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HomeMy WebLinkAboutTimes-Advocate, 1983-07-13, Page 4Page 4 Ti es -Advocate, July 13, 1983 Ames Times Estabiisfied 1873 Advocate Established 1881 Amalgamated 1924 dvocate Serving South Huron, North Middlesex & North Lambton Since 1873 Published by J.W. Eedy Publications Limited LOR,NE EEDY Publisher JIM BECKETT Advertising Manager • BILL BATTEN Editor HARRY DEVRIES Composition Manager ROSS HAUGH Assistant Editor DICK JONGKIND Business Manager Published Each Wednesday Morning at Exeter, Ontario Second Class Mail Registration Number 0386. Phone 235-1331 SUBSCRIPTION RATES: Canada $21.00 Per year; U.S.A. $56.00 C.W.N.A., O.C.N.A. CLASS 'A' and 'ABC' Reduction decried It's rather difficult at this point in time to predict what advantages will arise from Ontario's new plan- ning act which comes into effect on August 1. That is particularly so in Exeter's case, where the planning process has been well served by those involv- ed through the years. One of the immediate disadvantages in this com- munity is the fact that several.citizens who have been involved with various areas of planning, zoning and property standards will have their services terminated through council's decision to amalgamate three ex- isting groups into one planning advisory committee. The strength of any community comes from the number of citizens who give of their time and talent for .its well being and it is certainly a retrograde step when those numbers are drastically reduced. • Under the new act, all planning matters become the responsibility of council, and while there is merit in having such decisions left solely with elected of- ficials, the appeal process of the past provided ample safeguards for correcting any errors which the private citizens may have made in their deliberations and decisions. The main intent of the act appears to be to cen- tralize planning matters in the hands of county boards and while there is reason to decry the reduction of the number of citizens involved locally, council should be lauded for the stand in keeping control over this com- munity's planning and not to turn it over to the county. It would be an even greater retrograde step to take planning out of local hands entirely and any move in that direction should be avoided. Whistle is silenced Death has claimed two of Exeter's better known citizens in the past few weeks and there is little doubt that the loss of Ross Tuckey and Fred Darling creates a noticeable void on the Main St. Both men were actively involved in community ventures before being struck by debilitating illnesses and they championed their home town in a wide area of,business, social and service contacts. They were community boosters who will be miss- ed, but of no less significance, is the loss of twofriend- ly people who had pleasant greetings for one and all on their daily forays along the Main St. Fred's unique contribution was an almost constant whistle that brought a sound of vibrancy to the main drag and heralded his approach. He may have been the last of an era in that regard as whistling appears to be a lost art; at least for public renditions. With reservations With all the fuss and furore of a national leader- ship convention, the attention of most Canadians has been diverted in recent weeks from the business of government itself. But things have been happening on Parliament Hill. The long -debated Canagrex bill is about to be pass- ed by the Liberal majority despite loud protests from a great many farmers in the land. Passage of the bill will set up a government -controlled agency empowered to buy and sell Canadian farm products. Some farmers, including the leaders of the Canadian Federa- tion of Agriculture, are all in favor of Canagrex, but a sizable group of independent -minded farmers are far from convinced. In theory the project sounds great. The new government agency is supposed to provide the person- nel and the experience to successfully seek out export markets for Canadian farmers and thus bring in a new era of prosperity. Those who have serious reservations about government control fear that they will be sur- rendering their freedom of decision to a bureaucratic giant which will eventually smother the pr:Cidticer's in- dependence. They refer, with evident factual support, to the records of many other crown corporations which have been anything but successful in the realms of big business. Those of us who are not farmers have very little basis for comment. Agriculture has become a com- plicated operation and only those actually engaged in the food industry can appreciate the pros and cons of government -controlled versus free enterprise. However, we wonder just how "free" the farmers have been in opting for Canagrex? Eugene Whelan, the federal minister of agriculture, has virtually blasted many farmers and farm organizations into following the course he believes in so firmly. As a newspaper editor we cannot say whether or not the farmers and their organization have made a wise decision. All we can say is that we are very, very happy that we are not among those who are being forc- ed to turn control of their businesses over to a govern- ment agency. Wingham Advance -Times Don't shed tears If it wasn't for bad luck, some people wouldn't have any luck at all! That about sums up the writer's posi- tion when it comes to royal visits. As readers know, this country hosted two' such visits recently and I ended up getting an invitation to attend one of them. As luck would have it, while thousands of Canadians were basking in the beauty, flashing smiles and colourful hats of Princess Di, the editor's invitation was to an event being staged to honor her slightly -balding father-in-law, Prince Philip. There was a time When the Duke of Edinburgh was the main attraction in the royal family, and although he probably still holds that position in the eyes of some of the more matronly audiences, there is little doubt that Prince Charles and Lady Diana have taken over top billing. In fact, when Prince Philip left Canada late last week after his brief visit, he was virtually ignored by audiences in Ottawa ; most residents of the city apparently hav- ing exhausted their fascination and en- thusiasm for royal visits after hosting the Prince and Princess of Wales only a few days earlier. A mere 18 onlookers showed up at Cana- dian Forces Base Uplands to see Prince Phil ip arrive, while there had been hun- dreds straining at the barriers, chanting and singing for trharles and Diana. 'Gov.. -Gen. Ed Schreyer met the Duke on the tarmac and accompanied him into Ottawa, but there were no crowds along the route, in sharp contrast to the thousands who lined the way for the popular young couple. But there's no need to shed a tear for Prince Philip. No doubt he's enjoying the more relaxed tone of some of his visits and the welcome respite from all the arm waving and hand shaking that he has had to endure heretofore. I for Philip While he still cuts a dashing figure in the pomp and ceremony of the many events in which he is engaged, one gets the feeling that he would much prefer to be in situations where he can roll up his sleeves and tackle some of the issues of BATT'N AROUND with the editor the day and rub shoulders with the peo- ple in his company. In fact, it's a great waste of his talent and boundless enthusiasm to be sitting on reviewing stands or driving about in open convertibles so people can merely see him. He's a man who has enjoyed being a doer and probably has brought more substance to the duties of royalty than the majority of his predecessors. His appearance at the special convoca- tion at the University of Western Ontario was a prime example and was the event at which the writer had the opportunity to see and hear the Duke. While many personages would have been satisfied to bask in the limelight of the colorful ceremony, Prince Philip ap- peared almost anxious to get the honorary degree hoopla out of the way so he could get down to the more serious business of presenting his plea in a thought provok- ing address on one of his favorite subjects. the preservation of the world's wildlife . He's president of the World'Wildlife Fund International. Conservationists received a great deal more than the prestige of his name and position when he assumed that role. He brought along his convictions and en- thusiasm and those were passed along in his challenging remarks on the need for mankind to preserve the creatures with which the earth, seas and skies are shared. "Like charity, conservation begins at home," he remarked to stress the fact that each person has a part to play in pro- tecting the environment and resources by which we are all surrounded. He noted that effective conservation of nature can ohly occur where there is civil peace and an administration enforcing laws, controlling poaching and managing national parks and reserves. While Canadians tend to look beyond their own borders for examples of im- proper conservation practices, it is rather sobering to learn that there are 15 species on this nation's own endangered list and scores of others that are listed as being threatened or rare. It strikes even closer to home to learn that one of the major projects of the Cana- dian section of the wildlife fund is the rehabilitation of the sand dunes in Pinery Provincial Park. The unique structure and plant life in the dunes has been endangered by those who unthinkingly scamper over them in the summer pursuit of pleasure and adds credence to the comment of Prince Philip that it is not entirely convincing to argue that natural resources are exploited for wealth and profit. He suggested that the erosion of wildlife and the natural en- vironment has been done by "a combina- tion of human intelligence and the best possible intentions coupled with ig- norance and in some cases shere folly. Prince Philip may have to play second fiddle to a pretty face in popularity, but not when it comes to challenging people to think and do. Stagger along somehow Well, now that Joe "Kamikaze" Clark has been replaced by "Jaws III" Mulroney, we can all sleep quiet in our beds again, and drift into sum- mer senescence, along with our parliament. That's something that has always rather in- trigued me. - the long holidays enjoyed by politi- cians. The only people who come near members of parliament, when it comes toholidays, are teachers, and at least they are of some use. Can you imaginea huge company shutting down for the summer, unless it had to, because business was bad? Yet our government, looking after, supposedly; the needs and welfare of about 25 million people, and running a deficit of over 30 billion dollars. can close up shop for several months without a second thought. Does nothing happen in the summer? Are the poor souls in the House of Com- mons so exhausted from scrambling to get into the TV picture right behind the leader that they are burned out? Or are their brains so drained from thinking up witty ripostes like "Hear! hear!" for Hansard that they simply must climb into a ham- mock and let the moss grow back into their craniums? Oh, I know the country keeps going. Thanks to a dedicattd civil service, which hangs around steamy old Ottawa, slav- ing away in those air- conditioned offices, break- ing away from the coffee break to sign the pension and welfare checks, we stagger along somehow. But what would happen if a real crisis occurred? Let's say Cuba decided to invade Canada about the middle of July, just to make the Yanks even Sugar and Spice Dispensed By Smiley more' uneasy? Wouldn't it be foofawraw?. Most of our obsolescent planes and tanks are in Europe. Yost of their pilots and drivers are on leave. The four ships of our navy that are not in drydock for more patches are cruising in the Mediterranean. or the Sargasso Sea, or somewhere. Our Minister of Defence would probably be in China, trying to buy some fighter planes that don't crash every time they catch a pigeon in their intake. Our foreign affairs minister would probably be in Cuba selling guaranteed bulls, at which he is an expert. Our prime minister, God bless him, could be - you name it. Actually, if it happened. the Cubans would pro- bably be so baffled, they'd just go back home and try to think of invading some country that showed a lit-, tie panache, formed a guerilla opposition. died with a smile of its face while singing the national anthem, or even welcdm- Room Since I have come to the north end of Lambton County to work I have come to realize the large tourist potential of the area and am a little amaz- ed at how little it has been developed in comparison to some of the other areas of the province such as Wasaga Beach. Last summer we hap- pened to be up in that area on a Sunday evening and met a traffic jam of mam- moth proportions heading back to Toronto. Thousands of people were pouring back to the city after a couple of days on ed the "liberators", as alt conquering troops are called these days, with wine and flowers. First of all, if they at- tacked our major cities on a July weekend, they'd find them as empty as ;.: ick,•... Napoleon found Moscow. If they wanted to kill somebody they'd have to head north. Can't you See a tank -full of Cubans sailing into one of our national or provin- cial parks on a Saturday night, and trying to find a place to park? No Cana- dian islikely todiesinging O Canada?. The first cou- ple of bars are so slow they'd put the firing squad to sleep. But any red-blooded Canadian will fight to the death, and those of his children, wife and mother- in-law, to hang onto that camping spot he got up at 4 a.m. and drove 200 miles, and fought off six other site -hungry campers to squat where he had a view of the water. And if the Cubans did manage to get up north and slaughter a couple of thousand Canadians, the rest of us wouldn't even notice. We'd think the machine-guns were motor -boats and mutter about "all these damned city people" coming north and destroying the peace and quiet. Just _ suppose they did get up north, knocked off a couple of thousand, and headed back to the cities on Sunday night to take over the centre of power, like the post pffice, the pubs, and the poolrooms. Their forces would be completely demoralized by the Sunday nighttraffic. Their tanks and armored cars would be sideswiped, rear-ended, and stopped so often in jams that they'd over -heat and stall. The drivers of these military meanies would be psychological basket cases. If they parachuted into Vancouver, they'd be sur- rounded, in some districts, by junkies begging for some of that clean Cuban stuff. If they hit Montreal in force and started shouting orders in Spanish, they'd get nothing but shrugs. Somebody would say, "Speak white, man". The next guy along would say. "Parlez francais, sale cochon." If they hit Toronto, and demanded to see the boss, some flunky would tell them that Bill Davis was at Go -Home Bay for the weekend, and couldn't be disturbed. All would not be lc st, of course. By the time the Cubans had got back into their planes and flown home, bewildered, Peter Pocklington would have threatened to buy Cuba; John Crosbie would have organized the Newfie navy• and Joe Clark would have called for a new leadership campaign. Just a summer "scenario", the latest fad word, for your consideration. development the beaches of Georgian B It seems to me that the while the western part of the province has been neglected. I Perspectives oft area north of Toronto (along with the Toronto area itself) has had massive amounts of money spent on building up its tourist industry By Syd Fletcher Let me give you some examples: "Saint -Marie among the Hurons, the Penetanguishene Naval Reserve, Ontario Place, the Ontario Science Cen- tre, Black Creek Pioneer Village, etc. have all been massively supported by the provincial govern- ment. If Lambton or Huron County, either one, had a similar attraction then they would draw peo- ple to them just as easily, hugely benefitting the area, §ince there is a very large population base just across the border to draw upon. 11 would hope that our local provincial represen- tatives would become aware of this need and begin looking for an ap- propriate solution.