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HomeMy WebLinkAboutThe Brussels Post, 1978-06-28, Page 2Brussels‘ Post ,To the editot: imotivs$410..: WEDNESDAY, JUNE 28, 1978 Serving Brussels and the surrounding community. Published each Wednesday afternoon at Brussels, Ontario by McLean Bros.Publishers Limited. Evelyn Kennedy Editor Member Canadian Community Newspaper Association and Ontario Weekly Newspaper AssOciation • Subscriptions (in advance) Canada $9.00 a Year. Others $17.00 a Year. Single Copies 20 cents each, 40.. cm „.01AN co mm „ Mf *CNA a,1, 4 ERS ASSO C IP.1‘ -- "1 ,pAp l as c- „,o9t Canada Day There's a birthday on Saturday. No, it's not Johnny Jones' down the street, it's Canada's birthday. Radio and TV watchers likely already know that, as they've been subjected to slcigans and calls to celebrate for sometime now. It's probable that the feds will spend well in excess of the more than $3 million they dished out to mark Canada Day last year. Is it money well spent? It is in a sense, seed money stimulating the economy and helping to organize celebrations at which more money is spent. A case'could be made that government spending on Canada Day is economically sound ...or at least more sound than lots of other government spending. But when we look around us in Huron County we have to question the wisdom of the spending. Whether local apathy, lack of leadership or outright animosity is , to blame, very little of that our *money has trickled down to celebrations in our area. In fact there are almost no celebrations in Huron. Only Goderich as far as we've seen, plans, to do anything at all official to mark Canada's 111th birthday. As a result, it's questionable if the people of Huron County are getting their share of Ottawa's celebration spending. Neighbouring Perth is having at least one party, Dublin's 100th birthday. That's something for which we have nobody 'but ourseIV'es to . blame. And probably more or less money spent by the federal government would not result in the organization of more local festivities. There Undoubtedly are more socially productive ways that Ottawa could have spent several million dollars. But that's not to say we, shouldn't use Canada Day to think about and celebrate,what it means to be Canadian. That need not be expensive: And around here at least it won't be community oriented either., We'd hate to think the+ Huron County's Canada Day participation rate would have been had the Fathers of Confederation done their stint in February rather, than July. So, it's Canada Day on Saturday. The least we can do is to give,it a fleeting thought as we cut the grass or chafe at the sacrifice of familiar Saturday night TV shows to the national Canada Day special. MARSH DELICACIES — Many of the plants and animals found in marshes, streams or lakes provide a readily available spume of emergency food. For example, the legs of the leopard frog (A) though small, are a gourmet's delight: Crayfish” (B) turn red like a lobster when boiled, their tails, are easily shelled and de-veined, and taste similar to ocean crab. The starchy roots of the bulrush (Scirpus acutus) (C) can be roasted and eaten, and the seeds of the yellow pondlily (Nuphar spp.) (D) can. be removed from the pod and eaten raw or Popped like popcorn. Editors Note: The following is a copy of a letter forwarded to Mr, Adrian Vos in reply to a letter Mr, Vets addressed to area newspapers last week and which appeated this paper, With reference to your letter to the editor of the Wingham Advance Times of last week, I would like to clarify a few points,. 40 perhaps pUtqlle situation into proper perspective. You accuse CKNX News of being lax in its coverage of the Swift Canadian strike,.,arittits effects on a large part of our ;ilidience. I beg to differ. CKNX News carried; from the previous VVednesday on, contin ding reports from the Ontario Pork Producers Marketing Board and various industry sources on the impending strike...what to do when it arrived., .,and how the Board was going to try to cope. This coverage carried well into the weekend, on AM, FM and Television. The excellence of this coverage was due largely to the excellent co-operation of the •Ontario. Pork Producers Marketing Board... whose officials notified us of their every move as the situation progressed. However, this co-Operation failed on the Monday morning that the strike began. Contrary to your letter...CKNX News did attentorto contact the Marketing Board. The first two calls were greeted by the word that they were too busy to talk to us. The third call reached a management official of the Board...who told CKNX News that notification of the strike and the Board's actions had been sent to us in the mail. We still haven't received that notification. After a long discussion_tbis official finally agreed to give us a statement on the situation...which wa s Pick up a paper or watch television and somewhere along the way.you're likely to hear some comment on the fact that the majority of Canadians live in cities and in a few years it will be a large majority at that. There arc figures, of course, that disprove this notion. Most of these statements are based. on looking at census results that tabulate people on the basis of urban or rural status. People simply take the urban tag and assume everyone lives in cities, 'when actually it includes all people living in towns of larger than 1,000 population. In addition, it is dangerous to take projections of current growth patterns and extend :them many years into the future. Patterns change and to project that cities like Toronto will continue to grow at the same rate in the next 25 years as they have in the past is foolhardy. Yet planners continue to accept the figures and the inevitability of the projections. Many 'seem to already have written off small-town and ,rural life as; if all of us out here don't matter. The latest instance seems to be in the matter of television and its future. More and more the talk' is turning to the future of cable 'W television and through •cable, Of pay television. Already television for many people, and many people involved in the business, means the programs received over cable television. The arguments that have been fought over cable teleyision in the last decade have been many and often bewildering, Most bitter and damaging to the country have been those where people have complained because an American television channel was removed to allow a French language channel to be added to the service leaving the poor unfortunates with Only five or six American channels left to. watch. Cable television has4 undermined the Canadian way of life even further than the coming of television in the 1950's did. In those early dayS of television, only Canadians living along the' U.S. border Watched • American programming: Later American programs were bought by Canadian stations but the American input Was, at leaSt regulated for people living in Ottawa and SUdbury and Calgary and other places well away from the American border. But cable television meant that the American then aired, .quickly and often, over CKNX .'Radio and Television, Our concern,_ as. is yours. is .Centered on the problem of getting that information quicker.. However, we would point out that in virtually all other -eases of industry erisis„.industry officials are quick to notify the media of their problems...and: their steps to cure those problems, Except for this one example„...the Ontario Pork Producers Marketing Board has done the sank. -As for the fact that CBC Radio in Toronto had the information. „.1 would suggest that. the . only way they got it was from the Ontario Pork Producers Marketing Board—whose officials; for ,their'own reasons, felt that outlet served more of the province's pork • producers than does CKNX Broadcasting. That belief I. \Not:0 question, I believe past performance • has shown the impact that CKNX Broadcasting has on the provincial pork industry..,and perhaps this impact should be translated, by the area's pork producers, to their employees in Toronto. would also like to point out that in subsequent reports from the OPPMB it was 'stated that producer marketings had followed much the same pattern as the Board had. requested in its reports to•CKNX. i would like to think that our coverage of the strike situation aided that effort. In conclusion...I would like to say that it's my belief that CKNX News covered the situation in as comprthensive and complete a • manner as possible, given the - above- mentioned circumstances. Yours truly, CKNX Broadcasting Limited Ray Baynton, News Director. • stations were piped in even to' cities 1,000 miles away from the U.S. border. All the fuss about Cable television has of course been academic to people living in many small towns or in the country. Right now there are-still many small towns without cable television and it seems unlikely in' the forseeable future that villages and farm homes will have the problem of deciding which of nine or ten channels to watch. We're stuck with one or two or three or if we're really close to. the U.S., maybe a couple of more. Some places in northern Ontario can hardly get television at all. But the planners continue to proceed as if we all had the little cable hooked to the back of our television. When they talk about cable television and pay television- in the future, they are excluding millions of us from the ftiture. Already those of us without cable are suffering. We are paying, for instance, for educational' television here in Ontario which many of us never see. The stations of the network are spread thinly throughout the province and in southern Ontatio, at least, are of the low power UHF kind which means they don't stretch theit signal very far. For people with cable, television thaCs no problem because they can get in on cable. For those without it, well, .we continue to pay for others but can't see it ourselves. But if it were only this, it wouldn't be too bad. At least we'd have our regular channels left. The problem with cable television however, is-that it is threatening the future of regular television stations. It stands to reason that if people have a choice of 10 stations instead of three, fewer people are going to Watch the original three. When fewer people watch, fewer people want to advertise and if they do advertise they want to pay less. It means that the station makes less money, In extreme cases, it can mean the station goes broke but even if it doesn't, it certainly means less money can 'be spent on programming which means the quality of show available goes down and we without cable, without an alternative, stiffer, There's a bright spot, of course, in that we can all Spend more time in the garden or reading a hood book, but the fact still remains thdt it is hardly a fair situation in a land boasting equality for all its citizens. Behind the scenes By Keith Roulston They write us off