Clinton News-Record, 1985-5-8, Page 1A.M)ARP-THII ( Alii FIIELJ 1 UGL
120TH YEAR
WEDNESDAY, MAY 8, 1985
NO. -19 0 50 CENTS
Riddell's greatest victory
Tories defeated in Huron ridings
Peterson received 1,958. polls in the town and some in neighboring
An elated Riddell arrived at campaign townships but w:.s beaten in the vast
headquarters in Exeter with a large group majority of stations throughout the riding.
of party workers and friends after the voter The 48 seats the Liberals gained in Ontario
trend to the Liberals had firmly established is the best showing since the 1937 Liberal
itself. Liberals from across the riding had government under Mitchell Hepburn won 63
already made their way to the South -Huron seats. The Liberal total is four seats short of
Recreation Centre in Exeter to celebrate the the Progressive Conservative showing and
shift in both rural and urban ridings from places the province in a minority
the 42 year Progressive Conservative government position prompting suggestions
dynasty to the Liberals. of a- Liberal -NDP coalition to interrupt Tory
Riddell sang The Auctioneer's Song after rule.
greeting friends and credited his Liberal leader David Peterson has
"tremendous organization" for his win. He rejected that idea but stated that if the
thanked many of those involved with his re- Conservatives lack 'the confidence of the
election, including his family, campaign house, Lieutenant -Governor John Aird
manager and the secretaries operating his should permit the opposition leader the
two constituency offices. chance to form a government, rather than
"We've got the policy, the leaders and calling another election.
excellent candidates to show the direction Premier Frank Miller has called the
Ontario can go," he concluded. provincial legislature back for May 27, a
He commended PC candidate Bryan decision revealed the night of the election.
Smith for the campaign the Lucan resident By that time, the three party leaders should
ran when Smith arrived to concede the race. have developed a tentative method of
Smith, a Lucan town councillor, won all the conducting the government.
By James Friel
EXETER - in a win which reflected
province -wide Liberal fortunes, Huron -
Middlesex Liberal MPP Jack . Riddell of
Exeter scored the greatest majority of his
political career in the May 2 provincial
election.
In the riding to the north, Huron -Bruce
Liberal incumbent Murray Elston increased
his margin of victory from 224 in the 1981
election to 8,061 votes.
Riddell, a 12 year veteran MPP, securely
held onto his legislature seat throughout the
election evening. All 121 polls reported, he
had 13,820 or 61 per cent of the vote while
Progressive Conservative candidate Bryan
Smith of Lucan was second with 7,381 votes
for 33 per cent. This improved the Liberal's
last election showing in which Riddell out
distanced his closest rival by 2,089 votes.
NDP candidate. Paul Klopp of Zurich
placed a distant third with 1,145 Votes for
five per cent of the vote. The final candidate,
Rhino member Carman Dawson of Ailsa
Craig received 227 votes for one per cent of
the popular vote.
PC candidate Mike Snobelen and Norma
Peterson of the NDP challenged Murray
Elston in the Liberal stronghold of Huron -
Bruce, but fared poorly. The Liberal pulled
in 16,191 votes while Snobelen had 8,130 and
•
4
ELECTIOI\
HESULTS
HURON -MIDDLESEX
Dawson Klopp Riddell
(Rhino) (NDP) el Lib)
Adelaide .. 23 38 591
East Williams
18
West, Williams 3 19
Ailsa Craig 31 20
Parkhill 4 27
Biddulph 9. 48
Lucan 4 28
McGillivray . 5 19
Usborne 3 39
Stephen 18 98
Exeter 12 82.
Hay 1 85
• Zurich 1 50
Hensall , 4 37
Tuckersmith 12 69
Seaforth 13 53
Stanley 1 44
Bayfield 3 40
Clinton 23 64
Goderich Tp. 8 45
Goderich 38 203
Advance polls 8 22
TOTALS 231 1,146
318
268
241
369
601
301
516
506
1,240
1,121
656
333
327
81$
731
453
238
960
• 656
2,119,
Smith
(PC)
310
175
129
137
290
.,401
492
293
190
583
630
246
89
200
365"
265
253
134
463
322
1,124
Progressive Conservative candidate Bryan Smith concedes victory to Liberal Jack Rid-
dell the evening of May 2. Riddell, the incumbent MPP for Huron -Middlesex, gained the
largest majority of his 12 year political career in an election which saw the Liberals vy-
456 290 ing with the Progressive Conservatives for the right to form a minority government.
13,820 7,381 (James Friel photo)
Landslide win for Elston
by Alan Rivett
The sound of bagpipes ushered the Liberal •
candidate into the Teeswater Community
Centre for a victory party when, earlier in
the evening, the voters in Huron -Bruce
ushered him into his second term in political
g office Thursday.
Elston won a resounding victory in Huron -
Bruce to preserve the 19 -year Liberal tradi-
tion in the riding. The 138 polls in the riding
;; showed Elston with 17,148 votes compared
to PC candidate Mike Snobelen's 8,521 votes
and NDP candidate Norma Peterson's 2,031
votes.
The election win was a marked tur-
naround from Elston's last win ih 1981 with
M the Liberal candidate edging out PC Gary
Harron by a mere 224 votes.
In a brief speech to the party faithful who
turned out in Teeswater Thursday evening,
I MMr. Elston, who was joined by his wife,
Trudy, and children, commented on the
"positive" campaign run by David Peterson
is which captured voters throughout the pro-
vince. He thanked all the voters in Huron -
Bruce and his campaign team for their sup-
port.
Elston also congratulated, the other can-
didates Mike Snobelen, who made a brief
appearance at the election party, and Nor-
ma Peterson for running extremely( good
campaigns. •
"I was pleased to run in the campaign
with Mike and Norma. They ran a genuinely
clean campaign. I commend those people. It
takes a tremendous candidate to be in this
campaign no matter which side you're on,"
said Elston.
Isl Elston said he was really pleased with the
outcome of the election from a local and
province -wide standpoint. "You can't do
better than this," he said of his landslide
victory in Huron -Bruce. He said if the party
could have picked up one more per cent of
the popular vote it "might have been enough
to put us over the top.
"They weren't picking us to be this close.
It's all because of David Peterson. You just
can't say enough about David Peterson," he
fi
said.
As for a position within the Liberal opposi-
tion government, Elston said it will.be total-
ly up to the discretion of leader David Peter-
son.
jl
04
jh
CUPE
1 *99E
II
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J
COWAN-
INS
It)T
"My first concern is for the riding and the
people. Whatever he decides he wants me to
do is what I will do. You can't second guess a
guy who has been right all along," he said.
Liberal Murray Elston speaks tothe party faithful as his family listens on May 2. Mr.
Elston was re-elected as MPP for Huron -Bruce with almost double the number of votes
his nearest rival collected. ( Alan Rivett photo)
4
Some 45 workers are on strike at the Ontario Hydro Clinton Area office. The province -
wide strike, which started on May 5, is over the private contracting of jobs. Hydro
employees feel that they should do the work, if possible, instead of giving the jobs to other
contractors. (Anne Narejko photo)
Hydro workers out
A strike by 15,000 Ontario Hydro
employees began on May 5, forcing the shut
down of the company's nuclear -powered
plants. To replace the lost output of hydro,
coal generators have been fired up and no
disturbance caused by lack of power is ex-
pected.
"The strike is not over wages," said Wes
Chambers, a 15 year employee at the Clin-
ton Area Ontario Hydro office and union
stewart for the Canadian Union of Public
Employees (CUPE). "We want to do our
own work, not have it contracted out unless
its a necessity."
Mr. Chambers explained that the Clinton
Area office does not give work to private
contractors as a rule, but feels that down the
road it could affect them.
"At one time there were 25 people (in the
maintenance department) and it's down -to
10 people," were the remarks from a group
of eight men on the picket line at the Clinton
office. They believe that this decrease has
taken place since 197a
There are approximately 45 local workers
on strike with six people from the manage-
ment staff working in the area office.
"VVe're hoping the strike doesn't affect
service," said Area Foreman Don Eastman.
"We are handling only emergencies, no new
services."
So far the management team has handled •
minor calls and one broken pole.
Neither the strikers or Mr. Eastman have
any idea as to how long the strike will con-
tinue, but Mr. Eastman stated, "I hope not
too long, there are a good bunch of workers
out there." •
The strike, the first by the union since a
four-month walkout in 1972, is costing the
publicly owned utility about $3 -million a
day. Ontario Hydro spokesperson, Michele
McMaster, feels that the loss will be
recovered through rate increases. Hydro
has already asked the Ontario Energy
Board to .approve a 3.6 per rate in-
crease for 1986:
Great farm country
being lost to erosion
Huron County Council heard last week
that the county is first in many agricultural
commodities as well as being a leader in soil
loss.
This word came from Huron agricultural
representative Don Pullen who presented
his annual report at the May session of coun-
ty council. '
.Across the province, Huron ranks first in
having the most improved farm land, in
barley, white beans, silage corn, oats and
rutabagas, Mr. Pullen said.
However, the ag. rep. also promoted the
ministry of agriculture and food's new ,the
conservation program. The program is be-
ing run in conjunction with the Ausable-
Hayfield and the Maitland Valley con-
servation authorities as well as the Huron
Soil and Crop Improvement Association.
Questioned on the financial plight of
farmers, Mr. Pullen said there is a wide
spectrum with some farmers doing well and
others going bankrupt. He expressed con-
cern for the pork producers in the county,
particularly beginning farmers, because of
the current low price of pork.
The ag. rep. also reviewed some of the
other programs such as farm management,
livestock management and rural organiza-
tions services offered by OMAF.
It was noted that the county runs second in ,
total number of cattle .and hogs, in poultry
production, and in hogs marketed.
Huron is third in total corn, mixed grains,
winter wheat and grain corn.
Huron will expropriate
land in Tuckersmith
By Stephanie Levesque
Huron. County 'is expropriating. approx-
imately 1.5 acres of land in Tuckersmith
Township so it can .go ahead with the con-
struction of County Road 3 between
Egmondville and Brucefield.
County council approved the expropria-
tion procedures at its May 1 session. County
lawyer Dan Murphy of Goderich said he
would immediately inform the three co-
owners of the expropriation and adver-
tisements will be placed in local newspapers
for three weeks.
Mr. Murphy said 30 of the 32 landowners
along the 9.3 km. stretch of road to be con-
structed have settled with the county at a
price of $2,400 per acre.
The county road engineer, Bob Dempsey,
said only one of the three co-owners is
holding up the process.
"He wants the value of the land plus the
value of the fence," said Dempsey.
The $2,400 has included the price of the
fence said the engineer.
The three parcels of land to be ex-
propriated by the county are part Lot 29,
Conc. 6, London Road Survey, which is own-
ed by Merton Keyes of RR 4, Seaforth, Ruth
Carter of Woodstock and Stuart Keyes of
Brampton; and part of the east half of Lot
30, Conc. 4, London Road Survey and part of
Turn to page 2•
K.LOMPE N FEEST TIME
E; tints are scheduled and
plans haw been made for
Clinton's Fifth Annual
Klompen Feest, to be held
May 17 and 18. This week the
New -Record includes a 64=
page souvenir booklet that has
been published for the 1985
festivities. The brochure
outlines the program details
and pays special tribute to the
4.Oth anniversary of the
Liberation of Holland from
WW II by Canadian troops.
5th
KlQ +Y t wh
Annunl 85
JOIN tIB, ..,,.....,.. MAY 17 & 18