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HomeMy WebLinkAboutThe Brussels Post, 1980-02-20, Page 2MUSE ILA 00004110 WEDNESDAY FEBRUARY '20 1980 Serving Brussels and the surrounding community. Published each Wednesday afternoon at Brussels, Ontario By McLean Bros. Publishers Limited Evelyn Kennedy - Editor Pat Langlois - Advertising Men\ber Canadian Community Newspaper Association and • Ontario Weekly Newspaper ASsociation Subscriptions (in advance) Canada $10.00 a Year. Others $20.00 a Year. Single Copies 25 cents each. BLUE RIBBON AWARD 1979 ,..russas..Post ThO editorial p~gE Sugar spice • By Bill Smiley Wie"re' learningabout the- world. ConOatulations, Murray Congratulations to Brussels' own Murray Cardiff for winning for the Progressive Conservatives in Huron-Bruce, bucking, the trend of the rest of the country. Congratulations, also to Liberal candidate Graeme Craig and NDP candidate Tony McQuail for their effort in this part of the country. also good to see two local men--Murray Cardiff from Brussels and Gr.aeme Craig from Walton make an attempt for this seat, showing that Brussels and area does have capable people who are interested in what happens in their riding and in the country. The people of Huron-Bruce have now given Murray Cardiff the mandate and it's up to him to represent this riding in the best way he can. Although we're sure Mr. Craig and Mr. McQuail would have done the best job possible, if either of them had gotten in, it is now Murray Cardiff's turn to show just what he can ,do. To the editor: We arc attempting to draw our family tree which we have traced back to John Harbottle and Sarah Chisholm, who settled in Cran- brook, Ontario, in 1852, Later, they moved to the Gainsborough area of Saskatchewan, where they are buried. A son, Thom- Chisholm Harbottle, is buried in Cranbm ,k..We understand that his second wife was Agnes Yen. Apparently they had two daughters, Kate (Mrs. Alexan- der Anderson) and. Nellie (Mrs. Thomas). Th, holjpvi. five ,hildeon one of whom was Bernice. In 1935, Bernice was living in Brussels with her Aunt Kate Anderson. We wonder if any of your readers could help us to establish contact with any of the A ndersons, Thomases, Yeos, or Harbottles. We would be most grateful for any help. Please send information to Miss Wilma Fisher, Box 220, Shoal Lake, Manitoba, R0,1 IZO. Vernon L. Dutton 63 Laval Drive Winnipeg, Manitoba R3T 2X8 For the first time in a couple of decades, young Canadians are taking more than a casual interest in world affairs. Young male teachers are asking us old veterans what we think about the invasion of Afghanistan, of boycotting the Olympics, whether the situa- tion is like that when Hitler was on the march. . We don't have the answers, of course, but it's rather interesting to notice the sudden interest of these guys, who are usually talking about their boats, or their snow- mobiles, or their. last victory at racquet ball, or their mortgages. And they're not the only ones. Just the other day, I was discussing with a Grade 11 class George Orwell's "Animal Farm," that incisive allegory, of revolution and totalitar- ianism. At least I had planned to discuss it. Instead we talked about Russia, which led to Afghanistan, which led to NATO, to China, ,to Hitler's waltz into various vacuums while Britain, France and the U.S. stood back and tut-tutted, to a possible invasion of Canada, to our pitiful armed forces, and a lot of other things. The kids were serious, concerned and eager to learn more. They reminded me of the young people of the early Sixties, who were deadly in earnest about the cold war and a possible nuclear holocaust. • But they retained their sense of humor. I wound up by asking jokingly, which of, the services they would be joining. "Will you go into the Army,-the Navy or the Air Force?" One boy riposted, "I'll be going into the woods." For what they are worth, I do have some opinions on the world situation. Even Joe Clark's terrifying threat that Canada would boycott the Olympics will not make them pull out of Afghanistan until they are good and ready—probably after they have set up a puppet government ruthlessly ruled from Moscow. Why not? Because the hard-liners have taken over in Russia, and they don't give a diddle for world opinion, at the same time keeping their own people in the dark. Secondly, noblidy has the guts, or the stupidity, to take them on, eyeball to eyeball, in Afghanistan, any more than anyone did when the Russians crushed the liberating climate of Czechoslovakia or steam rollered into the ground the Hungarian revolution. Oh, there were cries of dismay from everywhere on those occasions, but nobody did anything, except wring hands and take in refugees. On only two occasions since World War has anyone stood up to Russia. On both occasions, the Russians cooled it. One was when Russia cut off Berlin from the West. The western countries responded with the Berlin Airlift, in the face of Russian threats that the mercy planes would be shot down. They were not, and the •very tense situation resolved itself. Another was the Cuban crisis. President Kennedy laid it on the line. If Russian ships carrying missiles and other obnoxious items to Cuba did not turn around and go home, they would be attacked. The Rtlssians went right to the brink, then'backed down. 13utthose were the days when NATO had some teeth, and the Americans probably had an edge in nuclear hardware. Things are different today. In Europe, the NATO forces are no match for those of the Warsaw Pact, in men or machinery. About five years ago, an American general, now heal of the U.S. chiefs of staff, told me personally that NATO could hold the Russians for only about two weeks. The situation today is worse. On' the world scene, the U.S. has received one black eye after another. A stalemated war in Korea. A disaster in Viet Nam. The propping up of petty dictators around the • world. The machinations of the CIA. A lot of prestige and a lot of clout has gone down the drain. . . Britain is a third-rate power, as' is France. The Scandinavians are wary of distyrbing the bear. Germany west is tough and wealthy, but vulnerable from within and without. Japan sits on its can, making money, while protected by the American military. China is a big question mark, India the same. The Moslem world is not going to take on Russia. So who's to stop them? I predict that they will consolidate in Afghanistan, with little opposition, then cool things down for a few years, though keeping brush-fires going in Africa and elsewhere, before making their next move, possibly to squash Yugoslavia. As for Canada pulling out of the Olympics, unless the great majority of nations outside the Soviet bloc follow suit, it would' make as much difference, one way or the other, as a flea biting an elephant. Reader working on family tree Behind the scenes by Keith Roulston Why did we bomb at the Olympics? With all the talk of war lately it is Canada that has dropped the first bomb: we've bombed again at the Olympics. It happens so often• that few Canadian can be surprised anymore but most of us are disappointed just the same. Every Olympics we send a handful of people with real possibilities of winning and nearly all of them find one way or another to lose. For many years the cry was that Canadian athletes didn't have a fait chance in international competition. Athletes from other nations though classified as amateurs trained full time with financial help of their governments we were told. As a way of building the Canadian prestige the Canadian government decided to give the athletes the support they needed. Various aid programs were devised to make life a little easier for the athletes to improve their skills. They still face little danger of becoming soft through affluence but they now can afford to take their training seriously. But still the results haven't changed a lot. Canada'S prestige has improved in some sporting events but when it comes down to the final tesult Canada is usually well down the list of competing nations. The irony of it all is that our results in the summer Olympics are usually much better than they are in the winter Olympics. Here we are in a nation where winter is a major `or in our lives and we can't rank with the nest of the world in nearly any sport. Granted we really can't expect to beat countries like the Soviet Union of East Germany that think of sport as important to the nation as a strong army but take a look at the countries ahead of us and it makes one wonder about Canadians. Countries like Finland, Holland, Austria all with smaller populations than Canada and even Italy, normally thought of as a summer country except for a tiny portion in the northern mountains all manage to outdo Canada at winter sports. Is it possible that Canada's failure at the winter Olympics has something to do with the face we seem to try to deny that we are a northern nation. Canadians would like to pretend we don't have winter. Perhaps it' the influence of our California based med in North America but we Canadians seem want to live in Florida or California , Arizona but not Canada. A large proportion of our population migrates like the birds every fall to the south. Our cities are going underground to avoid the weather. And so it is in sports. Canada is one of the top half-dozen countries in the world in swimming although swimming is a natural sport in Canada less than two months a year. A decade or two ago we had very few indoor pools in the whole country. Today we have Olympic-sized indoor pools in nearly every major city in the country. We have the best in international coaching. Come ,this summer we won't likely win many gold medals in the swimming pool at Moscow (if we go) but we will place well in nearly all races despite the fact our swimmers have to trudgeethrough snow to get to the pool. Our overall results won't likely be so good in track and field events but we still have a few good prospects such as high jumpet Debbie Brill. Yet again our athletes have to have special indoor facilities built for them to compete. The only other way for them to train is to do what the rest of the Canadian population does: go south for the winter and Many do by, enrolling in U.S. universities on athletic scholarships. But the irony is that while Canada has been fairly happy to provide facilities fot athletes for summer sports many of out athletes at the winter games have to go to other countries to train. Take for instance the athletes in events like the luge and bob sled conipetitions. There isn't a Single bobsled run in Canada. Canadians' for years have had to train at Lake Placid in the U.S. or in Europe yet surprisingly it is one of the few events we've struck gold in at the winter Olympics over the years. Or how about speed skating? Speedskat- ing facilities in Canada are few and far between. Our skaters spend most of their time abroad. Few of our winter athletes get much publicity. Most spend their time in other parts of the world seeking either dent facilities or competition. Our skiers are heros in Europe though they're only starting to get publicity here. Our speed skaters do well in Europe but are hardly household words here. And yet in the end it usually comes down to the athletes themselveS as to the recognition they get. Here with the Olympics as close as they ever get to Canada with our hopes high in skiing and speedskating again the disappointment, The chance was there for the athletes to get the attention they say they should be getting. The hopes of the Canadian public are high. But when the pressure was on the Canadians failed to deliver again. It may be an accident like the lost ski of Ken Reid of nervousness or whatever but the Canadians lose again and the people back home wonder if it's all worth it.