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The Citizen, 2019-01-24, Page 4PAGE 4. THE CITIZEN, THURSDAY, JANUARY 24, 2019. Editorials Opinions President: Keith Roulston • Publisher: Deb Sholdice Editor: Shawn Loughlin • Reporter: Denny Scott Advertising Sales: Brenda Nyveld • Heather Fraser 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 $38.00/year ($36.19 + $1.81 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 January 25, 1968 The Brussels Agricultural Society held its annual meeting and banquet, attended by 90 members, where it was decided that the society would indeed hold a Brussels Fall Fair in 1968. Also at the meeting, Donald McDonald was elected as the president for the coming year, while Jan van Vliet would be the first vice- president and Wilfred Strickler would be the second vice-president and Edward Martin would be the secretary-treasurer. January 24, 1973 Three theatre experts from the provincial government’s Youth and Recreation Branch, one from London and two from Toronto, were in Blyth to tour Memorial Hall and concluded that the community was lucky. The men took the tour with Gail Falconer and Jane Stokes of the Blyth Little Theatre and said the community was lucky to have such a high-grade facility. They were in Blyth at the request of Huron-Bruce MPP Murray Gaunt and helped the group by outlining a number of grants available at various levels of the government. The representatives urged the Blyth Little Theatre group to continue fighting for its facility, telling members that it would be a “terrible waste” if such a “fine community resource” went unused. The Blyth Squirt hockey team came home with the top trophy from the annual Clinton Minor Hockey tournament that was held the previous weekend. Huron County Warden Roy Pattison and Huron County Federation of Agriculture President Mason Bailey were both in attendance at a special public meeting in Teeswater. There, the new hydro line power corridor was set to be discussed. Set to run from Douglas Point through Bruce County and into Huron County, the line would affect the Huron townships of Morris, Turnberry, Hullett and McKillop. The Blyth Board of Trade held its annual meeting at Memorial Hall, electing a new slate of officers for the coming year. Keith Roulston was elected to the position of president, while Oscar DeBoer would be the vice-president. Marion Cook was named the organization’s secretary, while Harvey Snell would continue to act as the board’s treasurer. January 25, 1995 Acting upon advice from the village’s solicitor, Blyth Village Council passed a motion at a special meeting on Jan. 17 to dismiss Clerk- Treasurer-Administrator Helen Grubb. The Blyth Power Utility Commission (PUC) also passed a similar motion, dismissing her from her position within the commission. Neither council members nor Grubb chose to comment further on the matter at the time. Huron-Bruce MP Paul Steckle told members of the Central Huron Christian Farmers Association to expect many cutbacks in the coming agriculture budget. Steckle told those assembled in Clinton that the federal government would be taking measures that “should have been taken years ago”, adding that the reality of the situation was that the country was out of money. “It won’t come as a surprise to anyone that our country is financially broke and has been broke for some time,” he told them. Sarah MacDonald of Rammeloo’s Guest Home near Blyth celebrated her 100th birthday with a special get-together at the home, welcoming friends and family members to help mark the occasion. January 29, 2009 The third meeting of the Accommodation Review Committee (ARC) yielded the concept of a super school in the wake of the expected closure of schools in Londesborough, Blyth, Brussels, Belgrave and Wingham. Community members David Sparling, Mark Beaven, Robert Hunking, Sue Underwood and Connie Goodall presented the concept. It would include state-of- the-art classrooms, computer labs and expanded arts programming and, most importantly to the presenters, it would keep Grade 7 and 8 students in elementary school, rather than in area high schools. With many collisions and even a pair of fatalities in the previous five years, North Huron Council and Blyth Fire Chief Paul Josling were pooling their efforts, lobbying for a stoplight at the intersection of Blyth and London Roads, calling on the county to take action. In an interview with The Citizen, Josling outlined the problem, saying that visibility in both directions was a problem for motorists that had resulted in a laundry list of collisions spanning from fender benders to vehicles being totalled. Councillor Greg McClinchey agreed with Josling’s assessment and was frustrated that North Huron Council couldn’t find any traction with the county. McClinchey said that he didn’t understand why a lower-tier body with the support of its community and emergency services personnel couldn’t garner a response from the county. We acknowledge the financial support of the Government of Canada. We are not responsible for unsolicited newsscripts or photographs. Contents of The Citizen are © Copyright The one source of local news The plan by Brussels businessperson and Huron East Councillor Zoey Onn to introduce younger members of the community to The Citizen by giving away free subscriptions to the paper is not only generous, but shows a real concern for the betterment of her community. Onn said she was motivated to make the offer because the more she became involved in the community, the more she realized that some people were missing out on important information that they would have had if they’d read their local newspaper. There’s a fallacy, particularly among younger people, that you can get all the information you need from social media and websites. That may be true with national and international news, but there’s no alternative to the local newspaper for important local news. Nobody else, for instance, has reporters going to local council meetings or other community meetings. Nobody else has dedicated such resources to searching out local stories. Democracy depends on an informed public. Hopefully through the efforts of Onn and other people who care about their community, more young people will realize how much important information they’re missing by not subscribing to a local newspaper. Otherwise, some day in the future, there may not be anyone gathering local news. — KR Here we go again Last week the Ontario government announced a review of the operations of nine regional governments and their 73 lower-tier member municipalities. That’s supposed to be the limit of the tinkering. Here’s hoping the government doesn’t move on to other municipalities once they’ve finished with the regions. Ontario Municipal Affairs Minister Steve Clark said last week that the move is not about more amalgamations so let’s hope he’s right. Let’s hope, too, that the next step isn’t further pressure on places like Huron County to further reduce local government. It’s ironic that people like current Premier Doug Ford and former Premier Mike Harris, who say they’re opposed to big government, keep pushing for larger government at the local level, the level where people feel the most ownership of their government. Their answer to any call for efficiency is always to make local governments larger. Often it only results in fewer elected councillors, who are relatively inexpensive, and a larger, more expensive bureaucracy. There’s a familiar pattern already arising as municipal leaders try to head off arbitrary decisions by the advisory body set up to review the regional governments. In Simcoe County, for instance, which runs from Toronto’s northern suburbs all the way to Georgian Bay, some municipal leaders say they want to get ahead of the advisory body. They’re already looking for ways to reduce the size of Simcoe County Council from its current 32 seats (two for each lower-tier municipality). This sounds like the sort of pressure that drove municipal councillors in Huron County to embrace municipal amalgamation under the Harris government 20 years ago. Worried that the province might impose amalgamations, municipalities cooked up hasty marriages they thought might satisfy the government. The result was some unwieldy municipalities. It would nice if our Premiers, who think they know everything, would recognize that the local people, the people closest to the ground, know the conditions best. — KR Does he really believe it? Does Lu Shaye, China’s Ambassador to Canada, actually believe some of the things he says or is he simply really good at passing along his government’s party line while keeping a straight face. Ambassador Lu claims Canada stabbed China in the back when the RCMP arrested Huawei Chief Financial Officer Meng Wanzhou on a warrant issued by the United States. Meng spent a few days in jail awaiting her hearing but was quickly granted bail and has spent the time since early December in her luxury Vancouver-area home, able to continue to do business from there and to consult her legal team whenever she wants to. Meng’s father has thanked Canada for its kind treatment of his daughter but Lu continues to make it seem as if she’s endured great hardship. Meanwhile two Canadians arrested in apparent retaliation, are being held in jail, questioned four hours a day, and given limited access to legal advice or visits from Canadian officials. Lu held a news conference last week to get his message out to the Canadian people through our independent media. Certainly China’s tightly-controlled media hasn’t been giving the Chinese people the Canadian side of the issue. Ambassador Lu must be a true believer in China’s Communist Party if he can sit in the middle of a truly open, democratic country like Canada and still give his government’s line without irony. — KR &