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Times Advocate, 1999-12-22, Page 7Wednesday,December 22, 1999 1 Opinion&Forum IOYEARS. O December 0, 1989 -The Township of Stephen will be 150 years old in 1992. A Sesquicentennial committee headed by co -chairpersons Allan Walper and Karen Tieman has been holding meetings for the past six months. • Citing work absenteeism as one of the problems troubling industry today, General Manufacturing of Hensall once again rewarded its employees with the highest on-the-job percentages. In all, 17 employees boasted perfect attendance and 19 had 99 percent attendance. Winning atten- dance prizes were Mike McGuigan, Jeff Laporte, Bilke Berends and Brian Gaiser. Lorne Fell of Rosebank Seed Farms of Staffa becomes the first exhibitor in the Royal Winter Fair field crop section to win four world championships in one year. Bruce Eccles has been named chairman of the Exeter planning advisory committee for 1990. Vice-chairman is Gaylan Josephson. Lionel Wilder, reeve of Hay Township was elect- ed warden of Huron County Tuesday afternoon. He has been reeve of Hay for seven years and replaces Bayfield reeve Dave Johnston. 20YEARS AGO December 19, 1979 - Bosanquet township coun- cil has taken control of the financially troubled Thedford-Bosanquet arena. Dr. Earl (Pat) Patterson of Lucan was honoured recently by Lucan village council for his dedicated service to the community for the past 39 years. He came to Lucan in 1940 when there were only four other doctors in the entire area. They were Dr. Fred Kipp in Granton, Dr. Ed Letts in Ailsa Craig and Drs. Pletcher and Dunlop in Exeter. Dr. Patterson estimates he has delivered close to 3,000 babies. When he first arrived in Lucan the popula- tion was only 525, now it is over 1,600. Mrs. Minnie Elford of Thames Road celebrated her 90th birthday, Saturday. $weet Impression owned by Doug Courtney's Wheeling By Stables of Grand Bend was named three-year-old trotting filly of the year. This week's edition advertises a New Year's Eve party at the Exeter Legion Hall with music by City Unlimited. A buffet lunch will be served and admis- sion is $18 per couple. 35 YEARS AGO December 21, 1964 - Doug Ricket, a teacher at SHDHS has been appointed Exeter's Emergency Measures officer this week. Sandra Skinner, a grade six student at Usborne Central School won top honours in a recent public speaking contest. Her topic was, "The Assassination of president John F. Kennedy. Terry McCauley, current field officer for the Ausable River Conservation Authority reported Wednesday that it would cost about $10,000 to make repairs to the south dam wall at Riverview Park in Exeter. 40YEARS AGO December 19, 1959 - Hensall council has decid- ed to combine four village positions when it replaces retiring clerk -treasurer P.L. McNaughton next year. Applications are being called for an offi- cial who will serve as clerk, treasurer, tax collector and assessor. SOYEARS AGO December 21, 1949 - The Kirkton Postmaster G.H. Burgin states that this has been one of the heaviest years for Christmas mail. A 19 year-old student pilot has confessed to fly- ing low over London and St. Thomas, thus freeing the entire training course at RCAF Centralia who were confined to barracks until the guilty party was found. The Exeter Wolf Cub Pack held its annual Christmas party on Wednesday evening at Trivitt Memorial hall. The Cttb Master is Eric Sutherland and his assistant is Mel Anderson. 7SYEARS AGO December 21, 1924 - Mr. J. Pryde and son Tom and Mr. Campbell Wares who have been at Deer Lake, Newfoundland for some time working on a large water power development, returned home this week. Mrs. W.H. Jones of Regina and Mrs. Samuel Schroeder of Saskatoon arespending a couple of months with relatives in Grand Bend. ROSS HAUGH BACK IN TIME OPINIONS AND LETTERS Thank you for the donation Dear Editor: We at Exeter United Church Christmas Bureau are sorry if Mr. Frame felt unwelcome. Our volunteers gave up two weeks of their own time to work at the bureau. They worked with enthusiasm and a smile on their faces. We were very busy. The people in this community were very generous in their donations. The groceries were upstairs, toys and clothing down- stairs. Thus the question, "What have you got?" Food, clothes? No sense taking groceries downstairs and back up again. We were too busy to do that. He admitted he was thanked. Too bad he missed the smile that went with it. The first week, people were free to go down stairs and look around if they wished, but we didn't always invite people to do that - just too busy to always make that invitation. The second week, no unauthorized people were allowed in for privacy reasons. We thank Mr. Frame for his donations and are sorry he misinterpreted enthusiasm for a rebuff. Have a merry Christmas, Mr. Frame, you made someone's Christmas brighter with your donations. All donations were much appre- ciated as was expressed by the recipients as they left the bureau with smiles on their faces. Yours truly AUDREY F. MACGREGOR, ORGANIZER KAREN VAN DAMM, organizer DEBRA JOHNSTON BOB AND HELEN COATES Marian AND BOB KERSLAKE WAYNE AND MARJ TUCKEY IRV AND LOIS ARMSTRONG CASEY ZEEHUISEN DAVE NEWTON SANDRA NEWTON DON ECKER DOROTHY TAYLOR DEB CAMPBELL MARION DOUGALL LOIS GODBOLT HELEN PRATT Job well done Dear Editor: I had the opportunity to stop by the Christmas Bureau, at the Exeter United Church. Toys, clothing, canned goods from one end of the church basement to the other. Volunteers busily working away getting things sorted and arranged. Volunteers giving their time for the last week every day getting ready to help those in need. What a sight!! To those volunteers - job well done, you make me proud to be a part of this community. Yours truly, BART DEVRIES Inhumane treatment of animals Dear Editor: To all of you people who are too lazy or too naive to keep your animals on your own property and too cheap to get your animals fixed and in turn, drop them and their offspring off on the side bf the road or at a dump, or drown them, etc. Shame on you! It is a sad commentary on how little some people regard the world and how little respect is shown for life. One pair of fertile cats, and subsequently their off- spring, can produce approximately one million kit- tens in ten years. If you don't want their offspring, then spay and neuter your pets. Yes, it costs money. It also reduces their risk of cancers and also means the pet won't go into heat every few weeks, and therefore you won't end up with up to four litters a year to feed. That is assuming they are fed, perhaps they get to try and survive by mousing, competing with a million other stray cats, that are not being fed. Animals dropped off or even those that wander from your property and can not. flnd their way home do not magically survive trouble free in the wild, or overcome starvation, or survive frostbite or expo- sure. Or battle and win fights fought.with other pets, strays, or wild animals. They are not invincible to the diseases, passed along by other animals. They can be injured by other animals beyond repair, which, caus- es them to die a slow, torturous death. Or they can live out the rest of their lives with .painful injuries sustained during the flght..Nor do maw people adopt them when they are dropped: off In, the niiddle of nowhere,, and this is usual/ because the, animals do not even .trust decent people that are tryiii to rescue See TIIEATMENT pow 2 Media doing their jobs TORONTO - Where is Premier Mike Harris? News media have become the latest to complain the Progressive Conservative premier is not around the legislature to answer their ques- tions. The press gallery of which they are members has written to Harris complaining he is rarely available for informal scrums in the corridors at which they normally had interviewed him. Harris almost never holds sit-down press conferences where reporters can ask questions and • pin him down. Like many politicians he has preferred scrums which give ERIC him some flexibility to pre- Dow() tend not to hear questions he • A view FROM might have trouble answer - QUEEN'S PARK ing. The gallery complained even when Harris holds scrums he cuts them short. An aide who would not act witnout the premier's blessing quickly jumps in (It claring this is the 'last ques- tion' and within a couple of minutes he safely moves on. The gallery says it appreciates the premier has many demands on his time, but significant issues keep coming up on which it has no chance to question him and in the public inter- est it deserves more regular access. The media have joined opposition parties who complain Harris is rarely in the legislature where they can question him. Harris has been at one-quarter of question -periods in two years, the worst attendance of any premier in memo- ry. Harris avoids both the opposition and media trying to stay away from questions that might embarrass him. In recent days he would have had difficulty explaining why he is not trying to assure national unity and allegations former Tory leader Andy Brandt, -chair of the Liquor Control Board, accepted lavish hospitality and stock options from those wanting products sold in its stores. A reporter has merely to mention Ipperwash, the provincial park where police •shot dead a native demonstrator whose family wants Harris to testify in court, and the premier bolts like a startled rabbit into his office. When a reporter asked whether Harris called federal laws on young offenders weak to refuel his running battle with the federal Liberals, Harris exploded this was 'the silliest question I've ever heard' and strode off. Harris has showed resentment by saying some media believe they have a duty to put forward views contrary to his own. Before the June elec- tion he said media were a much more effective opposition than Liberals or New Democrats, but at the time was more intent on downgrading opponents than praising media. Harris is not the first premier whom media have accused of dodging them. New Democrat Bob Rae developed a siege mentality and twice arranged to be on TV and speak directly to viewers so his statements would not be filtered through media. Rae complained he was reported so unfairly that 'if I trained my dog to walk on water, some media headlines would say Rae's Dog Can't Swim.' Liberal premier David Peterson held so many scrums media grumbled they saw too much of him, but they still wrote protesting he dodged them twice. Once was when he met Quebec premier Robert Bourassa without notifying them and explained he did not think they would be inter- ested and the second was when he restored a minister whom he had fired back into his cabi- net in an unprecedented private ceremony away from the legislature so prying media would not see. The gallery wrote also to longserving Tory premier William Davis, who held only a couple of press conferences in a year and few scrums, and asked him to hold monthly press confer- ences and he did briefly but then stopped. Davis complained the media were interested only in reporting the negative, such as govern- ment steering business tothose who, gave it per- sonal or politicat help, which is what is being alleged today and is no more than media doing their job.