HomeMy WebLinkAboutThe Citizen, 1988-09-14, Page 4PAGE 4. THE CITIZEN, WEDNESDAY, SEPTEMBER 14, 1988.
Opinion
Wow!
You’ll perhaps pardon a few hundred people around the area
this week if they’re a little pooped after an incredible weekend
at the Huron Pioneer Thresher and Hobby Association
Reunion.
Nobody knows for sure how many people were at the show
thisyearjust that it was a record. The counting is still going on.
The show itself has grown too, spreading out to every corner of
the grounds and to downtown as well.
While Thresher Association members, notjust from this area
but from all over southwestern Ontario, must receive the main
plaudits for the success of the event, the Thresher Reunion has
grown into an event that takes in all kinds of community groups.
Lions Clubs from Blyth and Londesboro serve food and man the
gates. The Legion Auxiliary ladies serve meals upstairs. The
Blyth firemen served over 800 pancake breakfasts as well as
being at the show to cope with medical emergencies and to put
on a demonstration of rescue capabilities (they even found time
onthebusyweekendtofighta fire).And more merchants
downtown than ever got involved in a sidewalk sale to welcome
the thousands of visitors for the three-day event.
The Thresher Reunion has come a long way from that first
year in 1962 when 500 people showed up. All the hardworking
people who made this event such an outstanding success
deserve a hearty congratulation.
Free speech at elections
Canada, as it prepares for a likely federal election soon, faces
some decisions on just how much freedom of speech best serves
democracy.
The $500,000 campaign of the National Citizens Coalition to
discredit Ed Broadbent and the New Democratic Party raises
the spectre that well-financed, political hit squads like those in
the U.S. may be coming to Canada. When special interest
groups can operate outside the Canada Elections Act and target
individual candidates or parties we stand in danger of having
elections decided by which lobby group has the most money to
spend.
On the other hand you ’ve got the tiny Libertarian Party, also
on the right of the political spectrum, that actually offers
candidates in the election but hasn’t much chance to promote
them. Under the Elections Act it has been ruled that the party
can buy only five minutes of radio and television time to give its
message. By comparison the Progressive Conservatives,
based on their showing in the last election, were allotted three
hours and 15 minutes. The Liberals get one hour and 29 minutes
and the NDP get one hour and seven minutes.
This sytem of allocating time for commercials seems to
perpetuate the power of the parties in power at the expense of
the smaller parties. How can the Libertarians, oreven the NDP,
hope to impress voters with their advertising if they have so
little advertising compared to the party in power which already
has so many advantages in an election.
There is no way to regulate freedom of speech. Though the
vindictiveness of the National Citizens Coalition may be
deplored, itmustnotbe prevented from having its voice.
Likewise the Libertarian Party and, for that matter the
Communist party, should have the same right to use the
airwaves as the Liberals and Conservatives. It’s the only way
democracy will work.
Now's the time
As the announcements trickle in from the various
municipalities as to who intends to run in the next election and
who will sit it out, it’s time for others in the community to be
giving serious consideration to their own plans.
Too often lately we’ve had councils put into office by
acclamation. Democracy is only healthy when voters have a
choice. We need more people to offer their services for people to
have that choice.
There are plenty of good people out there who have much to
off er their tow ns hips or villages. Now isthetimeforeach
person to ask himself or herself if he or she is one of them.
The
Citizen
P.O Box 429,
BLYTH, Ont.
N0M 1H0
Phone 523-4792
P.O. Box 152,
BRUSSELS, Ont
NOG 1H0
Phone 887-9114
In the autumn haze
Mabel’s Grill
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
count nJ gat herfor morning coffee
break, otherwise known as the
Round Table Debating and Fili
bustering Society. Since not just
everyone can partake oj these
deliberations we will report the
ainviiies from time to time
TUESDAY: Tim O’Grady was
talking about the land deal Prime
Minister Mulroney signed yester
day with the native people of the
Northwest Territories and surpris
ed Ward Black by saying it was nice
to see the Prime Minister do
something like this for a change.
Ward was just aboutto think Tim
might be seeing the light after all
when Tim said that, yup, after
watching Mulroney give away the
east coast oil to multinational oil
companies and most of the country
to the Americans in the Free Trade
Deal, it was nice to see that if he
was going to give away another
part of the country at least it would
go to Canadians.
WEDNESDAY: Julia Flint said all
the brainwashing kids get through
television commercials these days
is worrisome. After all, she said,
pointing to a little story in the
paper, a survey in the U.S. showed
that kids between the ages of eight
and 12 could name more kinds of
alcoholic beverages than they
could past presidents of the
country. Maybe if they advertised
the presidents every 20 minutes all
day long on TV, she said, the kids
might remember them too.
Hank Stokes said maybe it isn’t
so much to worry about, that the
kids are getting the right priorities
by accident. After all, he says,
when you’re old enough to know
who the politicians are, you’ll need
to know the names of what booze
will help you forget all the stupid
things they do.
THURSDAY: Billie Bean was
chuckling over the story in the
paper that said a Russian historian
claimed Leonard Brezhnev ruled
for six years after he died. Well, he
sortofdied. He had a stroke but
they revived him and they kept him
in power even though he didn’t
know what was going on around
him.
Hank Stokes wanted to know
what was so new about that: most
politicians don’t know what’s
going on around them.
Kind of makes you shiver
doesn’t it, Julia said, that the
leader of one of the two most
powerful nations in the world was
almost a zombie for six years and
theleaderoftheothercouldn’t stay
awake during cabinet meetings.
Imagine, Billie said, them being
able to keep the guy around for so
long when he was so out of it. How
did they get away with it?
Humph, Ward said, we could
easily do it here in Canada. We’d
just put him in the Senate.
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