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Times Advocate, 1998-01-28, Page 4Page 4 Times -Advocate, January 28; 1998 Publisher &' Editor: Jim Beckett Business Manager: Don Smith Production Manager: Deb Lord Advertising; Barb Consitt,•Chad.Eedy• News; Heather.Mir, Kate Monk, Craig Biadford, Chantal) Van Raay, Ross Haugh Production; Alma Ballantyne, Mary McMurray, Barb Robertson Brenda.Hem,•Joyce Weber, Laurel Miner Jransoortation: AI.Hodgert Front Office& -Accounting; Sue Rollings, Carol Windsor Ruthanne Negrijn, Anita McDonald, Cassie Dalrymple, Ruth Slaght. Sheila -Corbett The. Exeter TimeAdvocate is a member. of a family of community newspapers • providing news, advertising and information leadership EDITORIAL Publications Mail Registration Number 07511 SUBSCRIPTION RATES: One year rate for Canada subscribers - $35.00 + OST Two year rate for Canada subscribers - $63.00 + GST OTHER RATES Outside Canada - S102.00 Fro-om far and wide, Oh -o Canada Bryan,aiow could you! We in Canada are accustomed to for- clothing -is made in Brazil, our applianc- es.are Japanese, our favorite wines come_ from France, our chocolate treats from Switzerland: Yet we are Canadian. Being Canadian to most of us has something to do with maple syrup,.. Pierre Berton, ice hockey, the "loonie"- and the RCMP Musical Ride. It means two languages •on some of the road - signs, "beer that tastes like a beer", and an intense modesty about our history. We know what we are not - English or even worse, American. We do not trust people who try to cross our borders with a hand gun in -the glove compartment, or downhill- skis on the roof rack in.July. We get annoyed when people laugh at ourcolorful currency and call it "funny money", or say "zee" instead of "zed": And we are outraged when travelling - abroad and people ask if we are Ameri- can or British. • A number of authors, some of whom • -are Canadian, have tried to pinpoint the Canadian identity and have discovered it is rather like nailing room -temperature, Jello to the wall: Nationalism to aCana- dian is something philosophical, not to be said out loud. Patriotism is something we regard as a bit embarrassing, unless it involves hockey (no matter that we have a valid claim on both basketball and baseball). : However vague � we are at explaining what.exactly is the Canadian identity, we have no intention of signing up to become thefifty-first state. Make no mistake, we are Canadian, and we are proud. Just.so everyone knows - we have a prime minister ,not a president; we have provinces and territories, not states; the last letter in the alphabet is "zed" not "zee"; and the stem of the maple leaf.on our Flag -points down, not up. Simple enough, eh? : tainment is made in Hollywood, our eigners at major sports events man- gling the words to our national anthem, and even Flying our Flag upside down. But Bryan Adams is Canadian, one of our own. We cannot forget or forgive this. one with a supercilious sneer, and a patronizing; "They're Americans,' after - Bryan was selected to. sing 0 Canada at the recent NHL -All Star game in - Vancouver. It seems ironic that a performer who has protested about being -snubbed -by the Canadian music industry, would make such a serious blunder as forget- ting the words to our national anthem. Only in Canada, you say? Before we point fingers. perhaps each ". of us should take pen in hand and try to write out the words_ Bryan bungled so. publicly. There will be more than a few, 'of us, patriotic to the bone; who man- ..age, an- :age, as he.did, to come up with the words so carefully memorized in grade school - the old version, not the updat- ed one.. And it is easy enough to, lip- synch with a roomful of people; Bryan was on his own. . • To be honest, Bryan did not forget the words, he simply forgot someone had' , changed them a couple of decades aga. The more charitable will no doubt un- derstand his gaffe for what it likely was, confidence in his Canadian identi- ty.'A singer might -(and then again, • might not) study the =words to a foreign anthem, but the words to his own - should come as naturally as breathing. Bryan's .problem was, they did not, and he proved it in front of the television cameras, at a hockey game, no less. Most of us are like Adams - not as wealthy, talented or.famous, true, but we call ourselves Canadian without bothering to put much thought into it: He travels around the world by jet; -we do so via the television. set. Our enter- • Saugeen City News Speak Out Letters to the Editor The Times -Advocate continues to welcomeletters to the editor as a forum for open discussion of local issues, concerns, -complaints and kudos. The Times -Advocate reserves the right to edit letters for brevity. Please send your letters to P.O. Box 850 Exeter, Ontario, NOM 1S6. Sign your letter with.both name and address. Anonymous letters will not be published. l MMusres LISTLESS, L'ARGIC, RUN-DoWNio Published Each Wednesday Morning at 424 Main St., Exeter, Ontario, NOM 1.S6 by J.W. Eedy Publications Ltd. Telephone 1-519-235-1331 • Fax: 519-235-0768 emall:tatteedy.com G.S.T. MR105210835 —FEELING ATAI . ALL-ImME LOW2 ifs SHE ASIAN FLU ARIZ. 1998 •�vvvuu • L:• J. r:,xs ..,n Missiles and musings By Craig Bradford If I was king of Lucan (going mad over the Donnellys) Oh the changes I would make if I was king of Lucan: Yes, 1 know Lucan has a reeve and a council that is elected and -an- swers to the taxpayers. And a' gal- axy of guidelines and a raft of rules from the federal and provincial governments make sure .. people don't make snap huge decisions on a whim. -But if 1 was head honcho of the, sleepy village of about 1,900 souls there wouldbe quite a shake-up: The list of changes is •so long it ri- vals Santa's naughty and nice mas- ter file.• So rather than bore you with the gory details, -I'll share my biggest wish for Lucan: that theyembrace the Donnellys. What is Lucan known for besides its .Irish roots? The Donnelly clan. of course. Their marauding; ways and bloody exit from this earth arc legendary across Canada. A well known Canadian filmmaker is even planning on shooting a movie about the Donnellys for .world-wide dis- tribution. Yet there- are no signs, no plaques, nothing to scream to out- -• of-towners along the main drag that Lucan is the proud- hometown of the Donnellys. There is a sign on a business that says something' likc "buy your Donnelly T-shirts here" but that's it, The gravy site is- at the hack of St. Pat's cemetery and there'sno historical plaque at the homestead (though the current property owner is known for' sometimes'putting a rough sign on his lawn). . Argue all you want about how playing up the Donnellys will at- tract vandals. (the. original black gravestone with thefamous "mur- dered" inscriptions -had 'to be re- moved); that using the Donnellys as a economic tool is distasteful, Lu- canites don't want to be .sensation- -alistic, relatives of the murdering mob still live in the area, etc.. if the-L•ucanpowers-that be. em- braced the Donnellys and tooted their_ horns more I'd guarantee • there would be heightened tourist flow through the 'burg huying Donnelly knick- The Donnellys or be one of the mob - members that did them in. The name Donnelly would be in green and gold neon throughout the vil- lage. Streets would be renamed to .reflect every nuance of the Donnel- lys. How's Murder Lane or Donnel- ly Crossroads or Saintsburied Line suit you? _ All kidding aside, Lucan should take better advantage of its dark not -so secret. Going with the Don= nelly • flow could mean thousands more dollars finding their way into • the pockets of Lucan businesspeo- ple and into village coffers. it could be done in a tasteful. re- spectful way. Take St. Thomas for example. They em- braced the fact the most famous elephant in the world, Jumbo, became a hood ornament for a lo- comotive there. They've sold oodles of Jumbo shirts, pins; buttons, etc. over the years and continue to do so although their new focus is trying to • become the Railway Capital of Norah America (they're no where near that status yet). Businesses are called Jumbo this and Jumbo that; a massive statue of the beast points its butt northeast upon Hwy. 4 at the tourist caboose. Come on Lucan, get with it and follow the St. Thomas example — go Donnelly mad and start raking in that blood money! . name knacks like personalized Donnelly _ clubs, little horses and would be in carriages,, bloody sham- rocks and so on. green and • But noes council say • gold neon hurrah and order up a throughout thousand extra Black the village. Donnelly Ts? Not even close. Lucanites have • long been :embarrassed about the Donnellys and want nothing more than people to forget about them. Not •me. Though 1 don't)ive in lucky Lucan, I would paint the town with Donnelly stuff. Donnelly T-shirts, hats and keychains would he sold everywhere.. There'd he Donnelly re-enactments during Donnelly Days, a Donnelly ham- burger (with extra ketchup), a Don- nelly casino, Donnelly, hoard. games. a Donnelly theme park where you can get beaten by the A View from Queen's Park Elected officials as likely to get in trouble TORONTO -- Being elected to the Ontario Legislature is no longer much of a guarantee of respectability -- two former MPPs have gone to jail in a week. A few days after Alan Eagleson, a Progres- sive Conservative, was sentenced to 18 months for defrauding hockey associates, Will Fergu- son, who had been energy minister in the New Democrat government in the early 1990s, was jailed for a week for punching his estranged wife. Told by the judge that he is an alcoholic, Fer- guson certainly also had bad luck. Having 'come from an impoverished background, he was managing well enough in politics when he had to step down as a minister while police in- vestigated a woman's claims that 20 years earli- er, when both were teenagers, he helped her escape from a reform school and had sex with her. The charges against him were dismissed, but he never was reinstated as a minister and quit the legislature in disgust. He is remembered for joking that when the allegation of long -ago sex was made against him, his wife had said, "Hon - By Eric Dowd ey, you're pretty good, but you're not that good that somebody's going to remember you for 20 years," and then apologizing for making light of the allegations. In fact, members or former members of the legislature have not been in trouble with the law as often as having two jailed in a week would suggest. Bill Vankoughnet, a Tory MPP, was arrested in 1996 and charged with soliciting an under- cover policewoman posing as a prostitute, but the charge was withdrawn after he attended a school for offenders. Vankoughnet had been elected boasting that he was committed to basic values. Some in his Tory riding association wanted him to resign, but he hung on, insisting he was now "a good person and will live a good life." In 1992, former Tory MPP Terry Jones, who had been in the legislature 10 years and deputy Speaker until defeated, was jailed for six months for defrauding investors in land development schemes. He had promised he would double or triple their money, but told the court he was bankrupt. in 1985, Ted Bounsall, an NDP MPP before losing in 1981, was caught leaving a store with a $7 bottle of vitamins he had not paid for, found guilty of theft and given an absolute dis- charge, which ended his plans to run again. Bounsall provided the most worthwhile mo- ment for a backbencher in memory when he brought in a private member's bill in 1979 re- quiring equal pay for work of equal value which was overwhelmingly approved in princi- ple by the legislature, although not implement- ed until after the Tory , government was turfed out in 1985. • In 1981 Albert lelanger, who had been Tory deputy whip, was fined $750 for fraud because he filed a claim as creditor of a bankrupt com- pany to which he was not entitled as an official of the company. The judge said Belanger should have obtained proper legal advice. But his problem could also have been unwillingness to speak up: Belanger while in the legislature did not say a single word from 1968 to 1979, a record in recent times. John Brown, a former New Democrat MPP, was sentenced to three years in jail in 1979 for defrauding the province in billing for homes he ran for*emotionally disturbed children. A social worker both praised and criticized for his innovations, he went into politics to get back at the Tories, but proved too egotistical to fit in even his chosen party. The judge said he did exceptional work for children. NDP members have been jailed in recent years for blocking a logging road and refusing to identify a source of information that led to a laboratory being charged with defrauding tax- payers, and a Tory minister was fined for au- thorizing a highway extension before it had full environmental approvals, but these are not quite in the same category. The number of offences does not suggest that there is a crime wave among MPPs or that the legislature should be closed as a breeding ground for criminals. But it does suggest those who are elected are as likely to get in trouble as the rest of the community, and are no better and no worse.