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HomeMy WebLinkAboutThe Citizen, 2011-01-06, Page 4PAGE 4. THE CITIZEN, THURSDAY, JANUARY 6, 2011.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 norhuron@scsinternet.com 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 $34.00/year ($32.38 + $1.62 G.S.T.) in Canada; $105.00/year in U.S.A. and $175/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: norhuron@scsinternet.com January 4, 1950 Two trains scheduled to run from Palmerston to Kincardine, were set to be cancelled as of Jan. 9, leaving Brussels with just two trains daily to serve the village. The reason offered for the cancellation was a coal shortage as well as a policy of C.N.R. that it would cut services to a minimum wherever possible. Harry and Elizabeth Keyes celebrated their golden wedding anniversary, having been married by Rev. D.B. McRae of Knox Church in Cranbrook on Dec. 27, 1889. The intermediate W.O.A.A. hockey schedule was released with the season set to kick off on Jan. 4 with three games. Atwood would travel to Brussels, Drayton would host Londesborough and Walton would travel to Teeswater for a contest. Women’s beverage rooms were discussed in The Brussels Post, as they had been recently authorized by the Ontario Liquor Act. “One of the iniquities of the Ontario Liquor Act is that it opened up women’s beverage rooms. Moreover there are women in increasing number who so forget their womanly dignity as to patronize these drinking place,” The Brussels Post stated. “This is the new and more revolting degradation that the Ontario Liquor Act has created. The Canada Temperance Act saves Huron County from this degradation.” Dew worms were spotted on the main street of Brussels on Dec. 26, as unlikely as it may have seemed. They were observed by Jack Thynne, enjoying the unseasonably warm and moist weather. There had also been reports that the worms had been seen elsewhere throughout the area as well. January 3, 1974 Theatre Passe Muraille brought The Farm Show to Blyth in 1973, featured in The Blyth Standard in its year in review. The year in review also featured the Blyth Agricultural Society’s decision to discontinue the Blyth Fall Fair, not holding one in 1973. East Wawanosh Public School held its annual Christmas concert on Dec. 18. The play began with some Christmas songs sung by the Grade 2, 3, 4 classes before the Kindergarten students took to the stage for their play, “The Bears Christmas”. The first Londesborough Cub Pack held its annual Christmas party and family night for approximately 100 people. January 1, 1986 The initial free distribution of The Citizen, which began in October, 1985 when the newspaper was created, had come to an end with the Jan. 1 issue. It was reported that response to the subscription program had been “outstanding” with nearly half of the people receiving free copies deciding to subscribe. The Citizen announced the beginning of the Citizen of the Year awards, making 1986 the first year that the awards would be given to members of the community. It was announced that two separate awards, one for Blyth and area and the other for Brussels and area would be given every February to reward people for long-term service or a particular act of service in the previous year. Entries for the inaugural Citizen of the Year awards were to be accepted until Jan. 15, when an independent panel of judges would select the two winners. January 8, 2003 Stratford’s first baby of the year belonged to a local couple, Marie and Neil Mitchell of Grey welcomed their new daughter Claire Lillian into the world in the afternoon of Jan. 1. Though the due date was Dec. 21, Claire was welcomed into the world on Jan. 1 at 1:58 p.m. weighing eight pounds and 11 ounces. The Huron County OPP reported that 17 drivers had been charged by the 2002 festive RIDE campaign. Sr. Const. Don Shropshall said that the year’s findings were some of the worst he had ever seen. Throughout the campaign, 17 people were charged with impaired driving, up 16 charges from the 2001 campaign. There were also 12 12- hour suspensions issued in Huron County. OPP officers checked 10,016 vehicles throughout the campaign, up 2,804 from the previous year. Collisions with deer remained a large concern in Huron County with 240 deer-vehicle collisions reported in Huron County in 2002. Half of those collisions, however, occurred in the last three months of the year. North Huron Reeve Doug Layton assured his staff and councillors that while North Huron had been working well with amalgamation that there was still plenty of work to be done. Layton said that the lack of residential lots in both Wingham and Blyth was a concern that would have to be addressed in the near future. The Grand Walton Pigeon Show was set to be held on Jan. 18 at the Walton Hall. The first-time show was sponsored by the Lucan Homing Pigeon Club. Between 150 and 300 birds were expected at the show. We acknowledge the financial support of the Government of Canada through the Canada Periodical Fund (CPF) for our publishing activities. We are not responsible for unsolicited newsscripts or photographs. Contents of The Citizen are © Copyright The challenge ahead The new year is a time when we often make resolutions for things we want to accomplish and look ahead and wonder what challenges we may face. For communities like Brussels and Blyth the challenges are ob- vious, but how we accomplish the solutions is more difficult to foresee. Both communities are facing the loss of their elementary schools, institutions that have brought the communities together. With their closure, the communities will lose an important attraction for young families to locate there. More subtly, but just as important, there may be the sense that our communities are doomed to keep fading away, losing one important institution after another. It’s a time when our communities badly need leadership, but where will it come from? Both are now part of larger municipalities with many issues to be dealt with so finding solutions to the future of the villages may not be a high priority. For decades now people have tended to sit back and leave it to government, whether their local municipality, the province or the federal government, to provide the solution to their problems while they worried about adding to their personal comfort. That will no longer work in small communities like ours where our voices will not be heard. In many ways, the problems our communities face today are like those the pioneers had to deal with when they arrived in a wild country with very little government infrastructure in place to assist them. They soon realized they had to do things themselves, and if it was something they couldn’t accomplish as individuals or families, then they had to get together with their neighbours and combine their efforts. In their day, they built schools and churches and community centres. What could people come together and build today? First of all we need to look at the needs of the community and then find ways of providing those needs. Do we need more building lots? If we wait for a developer to open up new subdivisions, it’s unlikely to happen in our small communities – but perhaps people coming together to invest and share the work could make it work profitably. Our main streets are devastated as the individual entrepreneur finds it harder and harder to compete against big corporations but is there a different model? In Teeswater a co-operative reopened the local food store. Are there other co-operative shopping solutions? We must reinvent our local communities to deal with the realities of the 21st century. By combining the talents and skills of dozens or even hundreds of people in our community we can tackle the issues and find the solutions. In doing so, we will also create a new sense of purpose for the community and end up stronger. The problem is how to mobilize the community to make it happen. — KR Educating for understanding Sadly, at a time that part of the world under Christian influence was celebrating a season of “peace on earth, goodwill toward men”, others had the opposite intention. In Egypt, a bombing of a church where Christians were attending a midnight mass on New Year’s Eve, killed 100. In Iraq, Christians are living in terror from a series of attacks. Elsewhere an attack was thwarted on a Danish newspaper that had printed cartoons felt to blaspheme Allah. In his new book One On One, Peter Mansbridge reprints excerpts from a 2007 interview (on his television program of the same name) with the Aga Khan, leader of a minority Muslim movement. The leader suggested much of the problem between Muslims and Christians results from ignorance on both sides. Western countries learn little about the Muslim world with its many divisions. Muslim countries don’t understand the diversity of Christian sects. And too often, he said, people blame religion for issues that are really political in nature. Religion is getting a bad name – indeed is promoting the growth of atheism – because of the extreme actions of some who claim to be fighting for their faith. More attempts to understand instead of oppose, might create more adherents. — 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.