Loading...
The Citizen, 2015-02-19, Page 4PAGE 4. THE CITIZEN, THURSDAY, FEBRUARY 19, 2015. Editorials Opinions Publisher: Keith Roulston Editor: Shawn Loughlin • Reporter: Denny Scott Advertising Sales: Lori Patterson & Amanda Bergsma The Citizen P.O. Box 429, BLYTH, Ont. N0M 1H0 Ph. 519-523-4792 Fax 519-523-9140 P.O. Box 152, BRUSSELS, Ont. N0G 1H0 Phone 519-887-9114 E-mail info@northhuron.on.ca Website www.northhuron.on.ca Looking Back Through the Years CCNA Member Member of the Ontario Press Council The Citizen is published 50 times a year in Brussels, Ontario by North Huron Publishing Company Inc. Subscriptions are payable in advance at a rate of $36.00/year ($34.29 + $1.71 G.S.T.) in Canada; $160.00/year in U.S.A. and $205/year in other foreign countries. Advertising is accepted on the condition that in the event of a typographical error, only that portion of the advertisement will be credited. Advertising Deadlines: Mon. 2 p.m. - Brussels; Mon. 4 p.m. - Blyth. PUBLICATIONS MAIL AGREEMENT NO. 40050141 RETURN UNDELIVERABLE CANADIAN ADDRESSES TO CIRCULATION DEPT. PO BOX 152 BRUSSELS ON N0G 1H0 email: info@northhuron.on.ca February 14, 1979 John Cardiff was elected to be the president of the Brussels Agricultural Society for 1979. John Boneschansker was elected as first vice-president, while Jim Stephenson was named second vice- president. Directors for the year would be Graeme Craig, Ray Hanna, Fred Uhler, Murray Hoover, Bob Higgins, Rev. Ken Innes, Keith Williamson, Neil Hemingway and Ray Adams. The Brussels Business Association (BBA) was in the early planning stages of hosting a Bluegrass Jamboree at the Brussels, Morris and Grey Community Centre on the Sunday of Carnival Days, a weekend to be hosted in the community in late May, 1979. At the same meeting, the BBA elected its executive for the year, installing Ken Webster as the organization’s president, Terry Sugg as the first vice-president and Jim Cardiff as the second vice-president. Fred Stevenson was elected to be secretary, while John Sims was named treasurer. February 14, 1990 Kevin Wheeler of Brussels and his skating partner Michelle Menzies placed fourth overall at the Canadian Figure Skating Championships, which had been held in Sudbury. Despite their fourth-place finish, however, they also took home an award for most outstanding program. This was the second year in a row that the pair had finished fourth in the championship, both years finishing behind three well- established skating pairs who had all been Canadian champions in past years. Blyth Memorial Hall sat as a big, empty building as all of the theatre’s seats had been sent to Toronto in order to be refurbished and padded before they would be reinstalled in Blyth. Also in Festival news, the Blyth Festival had announced its 1990 season, which would include three world premieres. The season would open with Local Talent by Colleen Curran, followed by In A Field of Flowers by Laurie Fyffe, Albertine, in Five Times by Michel Tremblay, Firefly by Carol Sinclair and The Perils of Persephone by Dan Needles. Ticket prices had risen for the 1990 season, but there were still packages available that could get patrons into the Festival to see four performances for $44. February 14, 2001 Brussels Councillor Joe Seili said he was worried about the potential growing pains being felt throughout the newly-formed Huron East thanks to amalgamation. Seili wrote a letter concerned about water pressure in Brussels if the Brussels Fire Department was fighting a fire. When firefighters would need increased pressure to fight a fire, prior to amalgamation a village employee would start generators at the wells in order to boost the volume. Now with amalgamation, Seili said, municipal employees were far- flung and it could take an employee as long as 40 minutes to get to Brussels if that situation were to occur, which is an eternity as far as fire is concerned. An initial planning meeting was held for the impending 125th anniversary celebration for Blyth, which was approaching in 2002. Blyth Lion Ken Stewart said he was going to begin preparations with the Blyth Lions Club, but added that many, many more people were going to have to get involved and that the club couldn’t do it alone. February 16, 2012 Blyth residents Brock Vodden and Greg Sarachman were in the process of circulating a petition in an attempt to keep Blyth Public School open. The petition asked that the Ontario Legislature change the way local school boards operate in accordance to school closures, among other things. The two local men had partnered with various communities that had lost schools across the province as part of an initiative called People for Accountability and School Sustainability (PASS). Huron-Bruce MPP Lisa Thompson had agreed to present the petition if the required number of signatures were obtained by the group. A number of Cranbrook area residents were concerned about a proposed transmission line associated with a wind turbine project that would be running through the community. Dennis Mueller, teacher and Cranbrook resident, spoke to Huron East Council, expressing his concern, as well as the concern of many of his neighbours, with the transmission line and what it would do to the community. At a public meeting, Morris- Turnberry Council presented its cost projections for its proposed fire department. The report projected the cost of starting a fire department in Morris-Turnberry, one of the very few in Ontario without on, to be between $1.8 and $1.9 million. Morris-Turnberry had already begun a reserve for the project, which contained $400,000 at the time. We acknowledge the financial support of the Government of Canada through the Canada Periodical Fund of the Department of Canadian Heritage. We are not responsible for unsolicited newsscripts or photographs. Contents of The Citizen are © Copyright It just gets more ridiculous The news this week that taxpayers in Howick Twp. are likely to see the municipal portion of their taxes increase by more than 25 per cent is just the most ludicrous of the ongoing ramifications of cutbacks in provincial government funding to rural municipalities. Other municipalities with a large share of their assessment from farmland are also being hit hard by cuts, just not cuts that require the kind of mind-boggling tax hike Howick faces. What makes this even more ridiculous is that at the same time the province is cutting the Ontario Municipal Partnership Fund, the fund that as supposed to help municipalities cope with added expenses from downloading provincial services, the province is also increasing the costs for rural municipalities with things such as higher costs for OPP policing services – a service the province requires municipalities to supply. Anyone who looks at the situation with an open mind can see that the province’s expectations as unfair but is anyone even looking. Rural Ontario can’t threaten to withhold its votes from the government if the situation isn’t fixed because the last two elections have seen no Liberals elected in rural ridings – but they still won. We have no weight left to throw around. What’s more, with no one but opposition party MPPs to represent us, any complaints can get be written off as opposition opportunism. Kathleen Wynne had shown, before she became Liberal leader, that she had a genuine interest in rural Ontario, despite the fact she represented a downtown Toronto riding. As Premier, she seemed to confirm her willingness to listen to the rural part of her province by taking on the role of agriculture minister. But the proof is in the pudding: either she’s lost interest or she doesn’t care. –KR Selling out so soon Back before he was elected Prime Minister in 2006, Stephen Harper promised a new openness in government. Within months, the promise proved false. Who’d have imagined Liberal leader Justin Trudeau’s promise of a different style of government that wouldn’t even last that long? Most people probably knew that it was naive to believe Trudeau’s promise to run a more open, less partisan government if he was elected, but last week’s welcoming of Conservative defector Eve Adams showed he didn’t even wait to be elected to break the promise. With this one act, Trudeau has undermined any attempt he’ll make during the campaign for October’s federal election to paint himself as a new broom that will sweep clean the petty partisanship and political opportunism of Ottawa. Few other Tory MPs would have made the Liberals look worse for accepting her with open arms than Ms. Adams. Her claim to suddenly having discovered the mean pettiness of Harper and to long for the idealistic leadership of Trudeau ring hollow when she has been one of the pitbulls the Conservatives have turned loose to attack people like Trudeau in the past. As for changing the way she thinks? Just before Christmas she was still lauding the government’s plan to income splitting as a boon to families. Now she calls it a gift to taxpayers who don’t need it. Today she supports a carbon tax to clean up the environment. Mere months ago she called such a plan a job killer. She ridiculed Trudeau for his plan to legalize marijuana, now supposedly she supports it. But Adams’ personal record is even more unattractive than her voting record. In the last election she tried to charge her beauty products as an election expense. In late 2013 she was caught on video throwing a tantrum at an Ottawa gas station because she felt her $6 car wash was unsatisfactory. More recently, she was disciplined by the Conservative Party for pressure tactics used in trying to secure the nomination in her new Toronto-area riding. Trudeau’s apparent pride in welcoming Adams to the Liberals seems to give fuel to the Conservative attack ads that suggest he doesn’t have good judgement. It would be ironic that if in apparently abandoning the Conservatives, Adams plays a key role in assuring their re-election by undermining the leader who seemed to have the best chance of defeating them. –KR & Letters Policy The Citizen welcomes letters to the editor. Letters must be signed and should include a daytime telephone number for the purpose of verification only. Letters that are not signed will not be printed. Submissions may be edited for length, clarity and content, using fair comment as our guideline. The Citizen reserves the right to refuse any letter on the basis of unfair bias, prejudice or inaccurate information. As well, letters can only be printed as space allows. Please keep your letters brief and concise.