HomeMy WebLinkAboutThe Citizen, 1986-11-05, Page 4PAGE 4. THE CITIZEN, WEDNESDAY, NOVEMBER 5, 1986.
It's our loss
If Huron county and other parts of the western Ontario area
have for years had a sense of “self” that many rural areas lack,
part of the credit must go to “Doc” Cruikshank and his work in
radio and television. It’s doubly sad to see then, for various
reasons, that the legacy of “Doc” is slowly disappearing.
In his leadership through the 30’s and 40’s in radio through
his move into television in the 1950’s, “Doc” helped make
CKNX in Wingham a cultural bulwark in the area from Huron
county north to Georgian Bay. With his local programming,
with his travelling “Saturday Night Barn Dance” and his local
news covereage, he helped knit the disparate communities
together, to give people a sense of belonging to something
bigger than just their own town or village.
That was back in the days when we didn’t have satellite
dishesand cable television bringing dozens of television
choices into our homes. We were stuck with watching Circle 8
ranch and other locally-produced shows and we liked them. But
once the audience had to choose a slickly-produced show from
Hollywood costing a million dollars for a half hour, how could a
locally produced show costing $1,000 stand up. What’s more,
that $1,000 was often more than the station would have to pay
for a top U.S. television hit.
And so it was natural that the local content died. It was
probably inevitable too that the station would be sold to a bigger
broadcasting enterprise, CFPL television in London and that
eventually, it would become little more than a repeater station
for the London station.
That has happened. Oh, the station still has its own news
department but that’s about it as far as local content goes.
When people are asleep at the switch, we’re even apt to get
promotions on the screen for CFPL programming.
But really folks, an unnecessary insult to the local population
is the inclusion of “Mustang Report’’ on the CKNX
programming.
The University of Western Ontario may be “the” university
for London, but for people living in Huron, Bruce and Perth
counties it is no more important than Guelph, Waterloo or Sir
Wilfred Laurier. Wouldn’t it be possible to give us reruns of “I
Love Lucy” or Three’s Company” or just about anything rather
than rub it in that we no longer have a local television station?
Doc may no longer be here to weep for what has become of his
dream but the rest of us can.
Wanted: someone
to believe in
The tragedy for democracy in Canada in the middle part of
the 1980’s is the growing cynicism Canadians have toward our
leaders.
The cynisim grew a little more last week when the Mulroney
government gave the contract for servicing of the F-18 fighter
plane to Canadair of Montreal when a Winnipeg firm had given
a lower bid for the job. On top of that came word from the auditor
general that it would cost us all millions extra to have a
penitentiary built in the Prime Minister’s riding instead of
elsewhere in Quebec where it had originally been planned.
This kind of thing went on under the Trudeau government of
course, but that’s exactly the problem here. Sickened by
patronage, Canadians turned to Brian Mulroney and the
Progressive Conservatives for something different. We got
more of the same, perhaps worse. With Pierre Trudeau you
might not like what he said but you could nearly always count on
him to tell you what he really thought. With Brian Mulroney you
can never tell if he’s just saying what he thinks will get him off
the hook for the moment, what he thinks you want to hear, and
whether there will be a denial in a few hours from his aides
saying what you thought you heard wasn ’ t what he really said at
all.
Canadian’sunhappiness has shown in the fact that, although
after his huge landslide, people predicted Mr. Mulroney would
be prime minister for at least the next 10 years, his party trails in
the polls after only two years.
What’s the alternative? John Turner? The guy who sat on the
sidelines and shot spitballs at the Trudeau government for
years and now cries foul when others do the same to him? The
guy with a laugh so phoney in the last election that people felt
they couldn’t trust him? The guy who patted women’s rears?
The guy the Liberal party delegates callously voted in because
they believed he could win, even though they admired Jean
Chretien’s sincerity more?
Is it any wonder that Ed Broadbent, the leader of the third and
smallest of the major political parties leads the polls as the
Canadians feel he would make the best prime minister?
The health of democracy in this country is being undermined.
Canadians need someone they can believe in, who they think
holds strong beliefs, not someone who they feel jumps at
whatever seems to be the popular item of the time. Will they
Inc any fail h in the system left by the time such a leader
rrivcs?
An autumn walk
N
LnpJhe world view
from Mabel’s Grill
J
There are people who will tell
you that the important decisions in
town are made down at the town
hall. People in the know, however
know that the real debates, the real
wisdom reside down at Mabel’s
Grill where the greatest minds in
the town (if not in the country)
gather for morning coffee break,
otherwise known as the Round
Table Debating and Filibustering
Society. Since notjusteveryone
can partake of these deliberations
we will report the activities from
time to time.
MONDAY: Julia Flint was talking
this morning about the woman
from the Kingston Prison whois
going to graduate from Queen’s
University this Saturday with a
degree. “You’ve got to give her
credit’’, she said.
Ward Black thought we gave her
credit all right. “We paid her room
and board while she went through
college,’’ he grumped.
Tim O’Grady said at least you
•wouldn’t skip school if you were in
prison. There wouldn’t even be
much temptation to stay home
from classes.
TUESDAY: Tim was teasing Ward
about Larry Grossman’s usual use
of understatement when he called
the Liberal government’s plan to
sell beer and wine in corner grocery
stores: “Anti-family, anti-youth
and anti-Ontario.’’
“You can tell Larry’s a red
Tory,’’Tim said, “because the one
insult he didn’t use was calling it a
communist plot to undermine the
Canadian democratic society.’’
Ward of course defended his
leader. He said he didn’t see why
we had to have beer in every corner
store. People could just drive a
little further to get their beer.
“Yeh,” says Billie, “and they
can save time by drinking it on the
way back, just like we used to do’ ’.
Hank Stokes said he didn ’ t really
care whether they sold beer in
grocery stores or not but one thing
he knew: “People will go into the
store, buy a jug of milk, two loaves
of bread, chips, pretzels and
peanuts and two cases of beer then
look at the bill and complain how
much they have to spend on food."
THURSDAY: Julia figure sin its
urge to be more business-like, the
post office must have gone out and
hired some of the advertising
executives who used to make soap
commercials on television. “You
know the ones where they spend
money designing a new box, put
the same old soap inside and
advertised like heck saying ‘New
and Improved’.’’
The post office is now hyping the
community mail boxes they’re
giving people in the new subdivi
sions instead of door-to-door deli
very as “superboxes”. They seem
to think if they shout long enough
and hard enough, people will
believe them, Julia says.
Gee, says Hank, he guesses he’s
had his very own superbox down at
the end of the lane all these years
and didn't realize it.
Continued on Pg. 5
[640523 Ontario Inc. ]
Serving Brussels, Blyth, Auburn, Belgrave, Ethel,
Londesborough, Walton and surrounding townships.
Published weekly in Brussels, Ontario
P.O.Box152 P.O. Box429,
Brussels, Ont. Blyth, Ont.
NOG 1 HO N0M1H0
887-9114 523-4792
Subscription price: $15.00; $35.00 foreign.
Advertising and news deadline:
Monday 2p.m. in Brussels; 4p.m. in Blyth
Editor and Publisher: Keith Roulston
Advertising Manager: Beverley A. Brown
Production and Office Manager: Jill Roulston
Second Class Mail Registration No. 6968