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Home My WebLink AboutTimes Advocate, 1993-01-20, Page 4ViaaiMPassateo"Alanyaty41o,' i3 = f. wlm Beckett ' 'lire: AdAan Matte M i'NI err: Don 5mttii r: Deb Lord pi*liblitions Mail Registration Number OW UILSOR1PTD)N RATE& Witton 40 miles (65 km.) addreaaad 1e won leiter worrier addresses $30.00 plus $2.10 O.S.T. i lass (85 km.) or any letter cantor address `his $27.50 (total 57.50) + 4.03O.S.T. • "Men are never so likely to settle a "question rightly as when they discuss it freely." ... Thomas Macauley Escb WednesdayElket 424 M:►in $t., 11N_ L NOM lab bT 1.WhbMostbns Ltd. on• i011tli •.S.T. atliee210635 t- 1ir'I'f)1ZT i Cat control can be necessary ensall is unique among local municipalities in that it now has a cat bylaw. In effect, it places the same re- sponsibilities on cat owners as the typi- cal dog control bylaws. Each cat must be licensed and not allowed to roam free. Of course, cats aren't dogs, and trying to keep them from patrolling the neigh- btiurhood is like trying to make water run uphill. Clearly, Hensall council's goal is to .get a handle on the vagrant cat popula- ion that seems to cause more trouble in #heir village than in others. Under- atandablyso,cince Hensall is one of the country's _largest:inland grain handling terminals, :the village is an attractive ceding ground for stray felines looking formice.and other rodents. :Hensall's animal control officer :has bad his share of troubles in =cent years trying to :capture .cats string :from 4listemper.orevenzabies.e-mainob- ` jest :of -the -bylaw boils 2o -agister all .pet.cats, so thatuhe :strays .can be more .tidily identifiedandziealt with. One =an.aalso imagine aemepet owner -mighte pleased. to :see a -eduction in the stray population after Fluffy has re- turned from a night on the town a little worse for wear at the hands of some more street -wise cats. Perhaps those who have cause to com- plain about the village bylaw should consider first the spirit in which it was drafted, and not be quite so concerned with its actual regulations. Remember that bylaws are not criminal laws; they only have to be enforced when the mu- nicipality chooses to do so. If Fluffy has a visible license tag, then there is no need for her .to.be pursued by the animal control officer; unless of course, she is disturbingthe peace or appears diseased. Village -council will likely have to in- crease their efforts to persuade local cat owners they have noaxe to grind with their pets, except for: the fact that the pet owners will have to bear the cost of the program - in the same way dog owners have been buying licenses.:dto _control strays for years. The argument that cats help control ro- dents isn't entirely valid. There have to be better ways to keep mice under con- trol than to rely on a transient population of stray felines. The Kingdom of Canada I am a monarchist, not a re- publican. Not that I think there's anything wrong with republics like the US, Switzerland, France or Italy. I just feel it's cozier, more comforting, more roman- tic to live in the realm of a rul- ing monarch. The House :of Windsor is in big trouble. It . had a horrible year, actually. quite: a horrible century. Edward VII -resigned and married a -divorcee. George VI died early. The Queen's three children had unhappy marriag- es. There have .been scandals, Windsor Castle bunted, and the tax man is going to take a bite out of royal earnings. The only thing that didn't happen was a revolution. That's what toppled most of the other dynasties in Europe: -France. Russia, Austria, Germa- ny,Italy. I think it should be up to the British to decide what .to . do with it throne, their clown, and r symbols of Iltre-.tlsonar- chy. r to keep them ac- tive or in mothballs or in mu- seums. As a Canadian, however, I feel we should make our own deci- sions and shape our own desti- ny. Britain was only one of our founding nations (in addition to the French, the Aboriginal Indi- ans and Inuit, and the many oth- er ethnic groups that helped to build this country long before Confederation. I'm all .in favour of creating the Kingdom of Canada with our own .Queen ;or King. .com- pletely independent of .Britain Peter's Point • Peter Helsel (which hasn't been Great Britain for a long time and is bound to become part of another political structure - a United Europe). Yes, we should have our own unique brand of Canadian mon- archy. Not based on inheritance, but on merit alone. The trouble with family dy- nasties is that they are fine when the ruling monarch is a sensible tt of person - liken Eliz- . I respect her tr meendous- ly, and she has performed well in herdifficult role. But when the offspring - male or female - of a monarch tums out to be a dolt (theoretically possible in any generation), the situation could become embarrassing and ridiculous. In Canada we've had a long tradition of appointing outstand- - Why not' ing citizens as governors gener- al. We could simply inform the government in London that the services of :.rhe British crown will no longer be required after Queen Elizabeth's reign comes to an end. We can amend our constitution (another referen- dum, please), after which we should appoint the Governor General who happens to be in office at that time as the first King or Queen of Canada. His or her successor would be ap- pointed by Parliament on merit alone and only for a fixed term. Ridiculous, you say? Look at it calmly and logically! Every country needs a figurehead, a Head of State, in addition to its elected parliament and its Head of Government. In a republic, that person is the president. In a monarchy, that person is the monarch. But our Head of State is the monarch of another state who is only represented in Our country by a govemor general. I say that is ridiculous. Tl this tm- worthy of a mature, independent nation. Then why not become a repub- lic and do away with royalty al- together? I told you some of the masons in the beginning. But there's another very good reason: tourism. The Kingdom of Cana,- da anada would attract more tourists than the present Canada wht3sc Continued on page 5 ingss=m Tax dollar priorities Dear Editor: "Playhouse gets $300,000 from province for building campaign" "It will add 16 construction jobs over the winter" Wonderful! I also noticed in the Free Press that Woodstock received a sum of money for their museum. Another day I read that other theatres and museums across the province also received money, from the provin- cial government. Over the last month or so we have been reading that hospital fundis will be slashed and social service agencies are short of funds and may have to close. How many jobs will be lost? I venture to guess there will be more than 16 jobs lost due to these clos- ings. More important, where will those in crisis go for help? - young peo- ple in emotional crisis; people who, thn ugh no fault of their own, have lost their jobs and arc des- perate to be able to care for their fami- hes. In these eco- nomic times there is even more need for crisis centres, welfare agencies and counselling services. '✓1 Since there is only so much mon- ey to go around, I think the govern- ment needs to examine its priori- ties. I enjoy theatre as much as anyone else, but if there is a choice between giving money to theatres and museums or to hospitals and social agencies who help those in need, I feel the Lauer are most im- portant to Canadians. It scares me when I think where our governments (provincial and federal) are leading us. They need to be more careful how they spend our money. A. MacGregor, Exeter Losing twenty years What's the quickest way to take 20 years off your age? Actually, if I really. had the an- - swer to that question Fd be the - richest man alive. Mind you, I know what it feels like" to sud- denly go back 20 yews, if just` for a brief few moments. I was visiting my parents a few days ago and on the televi- sion was on that children's chan- nel we don't get up here. I Watched the end of one of those wild kingdom documentaries - nice graphic shots of lions munching away on gazelles. This is a kids channel remem- ber, does this kind of program- ming tell us mxe� about youth gang problems than we care to know? Anyway, the show ended and all of a sudden, as a complete surprise to me, on came the ti- tles for a program I honestly hadn't seen in at least 20 years. Thunderbirds used to be my fa- vourite show when I was very young. I know I used to watch it when I lived in Singapore (wc took whatever English language programming we could get), and it was still a favourite when I re- issued to England. I probably outgrew it shortly thereafter, but I know I never saw another epi- sode after I came to Canada. And yet there they were, all my heroes and their wonderful flying machines were back on the television and 1 was seven -years old again. I've asked others if they ever saw the Thunderbirds here, but I only get puzzled looks. They were American Gerry and Sylvia Anderson productions, filmed in Technicolor ,and .Supermaninna-. tion. Since this was years before anybody programmed the Super wommi Hold that thought ... BY Adrian Harte Mario Brothers into a video game, I should point out that su- permarionation meant that these shows weren't animated, but were filmed on scaled down sets with puppets. If you looked closely, you could sec the strings. There were other marionette - type cartoons, such as Stingray, Joe 90, and Captain Scarlet, but my favourite by far was the Thunderbirds. The plots were simple enough, a millionaire phi- lanthropist uses his fortune to create International Rescue, an organization with a series of rocket-powettsd -ttsthicles to: gra the world from certain destruc- tion nearly every week - aim why not? Like most kids my age, I lapped it up. My most prized toys were Thunderbirds molls (probably no smaller than those used in actual filming), and I'm sure I spent hours rescuing peo- ple from my own disasters. I Alsb fascinating is the compar- Lf�tte1(1 Ctitic, ison of these 1960s shows with the cartoons kids see today. They :were.blatantly.sexist - all the bad guys and heroes were men. Women served a mostly decorative function in these shows, but that was just par for the course in most television those days. I might point out, though, that in today's mass- produced violent cartoons com- ing out of Japan (a lot of today's cheap cartoons are Japanese, check the credits), things haven't changed all that much, the wom- en still play subservient roles. I'm also pretty sure that my Thunderbirds toys were made after the show became popular, unlike nowadays when toy com- panies commission cartoons based on their toys. But, all in all, when you look past some of the clunky puppets, and their strings, the old shows were quite good. The quality of writing was better than -much of what kids see today, and those scaled down sets were quite de- tailed and very convincing in the eyes of seven year old. The days of supermarionation arc long gone, but maybe, just maybe a new generation of kids will start watching Thunderbirds (I sec they're also showing Stingray episodes as well) and maybe all those great toys will reappear on store shelves (bet they won't be die-cast metal though). if they do, I'll probably be one of the first in line. Twenty years is worth trying to recapture. Money well spent on police services Exeter Town Council Re: Police Services - To Whom It May Concern: We are very fortunate in Exeter to have the security and peace of mind that we arc able to enjoy, largely because of excellence of our Town Police. Regular patrol of cruisers past our residence and' through the park particularly in the more temperate months, enhance protection against vandalism and delinquency. Frequency of these occurrences would be more comr:v'n and unin- terrupted were we to lose our Town Police. Attempted theft of our car from our driveway last year was resolved by the arrest of the culprit at the end of our street with- in five mintucs of our phone call to Exeter Police while still in our view. I believe our tax dollars arc well employed for Town Police services relative to those employed elsewhere particu- larly when one considers where most tax dollars are directed. We should instead focus on such issues as the educational system. It passes our students but fails expectations of all by providing illiterate high . school graduates, the greater per- centage of whom arc unemploya- ble at standards that existed 20 years ago. Let us recognize and prepare to deal with the equally increasing rate of crime in our society by rein- forcing our confidence in the Exet- er Police and devoting more of our energies to ensuring our youth are equipped to cope and contribute to Our community. Hill Carson