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Times-Advocate, 1982-02-24, Page 4Times -Advocate, February 24, 1902 • 14144! imes- dvocate Times Established 1873 Serving South Huron, North Middlesex Advocate Established 1881 & North Lambton Since 1873 Amalgamated 1924 Published by J.W. Eedy Publications limited IORNE EEDY Publisher JIM BECKETT Adscrtising T1,in.iger BILL BATTEN Editor HARRY DEVRIES Composition Manager ROSS HAUGH Assistant Editor DICK JONGKIND Business Manager Published Each Wednesday Morning at Exeter, Ontario Second Class Mail Registration Number 0386. Phone 235-1331 SUBSCRIPTION RATES: Canada $20.00 Per year: U.S.A. $55.00 C.W.N.A., O.C.N.A. CLASS 'A' and `ABS' Try the other end, too There's some validity to a request by local hockey groups and figure skaters to. extend their season, but the problem is that the extension being considered is at the wrong end of the season. By the end of February, most local hockey teams have been eliminated from playoffs, and with their regular schedules also completed, they have little in- terest in the game through the month of March although ice is still available. The figure skaters have also staged their carnival and interest and use of ice has decreased through March. There's little that minor hockey teams can do about the scheduling of provincial playoffs, considering that CD PCNA the few teams which move through to the finals are still playing in late April, but there should be some method whereby interest can be maintained for the teams that have virtually had their seasons ended in mid to late February. What is needed is some time of competition in the form of a new league comprising the playoff losers or even a consolation provincial playoff that would keep thekid's interest up and on tale ice when it is available. March weather is usually more conducive to inside activities and ice sports than September, and while there is merit in having ice locally at a somewhat earlier date than the present practice, there should be more consideration for using the ice to its full capacity when it is available in March. Some major changes With the exception of post-election activities, there have been few times in Ontario's history when there have been so many significant changes in the political scene as those which have transpired over the past month. The NDP and Liberals have elected new leaders, and in an attempt to counter some of that publicity, Premier William Davis has made significant cabinet shuffles, with some of those acquiring new jobs hoping that it may lead them to being the successor to Davis. The benefits to the citizens of the province may not be significant, although there is every reason to believe it will have some beneficialaspects as the new leaders and the PC aspirants attempt to make gains with the voters prior to the next provincial election. Two of the changes are bound to have an impact in this area. First of all, the province has a new agriculture minister, and with the area being depen- dent upon that industry, the moves that Dennis Tim- brell makes in the ensuing months will be watched with more than a passing interest. His lack of background in the business is expected to be offset by his leadership aspirations and hopefully he will carry more weight in cabinet than his predecessor, figuratively speaking at least. The other impact may be expected frotn the elec- tion of Londoner David Peterson as the neer leader of the Liberal party. That could move the party's power base into this part of Ontario and could, if he can lead the party to power, duplicate some of the benefits that accrued when the PC power base was centred in the area during the Robarts-Stewart-Bell-MacNaughton era. Huron -Middlesex MPP Jack Riddell was a staunch supporter of Peterson and could be rewarded if the party can win the next election. So,thereare many changes and undoubtedly more to come in the next few months. It should be an in- teresting time, although it is to be hoped that the provincial economy will not suffer further from the personal political gain that some may be seeking. The need for leadership is accute, so there has never been a better time for politicians to show their mettle. The beleagured citizens of Ontario are watching. The real 'person escaping? While spirits may have contributed to lessening some of the respect and adora- tion this country holds for Sir John A. MacDonald, there was certainly no lack of spirit in Exeter council's observance of Heritage Day and the tribute paid to the nation's first prime minister last week. Mayor Bruce Shaw's comment that it was one of the most colorful evenings he had ever enjoyed was indicative of the results of a most spontaneous program that drew whole -hearted support from members of council and town staff. There's a bit of "ham" in all of us, and it certainly came to the forefront in council's re-enactment of a 1901 council session, no doubt some being spurred to new-found thespian heights by the appearance of TV cameras. The "asides" and off-the-cuff remarks kept the program moving quickly and any director would have been elated at the performances rendered. It will prooably remain a mystery as to what happens to people's normal reser- vations when they don a costume, but it produces some unusual transformations. Some suggest that it is the real person escaping from the guarded and reserved masks we all hide behind in our daily lives. For those brief moments there is no concern for making errors, perhaps feeling secure that there is no reality to the situation and there are no judgements that will be made on con- DtDts criminations voiced in jest are seldom offensive; harsh words uttered in a make -belief debate don't sour the mind with hurt or attempts at retribution. As Dorothy Chapman suggested, it is stimulating to play together and laugh secret, of course, is that you laugh r with people and not at them, you accept their opinions without envisioning them as a direct and harmful threat to your own, you may attempt to upstage but never upset. If that is the real person escaping from behind the masks we don each day, perhaps it is time we all stopped taking ourselves so seriously and realize the validity of Shakespeare's suggestion that we are all merely actors on the stage of life and that there is considerable more enjoyment when we laugh and play together and let the real person escape from behind the masks which foster our discriminations, mistrust and an ex- aggerated view of our station in life. • While the evening program was an un- qualified success, it became spontaneous only after it was well organized, primari- ly by Councillor Loss), Fuller. If members of council and the staff were in the same boat as,the writer, each received at least four phone calls from Lassy in the couple of weeks prior to the celebration, encouraging and cajoling us into action on a suitable attire for the evening. Her work in organizing the program no doubt made the male members more cognizatnt of the contribution of the dis- taff side in their business deliberations t 1 and perhaps it was even more eniphasiz- ed when they had the ladies removed from the business yea. Bill Mickle played the 1901 chauvinistic male to the hilt (in jest, of course) as he noted "this is a man's job and we should look at it in our own proper way". The contribution made to this com- munity by women gives strong testimony to the fact that we are beneficiaries of having altered some aspects of our heritage. • Despite the fun, frivolity and raucous debate, the program had a serious under- current and resulted in a positive and sincere appreciation for this com- munity's and nation's heritage as well as a tribute to a man whose vision, tact, patience and common sense brought us into being as a country. The lament is that we stop too seldom to consider the contributions of our forefathers and the riches'that they pass- ed along to us to safeguard and embdish, and in turn pass on to future generations. The responsibility is awesome and one has only to look around and see the many areas in which we have failed to consider the needs of the future through our waste and lack of priorities. How will the people of 1982 be judged• when future enerations look back at their heritage? Their view may be more g s if we stop more frequently to c�our heritage and Exeter council should be highly commended for beiat the forefront in this regard andn topefully this year's celebration will be continued with greater public participation in the future. Our community leaders proved themselves to be just that last week. Like to be down under I wonder if southern Australia needs a weekly columnist or a cracking good English teacher. This thought was prompted when an Australian girl, an ex- change student, walked into my class today. She's arrived on the weekend and had gone skidooing in a blizzard. Quite an in- troduction to Canada. I think she's still a bit shaken. It's summer in Australia, and the drop in temperature she ex- perienced would be about 100 degrees. Why couldn't my great- grandfather have been a convict, and been sept to Australia, free passage, instead of a bog Irishman who had to scrape a few shillings together to pay his way to Canada, steerage class? Just think of those lousy Australians, loitering about the beach in Sidney, bikini -clad, while we lurch about, bundled to the ears, like a lot of sore- headed bears. Afraid to open our mouths in case our lungs freeze. Certain the car won't start. Cur- sing the town snow -plow that came sailing along just after we'd risked a coronary shovelling the drive, and dumped a cou- ple of tons into the driveway. Even mywife, who has always been a fearless driver, is daunted. She used to sail off to the city with the two kids, in any kind of weather, to take music lessons in the city, a round trip of nearly 200 miles. She was even caught in a six -car pile-up one day, when a white-out blinded her and five other drivers, and some idiot plowed into her rear end. Her car's rear end that is. This winter, she's plain scared to take off to visit her father, what with plugged highways, drif- ting snow, high winds, and that constant bone - chilling cold. There's only one small a couple of Arabs, dress- ed in burnous and robes, showed up in an average small town in Canada,they'd be lynch- ed, after suitable torture; application of icicles to their tenderest parts. Or maybe btirying them up to their chins in a snowbank and leaving them there, the way they used to bury people in the sand and let Sugar and Spice Dispensed By Smiley hem bit of comfort. Everybody else is getting it, too, including those traitors, the rich, who went south for the winter leaving the rest of us to stumble toward spring, should it ever arrive. That's the 'good news from the south. The bad news is that the heavy frosts down there have killed a great part of the citrus crop as well as the vegetables whose prices, which were already sky- high. have shot into the stratosphere. I can see the day com- ing. soon. when Canadian matrons will be selling their bodies for a bunch of carrots.a couple of those little, hard. green tomatoes that are ar- tificially reddened. or a chunk of that rabbit food known as lettuce. Had a look at your oil bill lately? I swear that if the sun finish them off. There seems no way out. Even suicide, not un- known in residents of - northern climes, is almost impossible. Jump off the town dock to drown. and all you do is fracture your skull on the ice. Slit your wrists and the blood congeals so fast alt you wind up with is a couple of sore wrists. Try a head-on collision with another car, and he skids into a snowbank just before you hit him, It's depressing. that's what it is. About the only thing that pulls most Canadians through a winter like this is that wecan stay hot un- der the collar most of the time. and generate enough heat to keep the lower extremities from turning to stone. All we have to do is read the papers. Our RCMP, once one of the most admired police forces in the world, can produce a lot of thermal units. Payinga multiple - murderer $90,000. Paying another well-known hood fifty thousand for finger- ing some other hoods. Government waffling over Poland. Wringing every possible nickel in taxes out of the poor and the middle-class. while allowing the rich to go merrily on their way. Even accountants, the most tight-lipped people in the land, have been stirred to anger by some of the blatant idiocies of the MacEachen budget, which almost seems as though it were designed 10 increase inflation and unemployment, dis- courage people from in- vesting in their own coun- try. put a stop to new con- struction, and deliberate- ly alienate almost every sector of the public. There seems a great lethargy in Ottawa, a sense that our leaders are saving. "I'm all right, Jack, what are you grouching about?" Not many banks going bankrupt these days, but a lot of other people are, from farms to fishermen to small business to manufacturers. I think it's time to throw the rascals out. How about you? And how about one of my three faithful readers starting a campaign to raise funds for SSA (Send Smiley to Australia). I'rn sure there are a great many who would contribute, heavi- ly. IVs the farmers' fault I kind of think that it's the farmers' fault. For the last two or three years we've been hearing it from them: "Doggone it, a man hard- ly gets enough snow to cover the fields. There isn't any ground cover. My winter wheat got frozen right off because there wasn't enough snow to cover it up. The water table has gone down so' far that the pump is suck- ing sand up out of the well." So this year, including last fall, the worm has turned, so to speak. Ac- tually, the worms had better have turned right on up to the surface and wiggled for higher ground because since last summer the ground has been a little less than dry. The farmers ought to be happy because it rained and rained: so much that was now sitting in two pretty little pieces in the field. As for ground cover, Perspectives they were using four- wheel drive tractors just to pull grain wagons around the fields, axle deep in the mud. One fellow hooked a four - wheeler up to a mired combine and got it out, only to find the combine By Syd Fletcher . believe me, we've got all kinds of it. My brother lives in I'rince George, B.C., and he was telling me that they got 6 feet of snow in one fall. I have to admit that that is considerably more than we've got here in Southern Ontario. At the same time I have to indicate right now that I've got more than enough ground cover on my front lawn to last me for awhile. In fact, if any of you farmers have got any in- fluence left with the guy controlling the weather please tell hint that there's a certain red- haired fellow down here who's fed up with shovell- ing his laneway out and getting stuck in that snowbank across the road which always seems to find his right tire whenever he leaves for work in the morning. He keeps on muttering `Ground cover, my eye, or something like that. • s