The Times Advocate, 2006-03-01, Page 44
Exeter Times—Advocate
Wednesday, March 1, 2006
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Editorial Opinion
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EDITORIAL
No surprise
South Huron council's recent decision to do
away with its annual fall garbage pickup
isn't really a surprise, but it is a shame.
After years of abuse, council finally decided it
wasn't worth the time or money to have munic-
ipal staff go around each September to collect
items like furniture, televisions and old appli-
ances. The problem was, despite specific and
repeated instructions, some residents refused
to participate in the program properly (maybe
they're the same people who put their
Christmas trees at the curbside every January
and wonder why they aren't picked up).
Regular household garbage was often put out
with the larger garbage items, improper items
were left at the curb and piles weren't separat-
ed. Some residents did everything properly,
only to have others root through their garbage,
turning everything into a disorganized mess,
complicating things for staff. Other residents
put out their large piles of garbage way too
early.
All of these things made the job tougher and
longer for municipal staff. It also made for a
real messy -looking town. A drive around
Exeter in mid- to late -September can some-
times look like a tornado recently swept
through town.
Instead of doing the annual pickup, the
municipality is allowing residents to drop off for
free items like chairs, tables, sofas, mattresses,
TVs, computers and neon -free appliances at
the landfill site, but this won't be convenient for
the many who lack the means of getting those
items to the dump.
Some residents will no doubt be upset, and
this is a case of abuse by a few spoiling things
for everyone, but the large garbage pickup was
becoming more trouble than it was worth.
South Huron has now joined a long list of
municipalities who no longer offer the service.
No need to panic
Now that the 2006 Winter Olympics are nothing but
a memory and Canada is basking in its best ever
Winter Games (24 medals and a third place overall fin-
ish in the medal standings), hockey fans hoping for a
second consecutive gold from the men are left wonder-
ing what went wrong.
They needn't be too concerned.
First of all, the impressive success Canada achieved
at the Turin Olympics (particularly by the women)
shouldn't be overshadowed by the fact that,
for the second time in three Olympics, our
professional hockey players couldn't get the
job done. Let's enjoy our success instead of
crying in our beer over the hockey team.
While our men's failure this time around is
disappointing, I hardly view it as the crush-
ing defeat the loss in the 1998 Olympics
was. Then, our confidence in our hockey
program was at a low point, having lost to
the U.S. in the 1996 World Cup. The fact our
women lost in the gold medal game in 1998
didn't help our self esteem, either. Years of
self doubt and navel gazing followed.
In the wake of last week's loss to the Russians, we're
not so insecure, coming off a 2004 World Cup victory,
a couple of World Junior titles and success at the
World Championships in the last several years
(although we didn't win last time around). Plus, our
women's team was dominant in Turin, bringing home
the gold everyone expected. If only our men's hockey
team had shown so much passion, they may have had
success.
But there's no need to panic, no need to step in front
of a bus — we'll be fine. We simply had a lousy tourna-
ment in which every player, with the notable excep-
tions of Martin Brodeur and Roberto Luongo, stunk.
The loss of the leadership of Mario Lemieux and Steve
Yzerman certainly hurt, and Joe Sakic didn't have
much help this time around from his fellow veterans.
The players just didn't come together as a team — it
happens and it isn't the end of the world.
Surprisingly, the coaching staff of Pat Quinn,
Jacques Martin and Ken Hitchcock hasn't
received much criticism — I think they should.
This team showed an inability to adapt and
looked out coached, outworked, out muscled,
under prepared, slow and indifferent. Some of
that falls on the shoulders of the coaches. For his
part, it's a mystery why Quinn was ever chosen
to coach the 2002 team. He'd never won any-
thing before (and won't ever again). But since
the 2002 team won, bringing Quinn back was a
foregone conclusion. After last week's loss, he
won't be back. It's time for a fresh face and that
face should probably belong to a Sutter, who will
quickly get rid of the country club atmosphere sur-
rounding the millionaires on Team Canada.
But there's no sense focusing on the negative.
Canada had a great Olympics and the future looks
bright for the 2010 Vancouver Games. The only thing
hard to accept is Team Sweden's Mats Sundin return-
ing to the NHL a winner, although that feeling will
evaporate as soon as he pulls the blue and white over
his head.
SCOTT
NIXON
AND ANOTHER
THING
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