Raynard was elected as the club’s president. Mrs. S. Lowe was made the club’s secretary and Mrs. V. Grenke was made the treasurer. Florence Stratychuk and Edna Pletch were appointed to a committee that would name two mothers each week who would “look after” the skaters. Elections took place without much drama in Brussels, Grey and Morris Townships as every single position in both townships was acclaimed. In Brussels, J.C. Krauter was acclaimed as the reeve, while J.L. McCutcheon, Hank Ten Pas, L. Cousins and I. Campbell were all acclaimed as councillors. In Grey, Clifford R. Dunbar was acclaimed to the reeve’s position for the seventh consecutive term. Councillors were Kenneth Bray, Lawson Ward, Melville Demaray and Allan McTaggart. In Morris, Stewart Procter was acclaimed as reeve, while Walter Shortreed, William Elston, Ross Smith and James Mair were all acclaimed as councillors. The Brussels Horticultural Society announced that it would be holding a Christmas decorating competition for homes and businesses in the community. Three prizes would be awarded in each class, with a deadline for submission of Dec. 18. A canvass was set to be held on Dec. 6, 7, 8 to help chip into the artificial ice deficit of $3,500 at the Brussels Arena. November 25, 1987 The Blyth Festival was in the early stages of planning a $1.6 million capital expansion program. The plans were announced on Nov. 20 at Memorial Hall where architect Chris Borgal showed off a model of the preliminary design for the expansion of Blyth Memorial Hall. Borgal was on hand to answer any questions and was pictured alongside the model showing Festival Artistic Director Katharine Kaszas some of the finer points of the plan. The proposal called for the purchase of the former Bank of Commerce building on Blyth’s main street. The project would build an addition to tie the building into Memorial Hall’s backstage area. An addition would also be built onto the rear of the Festival’s “garage” building onto Dinsley Street East. Borgal said that the majority of the improvements were aimed at improving working conditions for the Festival staff and to “make going to the theatre more comfortable for patrons”. The newly-designed building would include a new art gallery, a box office, facilities to accommodate the handicapped and new washrooms. Huron County officials decided to join alongside a growing number of areas across the country, implementing its own Crime Stoppers program. Plans for the program were unveiled at the Goderich detachment of the OPP on Nov. 18. Those involved with the program said Crime Stoppers involved no tax dollars and would rely strictly on local donations. Decisions on how much should be paid out for tips provided to the program would be made by a board of directors comprised of local citizens. December 7, 1994 Huron MPP Paul Klopp was elected to once again represent the New Democratic Party (NDP) in the upcoming provincial election. The NDP provincial riding association met at Clinton Town Hall on Nov. 30 to make the decision. Paul Ross was the one to nominate Klopp for the position. The OPP’s annual Reduce Impaired Driving Everywhere (RIDE) program was back on the streets again. In its first week, Wingham OPP officers checked a total of 582 vehicles, handing out five 12-hour licence suspensions, one charge of impaired driving and eight other liquor- related charges. November 29, 2007 A break-in was reported at the Grey Fire Department’s hall near Ethel. The suspects were reported to have taken a chop saw, a generator and two 10-litre gas cans. The suspects entered the hall by using a crowbar-type instrument, the OPP said. Soybeans produced in the community were on their way to China after being processed at Howson Elevators. From Blyth, the beans were to be shipped to Toronto, then to Vancouver before travelling over the ocean and landing in Beijing, China. Tenders for the proposed Family Health Team building in Seaforth had been received by Huron East Council. The tenders ranged in price from $1.96 million to $2.17 million. North Huron Council decided to hold off on a recommendation regarding ATV use in the municipality. Members of council felt a “patchwork” approach to ATV use throughout the county would be unfair to ATV users. 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 Sometimes you win Rural Ontario hasn’t been used to scoring many victories recently but last week’s announcement that plans for a mega-quarry north of Orangeville have been dropped is good news for everyone who cares for farming and the countryside. Beginning in 2006, The Highland Companies, through the subsidiary company Headwater Farms, began buying potato land in Melancthon Township, eventually assembling more than 8,500 acres. Then in February of 2011, it filed the largest aggregate extraction application to the Ministry of Natural Resources (MNR) in the province’s history. The proposed quarry would have stretched five kilometres across and reached a depth of 200 feet. It was all on the land that grows many of Ontario’s potatoes. The community immediately reacted to the proposal. Neighbouring farmers and farm groups got involved but the reaction went much farther. The area is close enough to Toronto that it attracted the attention of other groups. On Oct. 21, over 200 top chefs from across Canada and the U.S. joined the Canadian Chefs’ Congress’s Soupstock in Toronto’s Woodbine Park, serving 40,000 people. The David Suzuki Foundation rallied against the quarry as did much smaller, but influential groups like the Ontario Institute of Agrologists. The Ontario government ruled that the project would have to pass an environmental assessment before it could go ahead and, faced with such widespread opposition, the company last week announced it was withdrawing its application to develop the quarry. “While we believe that the quarry would have brought significant economic benefit to Melancthon Township and served Ontario’s well-documented need for aggregate, we acknowledge that the application doesn’t have sufficient support from the community and government to justify proceeding the approval process,” said company spokesperson John Scherer. The company remains the largest potato producer in Ontario, leaving the fear the project might be resurrected in the future. Opponents will stand on guard against the possibility but for the moment at least, it’s a victory for rural Ontario. So many projects that brought big benefits for cities at the expense of rural residents have steamrolled ahead (such as wind farms) that any victory is welcome. –KR We need all parties strong Federal Liberals find themselves in a strange position as they seek a new leader next year. The presumed leading contender, Justin Trudeau had to apologize last week after a two-year-old French-language Quebec interview surfaced with him saying Canada suffers from having Albertans in charge and claiming that Quebecers make the best prime ministers. The clip was circulated by the Conservative Party which was fighting a tight by- election battle in Calgary where the Liberals actually had a chance of winning. Trudeau’s quote is exactly what the Liberals don’t need if they hope to rebuild nation-wide support. Liberals have been virtually shut out in Alberta and most of the prairies since Justin’s father Pierre brought in the National Energy Policy that Albertans saw as an attempt to steal their petroleum resources. That was 40 years ago! And yet the Liberals are also aware that such is the star power of Justin Trudeau that polls show if he led their party right now they’d be right back in the competition to form a government if an election was to be held today. Of course an election isn’t being held for three years yet, and even if it was, the Conservatives would be finding lots more to tarnish his image. Hopefully what Trudeau’s gaff will do is keep Liberals from jumping on the Trudeau bandwagon without first thoroughly examining all the alternatives. In the long run, he might still prove the best leader but he needs to win it on merit. The country needs the Liberals to get the very best leader they can. We need all parties to have the best leadership available from their ranks. Democracy is a marketplace of ideas and we need all parties to offer us great ideas. –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.