HomeMy WebLinkAboutThe Huron Expositor, 1990-01-17, Page 2in'
SINCE 1860, SERVING THE COMMUNITY FIRST
Incorporating
The Brussels Post
Published In
Seaforth, Ontario
Every Wednesday Morning
417,"A
The Expositor is brought to you
each week by the efforts of: Pat
Armes. Paula Elliott, Terri -Lynn
Dale, Dianne McGrath and Bob
McMillan.
ED BYRSKI. General Manager
HEATHER ROBINET, Editor
Member Canadian Community Newspaper Assoc.
Ontario Community Newspaper Association
Ontario Press Council
Commonwealth Press Union
International Press Institute
Subscription Rates:
Canada '20.00 o year, in advance
Senior Citizens '17.00 a year in advance
Outside Canada '60.00 a year, in advance
Single Copies - .50 cents each
Second class mail registration Number 0696
WEDNESDAY, JANUARY 17, 1990
Editorial and Business Offices - 10 Main Street, Seaforth
Telephone (519) 527.0240
Mailing Address - P.O. Box 69. Seaforth, Ontario, NOK 1 WO
Housing poll divided
Should the Canadian government control housing prices?
A recent poll conducted for MacLean's magazine revealed that Cana-
dians across the country are divided on this subject.
Of the more than 1,500 people polled, 52 per cent said they were
against price controls while the other 48 per cent were in favor of the
government regulating housing prices.
These results are not surprising. Housing prices have risen drastically
- so much in recent years that they have become out of reach for most
new house buyers.
Any hint of price controls will naturally be good news for any house pur-
chaser, but especially for those making this important move for the first
time.
Although more than 72 per cent of those responding said housing costs
have risen sharply compared to other goods and services in their area,
there was division over whether governments should intervene or allow the
free market to determine prices.
The responses varied depending on sex, income level and where the
people who, answereed the survey lived.
Those strongly opposing government controls were from the prairie pro-
vinces where housing costs are much lower than they are in Ontario,
British Columbia and Quebec.
While 55 per cent of Quebeckers said there should be housing price
controls, only 46 per cent in Ontario and 47 per cent from British Colum-
bia are strongly against government controls.
Sex differences were particulary clear. Of all female replies, 54 per cent
telt the government should intervene while only 39 per cent of males felt
the same way.
Levels of income also made a big difference in the survey. Those with
annual incomes of less than $15,000 strongly support government involve-
ment while only 36 per cent of those earning more than $45,000 are in
favor of controls.
One common response was that most felt salaries are not keeping pace
with the rise in inflation and said they are paying a larger portion of their
income on mortgage or rent payments.
If this trend continues, calls for price control will gain plenty of strength.
With all of this in mind, finance minister Michael Wilson must be urged
to forget housing of any kind when he levies the • upcoming goods and ser-
vices tax. ETA.
LETTERS TO THE EDITOR
Nuclear power
OPEN LETTER FOR
PUBLICATION IN COMMUNITY
NEWSPAPERS
Dear Editor:
In May 1989, the University of Saskat-
chewan administration (which includes the
president of a Saskatchewan uranium min-
ing company) announced the proposed in-
stallation of an Atomic Energy of Canada
Limited (AECL) nuclear reactor for cam-
pus heating purposes. As federal taxpayers
who reluctantly fund AECL, we challenge
arguments in favor of this plan.
We join with residents of Saskatchewan
who refuse to roll out the welcome mat for
AECL. AECL hasn't sold a reactor abroad
for years, and they can't even give one
away on their own soil. Last year, the peo-
ple Quebec forced the cancellation of
AECL's "free" reactor gift to a hospital in
Sherbrooke. Since 1983, six Canadian com-
munities have told AECL to get out of
town with their "giveaway" reactor offers.
Nuclear power is an obsolete technology:
No new reactors have been ordered in the
United States since 1978. Fifty-four U.S.
reactors under constrction have been stop-
ped, and U.S. banks refuse to fund loans
in aid of new atomic power projects. An
an obsolete
all -party House of Commons committee an-
nounced in 1988 that no new reactors
should be built in Canada until] Canadians
can agree on an acceptable means of
radioactive waste disposal.
Concern for the greenhouse effect has
been cited by AECL and the University of
Saskatchewan as a reason for using
nuclear power. Surely the greenhouse ef-
fect is not the only facet of our en-
vironmental responsibility! Are we not ac-
countable for both the greenhouse effect
and nuclear poisons that are vented into
the air and accumulate in the food chain?
The major forces behind global warming
are in fact motor vehicle fumes, industrial
smokestack emissions and deforestation.
Nuclear power won't address these causes.
Besides, a nuclear plant can take up to 15
years to build.
We must address our polluting, wasteful
energy habits now. Today's investments in
energy efficiency and relatively benign
electricity generation will forestall the
creation of nuclear and coal waste in the
future. So why repeat the nuclear mistake,
particularly when most Canadians oppose
it?
Turn to page 14A
eeeeee
The weather this winter has been a colt;
start source of chagrin fora nugaber of
Seaforth residents - including (at times)
myself. It seems it is *tally unpessible
to dieerswhether or not it is safe foe one
to leave town for a few hours, silmply
because one can't be sure theyrll' be able
to get back.
To put it bluntly, the weather has been
rather unpredictable - and certainly if you
compare it at all to the weather we've
been subjected to over the past two or
three winters. There's just no comparison.
We've been spoiled of late by mild, easy to
tolerate winter seasons, and have grown
quite unaccustomed to the blustery, snow
dumping season that we seem to be ex-
periencing this year.
Not that 1 mind it.
Personally, I love snow - and
snowstorms, well they can be tolerated - if
you have no reason to leave the house, or
no desire to do so. The person who goes
stir-crazy with ease, however, would pro-
bably be a little less benevolent in their
comments. So might the person who is
saddled with the responsibility for digging
out the driveway on those numerous occa-
sions that warrant it. Myself, I've lucked
out in that respect this winter.
For those that haven't however, it must
be frustrating. Not only have the
ATSOC S
by Walther Robinet
driveways and sidewalks of Seaforth been
loaded with snow on quite a number of oc-
casions this winter, but the weather has
been so unpredictable that it has been dif-
ficult to decide whether to chance leaving
the snow removal to a mild spell that
might roll in, or exercise one's muscles to
remove it manually.
Needless to say, the time one decides to
take the manual route, a mild spell rolls
in almost immediately afterwards,
negating your efforts, and causing you to
vow never again to be so anxious to have
a driveway clear of snow. That attitude in-
evitably causes one to be a little lax in the
snow removal the second time around,
resulting in a driveway that is inaccessible
from the street, and certainly well past the
stage of manual snow removal.
What's a person to do?
Aside from the trials of personal snow
removal, however, there are quite a
number of positive things to say about a
winter that is abundant with snow.
No doubt after recent winters with
scarcely a flake of snow,local
snowmobilers as revelling in the thick,
white sheet that blankets the area this
season. Certainly this year marks the first
in a long time that many have even taken
their snow toys out of storage.
And certainly, local skiing enthusiasts
are also enjoying the opportunity to donn
planks and tour through the local glades,
without worry of scraping the bottom off
their transportation.
Local skaters too, are enjoying the first
winter in a long time, that the Town of
Seaforth has been able to provide them
with an outdoor rink.
And for those who are less impressed
with the weather this truly wintry winter,
there's always the option of travelling
south. And if that's not feasible, there
must be other options to consider - like
staying indoors in front of a blazing fire,
consuming massive quantities of hot cocoa
topped with whipping cream, and watching
the world freeze up from the comfortable
confines of a home heated to a balmy 70
degrees.
1\11ii111111
This
Is it just me, or does it happen to you
too?
MacDonald's, that megaforce in the
advertising and pseudobruger industry,
recently came out with a television com-
merical that uses this catchllne and shows
wholesome -looking adolescents in various
embarassing situations - suffering through
a growling stomach in the middle of a
class test, bumping into the teacher's
posterior in the hallway, and blushing
beat the band when the cutest kid in the
school sits next to them at, where else,
Mickey D's.
Gee, I remember when that sort of thing
used to embarass me, too. Now such oc-
currences are just part of an ordinary, and
good, day.
I've become pretty darn adept at em-
barassing
m-
barassi g myself in recent years. Like, the
last 20. Things have gotten to the point
now where an embarassing situation rolls
off of me like water off d duck's back, and
the people that are most mortified by
things that I do are friends and cohorts
that had nothing to do with it in the first
place. Innocent bystanders, in the wrong
place at the wrong time, are blushing
furiously on my account while I stand by,
unaffected, killing myself laughing.
This was driven hone to me the other
morning at the office. I picked up the
newspaper - yes, I occasionally read them
- and started skimming through William
Thomas' syndicated column. Within
seconds, I was whooping and cackling like
a mad thing while my concerned co-,
augh's on me
workers kept peeking around the corner to
see if I had lost my mind. If someone had
happened into the office to do business at
that moment, the staff would have had to
shoulder the burden of explaining who the
wierd person was in the back office and
why she was shrieking with apparently un-
provoked laughter. Or sobbing. If I start
: ughing hard enough, I start bawling and
it sounds like I'm wracked with grief. 1
think it's a riot, but why do my friends
pretend that they don't know me when it
happens...?
I got the evening off to a rocky start
about four years ago in Waterloo when I
went out to a university bar with a group
of buddies. 1 was balancing back on the
hind legs of my chair, as I often stupidly
do, when a girl sitting next to me guffaw-
ed at some wise crack that I made and
jostled the arm of my chair. Gravity took
over, and before I knew it I was pinwheel-
ing my arms wildly in a futile attempt to
retain my balance. I grabbed the edge of
the tiny, bottle -laden table and promptly
pulled the whole thing over, sending Paula,
chair, table and a good $20 worth of liba-
tions and glass crashing to the floor. The
whole bar erupted into spontaneous ap-
plause and ,.my companions began to
percebtibly shrivel from embarassment. As
for myself, I was getting a good hoot out
of the whole deal, and especially out of the
waitress who thought that I was three
sheets to the wind and kept repeating, in
a very slow strident voice,
"KEEP—BACK... WE'LL... CLEAN... THIS-
.. UP...FOR...YOU,...O.K.?"
Maybe it's defeatist of me to assume
that I'm doomed to do stunned things, but
when a pattern begins to develop, I think
that it's just less painful in the long run to
take the myterious workings of the cosmos
in stride. I mean, I don't do things like
walls: into plate glass doors and spill coffee
on myself and laugh during movies when
no-one else does, once in a while. These lit-
tle farces occur with eerie regularity. It's
been preordained, I'm sure.
Besides, it's a heck of a lot more fun to
get a chuckle out of life than to waste time
being mortified. How boring. I remember
when I was younger, and I would do
something daft, my parents would
say,"We're not laughing AT you, we're
laughing WITH you." It took me a while,
but I learned to laugh along with the
others.
And if I start laughing first, I beat
everyone else to it!
Bissected man lives for half an hour
JANUARY 17, 1890
Mr. Duncan McLaughlin of Grey has a
thoughtful hen which gave him a
Christmas present in the shape of a brood
of nice little chickens. We hope he will
show his appreciation of the gift by rear-
ing them to full-grown fowls.
One day last week Mr. Leonard Hunter
of Usborne lost a valuable cow and pig by
the top of the straw stack blowing over
and falling upon them.
A remarkable case was reported to the
health office at Cleveland. On Wednesday
the 8th, a mad named George A. Gordon
was run over by a LakeShore train.
Twelve cars passed over his body, com-
pletely severing it at the abdomen. The
pndertaker who had charge of the remains
reports that Gordon lived for half an hour
after the accident and was able to talk un-
til his death, which resulted from loss of
blood.
Mr. John F. Dale, who works 200 acres
of land on the Huron Road, Tuckersmith,
last week sold to Mr. J.H. McDougall of
Seaforth about 45 lambs, for which he
received the sum of $304. These lambs
IN THE YEARS AGONE
from the Expositor Archives
were all raised on Mr. Dale's own farm.
Mr. Dale is one of those who makes far-
ming pay. His father, Mr. C. Dale Sr. of
Hullett, says he has been pretty successful
as a farmer, but this beats anything he
has even done in his best days. It is a
good sign when the son surpasses the "old
man".
JANUARY 15, 1915
A sergeant in the Princess Patricia's
Canadian Regiment, now in the fighting
line in France, writes: "At last we are
where we want to be and are contented
with our little lot. We had a fairly good
Christmas dinner, which consisted of bul-
ly beef and biscuits and whatever we could
forage. My friend and myself did not do so
badly, as we had one carrot, half turnip,
two leeks, one onion, two Ozo and twelve
ounces of bully beef with three hard
biscuits all mixed up and boiled in a beef
tin. To -day we had our Christmas pudding,
half -pound a man, one pound tin of jam
between four men, and a small bottle of
wine. We are all in good spirits and also
within sound of the 'big guns."
Mr. Andrew Love, of the Parr Line,
Hay, is passing through KIppen almost dai-
ly with loads of gravel and other materials
for the purpose of reconstructing his barn
for the coming summer. Mr. Love is one
of the most progressive farmers of the far
famed Parr line and he likes to have
everything about him in the best of order.
The trustees of the school in Section No.
10, Morris, have decided to erect a new
and up-to-date school building during the
coming summer.
The thirty-ninth annual meeting of the
McKillop Mutual Fire Insurance Company
has been fixed for February 5th in the
Town Hall. The annual report of the Direc-
tors and auditors, which has been
prepared, shows the company to have had
a very prosperous year.
JANUARY 19,1940
Almost a year's search for the heir to an
$8,000 portion of his father's estate has fail-
ed to shed any light on the mysterious
disappearance of Warren Potter Jr., of
Woodstock. Unless he turns up by the end
of the month the money will be divided
among the other beneficiaries who include
Wilbert Potter of Seaforth, two other
brothers and a sister.
Seaforth Beavers continued their winning
streak when they defeated Clinton and
New Hamburg. Among those playing for
Seaforth were Hal Stade, Albie McFadden,
Al Hildebrand, Archie Hubert, Frank Sills,
Ralph McFaddin and Gord Hildebrand.
Opening at the Regent Theatre in
Seaforth: 'Mr. Smith Goes To Washington',
starring Jean Arthur and James Stewart,
along with 'Alexander's Ragtime Band',
featuring Tyrone Power, Alice Faye and
the young Don Ameche.
Dublin Continuation School celebrated the
25th anniversary of its opening last week.
During the past quarter century, the Ur-
suline Sister have labored assiduously and
hundreds of students have known their
direct influence in their various vocations
in life. There is an attendance of about 80
students at present.
JANUARY 21, 1965
The Planning Committee of the Advisory
Vocational Committee of the Central Huron
Secondary School, Clinton, will interview
officials of the Ontario Department of
Education when the required vocational ad-
dition to the school will be discussed. Voca-
tional students are being sent into Clinton
from Goderich, Seaforth and Exeter, and
it was learned that by 1972 a minimum of
between 280 and 300 vocational places will
be required.
James Doig has been elected president
of the South Huron Agricultural Society.
He succeeds Earl Dick of Hibbert, who has
held the position for a number of years.
Specials at the Superior Food Market for
the week: Bee Hive Golden Corn Syrup,
Turn to page 8A