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HomeMy WebLinkAboutThe Citizen, 2008-11-06, Page 4PAGE 4. THE CITIZEN, THURSDAY, NOVEMBER 6, 2008.EditorialsOpinions Publisher, Keith Roulston Editor, Bonnie GroppAdvertising, Ken Warwick & Lori Patterson The CitizenP.O. Box 429,BLYTH, Ont.N0M 1H0Phone 523-4792 FAX 523-9140 P.O. Box 152,BRUSSELS, Ont.N0G 1H0Phone 887-9114 FAX 887-9021E-mail norhuron@scsinternet.comWebsite www.northhuron.on.ca Looking Back Through the Years 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 thecondition that in the event of a typographical error,only that portion of the advertisement will becredited.Advertising Deadlines: Monday, 2 p.m. - Brussels; Monday, 4 p.m. - Blyth.PUBLICATIONS MAIL AGREEMENT NO. 40050141PAP REGISTRATION NO. 09244 RETURN UNDELIVERABLE CANADIAN ADDRESSES TO CIRCULATION DEPT. PO BOX 152 BRUSSELS ON N0G 1H0 email: norhuron@scsinternet.com Letter to the editor Nov. 6, 1940 The witches and sprites had gathered at Brussels Continuation School for an evening of merry making. The costumes worn by Nora Lowry, Ruth MacDonald, Mr. Laycock and Bill Sullivan were judged at the best. According to The Brussels Post a “pleasant evening was spent with Mrs. O Walker when a company of ladies in Halloween costume invaded her home. Although taken by surprise, Mrs. Walker welcomed her guests and the evening was pleasantly spent in games and social chat. During the evening, the company presented Mrs. Walker with a gold- coloured Charlton blanket, prior to her removal from town.” It was to be the “show of shows” at Brussels Town Hall as a double feature was on the bill. Hurricane Horseman was a western action thriller with Lane Chandler and She Whoops to Conquer featured Zazu Pitts “looking for love”. The Seaforth arena was jammed with over 2,000 people for the annual Lions Club carnival. Chief Jerry Blueyes, 75-year-old Cayuga, predicted a mild winter. According to The Post, he had “cast an eye at the hickory trees” and saw few nuts. Blueyes noted the cornhusks weren’t thick, ducks and geese had not come out of the north early and frogs in ponds were still “agile. Cold weather makes a sleek, green frog hop more awkwardly than a toad.” Smart fall dresses were on sale at Stewart Bros. in Seaforth for $3.95. Nov. 7, 1962 The Blyth Legion attended the Londesborough United Church for its annual Sunday before Nov. 11 service. The second meeting of One Hundred and Forty-Three Lbs. of Meat was held at the home of Mrs. Wilbur Turnbull. Twenty-one women attended. The care of meat and the cuts of beef, veal, pork and lamb were discussed. Ground meat was used in making various dishes. Men’s ready-to-wear pant suits were on sale at R.W. Madill’s for $36 to $39. It was advertised as “a real treat”. Ready-to-cook rabbit fryers were available at McCallum’s Meat Market. “This new exciting meat” was raised and prepared by the Huron Rabbit Breeders Association. Nov. 4, 1981 Two Londesborough women received minor injuries when the car they were in struck a parked tractor trailer in the fog. A headline in The Blyth Standard proclaimed “Blyth not dying.” The village was used as an example at an agriculture history seminar at the University of Guelph. The speaker propounded the theory that Ontario’s country towns are not dying. While most research continually points to declining numbers of farm equipment dealers and agricultural service industries in rural communities, said the speaker, many of these communities have large restaurants, hotels or other entertainment centres that draw people from far away. Blyth had 81 businesses and a population of 927 in 1891 compared to 52 businesses and a population of 870 in 1981. Ontario Hydro was looking to build 300 kms of transmission lines and about 1,664 towers from the Bruce Nuclear Power Development south to London, then east to the Middleport transformer near Hamilton at a cost of $350 million. The line would run just west of Seaforth. Nov. 6, 1991 Ninety people attended a Blyth all-candidates meeting. High taxes and resentment over the push for junior kindergarten were the major sore points in this election. Halloween vandals cost Brussels $2,000 in losses. The bill included repairs to damaged property as well as the extra wages of town works crews and local firefighters to patrol the streets, put out fires in leaves and straw bales and replace street signs that were town down. Sixteen stop signs had been pushed to the ground, one was broken off and three were pulled out. Firefighters were on duty until 3 a.m. Slippery road conditions resulted in three car crashes in Grey Twp. Brussels parents won their battle and crossing guards will be installed at two main street intersections. Council voted unanimously in favour of the move. Winners of the George Menzies Endowment Fund at F.E. Madill Secondary School were Jason Gropp, Dawn Engle, Lisa Pennington, Shirley Ann Bridge, Janice Heise, Shawn Jacklin and Andrew McCutcheon. New Belgrave Brownies were Courtney Bakker, Leanne Vincent, Carly Quennell, Michele Nixon, Kerri Meier, Nicole Mason, Kristyn Gerth and Amy Barnes. An agreement was signed setting out new boundaries for the Brussels Fire Department in Morris Twp. There had been concerns about overlapping coverage between departments. Under the new agreement Brussels would be the first department called in an area 2.5 miles to the south, north and west. They would turn over the long-term fighting to either Blyth or Wing- ham. THE EDITOR, It is readily apparent that the Conservative government is trying to steal the Canadian Wheat Board (CWB) director elections from the farmers—stopping legitimate voters from voting, encouraging bystanders to vote, and removing spending limits for third party interveners. And you don’t need a calculator to figure out that the Conservative- appointed board members are right in there pitching for the government at every turn while trying to make it as hard as possible for permit book holders to get back onto the voters’ list. As a result, the CWB itself is forced into nonsensical statements like “Its hard to justify sending letters only to permit book holders when all grain producers are entitled to vote” (Western Producer Oct. 30, 2008). This lines up nicely beside the Minister of Agriculture’s statement in a letter to “producers” (Sept. 2008) when he said: “This is an opportunity for Prairie producers to have their say in the future direction of the CWB.” So my question becomes: “If the CWB elections are for ‘all grain producers’, why is it that only the CWB permit book holders have to pay all the costs?”. And the second question is: “When thousands of permit book holders (eligible voters according to Canadian law [the CWB Act and Regulations]) are kicked off of the voters’ list, why do these disenfranchised people have to pay any of the costs?”. Keep in mind that permit book holders pay 100 per cent of the costs of the CWB director elections. The disenfranchised permit book holders are truly back in the category of “taxation without representation”— paying the costs of an election that they can’t participate in. Farmers must say “no” to stealing elections, “no” to the Conservative political appointments at the board, and “no” to taxation without representation. Farmers can speak by getting back on the voters’list and voting for Pro- CWB candidates. Yours truly, Stewart Wells, President, National Farmers Union We acknowledge the financial support of the Government of Canada through the Publications Assistance Program (PAP) toward our mailing costs. We are not responsible for unsolicited newsscripts or photographs. Contents of The Citizen are © Copyright Helping a different world As we get caught up in the fear brought on by the recent stock market collapse and bank failures in the U.S. and other countries, it’s often hard to remember the reality of the privilege we live in compared to the rest of the world. The Bicycles for Humanity project perfectly illustrates the contrasting positions of Huron County residents and people living in Africa. Mark Nonkes, a Blyth-area native now working in the south African country of Namibia, saw the difference a bicycle can make in the lives of people in that country, helping to give them access for employment, education, medical care, even food and water. Back home in Huron, his family organized a project to collect donated bicycles to be shipped to Africa. Assisted by churches and volunteers they collected 400 bicycles, many of which had probably been sitting around unused for years. It’s inspiring to think the impact that those previously-unused bicycles could have in helping people in Africa improve their lives. It’s empowering to think the ideas and the good works of a relatively small group of volunteers could help people they will never even know. There’s still much to be done. The cost of shipping the bicycles will be $12,000 and that much money needs to be raised. Still, it’s the kind of story that’s much happier to read than the stories of the financial repercussions of a greedy Wall Street investor. — KR What’s the big deal? A letter to the editor in last week’s Citizen points out once again the problem of people who’ll do anything to save paying a few dollars to properly, and legally, dispose of garbage. In the case outlined, the writer was disgusted by bags of household garbage and asphalt shingles dumped on a public walking trail but the same mess has been found along remote roadsides, in streams, even outside the gates of landfill sites. It’s not as if people are saving a large sum of money by refusing to use their landfill site as required by the law. A tag for a bag of garbage is only a couple of dollars. Tires, another item often found illegally dumped, cost $5. Even legitimate disposal of a truckload of building materials is not so expensive that it makes sense to dump them in a public place. A simplified explanations of economics is that a person will cross the street to shop in a store that will save them even a small amount of money. Perhaps this theory is perfectly demonstrated by these people who’ll do anything to keep from spending a few dollars. Perhaps these are the types of people who rebel at the thought that somebody is going to control them by saying they have to pay even a small amount of money to get rid of garbage. Perhaps these are people so self-centred they can only think of inconvenience or expense to themselves, so they give no thought to the environment or the other people in their community. Sadly, as long as there are people who’ll go to such extremes to avoid accepting their environmental responsibilities, it’s going to be hard for humanity to clean up the mess we’re creating. — KR &