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Home My WebLink AboutThe Times Advocate, 2006-05-31, Page 44 Exeter Times–Advocate Wednesday, May 31, 2006 =CNA Editorial Opinion n = MISIM TIMES ADVOCATE PUBLICATIONS MAIL REGISTRATION NUMBER 07511 We acknowledge the Financial support of the Government of Canada, through the Publications Assistance Program (PAP), toward our mailing costs. Canada Jim Beckett– Publisher Deb Lord – Production Manager Scott Nixon – Editor tirt Published by Metroland Printing, Publishing & Distributing Ltd. 424 Main Street South, P.O. Box 850 Metroland Exeter, Ontario NOM 1S6 • (519) 235-1331 EDITORIAL Smog time It seems we skipped spring and went straight into summer over the weekend and early this week, with temperatures and the humidity reaching into stifling proportions. With that comes the stale air and smog warnings that make it difficult for some to go outside in the summer. This province's first air quality advisory of the year was Sunday and Ontarians can expect more during the summer months. Predictably, Hamilton had the worst air in the province, but the air was poor all over the province, including in Huron County. As usual, Ontarians are being told to conserve ener- gy, turn down their air conditioners and use their cars sparingly. Also as usual, most people will ignore this advice. We've become so dependant on energy that we refuse to conserve even when our health is at risk. Will the message ever get through? 2005 was the worst smog year on record — things won't get much better too soon if we all don't clean up our act. Harper vs. the media Prime Minister Stephen Harper's escalating feud with the media speaks volumes about his desire to micro - manage everything and keep an iron grip on informa- tion coming out of Ottawa. Harper's rather frigid relationship with the Ottawa media sunk to a new level last week when reporters walked out on an event when Harper refused to take their questions. They were right to leave — why hang around when the prime minister won't answer any questions? Harper's relationship with the press has always been testy, and it has only gotten worse since he became prime minister. Harper and his staff have raised the ire of reporters by saying they will decide which reporters get to ask questions at press conferences. This, of course, leads to all kinds of speculation, such as the perception that only "Conservative -friendly" reporters will be called upon to ask questions. Most members of the public don't care about the problems journalists face everyday, nor should they; but the public should care about the fact their prime minister has adopted a George W. Bush -style manner of controlling information and contempt for the media, the vehicle that gets information out to the public. Harper has now said he will only speak to local media across the country and not the Ottawa media. That not only upsets the Ottawa reporters, but is an insult to reporters across the country, since Harper apparently believes they will only ask him softball questions. Harper is only digging himself a hole. If he thinks the media is unfriendly to him now, things will only get worse if he continues this behaviour. He needs to get over his immature attitude — doesn't he have a job to do? THE GOVERNMENT MIGHT SCRAP ThE GUN REGISTRY, WHAT GUN REGISTlY? 7ililt Tl;cr,-i1,,,rn,1 i„- r •_,<,.,,1;ry„ 9rr; t_ S+.n„-1;r at. rnr More than a paycheque Seventy dollars. It isn't much anymore. A meal out, a DVD collection or maybe a Dora the annoy- ing Explorer live action theatre show. But on Jan. 14, 1968, it meant something. Because that was the day Vince Bolen brought home a pay stub for $76 to show for his 40 hours at the Canada Wire and Cable Company Limited at the rate of $1.90 an hour. With $3.16 taken off for federal tax, 94 cents off for UIC and $1.16 towards his pension, he had $70.74 to keep the family going while looking forward to his next shift, whether it was the standard 8 a.m to 4 p.m., the afternoon 4 p.m. to 12 a.m. or the midnight to 8 a.m. The graveyard shift, especially the Friday night to Saturday morning slot had one more bonus for the dad dragging himself into bed and finally closing his eyes. Because he knew at most he had five minutes peace before the boy would be whispering to mom, "Is dad awake yet?” With no response to the whisper and a gentle toe tug, the next move was to climb up the prone form, carefully kneeing every tender spot on the way up, go eyeball to eyeball and pry an eyelid open with the standard, "You in there dad?” There some other items he left behind such as the steel razor he faced every morning, using a shaving brush and a cup made sometime when it was just called a razor and not a Turbo/Mach/Fusion and before everything was meant to be thrown away, including values. There's a thermos in the cupboard, not the size I carried to school in the Roadrunner lunchbox but the size that could hold enough coffee to keep a man going through a long night at the factory. It was made and taken to work before the days of drive-through coffee, when a wife made her husband's coffee and PAT BACK 4 VIEW BOLEN 0 lunch before seeing him out the door. The '60s fathers, and the fathers before them weren't perfect. At best many were remote and most handed their offspring over to their wives for cleaning and maintenance but they did what they thought they were sup- posed to do. They brought the $70 home every week in the '60s or the $20 home in the '30s. But whatever it was they kept bringing it home and somehow passed on a couple of lessons even if it has taken 40 years to learn them. About the Times -Advocate Address & Office Hours Times -Advocate, 424 Main Street South, P.O. Box 850, Exeter, Ontario NOM 1S6. Our office is open Monday to Friday, 8:30 am to 4:30 pm. Closed on Holidays. 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For example, Jim Beckett's e-mail address is <jbeck- ett@southhuron.com> Our general e-mail address is ads@southhuron.com. The Times -Advocate Team Publisher Jim Beckett ext. 109 ADVERTISING Deborah Schillemore ext. 112 EDITOR Scott Nixon ext. 105 REPORTERS Pat Bolen ext. 113 Nina Van Lieshout ext. 107 CUSTOMER SERVICE Sue Rollings ext. 101 Kim Hern ext. 102 COMPOSITION DEPARTMENT Manager Deb Lord ext. 103/114 Heather Bilcke ext. 103 Kelly Gackstetter ext. 103 ACCOUNTING STAFF Anita McDonald ext. 104 Ruth Slaght ext. 106 Christina Scott ext. 108 MargPertschy ext. 111 Heaer Clarke