HomeMy WebLinkAboutThe Times Advocate, 2006-01-04, Page 44
Exeter Times—Advocate
Wednesday, January 4, 2006
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Editorial Opinion
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TIMES ADVOCATE
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EDITORIAL
Campaign heats up
Now that the Christmas and New Year's
break is in the past, politicians and vot-
ers will turn their attention to the Jan.
23 federal election.
Party leaders hit the campaign trail again
Monday with renewed hope for the
Conservatives as they find themselves tied with
the Liberals in recent polls.
Expect things to get nasty between the two
parties as political rhetoric heats up over the
next couple of weeks. The Conservatives will try
to capitalize on yet another Liberal scandal that
sees Finance Minister Ralph Goodale on the hot
seat, while the Liberals will continue to try to
convince Canadians the Grits are Canada's true
party. Jack Layton's New Democrats, mean-
while, hope their supporters don't switch alle-
giance to the Liberals in fear of a Conservative
victory. Will the Conservatives gain momentum
and be victorious or are they headed to another
heartbreaking defeat like in the 2004 election
where hope for the Tories quickly faded once
poll results started pouring in?
Candidates would do well to keep the mud-
slinging to a minimum, since it's a tactic
Canadian voters historically don't enjoy. Stick to
the issues and (this goes out particularly to the
Liberals) avoid idiotic and embarrassing state-
ments on Blogs.
Locally, voters will no doubt see more of their
candidates. In Huron -Bruce, the Huron County
Federation of Agriculture's All Candidates
Meeting takes place in Holmesville Jan. 13 at 8
p.m.
Four -time Liberal incumbent Paul Steckle faces
challenges from Dave Joslin of the Christian
Heritage Party, Ben Lobb of the Conservatives,
New Democrat Grant Robertson, Victoria Serda
of the Green Party and Independent Dermis
Valenta.
Candidates in Lambton-Kent-Middlesex are
Micheal Adrian Janssens (Christian Heritage),
Bev Shipley (Conservatives), Jim Johnston
(Green Party), Jeff Wesley (Liberals) and Kevin
Blake (NDP).
See next week's Times -Advocate for profiles on
candidates in the Huron -Bruce and Lambton-
Kent-Middlesex ridings.
Christmas is no longer a valid excuse to ignore
the election; it's time for voters to make a choice.
iskoicklos
We could learn from them
Australian exchange student Hannah Arnold
looks and sounds (minus the accent) much the
same as any other 17 year girl, but from
her home 10,000 miles away, she brings an
attitude and lifestyle of self reliance we as
Canadians might do well to pay attention to.
Arnold is visiting Canada from her home
on a 268,000 hectare cattle station in
Australia that has little more than her fami-
ly, a few workers and 24,000 cattle.
With the nearest town six hours away, the
Arnolds have only themselves to rely on and
face challenges every day the average
Canadian might find more than challenging
judging by letters to the editor stating the
problems people face having to drive across
town to shop at a Monster Mart and how
they deserve to have one on their side of town.
Whether it is the once a week air delivery of
mail, the groceries trucked in every three months
or the doctor that is available to fly in only in
case of a real emergency, compares to the sniffles
and skinned knees that are clogging our emer-
gencies wards.
The wildlife the Arnolds encounter on a daily
basis both in and out of their house would be
enough to make most of us wish our Liberal gov-
ernment was handing out guns instead of trying
to take them away.
The Australian family deals with snakes both
poisonous and non-poisonous as well as
crocodiles that inhabit the family swim-
ming hole, "but there is enough fish to
keep them satisfied unless you bother
them."
Visiting Canada at Christmas also gave
Arnold a chance to experience the fren-
zy of gift giving that gets worse every
year compared to the homemade pre-
sents the Arnold family will exchange.
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It's unlikely we'll ever face any of
what the Arnolds do on a daily basis in
Canada since the wildest animal most of
us will ever see is a particularity nasty
squirrel and the health care system
probably won't be reduced to having doctors fly-
ing in.
But knowing what others are capable of doing
should make us all question how self reliant we'll
be when the Canadian version of Katrina/the
tsunami/911 arrives or when the power goes out
and stays out at a more inconvenient time than a
few pleasant August days.
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