Loading...
The Brussels Post, 1980-09-17, Page 2WEDNESDAY, SEPTEMBER 17 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 Member Canadian Community Newspaper Association and Ontario Weekly Newspaper ASsociatian Pfis ASSO Congratulations Belgrave Sixty years is a long time for anything to last. That's why the directors of the Belgrave, Blyth and Brussels School Fair Board should give themselves a pat on the back for sustaining the tradition of the• school fair. Although the Board of Education withdrew its funds to the fair in 1940, now funds raised from the fair are used to continue the practice of giving each student one packet of flower seeds and one packet of vegetable seeds. Whether the people of Belgrave are just stubborn, and refuse to give up on something just because they've had funds taken away from them or whether they just hate to see tradition die, they deserve to be proud of themselves. Organizing an event like a fair is no easy task and it takes a lot of time, effort and determination of the people involved and when it's a special occasion like the 60th anniversary,, those qualities have to be pushed to their fullest extent. Congratulations to the organizers for a job well done. Sugar and spice By Bill Smiley is caught up in the post office problenA 60 years BB& B school fair big success Who's proud -of that r.." Short Shots by Evelyn Kennedy Continued from page 1 plain careless could cost the life of a child. Pay heed to those flashing school bus lights. ***************** It is not only humans who display strange eating, (or perhaps it should 'be drinking habits). It shows up in the animal world also. Some little pigs on the farm of Wm. Moses prefer not their mother's milk but trot off to find a friendly cow. They appear to enjoy sucking a cow for that is what they have been doing. We saw a picture to prove it but unfortunately it would not show up in print. * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * It seems all is not well in the P.Q. Party. Rene Levesque is in trouble. Ministers have been resigning. These are' dissenters w .ithin the ranks. One prominent rnernbei has stated he would like to get rid of Levesque. There are those who want complete independence. Can he, with his eloquence and masterful persuasion, compel them to come' to heel and force his own dreams for Quebec to become reality? Will whatever happens there matter a great deal to Canada when most of the provincial leaders seem intent on strangling the Federal Government for the benefit of their own provinces? What a shame that they cannot forget greed and ambition and work together to make this wonderful country of ours one of the greatest countries in the world in which to live. It is time Canadians, raise their voices in protest and demand that their representatives stop being petty and grabbing and do something concrete for Canada. **************1*** Motorcycling has become very popular. It is evident that it is a mode of travel that many use to get about. Did you know that in 10 years, 1969-1979.the number of licensed motorcyclists in Ontario has tripled? In 1969 there were 40,000 motorcycles registered'. That number has now doubled. Accidents involving motorcycles have become com- monplace claiming lives, and inflicting serious injuries. Drivers' of other vehicles and motorcyclists must take every precaU- don and drive with courtesy to avoid such accidents. Advertising is toCcepted on the tOnditiOn that in the event of e typographical error the advertising space occupied by nig) Erroneous item, togethie with reason/We allowance fOr signature, will not be charged for but the balance Of the AdVeetisemint will be paid for at the a pp licable 'rate. While everY effort will be mode to ensure they are handied With cite, the publishers cannot be responsible for the return Of unsolicited manuscripts Or photos. riespite- the platitudes of many of the politicians that the open disctission at last week's constitutional conference showed what a wonderful country Canada was,there was little • to take pride in for ordinary Canadians. , The summit meeting of the 11 top government leaders in Canada showed remarkable results: these great men manag- ed, to• come away from their •week long meetings agreeing on less than they did when they went to the meeting. Now there will be some who see an easy reason, for all this. As some of the premiers tried to say in "their closing remarks.; there was only one stumbling block to agreement, a rigid Pierre Trudeau. That is fantasy time, the same kind of fantasy that says that all we have to do is change the constitution to give more power to the provinces and all that ails the country will be magically cured. To anyone who listened to the debate it is obvious that things would have been easier if the provinceS could simply have set the rules by themselves and not have had to deal with Trudeau and the federal-government....eas- ier for about: 10 minutes. About the only, thing the provinces were united In was their displeasure with the federal govetnment. Listen to how people actually spoke on , various issues and you'll see that the provinces were far from being as united as they would like us to believe. Take away the common enemy of the federal government and they'd have been at each other's throat in a matter of minutes. Take a sampling of issues and, see , how people stood. Entrenchment of language and basic human rights saw people like New Brunswick's Richard Hatfield and Ontario's Bill Davis in favour but many others bitterly opposed, led by Quebec's Levesque: Even something as simple as family law which the federal government was willing to give up was not unamimously accepted by the provinces. Manitoba's Sterling Lyon was adamantly opposed. to -turning this power over to the provinces. But even if all the province were united in their opposition to the federal government on one issue does that make it, as Mr. Trudeau said, necessary for the federal government to give in and say "Aye aye sir?" It would appear so to a television audience. Here are ten men agreeing and one stubborn man refusing to go along. That is the dangerous nature of such conferences. The set-up makes it look like the federal government is the stubborn one at all times because there are ten spokesmen for the rights' of provinces and only one for the Position of the central government. Who speaks for the people then, ten, premiers each elected by the people of 'their -own province or the federal prime minister, elected by the same people from all across the country. There are those who like to point outlthat Trudeau wasn't elected by all regions of the country: that in the West his representation , is thin. His representation may be thin but his vote tally even in the areas where the. Liherals didn't win seats was still substantial. It's wrong to say that nobody in the West agrees with Trudeau because from the 'votes the. Liberals got in losing causes it is obvious that there are people out there who support Trudeau. The problem with the conference is that while everybody claimed to be speaking for the people they were Teally speaking for. themselves and their own power base, Many people have felt fora long time that if we're going to reform the constitution we must have an unbia .sed body to do the reforming. Instead of a tug-of-war between prOvincial and federal governments we should have the• real voice of the people,• perhaps through a conference to which the participants were elected by the people. That way the Indian group s, the women groups, the farm groups, all those that felt left out of the current system could be represented: That way policies could be made that were in the interests of people, not governments. That the interests of the ordinary citizens were a high priority at this conference can be seen in the debate over a charter of rights in a new constitution. Suddenly men who had proclaimed themselves loud and long as democrats, people who had taken pot shots at Pierre Trudeau for being an autocrat, , turned against the idea of Putting down on paper the rights of Canadian citizens. They made fancy excuses such as the fact most provinces already had a bill of rights but in the long run the real reason .they -admitted was that they thought the legislators of the provinces should have the right to determine people's rights, not the courts. Even Allan Blakeney of Saskatchewan, one of the premiers I admire most, argued that the hands of the legislators musn't be tied by rights put down in ,a constitution if they wanted to do something that would discriminate agianst Canadians from outside their province. Somehow the voice of the people has to he heard in this issue. Perhaps, if we can get nothing better, a referenduni would at least help. Many of the people who marched as pupils at the first school fair 60 years ago were on hand Saturday either as spectators or participants at the successful Belgrave, Blyth and Brussels School Fair. 1980 marks the 60th anniversary of the Fair. Despite the rain, activities started with a parade of dignitaries, followed by the Brussels Pipe Band, the pupils from Belgrave, Blyth and Brussels schools and a number of children on dec- orated bicycles. A highlight of this anniversary fair was a parade of 25 floats from former school sections which were U.S.S. #6 (Westfield), U.S.S. #17 (Belgrave), S.S. #13 (6th line), S.S. #9 (Currie's), S.S. #11 (Shiells), S.S. #8 (9th line), S.S. #7 (Chamney's), S.S:#7 (Stone School) in Morris, S.S. #5 (Morris), S.S. #8 (Brown- town), also three floats from East Waw. school depicting past, present and future and floats from Brussels arid Blyth. Floats were also entered from the township councils, the Hi-C and Belgrave Women's Institute, the Kinsmen, CO'-op, North Huron Credit. Unien and Bodmin Lid. First/prize was awarded to U.S.S. #6, 'East Wawanosh (Westfield) as the best decor- ated float. The Lewis Cook family of four generations won the prize for the best dressed family of 60 years ago.-There were also clowns and comic characters to add to the fun. President Ross Procter welcomed the large crowd and kept afternoon events moving. Guests who spoke briefly were Simon Hallahan, reeve of East Waw., Wm. Elston, reeve of Morris, Murray Gaunt, M.L.A., Donald McDonald, Walton, Chairman of Huron County Board of Education, Don Pullen, Agricultural Repre- sentative for Huron County and Allan Scott, Agricultur- al Representative for Perth County, a former pupil of S.S. # 13 E.W. and son of Mrs. Walter Scott of E.W.. who officially opened the Fair. Mr. Scott pointed out that children should never be afraid of attempting some- thing new, that no one is a loser if he does his best. He stressed the valuable exper, ience gained by competing in the fair-an experience not learned from books and he hoped the Fair would conti nue for years to come, Mr. Procter introduced the princes and princesses from the three schools-From East Wawanosh School-Tim Goddard and Anne Procter, from Brussels, Darren Watts and Brenda Richmond and from Blyth, Perry Brommer and Amanda Snell. He thanked all friends and supporters of the fair. He also announced she • names of others who attend- ed-J.H. Kinkead, former school inspector who helped in any way he could with the fairs, D.A.. MacLennan, RR3, Lucknow who played the bagpipes and led the parade at many of the earlier fairs, Elmer Farrish, one of the first judges, Doug Miles of Toronto, former Agricultural Representative of Huron and Art Bolton of Seaforth, former Assistant Agricultur- al Representative. He closed by saying the fair is one way this commun- ity has said for 60 years "Our Kids are Great!" The School Fair is unique because it is a children's fair and had it not been for the working together of the exe- cutive and the support of teachers, parents, Ag. Reps and many more, the fair could not have had the success it has had. Changes will come after this 60th Please turn to page 5