HomeMy WebLinkAboutThe Huron Expositor, 1990-08-15, Page 2Huron
Expositor
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Three weeks enough
The Provincial election is looming up in a scant three weeks,
and Huron County voters have a lot of homework to do. With
each candidate polishing up his arsenal of threats and promises,
voters are going to have to take a long, hard look at every issue
that effects him or her, and at each candidate's approach.
And August 24 should be an interesting evening, indeed.
The Huron County Federation of Agriculture has invited all
3andidates to Clinton to debate agricultural issues, and has
extended this invitation to members of the public who wish to
ome and hear their prospective representative's stance.
'Agriculture is important to the economy," the press release
vaguely understates.
This is an opportunity that should be leapt at. Go, confront the
candidates, grill them. Now is not the time for apathy. It you think
that you might have a bone that you want to pick about farming,
don't wait until after the election to start picking on it.
Too often, it seems, a politician is elected while riding high on
the crest of a wave of popularity. Please -them -all stances are
taken on blanket issues, the ballots are cast, and before you know
it it's all over but the crying.
And while some may argue that three weeks is a very short time
in which to become educated about the Huron County candidates,
in many ways it's an ideal length of time. Dragging out an election
wearies everyone on the issues, and when the same answers are
repeated again and again, both the public and the candidates
become numbed.
With only three weeks, the answers will have to come quickly,
and they won't soon be forgotten. P.E.
LETTERS TO THE EDITOR
Walton postmistress "backed
into a comer" by Canada Post
Dear Editor;
I feel it is time to tell my side of
the story behind the closing of the
Walton Post Office. No, it wasn't
too much work for me, and No, I
didn't want to retire right now.
I was approached by two
representatives from Canada Post
on May 30th. They "had an
obligation" to talk to me. An early
retirement incentive package or, in
ordinary terms, a buy-out was
)resented and explained to me. The
ilternatives were - I would be
classed as a surplus employee of
Canada Post, subject to re -location,
and with ninety days' notice the
Walton Post Office could be closed.
Walton was on the list to be closed.
My answer must be in London in
two weeks time. This offer was
only good for two weeks.
I notified my union representative
it was Convention time. A copy of
the offer was sent to them; they felt
it was a fair offer. It was up to me
to fight it.
When the M.P.'s office was
notified by a patron off the rural
route, she was told Canada Post
must close these offices to save
money.
After a lot of thinking, talking to
a lot of people and facing facts, to
make a long story short, I decided
to take the buy-out. I felt the Post
Office would be gone before the
year ended anyway, and it was
impossible for me to relocate.
Then, it was my fault - "due to
my retirement" that the people were
informed of the changes being
made at the Post Office.
A date was asked for my
retirement. They had given me two
weeks, I gave them six weeks -
Aug. 4. they had "no time" to do
all the things that were promised at
the so - called "meeting" in the
Walton Community Hall. "You
must have misunderstood" and it
was just a "possibility" not a
promise were common phrases in
later conversations.
According to the representatives
at "the meeting", I wanted to retire
and they had no notion of closing
the Post Office. Why was I offered
the package in the first place?
I enjoyed my job very much
because I liked the work, but more
importantly i liked they people. I
feel I was backed into a corner with
no choice but to make the decision
I did.
Many thanks to my family, to all
the patrons on general delivery and
all the rural routes, to the rural
route carriers and to all those who
helped me in any way. It was my
pleasure to serve you as the Walton
postmaster for six and one-half
years.
Thank you
Sincerely,
Marjory Humphries.
A different view of Caribana
Dear Editor,
Susan Oxford's article depicting
her impression of the Caribana
audience was a far cry from the
reality experienced by the great
numbers of white people that i saw
having a great time. No matter
where I went, the multiracial
audience was enjoying themselves
ILC one. As a matter of fact while in
the midst of this great party it oc-
curred to me that despite Oka,
Meech Lake and English -Only laws,
cultural differences could certainly
be successfully surmounted if we
really want to overcome them. I
was quite amazed to read that "the
music of past years was gone.... and
only the chanting of violent lyrics
could be heard". This was most
certainly as we danced along the
parade route, to the calypso and
reggae of steel drums. I suspect that
Ms. Oxford did not understand the
language of patois in which most of
the songs are written. in fact the
most popular refrain was from the
song We ain't going home", one
of the winning road marches from
the 1990 Trinidad carnival. This
song relates to the reluctance of the
revellers to end the partying.
Turn to page 10 •
Our system is better than some oth
[JUST THINKING
Thin past week 1 was puucuiar rly
busy as 1 100k at awn carie
working for Elections Ontario as an
enilrnCfn r. I've found the job io
be a quick way to cam extra matey
since the federal election w 1979
and every other election since.
There are imperfections in the
system of enumeration and 1 saw
how most of them are mare evident
in the city than in a small town.
Almost every election 1 ane a lour
to the editor in some newspaper
pointing out how easy it was for
that person to fool the enumerators
at their door. The elector will do
something brilliant like get their
dog, cat or kid enumerated and put
on the list of electors. Not knowing
the elector, and with all the weird
names around anyway, I can see
how someone's pet would make it
to the list.
'ins dwalleet none 1 ever saw
Moet Ike Wine given to a baby boy.
His pts called bun Blugh
(pronounced Blue.) To me the none
loomed Wee Blugg or Bluff. By the
time he's in grade two he'll
probably want to be called Bill,
Bob, or George.
Anyway*, there is an alternative
to the enuracraung systdn we have
and that is to do u the way the
Americans do. Have everybody
register their names on a list them-
selves. That would involve
everybody getting off their lard and
going down to an office to register
themselves as an elector. With all
the goofing around by electors we
have in Canada Ws possible that in
the future we will go the self -
registration route.
I personally like the system we
r
by Susan Oxford
by Susan Oxford
have because it is based on trust
and honour and I Woe to think that
it works. However, the actual act of
voting is sell left up to the in-
dividual. In Canada we can't be
forced to cast a vote.
When 1 was m Ecuador there
were presidential elecuon cam-
paigns going on. In that country it
was law to vote; to not cast a vote
meant a fine equal to almost as
much as a person would earn in a
month. People helped the old and
infirm to cast a ballot and pretty
well the only people who didn t
cast a vote were very conscientious
objectors. With a law like that 1
hear chert is almost 98 per cent turn
out at the polls.
I've worked at city polls for all
electioas since 1979 and I've soon
wealthy districts have a 95 per cent
turn out, and poor districts have a
48 percent turn out if we were
lucky. It makes me wonder how the
are going to make things
Ertirzr for iheingrivea if they won't
even get out and vote for the chan-
ges in government they want and
need.
I'm interested to find out what
kind of a turnout Seaford) can boast
of in the upcoming election.
REGARDING THE
MULTINATIONAL FORCE , GEORGE,
I'D BE MORE THAN NAPPY TO SAND
MY wHa-E CONTINGENT OF
MoHAwK (AJfR)QR !
Of sticks and stones
Yeah, yeah, so I'm the same one
who said the London city council
should dip into ifs coffers and come
up with the dollars to save its his-
toric Talbot streetscape. And I'm
also the same one who countless
times argued until blue in the face
that destroying priceless historical
architecture and memorials in the
name of that grim reaper, progress,
was so much short-sighted
butchery.
So crucify me. This bleeding-
hearts -and -artists culture lover has
turned traitor on her own idealisms.
And it's all Col. Antony Van
Egmond and Tiger Dunlop's fault.
The issue of that funny little heap
of stones, or cairn, out on the
outskirts of Harpurhey has been laid
on the Tuckersmith Council table.
The old stone cairn, it seems, ain't
what she used to be, and Council is
wondering if the heap should be
fixed up, or what.
I'd like to cast my 'aye' for the
"or what" option.
I was going to do a little survey
this past weekend, and see just how
many people in this fair town ac-
tually have any idea what that cairn
stands for. in fact, I thought abut
doing the survey late last week,
then this weekend, then again early
this week. Funny thing, though.
Every time I started to mull the
idea over, I got really dopey and
fell asleep.
Now, I haven't turned my back
totally on all of my starry-eyed
conservationist convictions. I feel
that there is a need to safeguard our
culture and heritage, and I'm all for
historical trusts that work to main-
tain buildings or sites for public
enjoyment, not necessarily private
gain. The Van Egmond Foundation,
for example, and the Van Egmond
estate. I also feel that certain ar-
chitectural edifices should be
preserved, where possible, in their
original condition. As I've said
before, I would hate to have my
generation remembered as the one
that turned the entire North
American continent into a greeny -
blue steel and glass terrarium.
But enough is enough, already.
Appealing to the Ministry of Cul-
ture for grants to restore a pile of
stones is going above and beyond
the realm of 'enough' and into that
shadowy netherworld of 'too far,
too far'.
Not that Council has appealed to
said Ministry, yet. It has merely
approached them to see if a grant is
available.
I have nightmares about such
grants.
Somewhere, in the same building
that houses the Ministry of Culture,
is a little door, maybe with stripes
or polka -dots on it, and a sign that
ROUGH NOTES
by Paula Elliott
reading 'Sub -Branch - Ministry of
Silly Things To Do'. Behind this
door sits a very, very bored man
who spends the entire day shar-
pening an endless succession of
government -issue pencils, until a
request to repair a pile of stones or
something filt'rs down to him.
He pounces! He has to pounce.
He's being paid a lot of money to
pounce, and if he doesn't pounce,
They will give his job to some
swivel servant somewhere who's
just champing at the bit for a
Ministry of Silly Things To Do
posting.
After much shuffling of papers,
tying of triplicates, memo -issuing,
misplacement of official documents
and inconclusive phonecalls,
Eureka. An answer is given to a
council somewhere. "Yes, the
Ministry of Silly Things....er, the
Ministry of Culture would be only
too happy to supply you with
$1,000 dollars to fix your heap o'
stones. Oh, sure, half of the town
has no idea what it's there for, and
no-one would probably notice for
six or seven months if you knocked
it over with a grader, but say, won't
it look sharp after you sink exity-ex
number of dollars into it?"
And as the for -the -time -being -
animated man from the Ministry
hands over the cheque to the coun-
cil, somewhere in another Ministry
behind another door - this one plain
brown - someone notices that
$1,000 has been slashed from his
budget, and a student is denied
OSAP and has to take a year off
before he can afford to go back and
finish his schooling.
Issue simplified to the ridiculous,
I know, but as I see it, it's a
ridiculous issue.
And in the mysterious workings
of the cosmos, that cairn will no
sooner by repaired and restored to
its original glory than some crazed
reveller in a pick-up will bash into
it some Saturday night and knock it
into Kingdom Come.
But there has to be a Ministry
grant to cover that sort of thing,
too...
Take them to task
Okay, there's a fall election and many people seem to believe that a
summer campaign only gets a ho-hum reaction from the people in the
province. 1 suppose there are people who find anything in life that
happens outside of their own four walls too boring to contemplate.
Hopefully these apathetic people, not being involved enough in the
process to understand the issues, will remain asleep and let the rest of
us decide for them. But that's not the way it's supposed to be.
I'm serving notice. On the issue of agriculture in Huron County and
Ontario, I'm going to be paying special attention as to how aware each
candidate is of the agricultural scene. I'm going to ask myself if they
know what they're talking about when they claim to support the farm
community, and whenever i get the opportunity, I'm going to ask them
direct specific questions to see exactly how they will represent the farm
voice of Southwestern Ontario. I hope you'll do this too.
What do we want from the government? Last spring, before the
Peterson government brought down their budget, the OFA presented a
brief in which they described in detail the concerns of the Ontario farm
community and made several recommendations.
Priority was given to the setting up of a long-term farm credit
program such as Alberta, Saskatchewan and Quebec have. Farming is
very capital -intensive and the high cost of borrowing this year has made
interests costs one of the main expenditures. With an OFFR IR type
program in place for a term of several years, proper financial planning
could be done.
Short term interest assistance was also requested and the budget
provided funds to alleviate the situation this year, but while this ad hoc
program gives some relief, it does not allow the adequate planning for
RURAL ROOTS
by Jeanne Kirkby
the future that a long term legislated program would.
We asked that the Province's commitment to the original terms of the
Farm Tax Rebate Program be honoured, in that education tax unfairly
charged on agricultural land be refunded. The provincial government's
own task force recommended that this course be taken and said that the
government should clearly explain the rebate to the general public. We
have the rebate back this fall, but because it is by orders -in -council we
may have to battle this one over again in two years. Where is the
promised property tax reform that was to have legislated this?
How does the party stand on the proposed Provincial re -structuring of
municipalities with its effect on the agricultural community? If Huron
County Council goes from 33 representatives to only 14, will the voice
of the country folk still be heard?
What promises have we heard from provincial party leaders to date?
Premier Peterson proffers some items from the spring budget:
something like wrapping the kids' clothes purchased after September
and placing the parcels under the Christmas tree to make it look like a
bountiful display. The man who announced S45 million for job training
in Toronto re -states the S48 million land stewardship and soil conser-
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