Loading...
The Citizen, 2011-10-13, Page 4PAGE 4. THE CITIZEN, THURSDAY, OCTOBER 13, 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; $115.00/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 October 4, 1950 The annual Brussels Fall Fair was favoured with good weather as it was kicked off with a parade led by the Lions Club Boys and Girls Band. The band, led by Bandmaster Robinson, headed the parade of 19 schools throughout Brussels, Morris and Grey. The parade was the largest in the fall fair’s history. The Ethel and Brussels United Churches celebrated their anniversary services on Oct. 8 and Oct. 15 respectively. R.A. Reid, a registered optometrist began seeing patients at his office in Brussels where he would perform eye examinations and fit people for glasses. The Huron County Trappers Association were to hold their first meeting of the season in Clinton. St. John’s Anglican Church was set to hold its annual fowl supper on Oct. 17. The dinner was followed by a comedy-drama play called Embert, Get Wise. The Brussels Floodlight Campaign was still hundreds of dollars in arrears. The campaign’s finance committee asked for those who had promised donations to come forward and leave their donation at the treasurer’s office in Brussels. October 15, 1975 Members of the Huron County Federation of Agriculture were asking for government action to end, or restrict, the right to strike and lockout in Canada. The members passed a resolution calling for a ban at their regular monthly meeting held in Belgrave on Oct. 2. The United Co-operatives of Ontario in Belgrave was set to open its new retail facility on Oct. 16. The expansion would be the culmination of one portion of the Co-operative’s long-term expansion program. October 8, 1985 A Londesborough man was in good condition after a truck he was riding overturned, which killed the truck’s driver. Twenty-two-year-old George Reinink was taken to Clinton Public Hospital with head and back injuries. The driver of the truck, Boyd Bakker, also 22, was pronounced dead at the scene. Kevin Wheeler, 20, of Brussels placed second overall in the senior freestyle pairs competition in London, England. Wheeler and his 14-year-old skating partner Michelle Menzies were bumped into the senior category by their world-famous coach Kerry Leitch in order to have the team noticed by international judges where they placed second. The Huron County Board of Education reached a labour agreement with its clerical, secretarial, teacher aide and audio/visual technician employees, which were represented by the Canadian Union of Public Employees. Both parties ratified a one-year agreement for a four per cent pay increase to all salaries that would be retroactive to July 1, 1986. Brussels Village Council took steps to put a long-delayed plan into place to connect the Brussels, Morris and Grey Community Centre to the village’s sanitary sewer system. Goderich consulting engineer B.M. Ross estimated that the project would cost $60,000 when he was first asked four years earlier. He said the 1986 cost, under inflated figures, was not yet known. The 115th Brussels Homecoming Committee was now able to proceed with the co-operation of Brussels Village Council after Chairman Gerry Wheeler and Vice-Chairman Wayne Lowe appeared at a recent council meeting. October 14, 2004 Huron County OPP officer and Blyth resident Const. Dave Mounsey was air-lifted to hospital in London after being involved in a two-vehicle collision at the intersection of Walton Road and Clyde Line in Morris Township. The Blyth Fire Department was called to the scene to extricate Mounsey from his cruiser. Both drivers were air-lifted to hospital with what was being called serious, but non-life threatening injuries. A large group of residents from Moncrieff attended a Huron East Council meeting to address a land dispute that was ongoing with Cindy Moyer. The group’s members stated that the Crawford family to erect a fence on the family’s property line and Moyer was not allowing that to happen. The group was also concerned with the time it took to receive a response from Huron East Council, which members said was well over a year. Surrounding counties owe Huron County’s ambulance service approximately $375,000 per year for calls out of the Huron County jurisdiction and Huron County councillors were anxious to collect the funds. A meeting was scheduled for Oct. 20 between the surrounding counties to discuss the situation and an eventual means of payment as the total figure was said to have been approaching over $1 million. Canadian recording artist Rita MacNeil was coming to Blyth on Dec. 11 for her annual holiday tour. 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 Message sent! Whether it was here in Huron-Bruce where Belgrave native Lisa Thompson upset Carol Mitchell, Minister of Agriculture, Food and Rural Affairs or next door in Perth Wellington where John Wilkinson, Minister of Environment was defeated by Randy Pettapiece, rural voters sent a strong message to Dalton McGuinty and his Liberals last week. In fact look at a map of the results of the Oct. 6 provincial election and one could be forgiven for thinking the Progressive Conservatives had won, with most of the geography of southern Ontario painted Tory blue (and most of northern Ontario NDP Orange – though ridings there are so huge it can be deceptive). You have to look closely to see the massed, tiny dabs of Liberal red in the urban areas of the province where ridings can be only a few square blocks because of population density. And therein lies the problem, or at least the problem as perceived by rural voters – the benefits of many of this government’s programs have been for urbanites, while the apparent cost has been to rural people. In eight years, for instance, the Liberals have not solved the problems with the funding system for education that was created under Mike Harris’s Progressive Conservative government. Thus small rural schools continue to close, taking education out of the community and treating it like an education factory. The Premier’s Green Energy policy may turn out to be one of the most far-sighted strategies any government has come up with, but it will never seem like a good one for many rural residents. McGuinty foresees fueling a new industry making wind turbines and solar panels but even if he’s right, most of the benefits will go to manufacturers in cities and to large corporations operating the wind farms. Rural people get the real or perceived health problems of living amid gigantic fields of wind turbines. From the perspective of many rural residents, the urbanites get the gold mine while they get the shaft. Even with the solar installations where small operators can benefit from the Green Energy Act’s MicroFIT program, slow approvals for connecting to the energy grid have turned people who should have been supporters into frustrated opponents wondering if they’ll ever see a return on their investment. But the single greatest irritant, the one that people see unfair no matter how they feel about wind turbines, is the Green Energy Act’s usurping of control from local municipalities. It just seems wrong to voters to take control out of the hands of the one form of government that answers to local concerns, and put it in the hands of bureaucrats negotiating deals with energy giants where the people most affected have no say. Will McGuinty learn a lesson from losing eight of 14 seats he held previously across southwestern Ontario’s “wind belt”? Let’s hope it’s the right lesson. He might assume that since he formed a near-majority without rural Ontario’s support, its concerns don’t matter. Here’s hoping he realizes instead that he must listen to rural people. A few more years of alienation and he may create conditions where the Liberals are shut out of rural Ontario for generations. — KR Planting, harvesting together There was an amazing sight last week in a field near Monkton when 115 combines set out to harvest 160 acres of soybeans in a world-record 10 minutes. They missed the goal, taking 11 minutes and 44 seconds, but they still raised $250,000 for the Canadian Foodgrains Bank to help fight hunger around the world. The accomplishment is a tribute to individual ingenuity and community co-operation. It began back in January when five Listowel- area farmers were kicking around an idea to raise money for the Foodgrains Bank. While they could provide the land, get the donations to buy the supplies, and plant the crop, they needed the help of a much wider group to pull off the harvest in record time. In the end 115 farmers volunteered their time and their combines for the attempt. Just in time for Thanksgiving, so many people came together to undertake a wonderful example of generosity. — 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.