INSIDE THIS WEEK:
COMMENCEMENT - Pg. 11
ELECTION - Pg. 26
FESTIVAL - Pg. 35
‘The Citizen’ honours local high school graduates
Federal candidates answer questions
‘Christmas Carol’ to welcome big names
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Volume 35 No. 39
Serving the communities of Blyth and Brussels and northern Huron County
Thursday, October 17, 2019
National silver for Townsend By Denny Scott The Citizen
Hockey’s back It’s that time of year again when the cold air returns and the ice is back in local arenas, bringing young hockey players from near and far to compete. The Blyth Brussels Minor Hockey Association officially opened its season over the weekend, hosting its first home game of the season when
the Atom Rep Crusaders welcomed the Mount Forest Rams to the Blyth and District Community Centre for a Saturday morning contest. Perhaps the teams spent the summer in similar fashions, as a winner couldn’t be determined and the game ended in a 2-2 tie. (Shawn Loughlin photo)
Blyth’s Lucas Townsend brought home the Reserve Junior Plowing Champion trophy from the Canadian Plowing Match in Sunderland, Ontario earlier this month. The title comes after Townsend proved himself at the local plowing match and the 2018 International Plowing Match, where he was named provincial reserve champion, earning him a berth in this year’s national championship. Earning the reserve title means that Townsend is nearly at the pinnacle of the field as there is no competition past the Canadian Championship for Juniors. Townsend said that, while being named reserve champion for the country was good, his real takeaway from the event was seeing all the other plowers compete in other categories. “It was a pretty cool experience to see all those skills on display,” he said. “It’s hard to say exactly what you learn when you do that, but I definitely took in some ideas.” Just competing was a familial connection for Townsend, whose uncle Murray was in the same position 30 years ago. “It was pretty cool to be competing for the same awards he Continued on page 7
Federal candidates keep it clean in Holmesville By Shawn Loughlin The Citizen Four of the five Huron-Bruce federal candidates met last week in Holmesville for the Huron County Federation of Agriculture’s allcandidates meeting, vowing to stay positive in their final all-candidates meeting before the election. The meeting was largely positive with minimal mudslinging as candidates focused on selling themselves and their goals, rather than pointing fingers and tearing down the statements of other candidates. Conservative Ben Lobb, Liberal Allan Thompson, Tony McQuail of the NDP and Nicholas Wendler of the Green Party were all in attendance, while Kevin Klerks of the People’s Party of Canada was absent. Hosted and moderated by the Huron County Federation of Agriculture, the questions largely focused on the world of farming and
issues facing the agricultural community. OPENING STATEMENTS Lobb, the incumbent, began the meeting by saying that Andrew Scheer’s Conservatives want to work with Canadians to build a better Canada. He said if the Conservatives formed government there would be a focus on improving rural infrastructure and patching up relationships with trade partners like China and the United States. The Conservatives’ environmental strategy, he said, is the best he’s seen in his time as an MP and it will rely on technology and innovation. McQuail took a trip down Memory Lane, remembering his time with the federation in 1979 working as a timekeeper for an allcandidates meeting. That next year after seeking information about the NDP, he was its local candidate. What appeals to McQuail about the NDP, he said, is the co-operative nature of the party and members
working together to solve problems and address issues. Thirty-nine years after first running, he said, many of those same issues remain and, in some cases, have worsened, which is why he chose to run again, including concern about the environment and climate change. Wendler said the world is in a time of climate crisis and the Green Party has a comprehensive strategy to reduce Canada’s output of
greenhouse gases to 60 per cent below 2005 levels. This is part of the party’s “Mission Possible” strategy that would also create new jobs in a clean economy and institute tax on all carbon sources. Thompson told those assembled that he has spent a third of his life growing up on a farm in the Glammis area of Bruce County and felt that he truly understood the sentiment that farmers feed cities. It
was there, he said, that he learned about the work ethic of farmers, which he took into his career as a local journalist who would eventually move on to work for the Toronto Star and then as a journalism professor at Carleton University in Ottawa. As someone who has listened to people for a living, Thompson said he would listen to the constituents of Continued on page 9
Ginn supports Festival project By Shawn Loughlin The Citizen Huron County Council has thrown its support behind a project to improve and expand the Blyth Festival facilities. Huron County Warden Jim Ginn spoke to the project at the Oct. 2 meeting of Huron County Council, saying he had been asked to write a letter of support for the Festival as it
sought a grant. While it was up to Ginn, he asked councillors if they had any objections to him writing such a letter, which none did. He said the project would include renovations to the theatre in Memorial Hall as well as to another building the Festival owns, presumably the Phillips Studio. Several councillors, including North Huron Reeve Bernie Bailey and Ashfield-Colborne-Wawanosh
Mayor Glen McNeil, spoke up on behalf of the Festival, commending its work over the past 45 years and supporting anything that would increase its footprint in Huron County. Blyth Festival Artistic Director Gil Garratt declined to elaborate on the nature of the project, saying it’s still very early in the process. For further details, keep watching future issues of The Citizen.