The Goderich Signal-Star, 1977-01-20, Page 19Hu
g of
ns wi
h; Mr
rad Keeler of the Ontario Planned Parenthood Federation Gode1eh volunteers involved In establlshlngorga za ona
l
onducted a two day seminar for Goderich federation goals and tasks for the local unit. (staff photo)
olunteers. Rhea ,Potter and Dave Weary are two "Of the
Tiger-Dursicop-$$
,P1 Last call for gold pieces
e Jubilee Three Committee this
k stressed that February 1 would be
'absoluteand final" deadline for the
ement d orders- for_ Tiger Dunlop
and silver dollar pieces.
e gold dollar (33 mm diameter of 24
ts, 0.9 troy ounces) is available at a
of $250.00 each, plus seven percent
incial sales tax. Silver wins are on
at $17.00 each, plus the proVineial.
tax. "
it orders for the coins are behn?
pted by the- Jubilee Three Corn -
BY JOHN MINER,,
URON EXPOSITOR
e man who 'headed the
ade to organize Ontario
ers started out as a non -
ver.
was in 1954 when Gordon
recently • retired
mittee at P.O. Box 1977, Goderich the Goderich arena on Thursday, May
methods.
r9..
e s or e big dance go on sale-: ,
Marguerite McLean,
February 1. Anyone wishing to pick 1.10- family. planning nurse with
their passes, and be assured of getting*.i the Huron County Health
one, can do so at the Hughes Real Estatek. Unit, reviewed the many
office. current. methods of con-
traception now available.
The Jubilee Three Committee also On On Saturday, Eleanor,
remind residents that the new Goderich MacDonald from Planned
flag is now on sale through •the.' parenthood Ontario, and
Recreation Office ,or. the office ofA lirad Keeler and Marilyn
tir.K.V.'andAbutnper stickers proniotinrniAurner from Kitchener-
Goderich's 159th anniversary are on sale Waterloo Birth Control
as we . Centre, trained the volun-
It IT'as been: said that
population is controlled in
three, ways: war, famine and
disease. -These are the laws
that 'nature inexorably ap-
plies to Over population where -
•ever it ocetu-s.
• Man, however, has the
option: of controlling his
,
numbers in a simple, humane
way. Birth control. It is really
whep there is a lack of family
planning that one of the three
natural solutions occur.
,It is only recently (since
1969) that it has been legal in
• Canada to have birth control
devices for sale. Most
Canadians now agree that
fmi1y. planning is necessary
nil,desirable. It is only the
iriethods that are disputed.
Ptanned Parenthood of
Huron County held a
vOlunteer training session on
,Friday afternoon and
t, Saturday.
74,„i -On Friday, the group was
addressed by Dr. G. F. Mills,
Medical Officer of Health. He
reviewed the history of
family planning in Huron and
out that there are
Huron, many un-
planned and unwanted
pregnancies, particularly
among teenagers. He was
concerned that many people
still do not have an adequate
knowledge of birth control
Ontario. „, ,
and tick t f th
The sesquicentennial organizers are
also looking for photographs of Goderich
in by -gone days. On Behalf of the
committee, Dorothy Wallace is in the
final process of compiling a book of
Goderich's history and would like to add
such photographic reminders of our
past. AnyOne who could supply suitable
material is asked to get in lonnh,.with.
Mrs; Wallace.
••••+
Plans have been,finalited to bring Guy
Lo andRoyal Canadians to
president of the Ontario
Federation •of Agriculture,.
saw a notice posted on the
wall of the Varna chopping
mill announcing an
organizational meeting of the
Farmers' Union.
"I had been reading a lot of
asem
nlzaU(
itaria Federation of
ot.Varna, bal �me.110.* fcil his
lands next to one of oak kegs In
ithatit4kiiiirattiea-etrfkolt
reporter
Oioit John kfliiir his ideas A
1 .:future fOntario farm - e
P '
' t
at the Recreation Office11
• „
teers counselling and office
procedures.
The aim of Planned
Parenthood is to insure that
every, person in Huron County
(regardless of age) has easy
access to reliable birth
control information. Con-
sequently, Planned Paren-
thood's Drop -In Centre is
open Mondays 3OO to
6:00 p.m. and from. to
9:00 p.m. Soon the Centre'Wili
(continued on pato 3A)
t"..,4",.. • '
Dave Weary and Barbara Glousher, volunteers at the Huron County Branch of the
Planned Parenthood Federation of Ontarlo, were involved in a twoday tralntng, SeSSIOD
offered by three members of the. Kitchener -Waterloo Association, The Goderich Branch
on North Street is currently staffed by volunteers each Monday afternoon and evening.
(staff photo)
•
:00101/100.'LlN:oill retireitent
articles about how bad unions
- were. Times were very tough,
but I decided on the spur of
the moment that we didn't
want a union. I decided to go
and straighten this fellow
out."
But the meeting didn't turn
out quite like Gordon ex-
pected.
"Most of the people simply
said the speaker wasn't
telling the truth. We decided
• to hold another meeting in
two weeks and check out what
he said in the meantime. By
the next meeting I had pretty
well decided it was the truth.
Two of us signed up for six
dollars membership fee"
Two members soon became
thirteen members and Huron
County had its first local of
the Farmers' Union set up in
Varna.
"We became missionaries
to •spread the gospel of the
Farmers' Union.- Our
membership grew to about 50
members and there were
locals set up in Goderich,
Crediton, Zurich and St.
Huron County became one
of the main counties of the
Farmers' Union and men like
Gordon Hill travelled, to other
counties to speak on the
virtues of organization. Then
in 1957 Albert Cormack,
president of the O.F.U.
decided not to stand for re-
election and Gordon Hill was
elected in his place.
"When -I was elected,I had
no hired man, a young family,
and I didn't know who the hell
was going to run the fetm."
Fortunately for Gordon and
Ontario farmers he was able
to hire a man to run the farm
and put his energies into
strengthening the Farmers'
Union.
It was during this period
hat Mr. Hill got to know
nany farmers and farm
cadet* across the province. A
"I found that Most of those
n . the Federationof
griculture, had ,the same
concerns as we did,but till;
ereht idea about going about
•
it. They were quiet,
respectable, gentlemanly.
They didn't want to em-
barrass anyone and weren't
prepared to do things to get
attention."
Gordon Hill never had the
same reluctance, but after
three years as president he
felt it was time to be back on
his farm outside of Varna.
He remained active though,
being heavily involved in the
Ontario Bean Producers'
Marketing Board and various
other boards.
Then in the late 1960's rural
unrests began to grow as
wheat piled up on prairie
farms and prices dropped.
Mr. Hill -participated in the
farmers' famous tractor
protest ride to Toronto and
attended a special conference
called by the Minister of
AgriCulture Bill ,Stewart to
discuss the problems.
At this conference Gordon
Hill worked closely with the
late, Malcolm Davidson to
fore the conference to focus
on farm incomes. , - -
"We thought the conference
would degenerate into the
usual - discussion on
productivity and the matter
of income would be lost en-
tirely."
Incomes,
Mr. Hill and Mr. Davidson
moved that the conference be
stopped and the agenda
rewritten so that farm in-
comes would be discussed.
The motion was defeated, but
it set the mood for the rest of
the conference and farm
incomes .were discussed. It
was decided to set up •a
special committee to study
the problem and Gordon Hill
was given a seat on it.
The major recom-
mendation- of the committee
was that a single general
farmers' organization be set
up to Which every farmer had
to pay a levy. rn the ensuing
campaign, Mr. Hill strongly
supported establishing a
General , Farmers'
Organization which the
Farmers' ,,,Union opposed.
When the G.F.O. was
defeated Mr. Hill and other
farm leaders were left not
sure what to do next.
"I decided that I had
epough..I had been working in
farm organizations since .1953
or '54 and trying to run a farm
too."
His retirement from farm
.organizations didn't last long.
Gordon attended the fall
convention of the Federation
as a representative from the
Bean Board and by the end of
the meeting he was president
of the Ontario Federation of
Agriculture.
STYLE CHANGED
The style of the Federation
soon changed under his
leadership.
- "Our motto was 'respon-
sible as possible, and militant
as necessary'. We believed in
negotiations around the table,
but if we didn't get results we
were prepared to do
something more."
• The membership of the
Federation was reformed so
that individual farmers could
become direct members
instead of the Federation
simply being an organization
of different farm commodity
boards and co-ops. And a
campaign was launched to
bring more members into the
Federation.
The Federation took stands
on such issues as property tax.
reform encouraging farmers
not to pay the education
portion of the tax until the
Government agreed to
reform the system.
"That was part of being
militant as necessary," says
But the -most important
battle in the view of Gordon
Hill was the fight to establish
a national marketing board
for such commodities as
eggs-.
"It was a hell of a fight. I
think if it hadn't been for the
OVA the legislation would
never have been Continued"
he said.
Back to Huron
. Now seven years after
taking the job as president
Gordon Hill has decided to
come back to his farm in
Huron Count.
"I felt it was time for a new
face and a new man. The
Federation -has grown to the
point where there is a large
number of members, but they
don't understand how to use
the organization to be in-
fluential". "I think that is the
skill of the new president
Peter Hannam - to show
people how to use the
organization."
Mr. Hill also points to the
need to get younger, . people
involved in the Federation as
a reason for his retirement.
"I think young people feel
the pressures of farming
more than ug' older ones do.
They should have their day in
the saddle too."
"And I'm tired."
Looking ahead Gordon has
many concerns for -the future
of farming in Ontario. He
predicts that the next few
years will not be as
prosperous as ones have been
in the past and he is worried
about consumer advocates
who view the farmers as the
enemy. The large amounts of
capital that a farmer needs to
get started also bothers him.
But he has no fears that fhe
family farm will disappear.
"In the sense that it is the
family that takes the risks,
finds the capital, and does the
managing, the family farm
will be here as long as there is
farming."
He is opposed to companies
such as McCains which "have
operated as buccaneers".
"They charge top price for
eyerything and pay the
lowest. I think they Are
simply ruthless buccaneers
which shouldn't in any event
getVovernment support."
Food processing plants
should decide whether or not
they want to produce or
process. I don't think they
should be involved in both,"
But whatever the future of
farming, Gordon Hill is sure
that the Federation 'of
. • • • ' • I.
ek.
4',.:74:1•
...
.... ,. . . •
• • , .
'• ... . ••'. i'r4/,4:,4',ii•
leqki'l.:'' •-• ' ''' '' ''' ' '
f":‘•-,i,V.e...'4.,...',.%',••••:.,;:';i..':'::, .‘„,,,...i5.4a,...h.vit. ......;,, .,......
Agriculture will have a part
to play in it.
"The Federation hag -'a very
assured future as long as it
remains responsive and is
willing to change as society
changes and conditions
rhange. I think that is the
only thing it can be sure of."
• ".!•""..:,';:-
•
Gordon Hill, left, of Varna, has time for that now that he's
retired as president of the Ontario Federation of
Agriculture. Here he looks over the farm books with his wife
Ruby. (Expositor Photo) •
More farm news
on c,
Pages 8A and 9A
•
1. •
'
a