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Goderich Signal Star, 2017-01-11, Page 66 Signal Star • Wednesday. January 11, 2017 Goderich Signal -Star VOL. 26 – ISSUE 10 PUBLISHED WEEKLY — EST. 1860 Signal Star Publishing. 120 Huckins St. Goderich ON N7A 3X8 519-524-2614 www.goderichsignalstar.com POSTMEDIA JOHN BAUMAN Group Manager, Media Sales jbauman@postmedia.com ext. 232 JANET SHRIER Office Manager • jashrier@postmedia.com ext. 220 DARRYL COOTE Editor dcoote@postmedia.com ext. 211 4. 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For more information or to file a complaint go to www.mediacouncil.ca or call toll free 1-844-877-1163. The Goderich Signal Star shall not be liable for failure to publish an ad for typographical errors in publication except to the extent of the cost of that portion of the ad in which the error occurred. The Goderich Signal -Star reserves the right to reject or edit any advertisement. The Goderich Signal -Star is a proud member of the Canadian Community Newspapers Association (CCM) and The Ontario Community Newspapers Association (OCNA). We acknowledge the financial support of the Govemment of Canada through the Canadian Periodical Fund (CPF) for our publishing activities. Canada Member of the Canadian Community AOcnia Newspaper ASeociation and the Ontario Community Newspapers Assoaation Cherish your suffering, It cannot have escaped the attetr- tion of many that Ontario is most unsettled these days. That its industries are anxious, its debt colos- sal, its citizens not in a pleasant mood. Ontario is in a lot of pain. But let me assure readers outside Ontario that it has not all been for nothing. There are rewards. They are subtle, intangible, but they are real. Let me explain. Those who share the faith and endorse the morality of global warming derive very much the same satisfac- tions that attended fidelity to the Less demanding dogmas of earlier and less ambitious creeds. The carbon regime, tax hikes on gasoline, failed or failing long-term contracts, fear and trembling in the manufacturing sector, the gnash- ing of teeth in poorer (and now colder) households, Ontario Hydro's ever - swelling levies, the despoliation of rural vistas by towers ofwhirling, bird-bash- ingwindmills: These, each in itself, and all in combination are the acknowl- edged costs of the Great Greening. Those outside the faith, and mere loitering agnostics, see nothing here but a catalogue of burdens. Shackles of an alien god. But to those within the covenant, they are the way stations on the hard and stonypath to delicious rewards reserved for the elect. This is ntario; Premier Wynne's green gods know of your sacrifice Column Rex Murphy the true chemistry of belief. \'Vhat appear as obstacles to heretics, appear to believers'as smooth escalators to a higher state. Accepting, embracing what must he done supplies them with a sense of inner sanction, endows them with that peace of mind which a lesser scripture records, rather churl- ishly, as passing all understanding. It has always been thus. Think of • those Lenten pilgrims of old scuttling from hamlets all Europe to visit Jerusalem for a glance at the bone splinters of some of the lesser saints. The "ways [were] deep and the weather sharp" but the end trans- muted the joumey into something sweet and fine. So it is now. I see the mages of Queen's Park, shivering in the polls, stripped of their popularity, the scom of so manywho once strew palms on University Ave- nue at their approach, I see them now embracing all that misery. For the cause is just and the cost therefore simply cannot be too high. What is a blizzard of swollen light bills and a hash of inflated power contracts to them? For is it not their pride to have done their bit to defer an apocalypse? And so, if they raise their eyes and see that last year carbon dioxide mole- cules were, s'ay, 387 parts per million in the atmosphere of our planet, and now - as a mere cost of billions and utter depression in 'their electoral prospects, it is, say, 386 or even 385 parts per million - Ontario, they cry, has done its bit A bit, after all, being all that Ontario can do. What other gains for all that pain? There is the near -irresistible rapture of those who lead a government casting it as a moral exemplar: In the early days of the faith the apostle Dalton made no pretense that Ontario's actions could in anyway truly alter the balance of the earth and atmosphere. Ifthisworldwas heading toward a sweltering finale - Ontario alone, whatever it could do, would not save it. But that was never the thought The burdens taken on so gloriously by the green clerics of Queens Park were not meant for effect They were example only. In his familiar Lincolnesque man- ner McGuinty promoted the Green Plan as "placing Ontario in the fore- front as a leader in the fight against global warming" Ms. Wynne, as faith- futto the doctrine of the founder, works out of the same catechism. letters to the editor `Stability and health of Canada is threatened by income inequality' Dear Editor, Toronto-based economist Hugh Mackenzie, in collaboration with the respected Canadian Center for Policy Alternatives, recently presented research which confirms the obscene fact that the best paid executives in Canada eam as much in a few hours as the average Cariadian earns in an entire year! Furtherinore, this gap in income between the corporate elite and the average working Canadian is increasing on an ongoing basis, according to Mackenzie's research and the research of others. In part, it is this marked income disparity and social privilege of the elite that fueled Donald Trump's success. In Canada, the Occupy Movement, the Idle No More Movement and the major protests seen at the last G20 meeting in Toronto are evidence that there is a smouldering discontent in a significant number of Canadians on the issue of escalating income dispar- ity. The stability and the health of Canadian society is threatened if this issue of pay equity is not dealt with in an urgent and meaningful way. With- out justice on this issue there can be no lasting social peace in Canada. By increasing the income tax on the 1 per cent of financially privileged Canadians, Mt: Trudeau has started the process of addressing this critical Ontario is merely, and this is no small merely, leading the way. Ontario's example shall - would I could find a happier verb - fire the planet Energy policy as moral contagion sums it up. The dream was, I suppose, that the Kazakhstanis, and Burundians, the Chinese and Peruvians, all in their several dominions, taking the morn- ing beverage to begin the day, would pause and remark to the neighbors, "Those Ontarians. They're leading the fight against global warming. What a people:' Then, instantly, aworldwide flight to turn off the space heaters, shut down the factories, jail the coal miners, and tum out the lights. In 24 hours the only place left on the planet that still had the lights on would be a mansion in Tennessee. Because as we know, when Ontario sets the pace, the world follows. I suppose this to be the kind of con- versation Ms. Wynne and Mr McGuinty designed Ontario's energy policy to provoke, in the McGuinty case buming a billion dollars just to shut down a gas plant to ensure. So was all the pain worth it? Mr. Trudeau thinks so. For he has the same plan. And some of the same planners. So far, though, that's the whole parade. issue. It is to be hoped that in the next federal budget, the present govern- ment will proceed with their election promises and enact more progressive changes in the tax structure, in order to correct the escalating income dis- parity that an increasing number of Canadians endure. Sincerely, Jim Hollingworth M.D. Goderich Dear Editor, Proceeds of more than S1,700 raised at the 8th Annual Cookie Walk held by the WMS at Knox Presbyterian Church, Goderich in November are being divided equally among local, national and international projects as follows: AM&G Hospital for priority heart & stroke equipment, including Tel- estroke services in Huron County; Winnipeg Inner City Missions (Anishinabe, Place of Hope) for the work of the Rev. Margaret Mul- lin with First Nations people; and Presbyterian World Service & Development for the building of a household latrine to promote better health in a Third World country. Wishing everyone a Happy New Year. Joanne Walters, WMS Secretary To The Editor Goderich Signal Star We are nearly at the end of 2016 and what a year it has been. How can human's beings do other humans what we have seen in the past few years? In 1955 Einstein warned, "Political passions, once they have been fanned into flame, exact their vicitims. Man has wihtin himself a lust for hatred and destruction which occasSionally yields to a collective psychosis': Joseph Kraft a Free Press column- ist worte in 1979 - "Einstein shared an illusion with most of us that somehow unseen hand, some Providence, really wants peace among men. The record shows how truly hard it is to obtain peace. Genius clearly is not enough - nor goodwill - nor ther- apy in it's various forms. A balance of forces has to figure into the equation, and a capacity, frought with risk, for constant adjustment. Even then there is no guarantees for stability and order. The best that can be done is to tilt the odds against war." As we step into 2017 let us remember Kipling's words: "Though all we know depart, The old commandments stand; In courage keep your heart, In strength lift up your hand." Mary Bere LETTERS TO THE EDITOR Signal Star welcomes letters to the editor. Letters must include the writer's full name, address, daytime phone number and signature (for verifica- tion). Anonymous letters will not be published. We reserve the right to edit all editorial submissions including letters for clarification, style and length. Let- ters must be signed and be in good taste and follow the laws of libel and slander.