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The Citizen, 2010-12-16, Page 4PAGE 4. THE CITIZEN, THURSDAY, DECEMBER 16, 2010.Editorials Opinions Publisher: Keith Roulston Acting Editor: Shawn Loughlin • Reporter: Denny ScottAdvertising Sales: Ken Warwick & Lori Patterson The CitizenP.O. Box 429, BLYTH, Ont. N0M 1H0 Phone 523-4792 FAX 523-9140 P.O. Box 152, BRUSSELS, Ont. N0G 1H0 Phone 887-9114 E-mail norhuron@scsinternet.com 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 $34.00/year ($32.38 + $1.62 G.S.T.) in Canada; $105.00/year in U.S.A. and $175/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: Monday, 2 p.m. - Brussels; Monday, 4 p.m. - Blyth. PUBLICATIONS MAIL AGREEMENT NO. 40050141 RETURN UNDELIVERABLE CANADIAN ADDRESSES TO CIRCULATION DEPT. PO BOX 152 BRUSSELS ON N0G 1H0 email: norhuron@scsinternet.com December 22, 1948 Rink operations in Blyth were ready to start thanks to the Blyth Lions Club, as the club had said it would once again take on the obligation of an open-air rink. The Blyth Standard reported that the operation and maintenance of an open-air rink was a very difficult task and that the Blyth Lions Club was advertising in that very issue for the position of a rink caretaker and would provide the compensation of a very fair rate of pay for the job. A play sponsored by the Blyth Women’s Institute would be presented at Memorial Hall as part of the annual holiday entertainment in the village. The play’s cast was said to be completely local and the production was rumoured to be a “rib-tickling” presentation. Children filled Memorial Hall on Dec. 18 for the Blyth Lions Club’s annual visit from Santa Claus. The Lions were on hand to assist Santa with the distribution of goodies for the children of the village. Blyth postmaster A.R. Tasker reported that the flow of mail through the Blyth post office was “exceedingly heavy” as the holiday season approached. Tasker said the mail that came through the office on Dec. 20 was the most in 25 years and that was not just in Blyth, but throughout all of Canada. W.G. McNall was elected as president of the Blyth Legion for 1949. McNall succeeded retiring president A.J. Maddocks. Serious injury was avoided in a motor vehicle collision involving a car driven by William McClinchey of Auburn and a truck being driven by William Morritt of Blyth. December 23, 1981 The Brussels and area community welcomed Rev. Charles Carpentier as the new minister at Brussels United Church, while Rev. Robin Lyons took over duties at St. John’s Anglican Church. Carpentier had served in churches in Trenton, Quebec and New York before making his way to the Brussels area. Carpentier was born in Belgium and he said he hoped to settle down and retire in the Brussels community. Lyons had been serving at a church in Owen Sound before coming back to Brussels. He said the Brussels congregation looked curious, anxious and “everything else” after his first day of preaching. In the “Dear Santa” section, Santa Claus received a letter from Billy, who listed his phone number when asking him for a Tonka truck, a KISS record and a brand new pair of boots. Jennifer reminded Santa not to forget to eat his milk and cookies, saying that she had been a good girl for the whole year and asked for some pajamas, jeans and some sweaters. December 21, 1990 After taking a look at the average Canadian wage, Women’s Institutes throughout Ontario figured that at $11.70 per hour, the average Canadian wage in 1987, provincial Women’s Institutes had contributed over $6 million in people hours. The Blyth PeeWee Bulldogs played eight games in eight days and found themselves drained at the end of the run. The team finished the Legion Zone Tournament with a 7-0 victory over Milverton. December 18, 2008 The Blyth Festival wrapped up one of the most successful years in its history, realizing a surplus of $175,633 for the 2008 season. Festival Artistic Director Eric Coates said that the 2008 took big artistic risks, presenting some new Canadian work that tackled very sensitive subjects that were near and dear to Huron County’s heart. In the 2008, over 28,000 tickets were booked overall, while Innocence Lost: a play about Steven Truscott had the most success, selling nearly 13,000 tickets throughout its run. Members of the Huron County Ontario Provincial Police (OPP) were disheartened with some of the early festive RIDE figures. Only a few weeks into the campaign, they had charged several people with drunk driving, including four over the previous weekend. Huron County Health Unit flu clinics saw over 4,200 people come through to get the flu shot. Those involved said it was good to see so many people come out and recognize the importance of getting the flu shot every winter. Jenny Versteeg of Gorrie was acclaimed to the position of chair for the Avon Maitland District School Board for 2009. Several delegations made presentations at the second of four mandated meetings for the Central East North Huron Accommodation Review Committee, which was held at Blyth Public School. There were presentations from Blyth Public School students, East Wawanosh Public School students and Living Water Christian Fellowship’s Ernest Dow, explaining why each of the communities should keep its schools. Huron East Council began considering a change in its severance bylaw. The bylaw said that a farm house couldn’t be severed unless it was build before 1973, which several councillors thought was unreasonable. We acknowledge the financial support of the Government of Canada through the Canada Periodical Fund (CPF) for our publishing activities. We are not responsible for unsolicited newsscripts or photographs. Contents of The Citizen are © Copyright At odds with our climate ’Twas the week before Christmas, and all through the house not a creature was stirring – well actually they were stirring because they couldn’t get out of the house to go shopping. Two multi-day snowstorms in two weeks have put a crimp in the shopping plans of many Huron County residents. Accustomed, as they are, to travelling to the city to shop, or at least to a “regional shopping centre” like Listowel or Goderich, people have been left to worry about whether they can make all their purchases in time for Christmas. Shoppers find themselves stuck in their own communities where there aren’t nearly as many shopping choices as there once was before more and more people began shopping outside their own communities. The theory of evolution says that creatures became extinct because they failed to adapt to their environment, but we have spent decades adapting to a way of life out of synch with the snowbelt environmental realities we live in. Brainwashed by thousands of hours of television and movies set in warmer climes and by commercials that sell a “must have” lifestyle, we’ve chased after a way of life that’s at odds with our climate. And now, in order to get what we think is important, we often put our lives at risk travelling in wintery conditions. Even when winter isn’t causing havoc, the number of miles we drive in spring, summer and fall to shop where we don’t live is causing damage through the burning of fossil fuel and, who knows, perhaps making the climate more volatile. At least when people are trapped close to home they can still get some essentials, such as food. In stormy times no doubt merchants are seeing customers they seldom see in fair weather. But if we keep up current trends, perhaps we won’t even be able to buy food locally a few years from now. Then we may risk our lives even more often as we drive through blizzards to feed our families. — KR How soon we forget Did you even notice there was a big climate change conference in Cancun, Mexico last week? Suddenly climate change has become a non- event for media coverage. The hype that surrounded the disappointing Copenhagen climate change summit earlier perhaps helped diminish the sense of importance of this latest meeting. Certainly the lack of attention is good news for our Canadian government which prefers climate change getting as little attention as possible. Most Canadians probably didn’t even notice that Canada was once again voted the Fossil of the Year award by 500 environmental groups – in fact we got first, second and third place, so bad has our reputation become under the government of Stephen Harper. Perhaps the one bit of news Canadians heard was when Environment Minister John Baird held a press conference to blame lack of progress on an accord to reduce greenhouse gas emissions on China and India and other emerging economic giants which aren’t doing enough to clean up their act. It’s an old argument by the Harper government – that there’s no point in Canada reducing emissions as long as large economies like the U.S., China and India don’t make the same cuts. There’s no doubt that if Canada adopts tough emission standards to make it more expensive for our manufacturers, then more and more manufacturing will be done in less-regulated and less-costly countries like China. Then we can burn more fossil fuel to bring those goods to consumers here. At the same time the government is so obviously hypocritical in that it wants to protect Alberta’s oil industry. Canada very much has a made- in-Alberta environmental policy since the mindset of the government is in its original base. Ironically, oil exports are driving up the Canadian dollar which makes it harder for Canadian industries to export and easier for Canadian consumers to buy imports from China. The government seems to understand that Canadians apparently don’t worry if their country has become a joke for its environmental policy, as long as we don’t have to sacrifice the lifestyle we cherish. — 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.