Huron Expositor, 2007-02-14, Page 4Page 4 February 14, 2007 • The Huron Expositor
Opinion
Proprietor and Publisher, Bowes Publishers Limited, 11 Main St., Seaforth, ON, NOK 1WO
Huron East
challenged to
become leader
Municipal councils are not traditionally the place
to go to urge action on global issues.
Concerned mostly with roads, sewers and other
property issues, municipalities generally have a
limited role in the grand scheme of things.
However, over the past few years, Huron East
has stepped up to be heard on some pretty major
issues.
A few years ago, council attempted to require
local internet providers to filter out child pornogra-
phy - generally a federal issue - to patrons within
the municipality.
For the past few years, Huron East has been set-
ting a national example by supporting its farmers
with a municipal tax deferral program.
And, council has also been getting more and more
involved in doing its part to solve the doctor short-
age, at least within Huron East's borders.
So, when approached by a local citizen to do their
bit to stop global warming, Huron East councillors
did not throw their hands in the lair and claim the
issue was far beyond their jurisdiction.
Instead, they listened to Seaforth businessman
Pete Klaver's earnest and heartfelt plea to become
leaders and examples in the fight against global
warming.
And, they talked, albeit briefly, about the need to
plant more trees.
While no motions were passed and no promises
made, it is not beyond Huron East council's capa-
bility or track. record to take what they heard last
Tuesday to heart and begin to focus on projects that
could make a difference.
With last year's participation in Communities in
Bloom, Huron East could easily broaden that expe-
rience into a municipal -wide initiative with as
much focus on the environment as on beautifica-
tion.
With the Centre of Applied Renewable Resources
located within Huron East, any number of environ-
mentally -sound principles could be adopted by the
municipality.
Who knows? Before you know it, Huron East
could be celebrating Earth Day, giving away
seedlings and turning its yard waste facility into a
true compost pile where it produces bags of com-
post for local gardens.
Anything's possible with a municipal government
determined to be leaders.
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My childhood tobogganing
accident is still pretty hazy
It's all still pretty much
a haze.
My clearest memory is
waking up in the family
car at age 10 with my Dad,
parked in the hospital
parking lot.
When I asked him where
we were and why, he
asked what I remembered
- which turned out to be
nothing out of the ordinary. Then, he took me
into emergency and had me checked out.
On the way, we met my Grade 5 friend
Margaret passing down the hall lying on a
stretcher.
She had a broken vertebrae in her back -
apparently we had been together earlier in
the afternoon riding the same toboggan on the
hill at Mount Saint Joseph's in London.
We'd hit a streetlight pole at the bottom of
the hill and I'd ended up with a concussion.
She spent a week or so in hospital - I went
home that day with no memory of the incident
but otherwise none the worse for wear.
Since I went on to achieve a number of aca-
demic awards at public school and high school
and graduated from university, I'm guessing
no brain damage resulted.
While I've never spent much time thinking
about it, I suppose - like the thousands of kids
who have mishaps that do not cause lasting
damage - I was very lucky that day.
Because I had no memory of the accident,
tobogganing remained one of my favourite
by Susan Hundertmark
winter activities.
Margaret, on the other
hand, could not be con-
vinced to join me again.
With the current push
by a few Toronto city coun-
cillors to make helmet use
mandatory for tobogganing,
it's hard to say if helmets
would have made a big dif-
ference in our lives that
day.
I probably would not have ended up with a
concussion but I'm not sure if Margaret would
have had an easier time.
It's estimated that 2,000 Canadian children
go to hospital every year after tobogganing
accidents and Health Canada recommends
helmet use while tobogganing.
An Alberta doctor is even guessing that
thousands of children across the country are
permanently brain -injured because of sled-
ding accidents.
While I grew up during a time when neither
seatbelts nor bicycle helmets were mandatory,
it might be easy to argue against them. But, I
do use both and insist that my children do too.
And, while the same arguments can be
made to support helmets while tobogganing
since speed and impact are involved, I feel
myself resisting the continuing movement to
attempt to take each and every risk from our
lives.
Tobogganing, skiing, tubing and snawboard-
See HAPPY, Page 6
Ron ct Dave
I need your help.
I'm gonna run for
class president
Platform?
I don't
.have one
No problem.
Just talk about
FAMILY VALUES
PATRIOTISM
and RELIGION.
f_I
by David Lacey
rl
Are people
really that
stupid?
You only
need 51%.
...it's a
slam dunk.
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