Times-Advocate, 1999-02-24, Page 9WVINISSACIO
Pebruary 22, 1989 - For the
t6th year in a row, the Exeter
Lions Sportsmen's Dinner was
a hogs success with profits
expected to be about $6,000. •
All proceeds go to the Thames
Valley Children's Centre. The
main speaker was Jay
Johnstone former major
league baseball player and a-
new
new television host. Others
included boxer Lennox Lewis, swimmer Vicki
Keith, footballer Glenn Weir, wheelchair athlete
Chris Daw and Lance Chomyc of the Toronto
Argos. Dinner chairman for the Lions was
Clarence McDowell.
The annual Exeter figure skating carnival daz-
zled a large crowd Sunday afternoon with solos,
precision and performance concluding with the
local junior precision skating team.
20 YEARS AGO
February 21, 1979 - Ontario Vegetable
Growers are seeking a sizable increase in crop
prices for the 1979 season, according to Harry
Dougall of Exeter, president of the London-based
marketing board. However, the devalued
Canadian dollar is proving a benefit to vegetable
producers who were not only competing with
imported produce in Ontario, but were finding
access to American markets.
The new office building of the Hay Township
Farmers Mutual Fire Insurance Company at the
corner of Main and Goshen streets in Zurich has
been completed.
30 YEARS AGO
February 23, 1969 - Exeter businessmen have.
voted by a wide margin to close stores for a full
day each Monday. A poll taken among all busi-
nesses indicated 36 in favour of closing Monday,
while 18 voted for a Wednesday closing.
The Dunlop Tire Company- is being welcomed
to Centralia Industrial Park as it begins employ-
ment of 70 people for the manufacture of bicycle
tires.
35 YEARS AGO
February 22, 1964 - Ruth Anne Salmon, musi-
cally inclined Dashwood grade 13 student was
crowned Queen of SHDHS at the At Home dance
Friday evening.
Two Guenther -Tuckey truck operators received
eight year accident free awards at the annual
staff banquet. They were Anton Hanson and
Kenneth Weber.
Town councillors breathed easier Monday
night when Mayor W.E. Simmons reported that
the province would bear a healthy chunk of the
Main street storm sewer cost.
40 YEARS AGO
February 21, 1959 - Popular Hensall student
Jane Horton was crowned Queen of SDHS at the
dance this week.
Rev. Harold J. Snell, who has served 12 years
in James Street United Church has accepted a
call to Oakridge Acres United Church. in London.
50 YEARS AGO -
February 23, 1949 - Banking service will be
available for the residents of Crediton and sur-
rounding area -next Tuesday with the opening of
a Bank of Montreal branch in the village.
Tom Coates has disposed of his Blue Sunoco
gas station and garage business to Fred Dobbs.
60 YEARS AGO
February 25, 1924 - The Times Advocate fea-
tured the career of former Hensall resident Wally
Walper, known as the "Cowboy Yodeller" on net-
work radio broadcasts.
Southcott Bros. of Exeter were advertising a
rack of ladies dresses priced at $1.49 each.
75 YEARS AGO
February 23, 1924 - In Exeter council minutes
it was noted that Mr. Nelson Wells was offered .
the position as bell ringer for the year 1924 for
the salary of $75. -
80 YEARS AGO
February 24, 1919 - To meet the post-war
demand for consumer goods. several area. car
dealers are beginning to show the new "touring
cars" to the public. Several of the brands have
long since disappeared, including Gray -Dort from
Chatham, and the Overland from Toronto. Prices
range from $1,245 to an incredibly expensive,
for the time, $2,575.
ratraH
SAS IN TWO
Federal Heakh.
Funding won't replace
prier arts
Dear Editor:
While the $11.5 billion for health care over five yea s
recently announced as part of the federal budget is
welcome, it doesn't make up for earlier transfer pay-
ment cuts to the provinces.
This newfunding amounts to only a short-term solu-
tion. It will take three years just to get back to our
binding levels of the mid -'90s.
The new funds will. go some way to deal with the
immediate pressures and stresses in our health care
system. It will not, however, change the basic dynam-
ics of a system that is unable to keep pace with the
increasingpresent and future demands.
Provinces need not on y predictable transfer pay •
-
ments that are matched to inflation and increasing
demands on the system, but also a guarantee that those
payments won't suddenly be cut.
If we are to stabilize the system, we need predictabili-
ty and security in funding. Restructuring can't be man-
aged consistently without those essential principles.
The federal government has taken money out of the
health care system virtually every year for the past. 30
years since the,medicare system was introduced. In
the beginning, the cost of the system was shared equal-
ly between the provinces and the federal government.
With' the latest funding,. Ottawa will be putting forward
only 11 per cent of the total cost of health care in
Ontario.
In addition, the new funding -doesn't cover the combi-
nation of inflation over the past three years and the
increasing demands from a population that is growing,
aging and living longer.
This year's $2 billion given to the provinces for health
care in the federal budget must go the front lines
immediately to relieve serious pressures on the system.
Public anxiety about health care services is rising to
alarming levels.
We need to move rapidly to decrease serious con-
cerns about emergency room access, neonatal care and
other areas where access to services has been compro-
mised.
Once we have surpassed the immediate crisis, health
providers, government and the public must work
together to find long term funding solutions to sustain
our faltering health care system.
DR. WILLIAM OROVAN,
President, Ontario Medical Association
More to accident than
reported
-
Dear Editor:
As a long-time reader and subscriber of your paper,
I have faithfully sifted through the grammatical
errors, omissions, and mis-captioned photos for sev-
eral years now in the hopes of learning some of the
local news. I have been tempted on several occasions
to write a letter to the editor, however I have never
been as -motivated as I was this week. I hope you will
sacrifice a small corner of your paper for me to air
my grievances.
As unreliable as the Nabisco grapevine can be, we
knew long before the Monday press deadline that two
of our own had been involved in a serious car acci-
dent over the weekend. Imagine our surprise when.
no mention was made of their names in the paper.
Credit where credit is due, yes they were driving a
pick-up truck, but the information stopped there. At
least you spared them the indignity of misspelling
their names, getting their ages incorrect, or having
them reside someplace where they have never set.
foot (cast and all).
We are at a disadvantage as we only have ono
paper available in Exeter (nothing like a little- compe-
tition to keep you sharp!) However, Iteal I am not.
alone in my opinion thatthe world does not drop ofd'
sharply at the edge of Exeter and we are always
interested in hearing about residents in the sur-
rounding area.
I trust that with your upcoming, issue you will' cor-
rect this glaring omission and in future we might get
the whole story instead of only half.
Wishing a speedy recovery to all parties. involved:
Deb and Frank, get well soon.
JAtver Hutment
RR{ 2, Zurich.
• Memories of MIG
TORUhrm -- Not everyone was
a good sport at Maple Leaf
Gardens, the shrine big-time
hockey has left. Take the case of
the media baron who launched a
vendetta that wrecked a minis-
ter's career.
This happened in 1964 and
has not been told in the current
spate of .reminiscences, but has
lessons for today. John Bassett
was part-owner of the Gardens,
Toronto Telegram and CFTO,
the biggest privately -owned TV station.
Bassett was highly influential because he used his
media aggressively to promote his causes, which
included the Progressive Conservative party and
personal and business interests.
He virtually dictated decisions on issues he was
interested in at city. hall, and after he became a
major shareholder in the Gardens, decided it
should add another 4,000 seats to its 13,718.
The existing building did not- contain enough
space, so Bassett and his co-owners asked city
council to permit overhangs at each end of the
arena sticking out 22 feet over the streets, and the
council, which feared his paper, reluctantly went
along.
This unusual rezoning also required approval by
the legislature, which Bassett felt would be a mere
rubber stamp because Premier John Robarts was a
Conservative whom Bassett supported and had a
comfortable majority.
But an odd thing happened in a legislature com-
mittee. Robarts, more than most premiers, allowed
his ministers latitude in making decisions, a style
that brought him his nickname "chairman of the
board."
Wilfrid Spooner, a quiet but stubborn municipal
affairs minister, could not get it into his head that
John Bassett got everything he wanted.
Spooner took such an interest that he went with
his camera to the University of Toronto's Varsity
Stadium, where an overhang had already been
built, took pictures and showed them to the com-
mittee to support his view that they blocked out the
sky, were ugly and offended good community plan-
ning.
Syl Apps, the former Maple Leaf star turned Tory
backbencher, pleaded that hockey was Canada's
only major-league sport and MPPs should encour-
age it by approving the overhangs, not hold it down.
But other Tory MPPs saw it differently. Tom Wells
and Dalton Bales, later ministers, disliked
encroaching over streets and infringing on public
space.
Al Lawrence, subsequently a minister both
provincially and federally, mentioned that he
received 69 calls from constituents and only two
were in favour.
Len Reilly, a future Speaker, said nor other build-
ing would be allowed such overhangs when con-
cerns over the environment were increasing and
Alan Eagleson, an MPP building up a business as an
agent and•noted figure in hockey, said that while he
was a friend of the Gardens, this was not good zon-
ing.
Liberal Jim Trotter declared Toronto was no
longer_ a small .townwhere a small and powerful
group could have its way; New Democrat Stephen
Lewis complained .that a business elite was trying to
dictate social policy; and the MPPs astonished some
by turning down Bassett's plan by 40 to 8 votes.
Before Spooner opposed the Gardens. plan, the
Telegram called him 'Queen's Park's best adminis-
trator' anda possible future premier.
But after he stopped Bassett getting his extra
Gardens seats, the newspaper ran no fewer than 26
editorials in three years criticizing him.
The paper said he made a farce of local govern-
ment by interfering in• its deeisiens,and. wa5• inept.
complacent, arrogant; gpathetic, insulting, unwill-
ing -to speak: up for municipalities, distinguished for
his inertia and as municipalaffairs minister might
as well not exist.
The paper charged: also that Spooner: more than
anyone damaged Robarts's standing with the public
and wa unflt fbr: of lee •and• an embarrassment and,
liability wham Roberts should replace: .
Roberts;, . to hie- credit; refused to drop Spooner, •
but. the minister was defeated.in the 1967 -election
largely because of the paper's 'c:ampaign against
hint, Thiswassone-case when' politicians were more
honorable' than( the media -
ERIC
DOWD
A VIEW MON
QUEENS PARK
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