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News Advertiser
www. NewsAdvertiser.com
november 18, 2015
FROM THE PAGES OF THE VEGREVILLE OBSERVER
COMPILED BY DAN BEAUDETTE
90 Years Ago – November 18, 1925 Five two-roomed schools have been established in the Vegreville Inspectorate this summer. Seven more district are planning additions for next year and plans have been supplied for this purpose by the Department of Education. These districts which have signified their intentions of building this year deferred operations until next year so as to be able to install substantial buildings of brich or tyle with modern conveniences. The incorporation of the Oakleaf Dairy Company Limited, has been completed and the Company has taken over the business formerly conducted by George E. Scott. The company is now delivering three hundred quarts of milk a day to the consumers of Vegreville, and the people are assured of a dependable and clean supply of milk under the system of pasteurization used by the Company. It is the intention of the Company to manufacture icecream for local consumption and equipment has already been ordered and will be installed shortly. The company also intends to commence the manufacture of cheese in the spring, as soon as a sufficient supply of milk can be obtained from the farmers of the surrounding district.
75 Years Ago – November 20, 1940 Samples of water have been sent to the University for analysis on several occasions since the new well system was completed. Just recently three separate samples were sent; one taken directly from No. 1 Layne Well, a second taken from No. 2 Layne Well and a third from a tap at the General Hospital which is the terminus of the pipe line.. the several complaints made in respect to the quality of the water were detailed in advices sent to the University laboratory. Annexes to the UGG and the Searle Grain Co. elevators in Andrew are now under construction. This will look after and provide room for the balance of the eight bushel quota and probably even make it possible to bring this point in line with the surrounding towns and raise the quota. Carl McClure and his Plymouth car tried conclusions with a CNR train at the crossing east of the station the other evening. The results were disastrous to the car as it will take plenty of 10c sales to meet the repair costs. No one was personally damaged in the accident.
50 Years Ago – November 18, 1965 Gordon Miller, who farms south of town, was involved in a farm accident Tuesday that cost him the loss of one leg. It is reported that Gordon was caught in the power take-off of a piece of farm machinery, and was seriously injured before he could free himself and drive the tractor back to his farm for help. Each year farm machinery is the cause of many serious accidents, and increased safety factors are being constantly sought to avoid this traffic loss of life and limbs. Mr. Miller is presently in St. Joseph’s General Hospital in Vegreville. Canada’s finest, the RCMP lead off the parade from the Legion Hall to the Cenotaph on Remembrance Day here. The Royal Canadian Legion standard bearers and a small part of the Legion accompanied them. The Loyal Order of Moose, Vegreville Lodge, has purchased the building on main street, formerly occupied by Vlad’s Tinsmithing. Governor Joe Goshko and members of the Moose have commenced renovations and hope to have the building in top condition before the New Year. The lodge has held two meeting in the building, and have changed the meeting night from Tuesday to Wednesday of each week.
25 Years Ago – November 13, 1990 Vegreville Catholic Separate School District has received approval in principle for new school construction in 1992 and 1993. The approval in principle is part of a new process by Alberta Education. It allows school boards to submit three year requests for capital funding instead of one year requests. The board’s plans for 1992 include modernizing St. Martin’s School. A threshing party held at Ken and Jackie Farion’s farm west of Vegreville on October 28 attracted 80 people, including 30 youngsters. The helpers at the old fashioned threshing bee also enjoyed riding in a 1928 Mack truck, horse drawn wagons, and satisfying their hunger with a wiener roast. The land is ready and access roads are there in preparation for the new NOVA office building on Vegreville’s west end. On April 1, 1991, NOVA’s Alberta Gas Transmission Division will start building a new office along highway 16X. the office will be headquarters for district four, which includes the northeast quadrant of the province, extending west to Lesser Slave Lake and south past Consort. Ninety four of the 157 employees in district four work out of Vegreville. The district operates and maintains 4829 kms of pipeline, 13 compressor stations and 383 meter stations.
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.
Russian Strategy in Syria Gwynne Dyer It’s easy to define the American strategy in Syria, although it is more of a wish-list than an actual strategy. It is “containment” of the nightmarish Islamic State (IS) that now controls eastern Syria and western Iraq, together with the overthrow of the brutal regime of Bashar al-Assad and its replacement by “moderate” rebel forces. But what is the Russian strategy? It is now a month since Russian planes began bombing in Syria. For every Russian bomb that has fallen on the Islamic State ten have fallen on the “moderates”, because those are the troops that have been gaining ground against the Assad regime since last spring. The regime’s troops have now taken some territory back, but they lack the strength to reconquer all of Syria. So what next? Moscow was not planning a military intervention in Syria until last July, when the officer in charge of Iran’s military aid to Assad, General Qassem
Soleimani, flew to Moscow to warn President Vladimir Putin that the Syrian army was on the brink of collapse. Neither Iran nor Russia wanted to see extremist jihadi forces take over Syria, and that’s what would have happened: the so-called “moderate” rebels barely exist. The dominant group in the “Army of Conquest” that has taken over northwestern Syria is the Nusra Front, a clone of Islamic State that broke away from it in 2013. The Nusra Front is not “moderate”; it is the Syrian franchise of al-Qaeda. If Assad’s regime collapsed, Islamic State and the Nusra Front would end up ruling all of Syria, so something had to be done fast. Russian air power has stopped the rebel advance for now, but the Russian strategy cannot be aimed at reunifying Syria under Assad’s regime; they know that his army is too weak and fragile for that. So there has to be some kind of diplomatic deal, and the signs are emerging of what Russia has in mind. Putin insists that he will not accept the partition of Syria between the Assad regime (which still controls most of so-called “useful Syria”), Islamic State in the northeast, and another Islamist ministate run by the Nusra Front in the northwest. But that partition has already happened on the
ground, and a ceasefire would freeze it without anybody having to admit that it is permanent. That’s why US Secretary of State John Kerry agreed to meet with Sergei Lavrov, Russia’s foreign minister, in Vienna last Friday. Even Turkey and Saudi Arabia eventually showed up at the meeting, and a new session is planned for this Friday where even more countries may show up. It is possible that a ceasefire may eventually emerge from this process, and Lavrov claims that he can deliver Assad’s agreement to it. What would Syria look like in this best possible scenario. It still wouldn’t be very pretty. Assad would keep control of Syria’s big cities, and would rule almost two-thirds of the population. Islamic State would go on controlling eastern Syria (and western Iraq), and would continue cutting heads off in the usual way. The Nusra Front and its allies would rule over the northwest, and impose a somewhat less extreme form of Islamist rule there. If there is no ceasefire deal, the Russians will go on supporting Assad for a while, but they have no intention of taking large casualties. No other outside player – the US, Turkey, Saudi Arabia – is willing to commit ground troops to the battle against Islamic State either. So in the end, the jihadis may conquer Syria anyway. Gwynne Dyer is an independent journalist whose articles are published in 45 countries.