HomeMy WebLinkAboutThe Wingham Advance-Times, 1985-11-20, Page 41
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A page of editorial. opinion ° Nov. 20, 1985
trije :- ingijam Zibbance-Cimeo
Published at Wingham, Ontario, P.U. Box 390 - NOG 2W0.
by Wenger Brosr. Limited
Barry Wenger, President Robert 0. Wenger, Sec.-Treas.
Henry Hess, Editor Audrey Currie, Advertising Manager
Member of Audit Bureau of Circulations
Member—Canadian Community Newspaper Assoc.
Ontario Community Newspaper Assoc.
Subscriptions $21.00 per year Six months $12.50
$23.00 beyond 40 -mile zone
Second Class Mail Registration No. 0821
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a
Return postage guaranteed
Recount is indicated
Wingham, Town Council should act
without delay to dispel the cI'obd which
now hangs over the results of last
week's mayoralty election. It is in
everyone's interest to get the matter
resolved quickly, and the obvious way
to do it is for council to request a judi-
cial recount of the votes.
The problem lies in the results
from Poll 5, which show a total of 211
votes cast for the three mayoralty can-
didates. That number is clearly at odds
with the report from the deputy return-
ing officer, which indicates that only
205 people voted at that poll.
A discrepancy of six votes would
not by itself serve to overturn the re-
sults of the election, which was won by
Mr. Kopas by a margin of 13 votes.
However the obvious error in one poll
raises questions about the reliability of
results from the other polls as well. If it
is possible to count six presumably non-
existent votes, what guarantee is there
that other votes have not been missed,
or counted twice?
It is interesting that, while experi-
ence would suggest that nearly every-
one voting in an election will cast a bal-
lot for mayor — though not necessarily
for all the other positions, there is a 24 -
vote discrepancy between the 1,185
persons listed as having voted in the
election and the 1,161 votes tallied for
mayor. Eliminating the six phantom
votes from Poll 5 increases the dis-
crepancy to 30 votes. If even half that
discrepancy is due to errors, the elec-
tion results might indeed be altered.
Whether in fact they would be
altered, no one knows. All we do know
is that, as Mr. Eaton — whose meticu-
lous attention to detail uncovered the
anomaly in the vote count — has
stated? "Nobody knows what the vote
is for mayor yet. We know it certainly
is not correct as it stands." It is up to
council to make sure that uncertainty
is removed, and promptly.
PCs pick Grossman
Larry Grossman is the new leader
of the Ontario Progressive Conserva-
tive party. He bested Dennis Timbre!!
on Saturday by only 19 votes, but it was
enough to put him in the driver's seat
for the next few years at least.
The choice of Larry Grossman for
the PC leadership provides the climax
of a truly Canadian success story. His
grandfather, a Jewish immigrant from
Poland was, as one of the TV commen-
tators remarked, a "rag and bone
man" whose intelligence and ambition
must have provided the spur to success
for his son and grandson. The new
leader's father held cabinet posts in
previous governments.
Grossman faces some daunting
tasks. As one delegate on the conven-
tion floor ,observed, "This party has
one hell of a job ahead to put things
back together."
Although the progressive Conserv-
atives won the last election, the count
was so close that Premier Frank Miller
was forced to yield power to the Lib-
erals when David Peterson forged an
agreement with the NDP.
The leadership candidates made it
plain during their speeches that a
complete overhaul of party policy must
be undertaken if the PCs are to have
any hope of a return to power. The
famous "Big Blue. Machine", the col-
lection of so-calledpolitical wizards
which was credited with the re-election
of former premier William Davis, is
now seen •as an out -dated 'political
mechanism. .These younger leaders
have probably recognized that their
party must re-establish its links with
the voters, rather than running a slick
television presence.
Premier Peterson has, . so far,
maintained the trust which made it
possible for him to take over the reins
of government. No doubt some of his
party's legislation will make enemies,
but that is inevitable, no matter, who
becomes premier or which party is in
power. We can look for another provin-
cial election before too long, probably
well within the next two years.
Where reading begins
An interesting interview on tele-
vision last week featured a man who
has recently completed a book dealing
with the ways in which a child learns to
read. 'Since reading and writing are
vital skills in the modern World, and
because there is a very high rate of il-
literacy among those 'who graduate
from various levels of the educational
process, it is interesting to learn of bet-
ter ways in which to foster a child'
ability to read.
The first step, according to this
man, should take place even before the
child can talk. That first step begins
with the mother (or father) reading to
the child. The stories selected should be
those which will interest and please the
child at whatever age level. The pur-
pose of this very early exposure to
printed stories is to build an association
in the child's mind between the pleas-
ure of ,a good story and the fact that it
came from a book. Thus the urge to
read is planted in the mind of therchild,
who will have a deep motivation for
gaining access, for him or herself to
more of these pleasure -filled moments.
The author- did not forbid TV
watching, provided that privilege is
permitted in specific and limited am-
ounts. Television can stimulate the
urge to learn, but if too many of the
child's hours are spent in absorbing
spoon-fed wisdom the youngster may
never learn to seek knowledge onhis
own. initiative.
Somethin
g worth thinking about.
Council can `pull the plug'
Operation
EyesigN
Dear Editor:
The Christmas season is
here and it should serve to
remind us of all the blessings
we in Canada should be
grateful for. If we could only
see conditions in many other
countries off our world, we
would be better able to
measure the extent of our
blessings.
Let us remember. Christ-
mas is -meant to be a time of
rejoicing for God's gift to
mankind. It is to celebrate
the birth of Christ, the one
who gave us the greatest
moral principle ever taught,
the "Golden Rule". It
eliminates misunderstand-
ing and selfishness; it em-
phasizes love. Love is the
indestructible force for good,
the resistance to the world's
greed, love puts the welfare
of others on the same level as
our own.
What better way to
demonstrate love than to
make it possible for a blind
person to see? For a $25.00
donation to Operation Eye-
sight Universal, this miracle
can be accomplished. Opera-
tion Eyesight is a very small
Canadian charity in°volved in
sight 'restoration and blind-
ness prevention projects in
■ 17 countries of the Develop-
ing World.
Police commission must answer
for consequences of its actions
Dear Editor,,
From your ur sion's judgment by council- the civilized way to act, par-, be forced to do so by the
Nov. 13 edition,
it appears that the Wingham lors is obviously not well- titularw
ly in a small town . actions of those who insist
Police Commission is about received by the commission. where e all are trying to and persist in their presump-
to to itsin" our new council In essence, one presumes, work for the same thing: tion of "absolute power" by
as to we are to supply the dollars Responsibility, Accoun- mandate. To presume that
responsibilities by for their budget and shut up tability, Credibility, . they (the police commission)
having the Ontario Police .
Commission tell council ''land mind our business. We can only hope that at can do as they damned well
"what it can and cannot do":
The police commission, the forthcoming meeting to please without consideration
That's fair. One wonders, on when it comes to economic "tune -in" council, our new of their greater respon-
the other hand, what techno-matters, must answer to council will take the oppor . sibiiities to their community
crat that council may bringsomebody, but who? If not tunity to "twiddle" a few invites retribution of "ter -
to that meeting to. recipro-Town Council, who are the "dials" of its own to "tune urinal"consequences.
tate by "tuning in" the auto -legitimate representatives of in" the commission a touch. To allow this to happen will
cratic demeanor of thethe people, maybe the If the Wingham Town be the ultimate. act of
Wingham Police Commis Ontario Police Commission; Council and the . Wingham irresponsibility.
sion on such relevant mat- . who are not? Police Commission do not P.S. Anyone wishing to
ters as Responsibility,' The. Wingham Police get on the same "wave- question my. qualifications
Accountability, Credibility. Commission would do well to length", there will be a lot on this subject need only
The anxious effort of the consider the old adage, more "static" and the examine my record on police
commission to lower the modified to their legislated commission could well find matters, I stand by that
volatile situations on police criteria forprocedure: "He itself "tuned out" and record with some satis-
matters, mostly a result of who pays the piper should be ' "turned off". . faction.
pettiness of council politics, allowed to hum a few bars, if And that is something
c
to one of reasoned delibera- ' for good reason he cannot council can do, "pull their
tion is a desirable and com- call the entire tune." This is
mendable objective. How plug", should it regrettably
ever replacing one form of
arbitrariness with another
form of arbitrariness is
neither desirable nor con-
structive.
Town Council created the
atmosphere that brought
about the Wingham Police
Commission and the
majority passed, with trust,
the responsibility of the
"police governing author-
ity" to our first (and hopeful-
ly enduring) police commis-
sion. Three competent citi-
zens of the community were
`appointed ' and were aug-
mented by the mayor and
one member of council to
form the commission.
Council also handed the
new _commission a "loaded
gun" in the form of
negotiating the police con-
tracts. Risky things for inex-
perienced people, loaded
guns and police contracts.
This year the commission
succeeded in "shooting itself
in the foot" with a
News--thegood - and able contract settlement
the bad
Periodically, indeed quite fre-
quently, newspaper editors arid owners
----are---berat ed—for telling only the bad
news of the day and leaving out all th
happy and encouraging events.
Well, perhaps that may be true o
the daily press and the electronic
media, although they too carry many of
the "good news" stories. The fact is,
humans tend to remember the bad
news more clearly than the good. In
addition, if the news media left out th
unhappy storied there would .be a how
of protest from all the people who be
lieve they have a right to be informed
For example, more than 20,000 peopl
died in Colombia last week when a
long -sleeping volcano erupted and
buried several towns in boiling mud.
Not a nice story. of any sense of the
word. But should the news media have
decided not to carry the details simply
because it was a depressing and sad
event?
When this same criticism is level-
led at the local newspaper the
complaWant -hs s`itiwply off base. The
news stories in the local weekly are
mostly of the good news variety. The
sad news we do carry is usually in the
obituary column which records the
e our community and its development
over the years.
deaths of old friends — and even then
we try to seek ou-t_som.etlaing-o#—their
lives which made them contributors to
f
The remainder of our stories are
chiefly about the happy and promising
events which take place every week in
a small town. We tell you what the local
organizations are doing, we carry
e columns from our schools, written not
by seasoned newspaper people, but by,
the students theN'nselves. We tell you
what your elected councils and boards
e
are deciding on your behalf, we relate
the progress of meetings of your hos-
pital board, we tell you about the sports
events in which local teams are in-
volved. None of that is bad news.
Occasionally, when there is a trag-
edy of some sort which involves a local
person we print the necessary part of
the happening with total sympathy for
those who may have been saddened or
shamed ,by the consequences.
,Next time you want to complain
about all the bad news you read and
hear, rc,rember for a moment that
your source was not your hometown
n,ippr
with far-reaching ramifica-
tions.
Council, which should be
considered in major matters
such as this, was not. The
Wingham Town Council was
not appropriately briefed on
the contract — indeed a
major concession was never
brought to council attention
except by an unsuccessful
attempt to slip a bylaw past
our noses at the last meeting
without so much as a "by
your leave". The "unin-
formed" council acted
properly and as it should to
this political deception by
refusing to give the motion
egitimacy of a seconder.
There was an unforgivable
in of omission for whatever
political excuse and it has
brought discredit to the
ommission.
In my view this is a hell of
way to build a relationship.'
prerequisite if the corn -
mission To survive is for
them to give some serious
onsideration to their re-
ponsibilities . to the com-
unity they serve. Publicly,
uestioning the commis -
1
s
c
a
A
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s
m
q
J. A. Currie
Ex -councillor and
Citizen -on -the -loose again
Wingham
Howick election
Dear Editor:
I would like to congratu-
late the winners of the elect-
ion in Howick Twp. They
have been given the ap-
proval of the voters to do the
township business for the
next three years. They have
made a commitment to the
public which should not be
taken lightly. When I first
became involved in township
politics the clerk at that time
reminded me it was a
commitment that could not
take second place.
I would also like to con-
gratulate those who ran 'un-
successfully in this election.
Each of you came forth and
let your names be placed on
the ballot and each of you got
a respectable number of
votes; but most important,
you . gained a lot of ex-
perience "by participating in
the democratic process.
I would like to give. a
bouquet to the people of
Station
responded
to complaint
Dear Editor,
My- thanks to Gerry
Chomyn of CKNX for his
prompt response to my letter
of complaint about the off-
color lyrics of some songs
recently broadcast. He has
advised me that the of-
fending songs have been re-
moved from their repertoire.
It is easy to be complacent,
but community standards
can only be maintained when
people refuse to tolerate
"dirty lyrics" and their ilk.
Thank you again to CRNX
staff for their cooperation.
Eldon Yundt
Walkerton
Nf
Howick. A great many of yo
became involved in you
township this year. You sign
ed a petition; you attended
meetings whether for or
against; you gave of your
time and -or finances; you
attended the Ontario
Municipal Board hearing;
you attended the candidates'
meeting, probably one of the
best ever attended in Howick
Ire addition you will ex-
perience great joy when you
are the recipient of a patient
identification card, showing
you the name, age, sex and
address of the person to
whom you have given this
priceless gift of sight. You
will also receive a receipt for
income tax purposes.
A question that often
arises is "How can so much
be done for so little over-
head?"
As one who has the
privilege Of being part of a
large volunteer group assist-
ing OEU, I'll try to let you in
on the secret.
First of all there is a
dedicated staff willing to go.
far beyond the call of duty,
the support of volunteers of
different ages and abilities
and the many people from
across Canada who collect,
pack and send used glasses
to OEU.
All of this pales in com-
parison
to the work done by
native surgeons, nurses and
paramedics, who gime so
much of themselves working
long and tiring days, Their
reward is not monetary, but
the satisfaction of looking
into once sightless eyes and
seeing those same eyes now
smiling and showing love
and gratitude.
Thousands are waiting and
hoping for cataract surgery.
Your $25.00 donation will'pay
or surgery, drugs, hospital-
zation, food, glasses and
ollow-up care for a patient.
Please help at least one of
hese needy people return to
useful self-supporting life.
Donations may be sent 'to
peration Eyesight Univer-
al, P.O. Box 123, Station
M", Calgary, Alberta, T2P
H6.
u amused, however at some of
✓ ' the suggestions given by f
- people on how to deal with '
the problem.
In an issue of the magni- t
tude proposed by council, it a
seems to me that BOTH
those for it andthose op- - 0
posed should have had a s
voice in deciding the out-
come at the onset if, indeed, 2
we do have a democratic
government. However, in
this case council did not
seem to be interested in the
views of anyone who did not
agree with council.
and maybe even the
province; you got out and
voted, again probably set-
ting record.
The year 1985 should go
down in the history of
Howick as being a very in-
teresting year, a year of
public involvement in" the
workings of the township, a
year of learning for all those
involved, a year .when the
Twp. oUlow.ick_was put n
display in the public eye. I
realize this may have been
good or bad but I also think
it's an opportunity to be
taken advantage of and
something good may be
made of it.
A great deal of money was
wasted on professional
services that could have
been put to a better use in the
township, and a year was
lost in the improving of our
road system, but this is the
price of experience.
If our council would have
had a change of attitude dur-
ing the controversy and join-
ed forces with the people, a
great deal- of time and effort
could have been put to better
use iri the development of the
township, something that
still may have to be done.
Some of the people in the
township seemed to consider
the Concerned Taxpayers as
a mob exerting pressure on
the previous council. At no
time did we threaten any
kind of violencei was
•
Sincerely,
Alta R. McCauley
Calgary,
• Alberta
USC needs
onations
If a small corner of the •
world like Howick.Township, d
where people know each D
other and I would hope care
about each other, can't be h
governed democratically, E
then what hope s -there...for
the larger governing bodies u
in the rest of the world? m
I'm Sure our new council th
will have the full support of re
the ratepayers if they tackle br
problems with a different Pa
, attitude. I hope they become he
familiar with the problems
within the township and ne
realize farmers and busi- Pr
nessmen are in . a very re
serious financial situation. wa
Our councils in general had gr
better realize this is no time Ba
to go on a spending spree, Le
and start to use their God-
given common sense. ch
ter
• Finally, I. would like to Ag
thank The Listowel Banner pro
and The Wingham Advance- Bri
Times for their reporting of Sas
council meetings and board and
meetings. Although some US
don't seem to -act-like it,. we Str
still do live in a democracy thr
with most of its freedoms: Ban
Jim Robinson, W
Fordwich,
Chairman of the Concerned
Taxpayers of Howick
ear Editor,
For 40 years promises
ave been made and kept.
ach year since Dr. Lotta'
Hitschmanova founded the
nitarian Service Com.-
ittee, Canadians have used
e agency as a channel to
ach people who cannot
eak through the crippling
ttern . of poverty without
1p. ..
This year the USC still
eds $3 million to keep its
orrises and meet urgent
quests for help to get clean
ter and tools and seeds to
ow food in countries like
ngladesh, Botswana and
sotho. -
Your donations are mat-
ed by the Canadian in -
national Development
ency (CIDA 1, the
vincial governments of
tish Columbia, Alberta,
katchewan and Manitolta
can be sent directly to
C Canada at 56 Sparks
eet, Ottawa, KIP 5B1 or
ough an branch of the
k of Montreal.
e need your help.
Raymond ven der Buhs
Mahaging Director,
USC Canada