HomeMy WebLinkAboutThe Brussels Post, 1978-10-04, Page 2Serving Brussels and, the surrounding community.
Published each Wednesday afternoon at Brussels, Ontario
by McLean Bros.Publishers Limited.
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Behind the Scenes
laff#111011aa A good show
1E) •
Alloglow. WOE L$
OPOAIII
WEDNESDAY, OCTOBER 4, 1978
It was, in Ed. Sullivan's words, a really goo show.
The long awaited international Plowing Match closed Saturday on
the Jim Armstrong farm near Wingham.,its end means rest after
months of effort by hundreds of Huron people, a good many of them
from the Seaforth area.
The '78 IPM in Huron broke all kinds pf records, It. had the biggest
attendance of any International, the largest tented city, the greatest
number of exhibitors. Plus, we wouldn't be surprised if the match last
week didn't set a record for being blessed with the most hours of
terrific fall weather.
The International Plowing Match has a special relationship with our
county that goes back perhaps fifty years when the late Gordon
McGavin of Walton was winning plowing competitions. He's one of the
men who helped develop the Ontario Plowmens' Association into the
dynamic group it is now. McGavin. Square at the IPM commemorated
his contribution and his descendants were . active in the local
organization.
Huron's only high school marching, the Seaforth District High
School Girls' Trumpet Band, is the 'official tPM band •
The Internationals held in Huron have notalways gone as smoothly
as lasts week's did.The 1942 IPM scheduled for here was cancelled by
World War 2. The first. Match after the war fared better. It was held at
Port Albert in 194 6 and marked the first time the Governor General
attended an International.
Huron's luck was off again in 1966 when Seaforth .hosted the IPM:
Local organization was superb but rainy weather helped set a record
for mud that remained unbroken until last year's deluge at the IPM in
Frontenac County.
During and since the recent Match we've heard nothing but pr wise
for the local organization, the facilities, the food, exhibits, the ladies
program, the gracious host and hostess. Those of us who live in the
area weren't surprised that Huron could pull off an event of the
Match's Magnitude without a hitch but city peopleperhaps went away
amazed at the precision and excellence of it all.
We've heard suggestions for future 1PM's that include a longer
show, a permanent site and other innovations. Any growing group like
the Plowmens' Association- will of course keep looking at changes
that will make the Match better.
But fora few weeks at least everyone involved, from committee
chairpeople to the volunteers who served hamburgers can relax and
bask in the knowledge that our Huron County put on the best
International Plowing Match yet.
Sugar and Spice
•••
By Bill Smiley
While we were travelling this past
summer, my wife remarked something to the
effect that it's too bad Canada doesn't have
the attractions to lure hundreds of thousands
of 'tourists that Europe has.
I assured her tartly that she was all wet.
This country has everything to make it a
tourist's paradise: mountains aplenty, great
plains, deep forests, thousands of miles of
coast line, a million or so lakes, good hotels,
interesting cities in French and English, and
good highways.
It's not that we don't have enough for the
tourist. We have too much, and we take if for
granted. .Tiny Switzerland doesn't, and it
`makes use of every inch, milking the tourist
as carefully as it milks its cows, those brown
ones that graze up the mountains in summer
and give chocolate milk.
We have tremendous sports facilities:
skiing, sailing, fishing, hunting, hiking, alot
of it free or very cheap. Try' going skiing or
fishing or hunting in Europe. It will cost you
an arm and a leg, and in many countries is
impossible for foreigners.
We don't have any ruined abbeys or
falling-down castles,, but have plenty of
abandoned log hoitses, which , in terms of
humanity, are just as touching, if not as
'• impressive. ,
) We're a little short on cathedrals, but not
on churchesr Some of our towns of two on.,
three thousa,ndhaveas many as ten different
churches'. You can pray standing up, sitting
down, on your knees or flat on your back.
You can't do• thiS in Europe.
We are nationalistic, but in a lackadaisical
'way, With nothing of the prickly pride, of the
French, the deja vu pride of the Italians or,
the smug complacency of the Swiss or
Germans.
We have a certain blandness, a lack of
local color perhaps, to the unobservant eye.
But local color often consists of nothing More
than rollsso hard you :can't eat them, dirty
toilets, and execrable wine, in Europe. And
we certainly have all those.
As local color, try a house party in NeWfie,
Saturday Might in Sudbury, a stroll down
Yonge St.'s Strip in Toionto, or amble
through downtown Montreal Or Vancouver. •
Or try Pticfay night in a beer' parlor,
anywhere in the country.
We don't have Many ancient ruing. We
put them away in nursing home's. But a visit
to these could probably be arranged for the
tourist.
liy Keith-Renktmk.
I don't know about you, but I'm not
looking forward to this winter. No it isn't the
cold air from the north that I'm dreading, it's
the hot air from Ottawa with the politicians
warming up. for a certain election next
spring.
We've been hit with election speculation
for more than a year, of course, but this time
we know that an election is indeed just
around the corner. The law says that there
must be an election before June. So, with the
government backed into a corner, all tho big
guns are out, both on the opposition side to
try to sink the ship and on the government
side todefend it. As if the falling dollar
wasn't d4ressing enough. Conic to think of
it the dollar's probably in for even worse
times because a record number of Canadians
will 'likely head south this winter just to get
away from the campaign rhetoric. It might
be worth it, even ifyou do have to fork over
20 cents on the dollar exchange,
The prime minister's supporters\
-.„„_
have
been trying to get him to call anelecti n for
some time. They were all for it a year or so
ago after the election in Quebec. made him
s, emilike the country's only saviour. He was
high in the pollS then and probably could
have, won easily. He chose not to call an
election then and I, for one, applauded
because it would have been, political
opportunism at the,time. But this fall, I wish
he had called an election just to get it out of
the way. It's like an appointment at the
dentist: you know you've got to gd anyway so
you might as well go today as tomorrow so
you can get it over that much sooner. ,
know that the advisers in the Prime
Minister's Office aren't so in favour of an
election these days, even though the' polls
show the Liberals still comfortably out front.
'`It's the breakdown of those polls that seem
to bother the experts and show that .the
Liberals aren't nearly as strong as they look.
In addition millions of voters seem to be
undecided about who they think can lead us
out this swamp of depression right now (or
perhaps who will do least damage to the
country.)
I'd have to put mySelf in with that great
mass of undecided voters. I honestly don't
know what move is right at present. It's a
scarey prospect, a gamble that our whole
country could go down the drain if we don't
choose the right leaders the next time out.
Do we gamble on Joe Clarkand hope that he
really• has some potential behind' all that
youth and posturing or do we stick with the
devil we know because we think he's the
toughened politicians who can best deal with
he Slippery Ilene Levesque.
I don't 'know what the answer is, but in a.
way I'd be apt to gamble on 'Joe Clark. It
isn't that I think he's better than Pierre
Trudeau, in fact I have an mate distrust of
politicians who, from the time they're out of
diapers, want to be prime minister. It isn't
even tliat think the Prime Minister has
done such a rotten job of running the
country. I don't ' know if given the
circumstances, anyone could have done
better. Slo,the "reason I'd tend to look for a
change is entirely different.
One of the problems of this country,- as I
See it is that people have -failed t6 accept
their share of responsibility for the mess
we're in and have looked instead for a
,•capegoat. the convenient scape goat has
•tn Pierre Trudeau. If we're conservative,
we claim he's too socialist and that's why the
country's in trouble. If we're left wing, it's
because he's such a conservative that the
country's in trouble. He's to blame somehow
forthesplit between Quebec and the rest of
the country, even through the split started
two centuries ago.
It's become so easy to shrug off all
responsibility for ourselves and simply
blame the prime minister. He's to blame for
inflation and we're justpoor little guys trying
to hold on by asking for 10, 15 or 20 per cent
pay increases: The government's to blame
for the Quebec problem because if it had
dealt with with them damned frogs in the
first place they wouldn't be so uppity now.
Everything's the fault of TrUeau and nothing
our own fault.
Well it isn't so, of course. I suspect that if
we elected Joe Clark tomorrow very little
Would have changed)by this time next year.
People- who voted for the man tomorrow,
would turn on him the next day when they
saw no-miraculous change. I feel sorry- for
th-Cman for even wanting the job, knowing
what will happen to him if he gets it. No
politician these days, whether or not he's
doing a good job, is going to be loved.
Perhaps Clark could work some miracles
and things would get better. Perhaps he
could find the answers to the problems the
country faces. Cynic that lam, I tend to think
instead that with time these troubles too will
pass. Instead of a falling dollar high
unemployment and the Quebec problem,
we'll have some other problems. Problems
seem to go in cycles and often I think, they
disappear'as much from the passage of time
as from action by governments. There's a
prediction that' by the 1980's we'll have a
labour shortige instead of a surplus, and I
believe it. The dollar is bound to rise again
just as it did after low points it reached
during the reign of John Diefenbaker. The
QUebec issue will likely never go away, but I
have a feeling that passions will subside and
the issue will cool for a Nithilei
Still, whether' Clark succeeded or not, it
wouldt give people a good kick in the rump
and make themstop blaming everything on
one man. Perhaps not having Pierre Trudeatt
to kick around anymore, would make people
see that they have to 'solve their own
. problems ) not depend qn government.
Perhoswould make people see that we're
all responsible to some extent: for the
sagging dollar because we spend too much
outside the country on holidays or through
imports because we refuse to pay a few
bucks extra for Canadian products. Perhaps
it will make us see that the only' hope for
solving the 'problems between various,
regions of the country is more effort to learn
and understand the problems of others.
Perhaps it would make us 'see that inflation
is as much our problem as the governments.
There Joe Clark, for whatever inverted
logic, you've got me leaning your way. My
advice, however, is that you not open your
mouth before electiOn day. You see a goodly
percentage of the time you talk you say
things so blatantly partisan, so much of a
cheapshot that you insult niy intelligence as
a voter. I think the party that wins the
election will be the one that produces the
least stupid proposals and the least stupid
insults to the voters. Joe, Pierre, my vote is
there to be lost depending upon which of
you runs the Worst eampaign.
People think we don't have much history.
We do. We have all kinds of it. It's just
younger than that ,of European countries.
But the Battle of Duck Lake, Saskatchewan,
is just as important to this country as the
Battle of Waterloo was to Europe in its time.
' And finally, we have something no other
nation in the world can -touch, Thanksgiving
weekend, and everything that goes with it.
The great sad, final flaming of our foliage
before we close down for six months. •
Speaking of Thanksgiving, I hope you
have a lot to be thankful for. I think we do, as
a nation. , We have the mostbracing,
delightful, exasperating climate.. in the
world. We still have vast, comparatively
unspoiled wilderness. (Witness the scramble
for recent Europeans, now Canadians, to
buy a chunk of it.)
We have a very high standard of living,
despite unemployment, strikes, high taxes,
fumbling politicians.
We have a country in which Jack is as
good as his master, and servility is scorned.
Don't believe me? Try hiring acleaning lady
or bawling out your plumber.
Ask amoung the first-generation
Canadians from Europe how many of them
would go back. Nary a one.
A side from thinking thistis a pretty gdod
place to live, I have lots of personal reasons
for thanksgiving. -A good wife who can cook
like a chef, sew like a couturier. (We almost
remembered our anniversary this year.
Were just a day late.)
My daughter, with two children and three
degrees, finally got a job. As a file clerk. My
Son is .alive and well in a South Smerican
country, which is sometimes a difficult thing
to be..
I have a great lad next door who cuts my
lawn and shovels my snow faithfully. I have
ajob I like with people I enjoy working with.
I have good neighbors.
But I must admit I'm looking over my
shoulder quite often these days. I'm thankful
that my, health is good, but I think the Lord is
trying to tell me something about my
English department, Two of them have
faulty tickers. A third sprang his back and
was flat on it all stiner. Another, a recent
addition, had his gall bladder removed
recently, And finally, Roger Bell, Whose.
mntributioris you may have read in this
space, fell off his motor-bike and dislocated
his shoulder,
les a good thing they have a strong, virile
Chief. Be thankful for what you have,