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The Citizen, 1991-11-06, Page 4PAGE 4. THE CITIZEN, WEDNESDAY, NOVEMBER 6 1991. Choose imaginative candidates For hundreds of voters in northern Huron, next Tuesday represents the best opportunity to influence the way their municipality and school board will function in the next three years. Nov. 12 is municipal election day, and now is the time to be studying the candidates. How do you choose? It's a difficult decision. For one thing, there's little chance for candidates to put forward ambitious platforms like provincial or federal parties. Just how much can a local politician do to change the lives of her/his fellow citizens? In terms of jurisdiction, so many areas operate under rules sent down from the province. In terms of dollars, most of the tax money already is ticketed before the elected politicians have a say. Half of the typical tax bill, for instance, goes to education, meaning the local council has no control. Yet a former trustee recently pointed out that after money for salaries and for programs that must be in place to meet provincial laws, board of education trustees end up with discretion over about two per cent of their $60 million budget. Voters have two choices when they go to the polls. They can elect passive managers who will try to pinch every penny until it hurts in the small portion of the budget they can control. They can get people who will look after the nuts and bolts, the roads, bridges and street lights. Or they can elect people who want to do those things, but want to do more. Rural Ontario is facing a crisis. Our way of life is in danger because of low farm prices and a declining farm population. We can't look to importing industry because even the cities are losing industries as global economic rules change. We can't look to federal and provincial governments because they have bigger fish to fry. Somebody has to take some leadership and the logical place to start is with the local government. Local councils and boards can't marshall the financial resources to start businesses or radically change our local economy but they can become proactive, rather than wringing their hands about the bad times ahead. They can act as a catalyst, getting their local citizens involved in seeking solutions to our problems. Huron County has had a long, proud tradition of banding together to find solutions to our problems. After half a century of growing individualism on one hand, and dependence on government on the other, we’ve forgotten how to get together to work out solutions but we must get back to that Nobody else cares but us. Our new councils can serve the process by putting in place systems that get our best resource, our people and their ideas, working together. We must all be involved in our communities, not just at election time, but year round. Strong leadership While there is still a long way to go before peace comes to the Middle East, at least there was a historic beginning last week in Madrid when representatives of all sides sat down at the table for the first time. There's absolutely no doubt the parties wouldn't have been there without the encouragement and arm-twisting of the United States under Secreiary of State James Baker. Il is often easy to criticize the United States for his bullying tactics: it's sense that it is U.S. destiny to bring peace, prosperity and free enterprise to all the world, but in this case, only the Americans could have pulled off even this preliminary victory. And, as much as the war with Iraq was tragic, as much as it is easy to condemn it as a war to protect American supplies of cheap oil, there's no doubt the seeds for this peace process were planted in the reshifting of loyalties in the region because of the war. The U.S. won new friends among the Arab nations while managing to keep Israel from retaliating against Iraq for missile attacks. That new stance made it possible for the U.S. to make people stop and listen when it pushed for peace talks. In a new world, without Cold War tensions between the U.S. and the Soviet Union, the Americans have an opportunity to play a tremendous role in the search for peace. Let's hope they can keep that positive tone and not seek to exert their power where it isn't really needed. A time to remember Looking Back Through the Years ONE YEAR AGO NOVEMBER 7,1990 Despite suffering from a mysteri­ ous leg ailment Brussels native, Kevin Wheeler and his skating partner Michelle Menzies of Pre­ ston finished in third place at Skate Canada. Bly th and District Fire Depart­ ment volunteers battled an unusual fire when com silage in a silo on the farm of Carman Craig of Morris Township burned, forcing the destruction of the silo. Five former graduates of Brus­ sels Public School who were going on to post-secondary education were the recipients of the George Menzies Endowment Fund award­ ed at F.E. Madill Secondary School commencement. They were: Dianne Hall, Scott Johnston, San­ dra Marks, Jason Breckenridge and Corrina Stephenson. Two others finished their education at other secondary school. They were: Tim Dillow and Gus Protopopus. Japanese actress Mitsui Suzuki was the special guest at Blyth Festi­ val's Gala Auction. The actress was the star of the Japanese production of "The Tomorrow Box", written by Anne Chislett. THREE YEARS AGO NOVEMBER 9,1988 Teresa VanBeek of Morris Township and her children, Jason, Billy, Christopher, Amanda and Johnny escaped with only the clothes on their backs when a rag­ ing fire totally destroyed their two- storey brick home. Eight Brussels Public School graduates received the George Menzies Endowment Fund. They were: Donna Johnston, Clint Gar- niss, Bruce Johnston, Cindy Stute, Charlene Stephenson, Karla King, Marc Barbour and Kelly Bauer. Blyth Festival's Gala Auction raised $20,000 towards the $1.8 million expansion program. Graeme MacDonald of Cran- brook and his family donated a wheelchair to Seaforth Community Hospital. FIVE YEARS AGO NOVEMBER 5,1986 Brussels, Morris and Grey swimming pool turned a profit of $12,587 in its first season of opera­ tion. It was a unique wedding in Blyth United CHurch when brothers Dave and Perry Brommer married sisters Deborah and Marlene Gosling in a double wedding cere­ mony. Joan Smith and Beth Earl of the Ethel area began a new catering service, "Country Cooks". Brussels council took the first step in providing sanitary sewers to the Brussels, Morris and Grey Community Centre, when it approved survey work on a new sewer line. CitizenTheNorthHuron P.O. Box 429, BLYTH, Ont. N0M1H0 Phone 523-4792 FAX 523-9140 P.O. Box 152, BRUSSELS, Ont NOG 1H0 Phone 887-9114 FAX 887-9021 The Citizen is published weekly in Brussels, Ontario by North Huron Publishing Company Inc. Subscriptions are payable in advance at a rate of $20.50/year ($19.16 plus $1.34 G.S.T.) for local; $19.16 + $1.66 for each month after March 31/92 ♦ G.S.T. for local letter carrier in Goderich, Hanover, Listowel, etc. and out-of-area (40 miles from Brussels); $60.00/year for U.S.A, and Foreign. Advertising is accepted on the condition that In the event of a typographical error, only that portion of the advertisement will be credited. Advertising Deadlines: Monday, 2 p.m. • Brussels; Monday, 4 p.m. - Blyth. We are not responsible for unsolicited newscripts or photographs. 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