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The Citizen, 1998-01-28, Page 4Photo by Janice Becker Letters 1 THE EDITOR, Wednesday, Jan. 13, 1998 myself and fellow OFA Member Service Reps from western Ontario travelled to Cornwall to assist eastern Ontario farmers affected by the ice storm. Working from Cornwall, we travelled each day to specific areas that were still without hydro and in some cases with no phones. I visited farms in Glengarry, Stormont and Prescott Counties. Our job was to assist those farms that had no generators, or were sharing generators with neighbours, and got them in contact with the various generator depots set up by OMAFRA. Along the way we also got them in contact with emergency shelters for food and firewood, electricians, and repair shops for the numerous generators that were breaking down. Words alone can't begin to describe the impact this storm had on the areas we visited. Mile after mile of snapped off hydro poles, transformers hanging across hydro wires, and trees down everywhere. In total close to 10,500 farms were affected in the 12 county areas of eastern Ontario, representing 2.5 million acres of farmland. Those who had generators before the storm were now having to deal with them breaking down as they are not designed to run for days at a time. We encountered many dairy farms who for the first couple of days of the storm couldn't milk, or who were having to dump the milk because the processing plants were also down. Many herds sharing generators with neighbours initially milking on a rotating basis were only able to milk once or twice every day and a half. Their main concern was to get power so they could do the chores, and when generators did arrive it still took most of their time just to do chores as they rotated between running milking equipment, bulk tanks, stable cleaners, silo unloaders, pumps and if lucky getting some heat for the house. The toll of doing this for a week or more was certainly wearing down their spirit. As one farmer put it, "We are powerless in more ways than one. It's like we've been cut off from the rest of the world." The concern shown for their neighbours was still very evident, as time and again we were directed to other farms that they felt were worse off. "We are coping but could you please check on so and so up the road as we hear they still don't have a generator," was often the response. There are too many situations to describe here as to what we came across, but the underlying message is that wherever we went, farmers wanted to relay the message of thanks to all who organized and sent relief in the form of genera- tors, food, firewood, supplies, manpower, etc. Regardless of the farm organization, commodity, church, business or community organizations that rallied to send relief to those affected by the storm, a huge thank you from the farmers of eastern Ontario. Donations continue to pour into the Ontario Rural Relief Fund set up by the Ontario Federation of Agriculture and the Foundation .for Rural Living. The fund will be used Continued on page 6 PAGE 4. THE CITIZEN, WEDNESDAY, JANUARY 28, 1998. C itizen The North Huron P.O. Box 429, P.O. Box 152, BLYTH, Ont. BRUSSELS, Ont. NON 1H0 NOG 1H0 Phone 523-4792 Phone 887-9114 FAX 523-9140 FAX 8874021 Publisher, Keith Rouiston Editor, Bonnie Gropp Advertising Manager, Jeannette McNeil VIERiFiro CIRCULATION E-mail norhuron@huron.net _pup The Citizen Is published weekly in Brussels, Ontario by North Huron Publishing Company Inc. Subscriptions ere payable In advance at a rate of $27.00/year ($25.24 4. $1.76 G.S.T.) In Canada; $62.00/year in U.S.A. and $75.00/year in other foreign countries. 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. Contents of The Citizen are © Copyright. Publications Mall Registration No. 6968 Too small or too big? How big is big? The debate unleashed last week when the Bank of Montreal and the Royal Bank announced plans to merge will reverberate for months and has the potential to affect the lives of most Canadians. The banks argue they must merge if they are to be large enough to stand up to international competition in a global society. Critics suggest that the banks are already too big and reducing competition will leave Canadians victims in this merger. It may be that both sides are right. In this age of free trade and instant communications, companies that want to survive apparently have to be bigger and bigger. No doubt after this merger, and similar mergers of other banks like the Commerce, TD and Scotiabank, there will be calls for further mergers of those merged banks to create really big, internationally competitive banks. The Canadian banks, with their long-established networks of local branches, worry about foreign competitors which will take the cream of business through internet transactions without having to maintain expensive branches. They worry about large international banks that will have more clout on international money markets to swing really big deals. They argue they have to become bigger. As John Cleghorn, president of the Royal, said, they don't want to be the corner hardware store waiting for the arrival of Home Depot to put them out of business. But ordinary Canadians find it hard to envision these giants going out of business. They already feel the banks are big enough. Banks have argued they must be allowed to get into related fields like selling insurance, stocks and bonds. They have made record profits at the same time as they have laid off thousands of workers and signalled the end of the friendly neighbourhood bank branch. Small business leaders don't want to lose face-to-face contact with community-based bank branches, says the Canadian Federation of Independent Business. What we have got here, and what will be a growing trend, is a dichotomy between the interests of big business in a global economy and the interests of consumers and communities. The very thing the company needs is the very thing the ordinary people fear. In looking at far away greener pastures, the banks are forgetting they built their strength on the people in each neighbourhood, each community. International business is on a path that will lead it inevitably in that direction. People and communities who want to have some sense of control of their lives in a global world, may need to consider building a new, local infrastructure to replace dependence on multi-national giants. It's interesting, for instance, that the town of Clinton has three banking institutions: the Royal, the Bank of Montreal and the Clinton Community Credit Union. A visit to the three, however, quickly establishes that the "little" guy, the Credit Union, is the biggest bank in town. It employs the most people. It has a constant stream of customers. As the goal of global companies focuses more on global economies of scale, people who want people-oriented scale may need to turn to building their own alternatives. — KR A new standard of morality? Watching the media circus erupting around accusations he had an affair with a Whitehouse intern and asked her to lie about it under oath, President Bill Clinton must wonder if he was born in the wrong era. There's plenty of proof that a long list of American presidents have had affairs while in office — the most famous being the adored John F. Kennedy. It has been the press (which knew about Kennedy but felt it wasn't the business of the public to know) and the public, which has changed. Ironically, at the same time as the sanctity of marriage is disintegrating in the general public as never before, people want a higher standard from their leaders than they expect of their neighbours. Guilty or not, Clinton may be a victim of this change in public opinion. If it means a change in public perception of morality, however, it can be a good thing. Just because presidents, from Thomas Jefferson to Lyndon Johnston, got away with hanky-panky, doesn't mean it's proper to today's leaders to get away with it. Surely the one thing that should be learned by the politicians who are lining up to replace Clinton in the presidential election of 2000, is that they must begin to behave better. They must now know that they are expected to bea shining example of morality, not human frailty. — KR E ditorial