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HomeMy WebLinkAboutThe Huron Expositor, 1995-05-24, Page 44.41411 HURON EXPOSITOR, lige 24, less Your Community Newspaper Since 1860 TERRI-LYNN DALE - General Manager & Advertising Manager MARY MELIOR - Soles PAT ARMES • Office Manager DIANNE McGRATH - Subscriptions UNDA PULLMAN -Typesetter TIM CUMMING - Editor GREGOR CAMPBELL Reporter BARB STOREY Distribution A Burgoyne Community Newspaper SUBSCRIPTION RATES LOCAL • 28 00 o year .n odvonce plus 96 G 5 T SENIORS 25 00 o yeor, in advance. plus 1 75 G S T• Goderich. Stratford oddresses 28 00 o yeor, in odvonce, plus 7 28 postoge. plus 2.47 G.S.T Out -of Of-Areo 28 00 o year, in odvonce, plus 1 144 postage, plus 2.76 G.S.T USA & Foreign. 28.00 o year .n advance, plus 576.00 postage, G.S.T exempt SUBSCRIPTION RATES. Published weekly by Signal -Star Publishing of 100 Main Si., Seoforth. Publication moil registration No. 0696 held of Seaforth, Ontario. Advertising is accepted on condition that in the event of o typogrophicol error, the odvertising spoce occupied •by the erroneous item, together with o reosonoble allowance for signature, will not be chorged, but the balance of the advertisement will be paid for al the opplicoble rate. In the event of o typogrophicol error, odvertising goods or services of 0 wrong price, goods or services may not be sold. Advertising is merely on offer to sell and may be withdrawn of any time. The Huron Expositor is not responsible for the loss or domoge of unsolicited manuscripts, photos or other materials used for reproduction purposes. Changes of address, orders for subscriptions and undeliv- eroble copies are to be sent to The Huron Expositor Wednesday, May 24, 1995 Editorial and Business Offices - 100 Main Street.,Seaforth Telephone (519) 527-0240 Fax 1519) 527-2858 Moiling Address • P.O. Box 69, Seaforth, Ontario, NOK 1 WO Member of the Canadian Community Newspoper Association, Ontario Community Newspapers Association and the Ontario Press Council U.S. man misses mark Pat Buchanan, a Republican hopeful for the office of president in the United States of America, says he wants to direct his country away from immigration policies- like those in Canada where he believes the nation's fabric is unravelling and society is frag- menting because it lacks a single language and encourages immigrants to keep their culture. But Sheila Finestone, secretary of state for multiculturalism, told a recent convention of the Conference Board of Canada that Canadians of varied backgrounds provide natural links to vital global markets. She believes a racially and cultural- ly diverse work force can boost profits for business - and - the Bank. of Montreal is a case in point. 'According -to Peggy, Sum, vice-president of Asian, markets for the Bank of Montreal, Chinese -Cana- dians have been targeted for the past five years at a string of 60 -Chinese" branches across the country, with the result that business at the Bank of Montreal has increased more than 400 per cent. Chinese speaking customers can now do their business in their own language. Even bank forms are printed in Chinese as well as in English or French, so customers don't have to ask the tellers to help fill them out. Surprise, surprise! profitability among the bank's Chinese -Canadian clientele is higher than for the average Canadian customer. It's this kind of broad and open-minded approach to immigration that Pat Buchanan doesn't under- stand. To be honest, Canadian statistics indicate that many of us don't understand it either. Pat Buchanan's country is known world-wide as The Greatest Nation on Earth - a huge melting pot where everyone is thrown into a national stew and comes out whistling the same tune and marching to the same beat. Sheila Finestone's country - Canada - is more like a salad where everyone keeps his own identity but lends an important individuality to a rare and coveted assortment of opportunity. Which is better - stew or salad? We won't ever know because Canada and the United • States are contrasting nations with contrasting philosophies. Their citizens have diverging expectations, totally dissimilar goals. And though Canada and the USA are good neigh- bours and fast friends, their ideas and strategies are not interchangeable on a national basis. Most Canadians like it that way, even when it comes to our controversial immigration policies. - SJK Camping fever is an affliction I would like to know who caught Camping Fever this past weekend. To determine who has this highly -contagious condition I must ask the fol- lowing questions: •Did you pay dearly for the privilege of parking yourself in the middle of the forest and freezing your English Muffins in a tent or trailer? • Did you. .sgiend throe hours packing, an hour driving, thirty waking hours getting settled, an hour driving and three hours unpacking? (Roughly one hour in tedium for every four hours at the camp)? • Did you take a shower in facilities you wouldn't clean your dog in at home? •Did one spouse want to book an extra night at a provincial park...while the other spouse used his/her cell phone to book the next night at the Chateau Laurier? • Did you buy brand new con- tainers of mustard, relish and ketchup...even though you had the same items at home? • Arc you wondering how you spent all you money without going anywhere fancy? •Did you frantically return home saying 'I love you, I love you, I love you' to your bed? •Did you cat nothing but granola and still gain five pounds? •Are you sick of marshmal- lows? • Is your car full of pots, pans and sleeping bags:' • Are you humming the words to 'Fire's Burning' at work? • Are your children saying, 'Next year, I'd rather go to Disney World' ? F!ashba ck •Did you retum home holding onto your TV remote control for dear life? If you have answered 'Yes' to any of these questions there is no hope...you have an incur- able case of 'Backwoods Fixation'. Ther is nothing left to do but buy yourself a new Coleman stove, start wearing plaid, videotape a few episodes of the Red Green Show and book your campsite for the next long weekend. There is something .truly Canadian about leaving the warm embrace of our homes for the joy of long drives, freezing cold evenings, bugs and unpredictable weather. There is also something truly dumb about it. Oh well, it beats watching the Odometer turn. This photo of the Seaforth Regiment Band comes from an McGrath. Remember -that. Seaforth celebrates its Horne - old book on Seaforth lent, to the Huron Expositor by Ina coming on August 3-6 of this year. Guinea pig problems? Call the bureau Your local Better Business Bureau is a clearing house for consumer complaints. • Funded by Canadian businesses, there are hundreds of such bureaus in this country trying to keep you from being ripped off. These bureaus receive calls about defective worms (too lumpy), drunk disk jockeys at weddings, deep-fried cockroaches in take-out food and one from a woman who wanted them to control her daughter's pct buying habits. (For my money, there's nothing worse than an impetuous woman with credit cards, loose in a pet shop.) In most cases the calls which the Better Business Bureau people get are clear and manageable. Some, however, must be submitted to the Weird Communication De -Coder Device. Here arc a few such consumer complaints. - One complainant called to say his guinea pig had haemorrhoids. One woman called a furnace company to say she wanted to get her ducts cleaned and the receptionist referred her to a reputable taxidermist. The receptionist was new. One customer bought a dog and then wanted to return it because it growled. (Well if anybody here has a reason to be irritable and growl, it's probably the haemorrhoids.) One man called requesting "Cow removal" but emphasizing the fact that there was no hurry to move 01' Bessie. She can stay there until the spring thaw he said. Another woman called to complain because the pct store had sold her a female dog with a penis. The manager stated that the dog did not have a penis when it left the store, but he refunded her money anyway. pig with (I know what you're thinking. Why did she every bring it back? Imagine, the only one -dog breeding kennel in the world!) In recording the complaints, the people at the bureau get some rather unusual quotes. Said one woman: "My father was drunk when he signed the contract, so is it still binding?" (No, the contract is pretty loose, it's you old man that's tight!) One man who paid a magician to appear at a kid's party complained: "He didn't show up, he just took the money and disappeared!" (Thus, saving you the agony of card tricks). One woman without even a greeting began: "I've got bad gas. And I know my gas, because I've had bad gas before." (To cover all the bases, request a serviceman from Consumers Gas to come to the house and in the meantime take two good hits of Beano.) One unhappy customer yelled: "They mislead me. They committed frcud!t' (You know, psychologists are only now discovering that Freud should have been committed.) One woman complained that when her daughter failed to make payments on a loan she'd consigned, the company garnished her mothers allowance cheque. She wanted to know if this was legal. (If it's garnished with vegetables shaped like little farm animals, apparently it is legal). One woman could only get a credit for merchandise she had returned. As she put it: "I gave the item back to them but they would only give me a $200 vulture." (Okay, but the high - ticket vulture does hunt rabbits). Said the staff at the Beuer Business Bureau: "We think she meant voucher but around here you never know. Some complaints to the bureau are just downright bizarre. One man called and claimed a cleaning store was holding his pants for ransom. One woman complained her driver's license photo was ugly, and a man phoned to say the photos of him came back from developing "way too happy". Not even my kids wanted them," he said. (A switch perhaps?) One customer complained about his new diet plan. "It works like acupuncture," he said. "You put it in your ear." (That would be like second thing you took in the ear, sir.) see Conspiracy, page 15 Dungannon -area man sees no evidence of democracy Dear Editor, Open letter to Huron Council. Where is democracy? I have looked at all levels of govern- ment in Canada, actively seek- ing for representative democ- racy, but it is a rare representa- tive in Canada that is truly democratic in belief or action. For most lip service will do. We witnessed only a few weeks ago, where our Federal representative, Paul Steckle did stand against the full weight of his party to represent us, his constituents. The sad state of affairs is, there is not representation for all of Huron County - rather, in its place, as a resident of Ashfield dealing with the pro- posed A3 Dump Site, I feel only the iron hand of force. An J —Z Letters example: On March 18, 1995, the concerned citizens of Ashfield and area asked 50 questions about the proposed site. They requested that these 50 questions of concern be answered before testing was to start at the site. The 50 ques- tions have not all been answered, yet the drilling equipment was quickly moved on site, as planned. One of the questions dealt with the issue of who is responsible if the test drilling causes a neighbouring well to fail. This is a.crucial question that has not been addressed properly, therefore remains unanswered. We think of ourselves as living in a free land, but if we are so free, why is it we do not have a say? Why is it we are unable to reverse a government ruling that is against the will of the people? In Ashfield how is it that we are not able to stop a dump from being shoved down our throats? China, in an attempt to pro- duce hydro electric power, is forcing over 1 million people off their land, so they can flood the land. Wc, irr' our highmindcd and arrogant thoughts of ourselves think, how barbaric, how cruel, and how inhumane of those Chi- nese leaders. Yet on a smaller scale, you will force some farmers and other arca persons off their lands, whether they have their land expropriated or due to the fear of leachate in their drinking water, or numer- ous other concerns. If this is not China, but in fact a democratic nation, why will landowners still lose their land? The difference seems only the degree of the removal and instead of soldiers, we have laws and courts to do the same job. Our right to speak amounts to banging pots to a source of irritation. I am one of the little guys. Is it a democracy, when due to a conflict of interest, our representative of Ashfield, who should be on council fighting p. on our behalf is silenced by a conflict of interest. Further- more, we are not allowed an alternate voice on council. If this is a true democracy, there would be some contingency plan to get us representation and if there is no plan council of Huron should do something to get us a say. For other reeves who do not want the dump in their town- ships, it would appear that it is easy to stick those without a say. Positions in government came into existence because citizens of a given constituency needed someone to enact their com- mon affairs. This, in simple terms means you were hired as a servant of those that elected vou. 1 don't know nnvone that went to the polls to elect a king to rule over us. In Ashfield, we as voters have given up a portion of our sovem power to allow our representatives to enact our needs. I don't remember hear- ing any candidate talk of or ask for the power or right to dis- rupt anyones life by forcing them off their land. 1 look forward to receiving you thoughts, individually or collectively so I and others likewise interested may be enlightened on the rights of Ashfield and area residents to resist what appears to me a steamroller. Yours sincerely Rob McQueen RR 1 Dungannon �,