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HomeMy WebLinkAboutTimes-Advocate, 1999-04-07, Page 7Wednesday, April 7, 1999 Exeter Times -Advocate Opinion&Forum 1 OYEARS AGO April 5, 1989 - Friday was a big day for the Exeter Lions Club. That's the day their new Youth Centre on John Street was officially opened to the public. Rick Hundey was named the new administrator for the town of Exeter Monday night. He has been a senior planner for the past two years in Southampton. 20 YEARS AGO April 4, 1979 - Exeter council has approved in principle a plan by the Downtown Business Improvement Area to spend $150,000 to beautify the core area, but stopped short of making a deci- sion on a suggestion by the BIA that the town con- tribute to the project. A flock of Canada geese has been placed on the Parkhill Dam Reservoir in an attempt to establish the area as a permanent home for waterfowl. 35 YEARS AGO April 6, 1964 - An enjoyable evening was spent at the home of Mrs. Don Cooper in Exeter when the local staff of Bell Telephone Co. met and pre- sented her with a gift in recognition of her service at the office. The swimming pool thermometer erected this week in front of the post office shows $25,000 has been raised. The community hopes to have the pool completed by the time school is out at the end of June. Exeter squirts won the Western Ontario Athletic Association hockey championship in Elora Monday night. Bill Gilfillan is the coach. 40YEARS AGO April 7., 1959 - Exeter police chief C.H. MacKenzie sounded warnings that the problems of dogs and parking would be receiving more atten- tion from the police in the next few months. Pauline Boulianne, a grade 12 student at SHDHS won third prize in lyrical verse speaking at the provincial competition m Toronto this week. Ontario's new point system, designed to help bad drivers improve and remove chronic offenders from the highways, went into effect, Wednesday. The total number of animals in Huron county which have died from rabies since the epidemic broke here is now well over 100, according to Health of Animals Branch of the Department of Agriculture in Seaforth. A two storey apartment building owned by Lloyd Craig of Brucefield burned to the ground Sunday morning. 50 YRS AGO April 7 , 1949 - Two elderly farmers in Stephen township about six miles west of Exeter were robbed of $550 after the men had been bound and the house ransacked, Tuesday evening. Mr. Mose Beckler has disposed of his 150 acre farm to Mr. William Rowcliffe. The Royal Canadian Air Force noted its silver jubilee on April 1. The Huronia choir was placed third in competi- tion with four choirs at the Stratford Music Festival, Thursday evening. 60 YEARS AGO April 4, 1939 - A safe in the Hensall Town hall was robbed in the early hours of Sunday morning, broken open with the aid of acetylene tanks from Orville Ford's blacksmith shop. The takings were said to be about $2 in cash. Something no newspaper would dare print today. "Some modern married women think they should keep their maiden names, and usually their husbands wish they had." 75YEARS AGO April 6, 1924 - Miss Viola Hodgert and .Miss Thelma Taylor have taken positions as operators at the Telephone Central. The Hurondale Women's Institute celebrated the fifth anniversary of their organization Wednesday at the home of Mrs. Ilenry Strang. Mrs. Mitchell gave a brief summary of the progress made by the Institute in the past five years, one interesting fea- ture being that the membership had increased from 19to52. The sugar shanty belonging to Mrs. John Glenn was noticed to be on fire shortly after '11 o'clock Monday night. Mr. Glenn with the assistance of. neighbours extinguished the flames with a large quantity of sap that had been gathered for Tuesday's boiling. Only the roof was damaged. • ROSSHAUH SACK IN TIME LETTERS TO THE EDITOR Bill C-68 Gun controls Gun controls, registration, courses, permits and new construction codes are besieging one of the safest sports in Canada and all this because of the ignorance of few political leaders who are supposed to be well educated but have no knowledge of the shooting sports. I'm sure the majority of Canadian citizens are unaware of how many civil rights and how much money we have lost to be able to continue to shoot in competition or even at our local clubs. We are being treated as criminals even though we have never been charged or involved in a crime in our life times. Bill C- 68 allows the RCMP to search our homes even, on heresay evidence that we might have the audacity to own more than ten guns. Many 1 )llectors have many more guns than that but none have ever been used in a crime. Now they are even using safety on our civilian ranges, as an excuse to shut down our operations which are not private clubs but have always been open to public membership and advertised as such. I have been involved in shooting sports for the past 22 years and participated in national and international competi- tions at hundreds of clubs but have never witnessed an accidental shooting. The only accidental shooting we have ever heard of was at a police range a few years ago. Civilian ranges do not need all this new regulation to operate safely. They are trying everyway possible to shut our clubs down. Compare our safety record against other sports such as fishing, skiing and even our national sport, hockey, where every year thousands of serious accidents and numerous deaths are reported. Our sport is being attacked for many reasons but the obvious ones are because owning guns is not politically correct and politicians want more votes as well as a very large tax grab. The criminal element is a very tiny minority of our population and even very few oT these use guns in their activities but they are being used as the reason for all this regulation. The government has already been caught using phoney statistics to support this theory. In any event the criminal element will not conform to any of these rules especially registering their guns. The jus- tice system itself is at the heart of any problem associ- ated with violent crime, because of their lack of initia- tive in dealing out punishment to suit the crime. Murders, rapists and child molesters go into prisons which are built with all the comforts of home including TV's, weight rooms, libraries with computer access and conjugal visits. Of course meals have to be deliv- ered on time and of certain quality or prisoners will riot and demolish a multi-million dollar facility and nothing can be done about it because if you touch them the government will appoint a lawyer for them to sue you. The latest case of the government taking care of its own is the case of a former cabinet minister convicted of murder and now is in a BC prison which has a golf course. Times are really tough for this guy. Prison is no deterrent to any criminal in Canada. As a matter of fact many are better off in our jails than out on the street. Our jails and the rehabilitation that goes with them make us the laughing stock of the world. Gun controls came into effect 10 years ago with a police background check and a $15 fee. Now, these permits require two separate courses which cost a minimum of $500. and many hours which could be used for much better use. The forms that have to be filled out require the police to interrogate your neigh- bours and your references which have to be used and usually they are hassled at their workplace. Storage laws came into effect many years ago but none I know of have ever been checked, regulation with no enforcement, what a novel ideal We are against registering our guns for one main reason and that is because we do not want any more of our guns confiscated. Handguns have been registered since the 1930's but in the past few years the government decid- ed in all its wisdom to outlaw thousands of these legal- ly purchased and registered guns. Now these can not be handed down to our children which has been the normal routine. They will be destroyed without com- pensation when the registered owner dies. Many gun owners because of this will not register their guns for fear of this happening again, so hundred of thousands will bo hidden away instantly turning us into criminals. If these guns aro found we will receive more jail time than a murderer. . Permits are needed to travel to compete at clubs. A travel permit, the last time 1 heard that people needed one of these to move around their own country was in Russia. 1 guess communism didn't die after all, it just moved to Ottawa. Another reason politicians might See LETTERS page 10 Theme TORONTO - Premier Mike Harris has indicated the theme he hopes to campaign on in the imminent election -- he will warn not to change horses in midstream. The Progressive Conservative premier's choice of these had been awaited eagerly, particularly because he ran such an effective cam- paign In 1995 it quickly became regarded as a classic. Harris then focussed almost entirely on promising to cut government and taxes, which rang a bell with voters, stuck to it and sounded as if he meant it, which he d)d because he has carried out most of it notwithstanding harsh consequences for some. Many have wondered what Harris can do for an encore and he has given some clues in pre- election wanderings, saying Ontario 'must stay the course," meaning keep the Tories, or risk losing gains made since 1995. The premier said Ontario's economy contin- ues to ,;row and leads the nation and his gov- ernmer t made the tough decisions that got it there, although he left out that much of its prosperity is due to economic boom in the U.S. He warned some, presumably the Liberals and New Democrats, will feelthey can stop worrying about jobs, growth and financial security and turn to other priorities. But Harris insisted Ontario cannot pause or take economic progress for granted, as farm- ers cannot plant and then merely wait for a harvest. Harris was helped in 1995 by the NDP gov- ernment being highly unpopular because it ran up huge deficits and the Liberals refusing to announce policies until the election was under way and then so resembling Harris they were seen as plagiarists who waited to see .which way the wind blew. But the slickness of Harris's campaign was acknowledged recently by even one of those he brat, former NDP premier Bob Rae, who said Harris defined issues and opponents well and 'run a brilliant, focussed, tough campaign. It was not pretty or fair, but it worked.' Harris cannot run again solely on promising more tax cuts, although leaks indicate he will hold out this lure again, because he would resemble too closely a one -trick pony. Harris's principal secretary in the last elec- tion, David Lindsay, who now heads a govern- ment board while in practice working on elec- tion planning, also has said Harris will want to look for other issues. Lindsay has now produced for Harris, conve- niently as he is about to call an election, what the government modestly termed a 'road map for prosperity' and `economic plan for the 21st Century.' It proposes measures• including more and better -directed skills training, promotion of innovation and entrepreneurship, incentives to invest and removal of red tape it says will help make Ontario the best place in North America in which to live, work, invest and raise a fami- ly. Both stressed how time is needed to achieve this goal. Lindsay said it will take a few short years (and Harris) that it is 'a plan for Ontario's prosperity over the next five to ten years.' ERIC DOWD A VIEW FROM QUEEN'S PARK • Voters can expect to hear Harris talk a lot about this economic package,because it is where he is strongest, and throw in promises to continuo cutting taxes and restore family values by cracking down on crime and lack of respect, an issue that has not taken off as well as he expected but is still useful. When Harris announced his program, the Common Sense Revolution, before the 1995 election, he said it would take five years to achieve. But in this election he will be saying the rave= lution is far from over, that the Bastille has been stormed, but more needs to be done and it cannot bo entrusted to others. Harris will ask like Winston Churchill in the 1939-45 War that he be given the tools so he can finish the job -- Ilarrls will sound positive- ly Churchillian. 1