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Clinton News-Record, 1979-12-20, Page 4_PAGE 4 —CLINTON NE'WS,RECORD, THURSDAY, DECEMBER 20, 1979 The clinten 11.4•Yes-litecord 11 Published each Thursday at P.O. Box 3t. Clinton. Ontario. Canada. NOM ILO. Member. Ontario Weekly Newspaper Asseciallen It is registered as second class mei, by ,f be post office under the permit number 0917. Th. News•Record incorporated In 1924 rhe Huron News•Record. founded In 111111. end The Clinton New Ero. founded In 1110$. Total press Ng 3.300. NA. Member Canadian Community Newspaper Association , Display advertising rates available on request. Ask for Rate Card No. 10 effective Sept. 1. 1979 General Manager • J. Howard Aitken Editor • James E. Fitzgerald Advertising Director • Gary L. Heist News editor • Shelley McPhee Office Manager • Margaret Gibb Circulation • Freda McLeod Subscription Rate: Canada • '15.00 Sr. Citizen • '13.00 per year U.S.A. IL foreign • '30.00 per year 1 I've got a secret As anyone who lives in a small town knows, it's hard to keep anything secret. If someone on a village council gets' a payoff for installing parking meters along the main drag, people will soon hear about it, one way or another, says the United Church in an unchurched editorial. In cities, - that natural flow of communication breaks down. Information may never get around — unless people make an effort -- when so many live and work in different worlds. Office and home may be even further apart in attitudes to life than they are in miles. And when you get to the biggest organizations of people — td in- ternational corporations and national governments -- secrecy turns into a fetish. Information doesn't get around at all. It stays in double -locked filing cabinets, on documents marked "Private," "Confidential," and "Secret," out of bounds to everyone without proper authorization. Any information that does get out, such as press releases or annual reports, is carefully checked by corporate vice- presidents and public relations of- ficers to insure it says nothing more than it should: The former' federal government's mania for secrecy even kept it from telling an engineer working on defence contracts that his security clearance had been lifted. So he didn't know he wasn't supposed to see the documents that he was eventually arrested for possessing. Some of them he had written himself. Others had been sent to him by different departments — which had not been informed of his revised status either. And cabinet ministers in that same government — to give them the benefit of the doubt — were ap- parently kept in the dark about the activities of their own security forces. Granted, those are extreme examples. But they reveal a per- vasive pattern of thinking, in which secrecy becomes a basic principle. Because big government and big business are engaged in a power struggle - with each other and within themselves - because when you know something that someone \else doesn't — whether it's a current fact, a marketing, trend, or a technological process-- you're in a position of power. You have an advantage over someone who doesn't know. But at the same time, you degrade the other person. Secrecy reduces that other person from a fellow human to a threat to be wary about, if not an enemy to be destroyed. That attitude, sets corporate and governmental secrecy in con- tradiction -to some basic ' religious principles: that all- humans are equally the children of God; that to despise or degrade others is wrong; that faith overcomes fearfulness and hostility. ° To be sure, religious bodies have long maintained some kinds of secrecy, too. But there is a significant difference between, say, the con- fidentiality of the confessional and the secrecy of business or government: one protects someone else, the other protects yourself. Before it was elected, the present Canadian government proclaimed the need for a Fr'eedorn of Information Act. It is to be hoped they will not succumb to the malaise of bigness and power, -'and will introduce legislation to cut secrecy down to size. For secrecy, in the end, always works against its owner. If you have no secrets to hide, you never need fear that they may be discovered and used against you. ( sugar and S • pice Family Christmas It looks as though the Smileys are going to have a family Christmas this year, for the first time in quite a few. As I write, son Hugh is to arrive tomorrow from Paraguay. There's no way we're going to get rid of him inside a month. Daughter Kim ,and the grandboys are going to 'get out of Moosonee for Christmas if they have to hire a dog- sled. We are a very close-knit family, and it should b a grand occasion. Close - it, As in Pulled together by needles. ugh, in his inimitable way, has ' andered from Paraguay by •easy stages, spending a few days here, a few weeks there. He seems to have friends, more commonly. known as "marks", all over North and South America, who will put him up for a few days, and feed him, for the sheer pleasure of his companionship. He started out from Paraguay in September. In October we had a letter from Florida, saying he was staying with friends and taking a course in massage or something from an an- cient Japanese gentleman. A month later he phones from Toronto, collect, and announces his second coming. Actually, it's about his fourth. His mother was ready to welcome him with open arms and a half -open wallet. But the more he dallied and dillied, the hotter she grew. By the time he phoned, collect, she had a full head of steam on, and the conversation went something like this: "I suppose you have no money, as usual." "Right, Mom." "I don't suppose you have a winter overcoat?" "No, Morn." "Well, I'm gIck and tired of you kids (he's 32) coming home without a penny and exping to be. taken hi t and dVdled.'r Andmore of the same. HughinguP. My wife, in l an agony of guilt, promptly phoned everyone who might ktiow 'v,there he'd called &Om, No I I . . . .and a raise, and a. . ." remembering our past 5 YEARS AGO December 12, 1974 Taxpayers in Clinton could face a six mill increase on their 1975, tax bill next year because of soaring costs incurred on the recently completed sewage system renovations. Rene Brochu, was appointed Parks and Facilities manager at Vanastra, at the meeting of Tuckersmith Council on Tuesday. Mr. Brochu will fill the vacancy created when Ted Thirston, recreation director, resigned and moved to Regina. Mr. Brochu will receive a salary of $8,500 with duties commencing January 1, 1975. Clinton has a new. policeman. He is Don Shropshall of Clinton .who was hired last week at the regular Clinton council meeting. 10 YEARS AGO December 11, 1969 A resolution urging provincial officials to "maintain a firm position against the invasion of abnormal emphasis" on sex and violence in films, TV, theatre and print was endorsed bySlirlon eouncil. 'Legal proceedings to recover the cost of work done to correct the cost of work done to correct drainage problems at the Clinton Community Centre were authorized by the towncouncilTuesday night. The council voted unanimously to take action against Shantz and Hicks Ltd., the Waterloo contracting firm which designed and built the arena in 1967. The town will maintain that the drainage problems which allegedly caused frost luck. Then she called her daughter, who retorted, "Do you want to hear another of your children hang up on you?" And promptly did. I was quietly watching the Grey Cup game, and wondering why I should be interested in a lot of burly young Americans smashing each other around. About 24 hours later, ilugh put through another call, this time not collect. He was sticking somebody else for the phone call. He knows his mother. She apologized all to hell. He said, typically, "Mom, you could have bought me a winter coat with all the money you spend on long-distance calls." It made her mad again, but she couldn't help laughing. That's what I mean. We're a close- knit family. With needles. All I do is hold the wool and try to stay out of needle -range, not always with suc- cess. I remember when I used to tell the kids stories about what happened to me in the war. They liked them better than the usual bed -time stories and fairy tales. Most of them were fairy tales, come to think of it. I can see what will happen this Christmas. Hugh will be regaling us with stories of swimming a barracuda -infested, river, struggling in the coils of an anaconda, being shot at with poisoned blow -pipes. My wife will be wide-eyed. Kim will be regaling us with stories of the tough Indian kids she's teaching, who arrive spaced out, drunk or pregnant, and the horrors of the unreliable taxi service into town. My wife will be absorbed, terrified, fascinated. , The grandboys will be eating peanut -butter and honey sandwiches, all over our brand -newly -recovered chesterfield suite. Their, grandmother will be just plain furious. And I'll, be sitting in a corner, relegated to getting some more wood for the fireplace, taking squealing, furious Balind off to bed, and won- dering when I can get in a wo about 1 the dreadful kids I have in rade 9 this year, my battles with he ad- ministration, and the shrinking of my potential pension through i nation. In the face of all that ex tidlit, I'll probably be dt•Vett to th graVe. 4 this happens, the turkey won't be prepared, 'cause I always do it. There'll be rivalry in the horror stories. Both gof our children will plead extreme poverty, demur the value of the presents they got, and nip out to visit friends on Christmas Eve, while the Old Battleaxe and I make the gravy and whip the turnips. And beat the grandboys, if we can catch them. Ah, but it'll be grand to have. the family together again. There's nothing that can touch getting up on Christmas morning; hung, and looking after the grandboys for five hours while the "young people" sleep - till noon. ._ On the other hand, there just might bp. I am investigating a return ticket to Hawaii, single, for the holiday season. If I left quietly, without fuss, and nobody knew where I was, I could come back on January 2, knowing full well that my wife would have kicked the whole mob out. El ctoral system dread\ damage to the building were the result of faulty design and construction, according to council. More than a year ago, the recreation committee retained a London firm of consulting engineers to study the situation and recotn mend corrective steps. Since then an estimated $16,000 has been spent. on drain installation and related work. A pot luck supper was held on December 3 at St. Andrew's United Church in Bayfield. The dinner attracted more than 90 members and friends of the congregation, Dr. G.P.A. Evans, medical officer of health for Huron, reminded county residents this week that the use and possession of DDT will soon be illegal in Ontario. But, warned the MOH, putting con- tainers of the insecticide in the garbage, flushing it down the toilet of disposing 'it anywhere that it may be dissolved in water will see it eventually end up in streams, rivers and the Great Lakes where it will harm fish and other life. 25 YEARS AGO ,! DeceMber 16, 1954 The Clinton Hospital Board is planning the official opening of the new 20 -bed nurses' residence on Shipley Street to be held on National Hospital Day, May 12, 1955, according to M. Knight, chairman of the board. At a board meeting of the Londesboro Public Library Association, it was decided to subscribe to three units of books from the Huron County Library. Three hundred books are expected to arrive on December 15. It is the earnest hope of the board that the reading public will make full use of this large number of new books. The Goderich Municipal Telephone System, which has been purchased by the Bell Telephone Company of Canada, will become part of the Bell company on December 16. The municipal service serves 370 telephone uses in Goderich Township, of whom 235 are connected with the Bell exchange here, while the others are linked to the company's Goderich ext hange. • 50 YEARS AGO December 19, 1929 A storm such as we usually expect to see about a month later than this, struck this section yesterday and is still in force. Much snow has fallen already and is piled here and there. The News -Record side of the street getting the drifts tis time, in- stead of the opposite as is usually the case in Clinton. ' Hydro has been blinking the last couple of days but so far is standing up to its job. Tomorrow is Christmas -tree night in Clinton, no fewer than four Sunday School Christmas tree entertainments being held. Who's going to aspire to municipal honors for 1930? Shall the old council be returned by acclamation or shall we have a real contest? The Christmas Spirit is in. full swing at the Clinton Billiard Parlor. We are showing a host of gifts for the man of the house and we extend a hearty invitation to , the ladies of Clinton and vicinity to call and see our display of smokers sundries, consisting of ash trays, cigarette lighters, and cigars by the box. Morgan J. Agnew, The annual Christmas tree , en- tertainment will be herd on December 22 at the Brucefield United Church. Boys and girls and parents are asked to bring gifts to be sent to the poor and needy in the city of Toronto. - 75 YEARS AGO December 22, 1904 • Architect McBride has made a brief examination of the Collegiate Institute building, but will go over it more thoroughly during the holidays. There is thus nothing to be said at present regar- ding the nature of the improvements which will be absolutely necessary, but they will be big enough to make an appreciate change in the tax rafe. • "Addie" son of Mr. Samuel Wilson, has quite recovered from the attack of ap- pendicitis from which he suffered for a month and which necessitated an operation. When he became ili he was removed to the Wesley parsonage, the esteemed pastor of his wuthy helpmate requesting that it be done. At their home, he was tenderly cared for and that he pulled through was in no small measure 'due to the practical Christianity which they manifested. Mr. Wilson is deeply grateful to Mr. and Mrs. Manning and wishes through the News -Record to make acknowledgement of his appreciation. Addie joins him in doing so. Four young men from Porter's Hill undertook to serenade a wedding party ,,y, lately but their effo s were not ap- preciated and some of the guests appeared on the scene and succeeded in capturing three of the culprits. The fourth made his escape and ran over a bush, break and scaur, they would have fleet feet that would follow. After promising to behave for the future the prisoners were released on suspected sentence. 100 YEARS AGO November 27, 1879 One of the most destructive fires that has been the lot of Clinton to experience occurred on Tuesday morning last. At about one o'clock that morning the fire alarm was sounded, and on responding to the 'alarm it was found that the fire was briskly burning to the rear and between the buildings of Mr. John Jackson and Messrs. Erwin and Scandrett dr Albert Street. These being frame buildings, the fire made rapid headway, soon enveloping adjoining buildings of H. Norsworthy and Thompson and Boles. Total loss was about $25,000. Watchmen were employed during the night to guard against the spread of the fire and the town bell, which cost $600, was melted by the heat, the tongue alone remainingintact. Miss Clara Call escaped with only an undergarment on, and was hurrying along • the street, when Mr. A. Pay (a stranger to her) saw her scanty apparell and with commendable thoughtfullness, pulled off his overcoat, and with the remark "her I can stand the cold better Than you" handed it to her. Getting in the spirit Every year I seem totake longer to get into the Christmas spirit, It starts, though, when I watch my little nephew hanging up his Christmas stocking. His wide-eyed excitement reminds'rne of the wild anticipation I felt as a dhild, and I warm to the idea of helping to put a few sparkles in other people's eyes. Most adults complain about shopping - the prices, the crowds, the indecision, the sore feet. I complain, like all the rest, but deep inside, actually enjoy it. In hopes of buying people gifts they 'need or want, I often ask them what they'd like for Christmas. One of the most frustrating answers nothing!" I find Men hard to she for, especially when they tell me they need a blatikety-blank wrench. Then they grin, knowing full well 1 have no idea what a blankety-blank wrench is or how much it costs. • In comparison, I am most helpful to anyone who asks me what I'd like for Christmas. I recite a list that includes everything but a kitchen sink. Christmas, on the serious side, is a special time for family and friends to share gifts and laughter and love. For some, the occasion will.be more sober than for others, because every year in every family there are changes - some happy, some painful. Perhaps this emphaSis on family and fellowship and sharing is one of the reasons Christmas can be such a depressing time for some people those' who feel alone, those who feel they have little to share, those who think no one ,cares. Fortunately, certain organizations in our societiy try to 166Tc'cut for those peOple, but it stands to reason that in otir rush atO ekcitement, the hand of friendship misses someone. Pondering the state of the world today Makes a !'Merry Christmas" seem oven snore reniote. Perhaps, if we remind ourselves the world seemed in dire straits on that first Christmas many, many years ago, we can gain a little hope for the future. Hope is probably the most precious gift any of us can receive on this Christmas and every Christmas. ,I felt fortunate recently when I was given an opportunity to help, in a very small way, a refugee family in a camp in Thailand. Many people disagree with me On the subject of bringing refugees into Canada. I'm not about to debate with them. I'm well aware 'of the problems we have in Canada - inflation, unemployment, energy uncertainty. You name the problem, and we've got it. I3ut we'v,e also got freedom and a place to call home:, we've got food, clothes and hope. Knowing I have all these things and knowing I can share them with someone who has not makes the feel fortunate. It has given Christmas fresh meaning foi. me and has put me into the Anirif nf Cihristmas. Dear Editor: Ever since World War I, our electoral system has been becoming continuously more obsolete. The old balloting system has been used to defeat the true deMocratic process, I When the B.N.A. Act was adopted, only two political parties made tip our governing body, After the first World War, a third party was formed by discontented ,members of the two old line Rarties. This was known as the Progressive Party of Canada, and the beginning of the end of truly. democratic elections. Marking a ballot with a single "X" and three candidates running, would allow one tobe elected with just over one third of the ballots cast. With the in- troduction of additional parties, the percentage of votes required to elect a candidate is reduced still further. In the first election, in the new constituency of Lake Centre, in 1935, with four candidates running, .J. F. Johnston was elected with 5,894 votes, although 9296 ballots cast against his election. In 1940, J. G. Diefenbaker was elected, in the same Con- stituency, as an independent with 5,974 votes, but there were 10,487 votes cast against his election in a three-way contest. More recently, a bi-election held in Ontario in Chatham to fill the seat vacated by a Provincial Treasurer, the winning candidate received 9,296 votes although 16,037 votes were cast in opposition to his election. Another case of democracy defeated by the ballot. The persistent use of a balloting system, with more than two candidates running,actually defeats the concept of democratically elec- ting a candidate with the support of the majority ofthe electorate. In the.last-Federal election in May of 1979, several of the constituencies have up to six candidates nominated, making it possible for a candidate to be elected with lessthan 20 percent of the ballots cast, certainly democracy defeated by the ballot. The Clinton News -Record reported April 26th, 1979, a quotation from a speech of Geoff Scott, as saying in part, "I think it's high time, as with so many other things, that the wishes of the majority of the Canadian people prevail." Anyone believing this should certainly bevin favour of, and out advocating electoral reform. If the present trend continues, and members so elected, repatriate, and amend our constitution, I am sure that there would be so many loop holes left in it, that in the long run we may be runnin'g into a repetition of what has happened in Nicaragua, Chile, Venezuela and a number of other countries, where minority groups have taken control of government over the majority, and have reduced their population to almost animal existence. We dare not _allow multi -national, corporations to dictate the econbmic policies of this country by a small percentage of the people, manipulated into electing representatives with much less than a majority of the total electorate. In consideration of what is taking place here in Ontario with our medical health insurance program, hospitals closing, doctors opting out, etc., not only the Provincial Gover- nment and some mercenary doctors are guilty, but certain insurance interests are contributing to the breakdown of the system, with a whispering, sabotage campaign. There is no problem in Saskatchewan, Where Medicare was first initiated, and without federal assistance. In a country as endowed with natural resources as Canada, it is inconceivable, that the electorate would allow a minority government, a group .of mercenary medics and in- surance interests to wreck a medical system, that has been proven to operate so well in other provinces. In regards to labor relations, any government with the best interests of, the country as its goal, would cer- tainly see that new contracts were finalized., before the expiration of the old contfact. Every political party', in choosing their leader, always Uses a system of elimination to obtain the majority's selection. Would it be too much to expect that a candidate once nominated, would receive like con- sideration, and know that when elected, would enjoy the support of the majority of the electorate? I note that Saskatchewan and B.C. are the closest to having democratically elected legislative members. There is a vast difference in having members elected legally and having them elected democratically. At one. point in time, B.C. and Alberta had a ballot which elected all members democratically, that is, received an overall majority support of the electorate, even though a second or third choice had to bp counted. In both provinces, Social Credit governments reverted back to the old system and again made it possible for members to be elected with substantially less than 50 percent of the vote. I am of the opinion that the Federal Government must enact a measure which wotild make the present , practice of elections illegal, be it provincial, municipal, or any other electi ns, before any attempt is triade to Ma e any other amendments td the Turn to pie 6 •