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HomeMy WebLinkAboutThe Citizen, 2010-08-26, Page 4PAGE 4. THE CITIZEN, THURSDAY, AUGUST 26, 2010.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 August 25, 1948 Former owner of ‘The Corner Store” in Blyth, Peter Gardiner, passed away in London. Gardiner was still an active member of the Blyth Masonic Lodge at the time of his death. A Blyth softball team was eliminated from the playoffs by Centralia, who beat them in three straight games to win the series, besting Blyth by scores of 7-3, 8-0 and 13-6. Shirley Radford, bride-to-be, had been the guest of honour at several different bridal showers that week, receiving many gifts from her friends and family members in the community. The Blyth Lions Boys and Girls Band was set for its performance at the Canadian National Exhibition in Toronto on September 2. The band was playing in a competition with six other bands from throughout Ontario. The Blyth Legionettes pulled off one of the greatest comebacks in the village’s sports history trailing Goderich in an exhibition game by a score of 17-3, but battling back to win the contest by a tight score of 18-17. The Blyth Standard reported that the Legionettes’ recovery was the biggest one seen on Blyth ball diamonds all year. August 29, 1968 Huron County Council moved a motion that established a Huron County Planning Board, as well as the county’s first school board, after designating 11 school sections. The annual Brussels Horticultural Society flower show was held at St. John’s Anglican Church with Mrs. James Armstrong taking home the T. Eaton Trophy for the overall winner of the show. The show had nearly 300 entries in all and the quality,The Brussels Post reported, was excellent. August 29, 1990 Provincial NDP leader Bob Rae was in Howick at the farm of Vic and Vivian Karpinski for a quick visit with members and candidates of the NDP party. Longtime supporter of the NDP Eugene Fischer of Harriston was in attendance, hoping to just get a glimpse of Rae. However, the 82-year-old got more than that when Rae stopped to chat with him, prompting an emotional exchange between the two. Candidates were vying for the vote of the Huron County farmer at a recent all-candidates meeting held at Central Huron Secondary School and organized by the Huron County Federation of Agriculture. NDP candidate Paul Klopp, a sixth-generation farmer said he felt it was time for real change in leadership for the world of agriculture. The Lancaster Bomber, which had recently been restored to flying condition, was on display at the Sky Harbour Airport in Goderich. The event also marked the opening of a new airport runway. The sale of the railway line from Goderich to Stratford saw four suitors vying to buy it from Canadian National (CN). Janet Amos had returned to Blyth, which she called her favourite place in the world, after being the Blyth Festival’s Artistic Director from 1984 to 1988 to take a starring role in Local Talent a new play by Colleen Curran. Young Guns II, the sequel to the wildly popular original, was playing at The Park Theatre in Goderich. The film reunited Lou Diamond Phillips, Kiefer Sutherland, Emilio Estevez and Christian Slater once again. August 28, 2008 A car being driven westbound through Auburn by a Toronto woman crashed into Stickers Restaurant in the late afternoon hours of August 21. Estimates had the driver travelling at between 110 and 150 kilometres per hour as she approached the turn beside where Stickers sits. The driver was unable to negotiate the turn and narrowly missed a hydro pole, the Stickers fuel pumps and the east end of the restaurant before clipping the restaurant’s roof and coming to rest on the ground. Surprisingly, the driver sustained just minor injuries after being tended to by paramedics. Jacquie Doherty was charged with Careless Driving as a result of the incident. Michele Studhalter of Blyth won the Princess Competition at the Huron County Plowing Match, taking over from the previous princess, Kabrina Bishop of the Brussels area. The first-ever Seaforth Country Classic was held at the Seaforth Golf and Country Club, bringing the Canadian Professional Golf Tour to Huron County for the very first time. The Blyth Festival Young Company was in the early stages of its latest project, entitled Teenage Home Invasions. The group interviewed dozens of people throughout the community, asking tough questions and discussing complex issues all in the comfort of the interview subject’s home. Chair of the National Liberal Caucas, Anthony Rota was in Blyth for a visit, brought to the village by Huron-Bruce federal MP candidate Greg McClinchey. Rota visited Bruce Power and took in a Blyth Festival show while in Huron County. 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 A time for second thoughts Sometimes we don’t want to hear what people are telling us, and when it involves what police say about the value of the long gun registry, both the majority of rural residents and the federal government don’t like what they’re being told. On Monday, the Canadian Association of Chiefs of Police endorsed, without a single dissenting vote, a national firearms strategy which includes a public relations campaign in support of the long gun registry. This comes in advance of a vote in the House of Commons on a Progressive Conservative private member’s bill to scrap the registry. The registry has never been popular in rural Canada and often seemed like using a wrench to fix something that required a screwdriver. The main proponents have been urbanites worried about gun violence, but the impression has been that the vast majority of gun violence has been with hand guns. What’s more, many of these guns have been smuggled into the country and wouldn’t have been registered anyway. And yet, police point out that most of the police officers who have been killed in the line of duty in recent years have been shot by long guns. When Huron OPP officer Vu Pham was murdered last spring, the perpetrator used a long gun. Yes, opponents say, but just knowing there is a long gun in a person’s possession doesn’t let you read the mind of the person who owns it. Pham’s killer owned guns for many years but didn’t use them against another human until that last fateful day. Pham himself was a hunter. But the chiefs of police say that officers use the registry up to 11,000 times a day, both to investigate and prevent crime. Would they keep using a registry that was useless? The ultimate argument-clincher against the gun registry has always been the ridiculous cost of over $1 billion to set it up. Still, that money is gone forever. You won’t get it back even if the registry is scrapped and the information destroyed as the private member’s bill prescribes. Meanwhile, Bill Blair, Toronto’s chief of police and head of the chief’s association, says the registry now costs only about $4 million a year to operate. The continuing strong support of the nation’s chiefs of police for the long gun registry should be a cause for a re-examination of the issue by those of us who long ago made up our minds the registry was a waste of money and an infringement on legitimate gun owners. — KR How low can we stoop? Perhaps it was inevitable that the Province of Ontario would decide to get into the online gambling business as a way of raising money to support the services we want government to provide – but that doesn’t make it right. Gambling has become a major revenue stream for the province in the four decades since it first introduced the Wintario lottery. Governments of all stripes have upped the ante since then with more and bigger lotteries, then government-sanctioned casinos and slot machine casinos as regional race tracks. And it’s such an attractive way to raise money. People get angry if you raise taxes but millions of people line up every week to hand over their money to the government by buying lottery tickets or playing the slots. The newest gambling rage, attracting thousands, has been online gambling. These websites are all operating outside the country and suck gambling dollars across our borders making no contribution to our own economy. Governments were bound to see this as a danger to their existing revenue stream and a source of new cash. For those who are in control of their gambling and rational enough to know what they’re doing, gambling can be a harmless diversion. On the other hand, each new form of gambling makes it that much more easy for some people to become addicted, ruining their lives and the lives of those around them. Do we want our governments to live off the misery of addicts? If so, why not get into selling addictive drugs, too? — 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.