HomeMy WebLinkAboutThe Goderich Signal-Star, 1974-10-24, Page 2IaAGL 2- QIMEttielt .SIGNAL S'1'ARt, t*S1)AY, OCTOBER 24, 14I74
It was development week..
Goderich citizens who dougt that this
town is on the move should get in their
carsand take sa good close look at every
single street in the municipality. Things
are happening 'here, in a great big way.
Stories this week' alone in this
newspaper give even more evidence
that Goderich is thriving, There's the
item about the application for a 60 -unit
motet on Highway 21; there's .the story
about Loren Cassina now restudying.the
possibility" of securing winter harness
racing for Goderic; there's the news
that the government will in all likelihood
provide the funds for a day care centre
in town; there's the release from the On-
tario government that -22 new housing
units under the HOME program are to be
built in Goderich; there's the report from
DRMCO that that firm is expanding into
the United States, a switch to say the
least.
And then •there's the news that
everybody is excited about the announ-
cernent that• the Suncoast plaza has
been approved for Highway 21 south and
the Rockledge plaza permit has been
ruled valid for Goderich Township just
outside the town.
Industrial Park is booming; houses are
springing up like mushrooms; new
businesses are opening 'and established
businesses are (expanding; people are
' improving their hornes and properties;
folks are working and happy; and in a
few words, all's right with. the world.
Who says there's no way to stop the
migration of young people to the cities?
Who'says Gode `rich has nothing to offer
to touristsand industrialists? Who says
° the Prettiest Town in Canada isn't bur-
sting +with important development? -
•
The g.reat absurdity
From whom do theY purchase that.
power?. Why Ontario Hydro; of course.
So; we have a situation whereby On-
tario Hydro increases the cost of power
to the commissions.they'serve, but those
same commissions must make a formal
appliFatiorl to Ontario Hydro to pass the
increases along to the local consumers.
That's about as far as you can go in
losing local autonomy!
'(The Exeter Times' Advocate)
•
One of the great absurdities of our
time must surely be the fact that public
utilities commissions across Ontario
must ask permission from Ontario Hydro
before those commissions can rrtake
hydro rate, changes. •
The absurdity is created by the fact
d that in most instances the commissions
are forced into making rate increases
because they are charged more for the
• power which they • purchase. •
It has,been quite a week. It i!
now Wednesday morning (after
deadline too) and 1'rn still' a lit-
tle reluctant to make any com-
ments concerning the plaza
situation in' Goderich. I : .su.p-
pose that's the topic in which
everyone is most interested this
week, but things are happening .
,so fast and furious in that area
it is difficult to remain current
and informed `atictut all the,
ACK'S JOTTINGS FROM QUEEN'S PARK
Tuesday, October 22, : the only a handful of Members multitude of problems and
Provincial Legislature will would participate in the areas of concern to people. This
again be in session, after the debates on the Bills; and they is yet another way of having an •
summer recess, and this is would ,leave their seats to effect upon the actions of gover-
perhaps a good time to give gather around the Clerk's table nment at every Ieveli.It is up to
some thought to, thehistorical in order to hear the opinions all of us to ensure • that . the
development of our poi;tical in- expressed over -the incoherent, system works, and reflects the
' stitutioris. -background shouting of their • views of the .electorate which
Many of us take the' fellow members. are, in effect the cornerstone
democratic process for granted, : Some people may say that and the strength of our system.
although in many parts of the there is still a great deal to • • We can expect a busy session
world peopl would be thankful • criticize in the operation of the at Queen's Park, when 1 we
Jack Riddell, Huro►i MPP
and I am hopeful that we shall
be able to influence the Gover-
nment to take swift and effec-
tive action in this •area.
• In September two kindergar-
ten pupils and a school bus
driver were killed.'in the Sud-
bury area, and there have been
several ,,other serious accidents
of this type in recent months. I
think we mus( take steps to en-
sure the safety of our children,
to be in our bosi"tion. We may Legislature, and no doubt this reconvene next week. The Civil and `any action which is taken
to reduce the terrible toll of
highway deaths has to be a step
in the right direction.
In this connection, many
people have expressed disap-
pointment at, the decision of the
Davis Government, announced
recently that they wouldnot
follow through" on the commit-,
ment made in the Speech from
the Throne to make the use of
seat' belts •mandatory in On-
tario. There is no question that
sone people find seat belts a
bit of a nuisance, but it, has
been proven that seat belts save
'people from being killed and
maimed.
Transportation Minister •
John .Rhodes said he felt the
public would rebel against such
a law, although it might well
have saved hundreds of lives a
year. Obviously the Davis
Government is more concerned
with its own popularity with
the voting public than with the
public, safety,
The "Toronto Star" on Oc-
tober 17th, referred to the On-
tario Government as the
"Spineless Wonders `of Queen's
Palk", saying they show a
miserable lack of backbone in
`' deciding not to make the use of
car seat belts' mandatory in
view of the overwhelming body
of scientific 'studies and ex-
perience in other jurisdictions
proving that mandatory seat-
belt usage can reduce death
and injury in traffic accidents,
sometimes feel we "cannot fight is so. One can always find much ' Service Association .of Ontario
City Hall", but each of us can to criticize in any organization, have threatened ' to strike '.if
have a considerable effect upon in the operation of any cor- their demands are not met by`
the various levels of govern- poration or business. I think it December 31st. Although Civil
ment -;'by voting at elections, wasWinston Churchill who Service strikes were outlawed
working for the candidate and'said ''that democracy is a very more than two years ago, the
party of our choice, contacting inefficient method of . govern- provincial employees are ap
our elected representatives, and ment, but it is better than any patently ' undeterred. The
' so forth. . ' • . other method which has yet Liberal, Party opposed the
Many years ago, when John been devised. It is up to all of legislation when it was debated
Graves Simcoe was Lieutenant us to play our part, either as a in the Legislature. We consider
Governor in Ontario, the - voter, a party 'worker, or an it to be wrong in principle and
Legislative Assembly was made , elected representative. unnecessarily restrictive. It is
up to a large extent of leading'. Much as the structure ' of obvious that . the legislation is
military, business- and clerical government has changed,at defeating its own purpose.
leaders, and- the powers were least in the application of Rathe4r than preventing strikes,
, all exerted by the Governor, responsibility since the early, it has caused a great deal of
'Over the years this direct ap- days of the Legislative, AsserTn •bitterness and frustration
•plieatio=n. ' of power and ably, the changes which, have o -c- within the Civil Service which
authority has passed from the curred in the last decade have threatens to provoke a strike'
authoritative power of one in been as far-reaching as in the I am looking forward to the
dividual to the power of all the .:previous century. People are' nosecond reading of the Bill I in -
people, as represented though longer prepared to limit their troduced earlier this year on
their'elected representatives. • democratic duty to going to the the safety of school children
This tremendous change was polls once every four years,. or travelling by school bus,.which
not an easy transition, and . whenever the electoral call is outlines necessary
there was a period of corrup- made, to casting a secret qualifications for school bus
. tion, irresponsibility and long ballot, as the only aspect of operators, and provides for
meaningless debates in the their derriocratic responsibility. school bus safety standards.
Legislature, and in the political Members of the public are Obviously existing legislation IS
life of Ontario. In .the I8504s - organizing committees and ac- , inadequate in the area of the
apparently, the Legislature was tion groups all over the construction, safety features,
so disorderly and drunken that Province, concerned with a and •operation• of school buses,
rp 54
VPRIFINO
CIRCULATION
tEfje .:; oaecich
SIGNAL7R
—0— The County Town Newspaper. of Huron --D --
•
pounded In 1848 and published every thureda'et Goderich, Ontario. Member of the CWNA and OWNA.-
Advertlaing rates on request. Subscriptions payable to advance 510.00 in Canada, $11.$0 in all coun-
tries other than Canada, single copies 25 cents, Second class mall Registration Number 0716. Adver-
tising is accepted on the/ condition that, in the event of typographical error. the advertising space oc•
cupled by the erroneous Item, together with reasonable allowance for signature, will not be charged for
but the baience of the advertisArnent will be paid 'for at the^ applicable rate. In the event of a
typographical error advertising goods or services at a Wrong price, goods or. service may net be sold.
Advertising Is ntetety an offer td bell, and May be Withdrawn at any time The Signal.Star Is not respon-
elble for the" Toss or damaae of unsolicited 'manuscripts or photos.
gusli ss aril Editorial Office
TELEPHONE 524.8331
area codee, 5i9
Mailing Address:
P.O. SOK 220, Goderich
Second` class mail' rel gistr`ation number -0110
Published by Signal -Star Publishing Ltd'
ROBERT G. SHRIER--president and publisher
SHIRLEY J. KELLER—editor .
BILL DIMMICK•• editorial staff
Ji"1=F septicm—editorial staff '
EDWARD J. BYRsK1•--adOa'rtising manager
DAVE R. UfLLtAMladvertt3in� representative
.Readers are cordially
invited to express their_a
opinions of local; provin- '
cial and federal is"sues
through the Letters to t
the Editor column of The
Goderich Signal -Star.
. • All letters must be
41gned to be published,
although p'n names are
permissible providing it
'is, understood that upon
request frorh another
reader, the letter writer's
true name will be "Our native .111 \. is beim;
revealed.
developments affecting the pic- .cannot- be faulted for issuing
ture as a whole. • the permit. They: did not
Some observations ,are quite promote the idea for a plaza ,-
safe, however. they've not spent five cents • t
Hindsight is ' always more this date to see it established.
keen than foresight, of course, It was a legitimate request by`a
but it now appears apparent resident, Gord Smith, to con-
that Goderich Town Council struct a• plaza. It met with
made a serious •error, in regulations and there was no'
judgment when members reason to deny it.
decided not to initiate some ac- The Goderich argument that
tion much earlier to ensure that Goderich Township knew that
development in Goderich and the Suncoast plaza was in• the'
Colborne Townships would not development stage gets a little
endanger the plaza proposal in thin. when one realizes that
they town. • • aljhough.the,Suncoast plaza on..
Had relationships between, the site proposed, could have
Goderich arid their neighbors far-reaching implications upon
been friendlier, the co- •. Goderich Township . develop -
operation of these' two ment, no'nne from the Town of
municipalities could have been Goderich invited township of -
enlisted to great benefit for all ficials 'tci. sit down and discuss
parties in this particular case. it. '
If this whole mess ,has taught So the gap between Goderich
anyone anything, flet it be that and ' Goderioh Township grew
it is high time that more -talks wider and wider - and the plaza
and just plain trust Is ex- dilemma became more and
changed between these three ,more involved.
municipalities,
•
The businessmen wanted a
freeze on land development in ,
the township much earlier'than As far'. as the Goderich
November 29 last year. In fact, businessmen are concerned',
they Wanted it •three months their justifiable fight against
earlier but council did not the plaza has lost them many
see fit to ask the Minister for valuable friends .... 'possibly
this kind of protection. So the even customers. Their failure.
building permit was issued to over the years to keep pace
Rockledge for a plaza on- the with the objectives of Goderich
easterly approach to Goderich and district shoppers was duly
..,, . and to time of writiri4g is intensified in the eyes of the
'held to he valid.. It is under- general public when they chose
stood that Housing Minister to fight 'the establishment of a
Donald Irvine will appeal this plaza in the town. It has done
decision "today in Toronto.. them no good.'
,What' will be the outcome of The hulk of the downtown
this appeal has yet to be deter- merchants are good 'merchan-
mined. dicers. They 'may have been a
To he fair to Goderich Town- little complacent in the past
ship, members of council' there about their solidarity, but in
Two not one
Dear Editor,
Your otherwise excellent
editorial on • the subject of
Canada's official anthem omits
mention of the fact• that we
- have two. There is n "English
translation" as you indicate.
The English word4 now adop-
ted are quite different from, the
French of 0 Canada. Ontario
newspapers have been
publishing the English version
recently, ,but not the French.
Why not take a look at it? •
When th'e national anthe•th is
played at a. Montreal hockey
game, French-speaking fans
-sing the words they have
,always used; English-speaking
people sing different' words.
A businessman asked me:
"What sloes it matter if they
sing it in two languages?" But
there is no "it"; it is "them". It
is not a matter of language but
of words. Near that Canadians
have lost their sense of the
ridiculous.
If it does- not 'natter, let us
have anothgr anthem for Ger-
man -Canadians;•_, -and so on,
°
removed:. maybe it ought to be,
left in for the Indians; that is, if
they care to "stand on guard".
W.E. Elliott
New column
'Dear Editor:
Weekly newspaper reader-
ship across Canada represents
a significant and growing per-
centage of the population. It is
important to me, therefore, that
Ministers in the federal govern-
ment ,make information
available that is useful to you
and your readers.
In this respect a typeset
column will be sent to you from
one of my Ministers every two
weeks. The first such column
outlining some of the directions
of the 30th Parliament is at-
tached.
•
° I hope you . will find this
material useful, and if you have
any comments or suggestions I
would be most pleased to .hear
'from you.
BB 'Slrirlei J. Keller
LOOKING 9ACk'
sammummr
75 YEARS -AGO'
Last Friday evening a tramp
walked into one of the town's
blacksmith's shops and loitered
for awhile talking to the owner,
The smith had occasion to go
out for awhile and when; he
carie back the tramp. produced-
a spokeshave and offered to set'
it to the blacksmith. The latter
thought it looked- like his own
tool. and accused the man of
stealing., it and the tramp,
detected in the scheme of trying
to sell" the smith his own tool,
took to his heels throwing tlfb
tool away as he ran. He was
arrestedthat evening and the
next day taken before the
magistrate where he was
° remanded inti custody until his
past record could be checked.
The magistrate discovered that
the tramp had already spent
two winters in the gaol here. •
W.J, Dowding, 'harness
maker, has sold out his
business to G. House, late of
!Merton, who took„• possession
on Tuesday and will conduct
the business in the old stand on °
Hamilton Street. Mr. Dowding
will remain with the new -
proprietor until spring when it
is his intention to .leave for
Toronto. .
The' local grain buyers have
their store houses pretty well
'filled up, as they are holding in
hope of an advance in .prices.
The rise in ocean freights owing.
to the taking off of so many
ocean vessels for the war pur-
poseis partly accountable for.
the drop in .prices.
the past •few months they have
come a long way to improve
their. image. They have, shown
they can and will compete - and-.
that kind of any attitude can
only make better business for
everybody.
The Square will not die. It is
there that years and years of
.trustworthy business practices
have been available to' the
people of Goderich and. area. It
is there that people will still go
'when they want to he sure' of
complete satisfactiirn.
• The plaza tenants, though-.
just as trustworthy 'perhaps,
,will have to prove themselves.
'It is Onlw, human nature for
people to be`.a little skeptical of .
something new - and though
the initial, impact of the plaza
may cause some anxious
moments for' 'the 'downtown"
merchants, it .will he the plaza'
'businessmen who will struggle
for regular . and 'dependable
• clientelle.
1 -'The businessmen', therefore,
Xriay have carried their fight a
little too far. They may 'have
felt. .they, had a good case to'
present in court, but where a
healthy percentage of the shop-
pers from Goderich and area
were concerned, there, just was
no evidence strong enough to
• prove that competition from a
plaza should be,squashed. That
only , antagonized an -already
antagonistic segment of the
population.
The' financial settleinent bet-,
ween the businessmen and. Sun -
coast will also. he misunder-
stood. 'Few people who really
make an effort to comprehend
the entire exercise will decide
• that the businessmen of
Goderich were paid off: Rather,
after a hard look at the facts,
one must • decide that Suncoast
was only returning to the
businessmen, some of the in-
vestment lost by them to
prepare a case which was never
presented in court. It was a set-
tlement, nota bribe.
Yours sincerely,
Trudeau.. •
v
50 YEARS AGO
The following despatch from
Oakville shows how the game
here on Saturday looked to the
visitors: The Oakville team h(ad
to play their: hardest all the
way for eleven innings to yin
from 'Goderich on Saturday.
The fiome team was much"
stronger and played better ball
than they did in Oakville last
Wednesday. The Oakville team
played. air tight ball in the
pinch and backed up their pit-
cher who gave pup' only nine
hits. The managers and' players
alike have a great deal 'of
respect for the fine, way in
which.the losers treated "them.
A Port Huron despatch dated
October 20 read as follows:
"The Clifton sank 11 miles' out
of Whitefish Bay at 4 a:rn.
Monday, Captain E.D.G." This
message,scrawled.on ascrap of
paper," was: found in • a bottle
floating io'St. Clair River by a
small hny. Captain Emmett D.
Gallagher was in command of
• the whaleback steamer'Clifton,
. which went down in Lake.
'Huron on September, 22. The
crew of 28 were all .lost.
The dredge is finishing up its
work for the season; the ap-
propriation for this work being
almost exhausted. -
Mr. D.E. Holmes will be the
°aiew town solicitor, a committee
report recommending his ap-
pointment being passed at the
last council meeting.
It was passed at the Water
and Light Commission meeting
that 'the bill collector -be' in-
structed
n-structeej to enforce the j-iydro
, regulation•s and cut off all ser -5
vices where rates are 60 days in
arrears.
• 5 YEARS AGO
A meeting between represen-
tatives of the Goderich
Recreation and Community
Centre Board, the ' Goderich
MinokHockey Association and
The Suncoast .people mU'st be Minor hockey supporters was..
admired for their deter- held -at ,the arena last Sunday-
mination in this matter. The evening to discuss changes on
,delays have been . costly, no fees for minor hockey. Time
doubt. The investment in the rates at the arena had been in -
town of Goderich by Suncoast creased -to '.meet increasing'
is considerable. .Yet Suncoast operation costs and the reasons
stuck to it and at the time of for the hike were explained by
writing, that company is :begin- the rec board secretary, The
ning the long, expensive haul to 'minor hockey association said
establis, a plaza here. ,>. that, they could not meet the
One thing should not be additional cost without ino
overlooked in the heat of this creasing their fees and feltthat
problem. Suncoast officials there would be no point calling
knew it was an uphill battle to patents unless they were
create a plaza in Goderich prepared to pay the extra costs.
where zoning restrictions and The GDCI Senior Vikings
building regulations had. to be remained undefeated:,in Huron -
satisfied. Long months of plan- - Perth football action following
ning and red -tape preceded the an impressive 37.0
announcement of the Suncoast whitewashing of the previously
plaza .... and it was only then undefeated Listowel team. The
that the real bathe ground . victory put the Vikings in a'
opened up. first place tie with the
Yes, Suncoast took the Wingham Mustariga. Both
rigorous. •''you ow easy it. teams are undefeated and will
would have been or them to do battle here next week for '
establish a plaza, perhaps, in sole possessiop of . first place.
one of the townships outside The Junior Vikings were
Goderich. Certainly shoppers shutout by Listowel 7-0 in the
would not object to a five, second game of ' the double
minute hop by car teca plaza on header, The loss leaves the
- the edge of town. °Juniors with a two Win, two
'Hut by choosing this way, loss record and they must win
(continued on page 12) . their next game to t'emain in
the playoff race..
41
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