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HomeMy WebLinkAboutTimes Advocate, 1993-06-02, Page 4Page 4 Times -Advocate, June 2,1993 Publisher: Jim Beckett *BIS Editor: Adrian Harte BUS1/1e138 sr: Don Smith Composition r: Deb Lord Pubtleallse•8111111.11.10betion Number 0386 PitatiaUS ' Galant. UINub►40 wills OW km.) sdtlr....d toil l ttor..rrl.rsrdrr.s.. $90.00 pins $2.104.11.T. twN.. res km.) or soy latter oaMsrsidkoss pins $90.00 (total 80.00) + 4.2049.S.T. Owtr de Commit $68.00 ID Reasonable is reasonable is... n aisnove that shows the rest of Canada:helhas not lost sight of an tupeoming election, Jean Chretien last. week .claimed future appointments to the senate will be dealt with more hon- estyand integrity. During a breakfast speech Sunday, Chretien saidifievwould not give gov- :emment jobs:to:ttis barber or his fa- vourite hotelier. He was referring to the appointment :of Mila Mulroney's hairdresser to the -federal Business -Development Bank in 1991 .and .last week's appointment of Fernand .Roberge, former president of the R.itzz-Carltonhotel in Montreal and Tory loyalist, .to the Senate. "We :are not here to :serve ourselves, we are there to serve [moans]," Chretien said during itis -speech. However, when be was Basked :to elab- orate on what he .considers "more -rea- sonable", he. simply ,ateted,r"Reasonable is reasonable". Later when asked 'by reporters to -try and be more : specific, he said 'You judge me if lin -treasonable or notrea- sonable. You're paid 'to pass judge- ment." :Kaes tt ass,- attean every nppctintment f ihretien's office makes will be intelli- gent, logical, sensible, sound rational de- - cisions? • Although Liberals have accused Mul- roney of abusing his power slightly when it came to giving friends some plum jobs on Parliament Hill, one must not forget the Liberal track record. Before the 1984 election, the Liberals, under the leadership of John Turner, ap- pointed 23 Liberal MPs to -Senate posi- tions. Batlike words of Mulroney will come back.:to haunt him. ik tokrlituwer during the '84 election, "You mid the octan" not to rubberstamp .patrontigelappoinonents for Pierre Tru- deau. 'What has to. be :asked is :Mould rewards of:tlhis-magnitude be given to. a person who simply supportsOuftstad what you value? After all, most people receive a gold watch upon :retirement or even .a'bonus .at Christmas for which,inthiseconomy, they are grateful. :However, many get into the good books of an up . :and :coarsing politician, support him and nurse his woundsuntil i>te has the power to give, you the life you ���etalwa s *04140- Y.nusnisr.:. Now, does that-seem'roasenable? From the St. Marys Journal Argus Speak out! Letters to the editor The Times Advocate continues to welcome letters to the editor as a forum for open discussion of local is- sues, concems, complaints, and kudos. The Times Advocate reserves the right to edit letters for brevity. Please send your letters to P.O. Box 850 Exeter, Ontario, NOM 1S6. Sign your letter with both name and address. Anonymous letters will not be published. Whodunnit? Son,,or Nobody? When I was a young kid, the cookies were always locked up in the big walk-in pantry. I nev- er discovered where the key was kept. But once I found the door ajar. I sneaked in and had a wonderful time. 1 ate not just cookies, but everything else my greedy heart desired. Well, .my stomach didn't agree with :my heart. Since I was the only child at the time, I was summarily convicted and sentenced. I don't remember the punishment, but I do remember how sick I was. We have three kids. They're all capable of sneaking a cookie or two. I.guess they've got it from me. 'And it's not really a major crime. But we do expect honesty. When you're caught, you own up. If you don't, that's when the trouble starts. Now in addition to three cook- ie stealers (actually, make that four cookie stealers), we have a person in the house whose name is Nobody, and who is neither a he nor a she, but an it. Nobody steals cookies regularly, not just from c cookie jar, but from all kinds of hiding places. So aortic time ago Elizabeth bought a strudy combination bi- cycle lock and put it onthe pan- try cupboard. Only she knew the combination. There were a few expressions of surprise from the kids (and from me), but for a while our cookies lasted longer than they had before. Then one day it;bap pened again. Either somebody or Nobody had discovered the so biliatipn; And taken not onc, but three or four cfiocolate chip cookies. How could that be? How could somebody or Nobody be so smart? We decided to bring Peter's Point • Peter Hesse' the matter to trail. Elizabeth was the judge. The kids and Nobody were the accused. I was beyond suspicion, since everyone knows that I may steal cookies with the best of them, but 1 al- ways admit it. I see no point in denying it. So I Has appointed both detective (it takes a thief to catch a thief) and Crown Prose- cutor. We asked the kids if they wanted a Defence Council, but they had no money to pay for onc. And Nobody - as usual - said nothing. the kids all swore on a stack of cookbooks that they hadn't done it. Both Stephanie and Duncan asked:"How could we possibly get into the pantry if we don't know the combination?" They said it with logic, conviction and indignation. Alex also pleaded not guilty, and then he protested: "Don't look at me in that tone of voice!" We adjourned the proceedings for a. bile..A few .days lam, Alex and I happened to be talk- ing about bicycles, bicycle'safe- ty, etc., and i casually remarked that I thought bicycle locks wera marvelous invention which made bicycle theft absolutely impossible. "Not absolutely", Alexander said. Ho likes to disagree with. just about everything I say. Es- pecially when I am being pom- pous and categorical. "Yes, absolutely!" I argued, "it makes it impossible to steal a bi- cycle unless you know the com- bination." "Ya, but these combinations are easy to figure out." I had no reply and changed the subject. The judge and I had a confer- ence. In chambers. We pondered the matter. What were our op- tions in this cast? It was unlike- ly that the cookie thief would ad- mit his, her, or its guilt. It was just an unlikely that I could gath- er enough evidence on which to convict the guilty party. The judge took the practical approach. Shc found Nobody guilty of the offence and sen- tenced it to an unspecified peri- od of cookie deprivation. Then she went to Home Hardware and bought a sturdy padlock that works not with a combination, but with a key. She wears the key around her neck day and night, even when she is in the tub or the shower. And she gave the combinatior lock to Alex - for his bicycle. Alex offered no comment. "Men are never so likely to settle a question rightly as when they dISOuss it . freely. ... Thomas Maca'dRy Pitbeeked Each Wednesday Mornbr6 at 424 Mel,. Exeter, Ontario, NOM 138 by J.W. Eedy Pubiioation4 t ;. Telephone 1-613.286133i O.S.T. 1R10621x'r Beware of salesmen The day of the door-to-door salesman is back. On Wednesday morning while enjoying my breakfast, an elderly gentleman pulled into the driveway and knocked on the door. It was around 9:30 a.m. (forgive me I work nights), and ate wanted to know if I wanted my driveway scaled. There is nothing wrong with my driveway. He told me he could give me a good deal, I said, "no" and he left. A polite enough gentleman, but others aren't. Like the same day,' about three - and -a -half hours later when 1 was pulling away from my idriveway which doesn't need to be fixed and a pickup truck with a freezer onthe back pulls into dr Janeway. The driver motioned me to go back into the driveway,. rather abrupt but he_didget sue its stop. He was selling frozen seafood and so 1 lei my wife deal with it'whilti I left. A couple of weeks ago 1 had an experience with a door-to-door salesman which really boiled my blood. I was downstairs in the shower and he walked right into the house where he was confronted by my wife at the top of the stairs who On the Road by Fred Groves was.pplite enough huttoldhire np. The Exeter OPP gave me some assistance with this incident and this gentleman was just told he had to work on his sales approach a lit- tle better. I do understand the economy is forcing many people to seek em- ployment through any means possi- ble but there is a definite increase in the number Of solicitors. For those who are a littleon edglc Letter to Lditor when a stranger approaches your home, here is a suggestion. Open the inside door, keep the outside one locked and talk to them, polite- ly and if you want to buy the prod- uct, get a business card and call first. Buying seafo6d off the back of the truck when you have no idea where it came from is a definite no - no. And the gentleman selling it did not have a business card to give us. What the influx of door-to-door salesmen is doing is putting a strain on those who go and canvas in their local neighbourhoods for such things as,Heart and Stroke and Can- cer Foundations. These are volunteers who are out there trying to help raise funds for worthy causes but could be turned away because of the door-to-door salesman built-in protection devic- es we may be getting. It's too bad that my family has to protect itself from strangers who arc coming on our property in our small community. Don 't give ABCA control Dear Editor: In the article "ABCA unveils new Shoreline Management Plan" (May 26, 1993) Mr. Donnelly is quoted as saying that even though many of the restrictions in the plan exist already in bylaws, the plan "sets out the rules in clear lan- guage for everyone to sec". I would be reassured by this had I not recently been forced to litigate to obtain a building permit due to U,c ABCA's mis-use of the clear language in their Fill, Construc- tion and Alterations to Waterways Regulation. In the brief to the cowl the ABCA admitted that, although the section of the regulation restricting construction did not apply to my property, they felt that the section dealing with "Fill" could be ap- plied "inferentially" Their infer- ence being that the section restrict- ing the dumping of fill could be used to rerUict construction be- cause their definition of "Filr in - 4 eluded the term "building materi- als". The ABCA ignored the obvi- ous fact that the "building materi- als" used as "Fill" arc Limited to those meant for disposal. I cannot support any Authority, no matter how worthy their aim, whose mandate is control for it's own sake and whose methods ex- ploit the public's ignorance of the law. Mr. Prout was correct when he predicted that "This isn't something that's going to go away," since indi- vidual landowners are unable to lobby against it effectively. Assuming the plan is necessary, the real question is whether the mu- nicipalities should adopt the plan into their local bylaws or wait to sec if it is incorporated into the Planning Act. if the local by-laws already cover most of the restrici- tons proposed by the plan, then there should be no reasen to object to (or support) the plan. If howev- er, the plan would give the ABCA any additional control over private properly it must be rejected. To give the ABCA anything more than a consultive role in the imple- mentation of the plan would cause further erosipn of property rigl4s under the guise of conservation. In- corporation mto the Planning Act would at least ensure that the rules are interpreted and applied fairly throughout tie province. The municipalities must retain control over the designation, inter- pretation. enforcement and revi- sion of the regulations unless they wish their constituents to be further subject to the arbitrary disions of un -elected, unaccounta6k, self- serving bureaucrats. R.A. Burgess RR, $1 Lucpn