Loading...
Times Advocate, 1999-05-12, Page 744- ;.• Wednesday, May. 12, 1999 Ex tsr Times -Advocate 7 Opinion&Fo .t. 10 YEARS AGO May 10, 1989 - Ontario's first black Lieutenant. Governor Lincoln Alexander visited SHDHS .on May 5 to speak to Huron county's teachers and trustees during a "multicultur- alism "professional develop- ment day. More than 500 rainbow trout were added to the waters of Morrison Dam Friday morning in readiness for this Saturday's thing derby. 20 YEARS AGO May 11, 1979 = Exeter was battling to keep the town cenotaph at its present location between the town hall and the library. It had been suggested the monument be moved to the rear of the build- ing as part of a downtown beautification project. While the Petrolia Squires were winning the Allan Cup championship, the T -A pointed out it was with the help of Exeter native, Bill Fairbairn. Top issues at an all candidates meeting for the federal election included energy conservation, abortion, gun control and capital punishment. 30YEARS AGO May 1.1, 1969 - The Crediton United Church was completely destroyed in a blaze initially described as "mysterious". The 47 -year-old build; ing was gutted early Sunday morning.;" Longstanding Crediton residents recalled a similar New Year's morning fire that destroyed the previ-. ous building in 1922. Exeter residents were told they would likely have access to. natural gas service by September 1. 35 YEARS AGO May 9, 1964 - Exeter's swimming pool commit- tee received authorization this week to commence construction this week. OPP Constable George Mitchell who recently passed his tests for corporal rank is being trans- ferred this week to the Kitchener detachment. 40 YEARS AGO May 11, 1959 Cowan's Lunch building at Sarepta will be offered for sale at a public auction Wednesday by the Ontario Department of Highways. Thirty-two years to the day after he started business, veteran barber Elmore Harness, has relinquished the clippers of his shop on Main Street. His business is being g .taken over by Don McCurdy. Hurondale Dairy in Hensall was practically destroyed by the tornado which swept the district Monday morning. SO YEARS AGO May 15, 1949 - Mr. and Mrs. Russell Snell have every reason to believe that Friday the 13th is a lucky day.. On Friday, May 13. , a little daughter Elizabeth Ann, came to brighten their home while Friday July 13, 1945 was the birth day of their only son John. 60 YEARS AGO May 12, 1939 - Grand Bend residents spent a few anxious hours Sunday afternoon when a bush fire in the Pinery fanned by a high wind from the south-east swept through the dry underbrush towards the village. Firefighting efforts kept the blaze from spreading into Grand Bend. The Ontario Hydro Commission was touring a truck and trailer around the region this week to show the benefits of cooking with electricity and the uses of electrical farm equipment. 75 YEARS AGO May 9, 1924 - A cablegram was received from Mr. Alonzo Hodgins of Crediton to .the effect that the SS Gracia on board of which were Messrs. W.H. Dearing, Harry Sweet and himself had land- ed safely in Liverpool. Miss Eva Carling, daughter of the late Thomas Carling has been appointed superintendent of St. Luke's Hospital in New York. . Miss Helen Wethey sang a very pleasant solo in Trivitt Memorial Church, Sunday evening. 80 YEARS AGO May 10, 1919 - Germany has just been handed the terms of the Peace Treaty and has 15 days to accept or reject it. Exeter was holding a public meeting to discuss the construction of "good roads". The term referred to streets made of concrete and asphalt as opposed to the dirt and gravel, residents are living with at the time. ROSS HAUGH BACK IN TIME ' LETTERS TO THE EDITOR Handicapped ark' n g Dear Editor: To the people of Ontario (especially people shopping in Exeter): On March 1, 1997 I was involved iin a traumatic motor vehicle accident. As a result I have a handi- capped parking permit, and I also have been attending the South Huron Physiotherapy Clinic in Exeter for the past 1 1/2 years. During the week of April 26-30 while in Exeter I also visited a local business on Tuesday, Thursday and Friday. I was going to park in their designated handi- capped parking space. On all three occasions there were vehicles already parked in the handicapped park- ing space, so I parked somewhere else, and walked by the handicapped parking space each time. As I usually do, when I find a handicapped parking space already taken, I check to see if in fact this vehicle has either a .handicapped parking plate or a handi- capped parking permit. On all three occasions, none of the vehicles had same. In fact, on Friday the vehicle parked in:the handi- capped parking space was a red van. At the front of the vehicle, just under the front license plate was an additional plate that indicated "Member of the Grand Bend Fire Department". My question - How can a fire person be handicapped? Would everyone, no matter where you go, please leave the indicated handicapped parking places empty for the -use of handicapped drivers. Thank you in advance, for all of us. S.C. REPD • KeeKeep informed . Dear Editor: At a recent . meeting, of the HCPPA there was a lively discussion about the new pricing formula. There was also some confusion thatneeds to be clarified. We feel the Board has negotiated a revenue neutral formula. That is to say,. there Is no gain or loss for either producer- or - packer.- Actually there is a very slight gain in favour of producers about two-thirds of the time, when the old and new are compared over the last `three years., However, . we feel this is most likely due to the Indiana/Illinois price being less reliable due to low volumes. and being. imanipulated lower all the time. We agree that using the National Cost In the , yew formula is a much more accurate indicator of the U.S. price. However, we :de not agree that this gives us U.S. equivalency. The old formula gave us a price for a less- er quality hog, and then had an divisor, put in the for- mula to.bring our average hog ctQwn to this lower value. The new formula, to be revenue neutral also has a divisor.in it that brings our value down. This is still a flaw in the formula. We are not getting U.S. equivalen- With this -problem in mind several directors told us they were hesitant to sign the agreement to change their Producer/Packer contracts over to any : new for- mula that they feel to be flawed. Some others were just reluctant to renew their contract. The discussion continued and we began hearing of threats received by these directors. Threats like "If you don't do this you'll never sell us another hog as long as you live," or "If you don't re- sign this contract then we'll give it to someone else." We don't appreciate our producers being threatened like this. It speaks very poorly of the Packer's employ- ees that would stoop to these lowly tactics. Our advice to any of our producers in this position is to speak to your lawyer and find out your rights, don't be bullied eedlessly! or those of our producers not interested in these tact s," we recommend taking a look at the new optio s available through the Board. The new Pool Plus lock Contract option will likely be running at 103.25 percent which is better than 102.5 percent being offered elsewhere. The pool hogs may also be attractive in the short term. A Quebec Packer offered to buy hogs from our pool in late April for $1.50/kg. Unfortunately the hogs were all sold for the week, either on contract or previous sales. They are also working on Platinum Contracts that may be attractive when completed.ti--'t4 We feel that our Board must keep us informed of all the options available. This included .all Producer/Packer contracts in effect and all options available through our Board as soon as they become available. Without this information being received in a timely manner, our producers cannot make informed business decisions. • • HURON COUNTY PORK PRODUCERS ASSOCIATION Taking the heat TORONTO — Premier Mike Harris is having difficulty taking the heat that comes with elec- tions, despite having most of the cards and a tough -guy image. The Progressive Conservative premier showed this first when he went to lengths no earlier premier felt necessary to keep the time and place of his announcement of an election secret so that critics could not turn up and protest. Premiers traditionally have announced elections in a media studio at the legislature, but Harris took reporters on a bus, without saying where it was going, to a Toronto suburb where he revealed all in a back garden. But 50 demonstrators still got there, because a bus is not hard to follow, causing Harris to stumble lightly over his script when they heckled across a fence, retort that they had no solutions, and even becomerattled enough to blurt .out, "some .are even paid to protest and dissent." Harris did not attempt to prove his allegation, and may have meant merely that he guessed from their slogans that some were teachers on the pub- lic payroll, which turned out to be true, but it was lunch time and. they were protesting in their own time, as anyone is.entitled to. This also was huge effrontery, because Harris .moved his own chief election strategists from 'the private sector to the government payroll at huge cost, paying his campaign chair, , as example, $650 an hour for writing speeches,_ so that they could work for his re-election whilebeing paid by the public. •= Much more than any before him, Harris is obsessed with the belief that he _IS under siege by demonstrators. He .has already ,experienced some escalation in demos --he is the only premier in memoryb y e visit hit y an gg, �n a visit to Kitchener. He and other party spokesmen are constantly predicting "mean and nasty" attacks.by opponents and there is no doubt he will face vigorous demon- strationsbecause he has antagonized energetic groups, including teachers and other unionists. Liberal premier David Peterson had more seri- ous problems from demonstrators, when he called an election in 1990 and satin the media studio while an activist who sneaked in took the first 10 minutes playing a tape accusing :him: -of falling down on pollution. Peterson sat in stony, silence while real media lapped up the confrontation. His campaign started on a downside and never recovered, which may be among reasons Harris felt that he should announce the voting day elsewhere. The Liberal premier found demonstrators almost everywhere with wide concerns from proliferating dumps to poor working conditions of corrections officers. Peterson was shoved around physically, because he had made a point of boasting that he. ran a go'v- ernment that was open and accessible and refused to allow advisers to surround him with a protective ring of police. He became increasingly irritated and when one demonstrator called him "a poverty premier," he shouted back, "get a job", which led to complaints that he had sneered at the unemployed. The angri- er Peterson greW, the more cameras filmed it and even when he went out a back entrance. to dodge confrontation, he was accused of being afraid. A university boxer, Peterson said he was worried that he would get hit in the head and would have loved to "take a swing" at demonstrators, but never did. New Democrat premier Bob Rae, whom Harris beat in 1995, was lunged at by a demonstrator who almost got hold of him, pictured as a donkey on billboards by pro -Harris groups, and booed by sup- posedly non-partisan police outside the legislature and in the Skydome, but never allowed it to put him off stride. But the most prolific demonstrations in an elec- tion in decades were against Tory premier William Davis and=his refusal to fund Roman Catholic high schools. Davis felt they underlined that he stood for a principle and actually helped him win. Harris also has to learn to live with demos and turn them to his advantage. • ERIC DONVD A VIEW FROM QUEEN'S PARK .::fir .►.. ' _ +.