HomeMy WebLinkAboutThe Citizen, 1988-06-01, Page 1Farm philosopher
Huron native says farming
more than economics
See page 5
VOL. 4 NO. 22
\ ...... ■
Serving Brussels, Blyth, Auburn, Belgrave, Ethel,
Londesborough, Walton and surrounding townships.
WEDNESDAY, JUNE 1, 1988.45 CENTS
Whew!
Swimmers
can beat heat
starting Monday
Swimming for the summer
season gets underway at the
Brussels, Morris and Grey Com
munity Swimming Pool on Monday
- not a moment too soon for those
suffering from the unseasonable
heat.
Pool Supervisor Anita Bos of RR
3, Blyth, back for her second year
as the head of the instructors’
corps, says that registrations for
swimming lessons have been
“well over” the 300 who registered
in 1987, although she admits she
has no accurate count as the facility
goes into its third season.
Joining Miss Bos on staff are
assistant pool supervisor Kim
Fritz, and lifeguard-instructors
Karla King, Shannon Rice, Judy
Ten Pas and Cindy Bernard. All six
girls worked at the pool last year,
and all but Miss Bos are from
Brussels.
Staff expects that the registra
tion may climb considerably as
some students, now registered for
the first set of swimming lessons,
decide to take more than one
course. Each set of lessons will
again be of four weeks’ duration,
and the June session, which begins
on June 6, will have Red Cross
classes for categories yellow,
orange, red, maroon, blue and
“green, with tests held at the end of
each set of lessons.
Lessons will run from 3:15 to 7
p.m. on weekdays, with public
swimmingat 7-9 p.m. on week
days, and at 2-4 p.m. and again at
7-9 p.m. on weekends. Special
“Moms, Pops and Tots” classes
will be held from 2:15 to 3:15 each
week day, starting on June 20, and
special adults-only classes will be
organized for July and August.
Miss Bos says that very few class
spaces remain for June, but
registrations can be taken for July
and August. However, she sug
gests that applications be made
early, as all classes are expected to
be filled to capacity at the popular
facility.
Rural Dignity protest makes Blyth stop
The grassroots organization
Rural Dignity, whose mandate is to
save Canada’s 5,000 rural and
small community post offices from
extinction, will be making a stop in
Blyth this Saturday.
The organization is conducting a
nation-wide publicity campaign
entitled “Coast to Coast for Rural
Post, ’ ’ with the intention of raising
enough public awareness of the
Gettin' hitched
June is tbe traditional month for weddings, but Brenda MacDonald of London and George VanderVeen of
Brussels got a head start by having theirs on Saturday, May 28. The occasion was made even more special
by having the wedding party arrive at the Blyth Christian Reformed Church in a horse-drawn express
wagon, where Mr. VanderVeen had to give his bride-to-be a hand down, while “groom” Ken Jackson
steadied his team.
issue - and cash - to carry it through
the stiff battles it says are yet to
come.
Tothis end, it has sponsored two
well-marked vans which set out
May 17 from opposite sides of the
country, one from Victoria, B.C.
and one from St. Johns, Newfound
land, with the intention of meeting
in Ottawa next Tuesday to deliver
to Prime Minister Brian Mulroney
all the postcards, urging him to
save the small post offices, which
they have collected along the way.
Viola Higgs of Ilderton, Rural
Dignity’s Ontario secretary-trea
surer, said last week that Blyth had
been chosen as the only stop the
eastbound van will make in Huron
County because the village is the
closest place on the tour’s tightly-
scheduled route to Ethel, the scene
last October of a highly-publicized
and noisy meeting called by hamlet
organizers to ward off what they
saw as a threat by Canada Post to
close down their post office.
At the time, Richard Bowness,
the corporation’s manager of
community and media relations for
the Huron Division, assured the
crowd packed into the Ethel
Continued on page 12
2 already
seek spot
as NDP
candidate
Although the next federal elec
tion is little more than a gleam in a
politician’s eye at the moment, a
St. Helens-area farmer has declar
ed himself a candidate for the New
Democratic Party.
Tony McQuailofRRl, Lucknow,
said Saturday that he will be
seeking his party’s nomination in
the new federal riding of Huron-
Bruce, adding that his followers
are already gearing up for the
election expected this fall.
“There are a lot of very
important issues on the agenda at
this time, and we want to be ready
when an election is called,” he
said. “The fight against Free
Trade will be a top priority for us. ”
Mr. McQuail joins Norma Peter
son of Kincardine who has also
declared her intention to seek the
NDP nomination, but he says that
his party is actively searching out
additional candidates for the lead
ership of the local party. No date
has been set for a nomination
meeting yet, but the party faithful
working to set up the riding’s
headquarters in Dungannon last
weekend said that it could come as
early as July.
An open house for the new
headquarters is planned for the
end of July, but if an election is
called before then, the NDP’s
nomination meeting will be held in
conjunction with the event, Mr.
McQuail said. “Otherwise, we’ll
nominate closer to the election.”
Dungannon was selected as the
location of the NDP headquarters
because it is actually very central to
the new riding, which under
re-distribution will take in the
entire county of Huron, and most of
Bruce County south of Southamp
ton, Mr. McQuail said.
Besides, he joked, the Dungan
non building has been donated for
the party’s use, an important
consideration for the NDP, which
doesn’t accept corporate donations
as part of its funding.
“We’re putting sweat equity
into this project - renovating - the
top floorfor owner Phil Sommers,”
he explained. The new headquar
ters is the old Dungannon tele
phone exchange, located on the
main street in the centre of the
hamlet.
Close to two dozen supporters
spent most of last Saturday
sprucing up the premises and
painting campaign signs, and a
second work bee is planned for
June 11, one of the workers said.
Neither Mr. McQuail nor Mrs.
Peterson are strangers to the
political scene, with both running
as the riding’s NDP candidate in
both federal and provincial elec
tions overthe past eightyears. And
although neither one has been
elected, the NDP vote in the riding
has increased each time, Mr.
McQuail said.
“I think we have an excellent
chance (of winning) this time,” he
said. “People are beginning to
understand that (the NDP) does
offer a viable alternative toboth the
Liberals and the Conservatives,
and voters are getting tired of
administrations that care more
about themselves than about the
people who elected them.”
Mr. McQuail first got into
Continued on page 8