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News Advertiser
www. NewsAdvertiser.com
June 24, 2015
FROM THE PAGES OF THE VEGREVILLE OBSERVER
COMPILED BY DAN BEAUDETTE
90 Years Ago – June 24, 1925 A lady who landed in Alberta the other day is writing to the papers to express her delight; she has received more kindness, attention and courtesy in a few days in Canada than she ever experienced in all her life in England. Oh! Yes, that’s the way of it; people are awfully nice when you first arrive until they get to know you; then of course, they become a little more crusty. A hail storm of brief duration came about five o’clock on Saturday evening, June 20th, the heavier part of it falling from three to six miles south of the town.. H. Trenhaile, W.G. Cole, Gould Bros., J. McK, Hughes, and others along that section met with the hardest of the storm. It flattened out the wheat and did some damage to the course grains, but it is expected that most of the grain will recover, although a partial loss is certain. Before the construction of the skating rink and Exhibition Arena can be proceeded with, it is necessary to have on hand payment in full of the first call, namely 50%. on the shares purchased.
75 Years Ago – June 19, 1940 Work will start soon on the installation of the Vegreville Natural Gas Plant, according to information recently received from an official of Vegreville Gas Company, Ltd. The pipe for this project, which is being shipped from Welland, Ont., is expected to arrive in Vegreville about the end of this month or early in July. Overseas service still on Voluntary basis. So far as manpower is concerned, the compulsory mobilization will not apply to service overseas. That will continue on a voluntary basis. It will enable the government to make the most efficient use of manpower to meet the needs of modern machine warfare. “Mobilization of our resources, however, will not be confined to requiring the services of men and women,” said Mr. King. “The government will have power under the provisions of the bill equally to call property and wealth, material resources and industry to the defence of Canada.” Other announcements by the Prime Minister included: Arrival of the first contingent of a Canadian expeditionary force in Iceland to look after the defence of that Danish territory; Immediate launching of a national registration of Canadian manpower; An enlargement, the creation of a new department of national war service.
50 Years Ago – June 17, 1965 The Vegreville Golf Association has recently purchased a large sprayer and is now able to assure all golfers that the mosquito problem is under control. All fairways and adjoining areas have had one complete treatment. The Queen Elizabeth School has registered 66 beginners for the fall term, with St. Mary’s enrolling 22 and St. Martin’s 14, for a grand total of 102 new pupils in the local schools. Seven charter members of the Willingdon Women’s Hospital Auxiliary received corsages from president, Mrs. Elsie Pshyk, and 15 year pins for their loyal and devoted service to the Auxiliary. A testimonial dinner was arranged to honor their ladies, attended by their husbands and other members of the Auxiliary. Receiving the awards were: Mrs. A. Uglancia, Mrs. Marie Babiuk, Mrs. Vickie Lazaruk, Mrs. Rita Shandro, Mrs. Olga Shandro, Mrs. Kay Babiuk and Mrs. Kay Babiuk. Dennis Fedoruk, son of Mrs. Vera Fedoruk of Vegreville has been named recipient of a bursary in the 1965-66 under graduate award winners list. The bursary is awarded by the Edmonton’s Men’s Branch of the Canadian Association for Health, Physical Education and Recreation.
25 Years Ago – June 19, 1990 Inga Moore, Economic Development Officer of Vegreville states that plans are underway for the revitalization of Vegreville’s downtown area. The preliminary plans have been drawn up by Bob Hutchinson, of municipal affairs. An artist’s rendition of a segment of main street has been painted by Lorraine Ziegler. The plans include new sidewalks with extensions of interlocking brick, wall murals, benches, trees, lamp standards, and store front improvements. George Allen, Deputy School Superintendent, congratulated Jason Grabas on his winning the design competition for the county’s 25th anniversary logo. Jason, a grade 6 student at Innisfree, won first place out of over 150 entries submitted by students and staff throughout the county. Jason will receive a cheque for $50 and a framed picture of his design, redrawn by a professional artist. Approximately 5,000 lapel pins bearing the logo will be made up over the summer. These pins will be distributed to every student and staff member in the county on the first day of school. An honourable mention goes to Monique Nowak, a grade 9 student at A.L. Horton.
Letters Welcomed One role of the Vegreville News Advertiser is to promote dialogue on various issues of concern to area residents. We accomplish this by welcoming Letters to the Editor and allowing various issues to be debated through our pages. All letters must contain the writer’s name, address and phone number. Anonymous letters will not be printed, however the writer’s name may be withheld from publication in special circumstances deemed appropriate by the Publisher. The Vegreville News Advertiser reserves the right to edit letters for length, clarity, spelling and grammar, taste or for reasons of potential libel. The Vegreville News Advertiser reserves the right to withhold letters from publication.
Standing Up to Russian Aggression Gwynne Dyer At the start of the G7 summit last weekend in Germany, US President Barack Obama told the media that one of the meeting’s priorities would be discussing ways of “standing up to Russian aggression in Ukraine.” Which begs the question: what kind of aggression are we talking about here? There are unquestionably Russian troops in the rebel provinces of eastern Ukraine, and that is certainly an act of aggression under international law. But is this a prelude to a Russian invasion that would take over all of Ukraine, as Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko recently alleged? If it is, the result could easily be a new Cold War. Might Russian President Vladimir Putin actually be the next would-be world conqueror, out of the same mould as Napoleon and Hitler? In that case, get ready for the Third World War, because it’s unlikely that anything less would stop him. So exactly what kind of aggressor Putin is matters quite a lot.
After three months of non-violent demonstrations in the winter of 2013-14 against Ukraine’s proRussian president, Viktor Yanukovych, and after a day of shooting on Independence Square in Kiev that killed at least fifty protesters and three policemen, Putin agreed to a deal on 21 February last year that promised new elections in Ukraine within a month. It was always puzzling why the demonstrators spent three bitterly cold months on the square demanding that Yanukovych quit right away, given that elections were due in Ukraine within a year. Why not stay warm at home and vote him out next year? Never mind that. The representatives of the protesters definitely did agree to the deal hammered out by Russian and EU negotiators on the evening of 21 February 2014. Yanukovych was to resign and there would be new elections IN ONE MONTH. Yet only hours later the demonstrators attacked the presidential administration buildings and Yanukovych had to flee. Why couldn’t they wait even one month? Maybe because they were afraid that they would lose the election. Kiev is in western Ukraine, where most people are strongly pro-Western and would like to join the European Union, even NATO if possible. But Yanukovuch won the 2010
election fair and square with a 52 percent majority, thanks to the votes of eastern Ukrainians. Most eastern Ukrainians speak Russian, share the Orthodox religion of Russians, are actually pro-Russian in general. What’s more, eastern Ukraine is the home of almost all of the country’s heavy industry, and Russia buys most of the coal, steel and industrial goods produced by eastern Ukrainians. Their jobs were on the line, and it was their votes that elected Yanukovych in 2010. There was no reason to believe that they would vote differently in 2014. There really was a coup in Kiev in 2014, and Putin was quite right to feel deceived and betrayed. He was wrong to respond as he did, taking back the province of Crimea (which had an overwhelmingly Russian population but had been bundled into Ukraine in a Communist-era decision in 1954). He was very wrong to back the rebellion in the eastern Ukrainian provinces of Donetsk and Lugansk. If he actually encouraged them to rebel (which is not clear) he is even more in the wrong. It is all being done in defiance of international law. But he is not setting out down the path of world conquest. He is not even planning to take over Ukraine. “Standing up to Putin” is an invigorating moral exercise, but it is not strictly speaking necessary. Gwynne Dyer is an independent journalist whose articles are published in 45 countries.