Advice from Mom
By Rita Lessard

I hope everyone enjoyed the Thanksgiving holiday. We were lucky to celebrate this holiday twice: once with our sons Bill and Casey, their ladies, our two grandsons, my sister Joan and my brothers Richard and Bill. Then on Monday, we went to London and celebrated with Tom, Connie, Christopher and Katie. We have so much to be thankful for, and I’m sure everyone is grateful and gave thanks on Thanksgiving.
About two weeks before Thanksgiving I was lucky and won the jackpot at the Tuesday night Bingo. For this I gave thanks everyday. In fact, I’m thankful any day that I can get out of bed and take nourishment. I give thanks everyday, not just one day of the year. Although I was overjoyed with my winnings at Bingo, in my excitement I dabbed my slacks with my Bingo dabber. But I didn’t despair because I’m always doing research for my column. I discovered that if you have ball point ink that you went to remove, aerosol hair spray will do the trick. I figured it would work that same way with the dabber ink.
Try this technique: hold a rag under the fabric to blot the ink that comes through on the other side. Aim and spray. Then, put the clothing in the wash. The alcohol in the hair spray is what does the trick. It will also work on your hands, leather or plastic. This really works.
Any alcohol-based products seem to be able to to double duty. For instance, alcohol-based mouthwash can be used for more than swishing in your mouth. It also keeps your plants healthy. Fill one part mouthwash to three parts water in a spray bottle. Spray directly on your plants’ leaves and into the soil. Works like a charm. Have a small cut you need to disinfect? Dab the area with a mouthwash soaked cotton ball.
Looking forward
Hallowe’en is our next holiday. On this occasion, I kinda go nuts with decorations and sprucing up the yard and house. I really need to be careful and not buy goodies too early because I usually get things I like and the temptation can be a bit much.
Here’s an idea: if you use real pumpkin for your jack-o-lantern, try sprinkling some cinnamon, ginger and nutmeg on the inside of the lid. The heat of the candle will make this combination smell like pumpkin pie.

Watch your diet
Since Hallowe’en can play havoc with your diet, one needs to be careful. That brings me to my joke of the week. Jim grabbed his plate and walked up to the party buffet for the fourth time. “Aren’t you embarrassed to go back for so many helpings?” asked his wife. “Not a bit,” he replied. “I keep telling them it’s for you.”

If you’re looking for a spooky evening out as Hallowe’en approaches, there’s nothing spookier than walking around alone in the dark in a corn field. If you’re looking to share in this tension-building thrill, take a friend to the Sunrise Corn Maze at the Sunrise Garden Centre on Highway 4 south of Centralia (just south of McGillivray Drive). The maze is open weekends until Hallowe’en. Friday nights it is open until 10 p.m., so bring a flashlight or two.
The maze was created by an American company, which used GPS mapping to make it precisely the way it looks in the drawing below. There are several mazes of varying difficulty in the field, as well as other activities for kids of all ages.
The maze is open Fridays 10 a.m. to 10 p.m., Saturdays and Sundays 10 a.m. to 6 p.m., and through the week by group appointment. Admission is $8 for people 12 years and older, and $7 for children 3-11. One dollar from each ticket goes to the Children’s Hospital in London. To learn more, visit www.sunrisecornmaze.com or call 519-227-1879.

Living in Balance
By Jenipher Appleton

October 31 is upon us. The shops have had their Hallowe’en wares on display for weeks now, and the children are beginning to make their plans for costumes and trick-or-treat destinations. Heaven help us parents, grandparents, and teachers alike!
Hallowe’en is a wonderful time for people of all ages to indulge in the luxury of just plain fun. October 31, or All Hallows’ Eve, gives us a legitimate excuse to dress in costume and pretend to be something we are not. Even the Appleton boys, well into their 20s, celebrate the occasion with some highly creative costuming, and perhaps a little tipping of the elbow along Richmond Row in London.
And now to the children. Hallowe’en is perhaps even more exciting than Christmas to some! Turning out the lights and listening to a scary (but not too scary) ghost story, dressing up as their favourite character and wearing the costume at school, going out for trick-or-treat and bringing home all that candy! All that candy can often present problems for the most diligent and organized parents. Perhaps we worry too much about the amount of sugar that our children consume at this spooky time of year.

Sugar and hyperactivity
Sugar has had a bad rap for decades. It seems to have begun back in the ‘70s when the Feingold Diet proclaimed that food additives were the main culprits in contributing to hyperactive behaviour in children. Certain food colourings and preservatives can certainly cause erratic behaviour, but is sugar also responsible for the same actions? According to some studies in the 1990s, sugar does not affect behaviour. Let us not forget that sugar is a natural product; its source is either sugar cane or sugar beets. The fact that it is refined simply makes it more readily absorbed into the blood. However, this may not mean that a child is going to behave in a hyperactive manner.
When children finish dessert and finally get to leave the table after a family gathering, all the running and expending of pent-up energy may be simply that they have been sitting too long. The sweet dessert takes the blame for the ensuing behaviour. One study explained that a group was given foods containing real refined sugars and the other group was given a placebo (no sugar ingredients). Both groups consistently reported hyper behaviour after the consumption of the foods. The conclusion was that the placebo group of parents had the expectation that their children would be hyper and that expectation influenced how they interpreted what they saw.

Caffeine, chocolate and cola
Cola beverages, hot chocolate, chocolate bars, etc. not only contain high levels of refined sugar, but also high levels of caffeine. The latter is the more likely culprit for any hyperactivity following consumption. Kids often associate soda beverages with a party atmosphere and will act accordingly. In support of this theory, I have seen many groups of very hyper children in a social situation who have not consumed any sugars at all.

Tips for Hallowe’en Survival
You can either suffer through your child eating their Hallowe’en candy within the first few days, or you can have them ration it into Zip-loc bags and stretch it out over a longer period of time. Either way, they are not getting enough of the right kind of foods if the focus is on the sweets.
Your dentist would likely rather that they eat it all at once. That way they will not be subjecting their teeth to multiple acid/sugar attacks which could result in many more cavities. Having it over and done with, then brushing well, is better for their teeth.

The Bottom Line
When all is said and done, children should be eating a balanced diet and consuming only a small percentage of refined sugars. While the sugar may not be responsible for the hyperactivity, it is most certainly responsible for much of the obesity, diabetes and heart disease so prevalent in our society today.
Happy Hallowe’en!

Community/Charity

Grand Bend Nursery School is now offering 5 sessions a week of the Early Learning Program…a FREE high quality program designed to help prepare young children for school. If you have children 2.5 to 4 years old and reside in Lambton County call Grand Bend Nursery School at 519-238-8514

Tuesdays
10 a.m. to 2 p.m. – Port Franks Community Ctr.
Kids Matter every Tuesday. Join us as we crochet sleeping mats out of milk bags to send to the children in Africa and South America. Bring your lunch, scissors and a #7 crochet hook. Call Peggy Smith at 519-296-5834 for details.

7 p.m. – Grand Bend Legion
Bingo

Fridays
5 to 7 p.m. – Grand Bend Legion
Meat Draw

Monday, October 26
7 p.m. – Grand Bend Legion
Grand Bend Horticultural Society Meeting. Marie from Plant Paradise will speak on her career working in the flower industry along with her catering and crisis counselling.

Wednesday, October 28
Huron Country Playhouse Guild. Annual luncheon meeting. A turkey dinner will be catered by the “Ladies of the Legion”. Call Mary 519-238-5640 for details. Everyone welcome!

Saturday, October 31
1 to 4 p.m. – Pt. Franks Comm. Ctr.
Kids Hallowe’en Fun Fair. Ausable Port Franks Optimists presents the Monster Bash of the Year. $15/family or $5/person.

8:30 a.m. to 1 p.m. – Pt. Franks Community Centre
Hallowe’en Dance (age of majority). Presented by Ausable Port Franks Optimists. $10 – for more information, call Jason 243-0582 jttech@execulink.com.

Saturday, November 7
7 to 9 p.m. – Morrison Dam, Exeter
Owl Prowl. Presented by the Ausable Bayfield Conservation Authority. After an engaging multimedia show, participants go on a guided night hike to call in owls. For more details, call Julie Stellingwerff at 519-235-2610 or 1-888-286-2610.

Arts & Entertainment

Tuesdays
7 to 9 p.m. (to December – Bliss Studios, Port Franks
Adult drawing classes. Painting, drawing, collage and lots more fun. Contact Lorraine or Tony at 519-243-3598.

Fridays
1:30 to 3:30 p.m. – Grand Bend Youth Centre
Grand Bend Drum Circle. Contact Anita at the Youth Centre or call 519-238-8759.

Thursday, November 5
7 p.m. – Grand Bend CHC
Sunset Cinema presents Cadillac Records, a musical biopic based on the true story of the creation of Chess Records in 1947 and the blues artists of its time. Free admission. Donations welcome.

Health & Fitness

Mondays, Wednesdays and Fridays
8 to 9 a.m.
Last outdoor Workout for your Life Friday October 23. After a two week break, WFYL moves indoors to the Southcott Pines Clubhouse starting Nov. 9. To learn more, call Beth Sweeney at 519-238-5555

Mondays, Wednesdays and Fridays
8:45 to 10 a.m. (Mon/Fri), (to 9 a.m. Wed.) – Grand Bend Legion
TGIF Exercise classes with Elinor Clarke. $3/week – all proceeds to charity.

Mondays and Wednesdays
6 to 7 p.m.
Last outdoor Workout for your Life Wednesday October 21.After a two week break, WFYL moves indoors to the Precious Blood Catholic School gym Nov. 9th. To learn more, call Shelley Van Osch at 519-234-6253.

Mondays
10:30 to 11:45 a.m. – Pt. Franks studio
Gentle Yoga to November 9th – 8 weeks. Anne Chute 519-243-3552 www.annesyogaworks.com

6:45 to 8 p.m. – Pt. Franks studio
Gentle Yoga to November 9th – 8 weeks. Anne Chute 519-243-3552 www.annesyogaworks.com

Tuesdays and Thursdays
9 a.m. – Port Franks Community Centre
Healthy Lifestyle Exercise Program. Program includes warm up, low impact aerobic workout, strength work and stretching. Sponsored in part by Healthy Living Lambton. Cost: Free!! Everyone welcome. Contact Cindy Maxfield, Health Promoter at the GBACHC, 519-238-1556 ext 6 to register.

Wednesdays
7 to 8 p.m. – St. Francis Advocates Building, Arkona
Yoga to November 4 – 8 weeks. Anne Chute 519-243-3552 www.annesyogaworks.com

Inspired by Brian Dale’s Miss Grand Bend, a group of radio listeners is fighting to win CBC’s Great Canadian SongQuest

Story and file photos by Casey Lessard

Only days remain to vote for Grand Bend (or its competitors) in CBC Radio 2’s Great Canadian Songquest, a contest to choose one town from each province to be immortalized in song. Grand Bend made it into the top five for Ontario thanks to some aggressive voting by enthusiastic radio listeners, including Brantford resident and Klondyke Park trailer owner Frank Beattie, University of Western Ontario sociology student Heidi Klopp and others.
“It’s about getting Grand Bend noticed and recognized,” says Klopp, 20, a Zurich veteran who now considers Grand Bend home. “It’s an awesome small town with as much to offer as the big towns.”
Beattie and Klopp thought the contest would be a good way to promote their favourite iconic song about the village, Brian Dale’s “Miss Grand Bend”, which is now available on Dale’s peace/love/waves/song CD that came out this summer. Plans to promote Dale’s music changed somewhat after nominations began and the nominators realized the contest wasn’t to recognize songs that already existed (vis-a-vis “Miss Grand Bend”), but rather to find 13 places across Canada that would be written about by an artist from each province. For Ontario, the artists are Jully Black (R&B/soul), Hawksley Workman (alternative), Shad K (rap), Lynn Miles (folk/roots), and Justin Rutledge (alt-country).
“It’s too bad they’re not using local artists like Brian, Greg Gallello, Natalie Tobin,” Klopp says, “but it’s still a good thing for our town.”
It’s a misunderstanding shared by early Grand Bend bid supporter Frank Beattie, 56, who heard about the contest from a friend.
“All I could think about was Brian’s new album, released after all these years, and thought maybe this is a place to suggest ‘Miss Grand Bend’ as a candidate for the contest,” Beattie says. “They had a few blogging tools that allowed you to create a blog to promote your place. Every time you logged in, you could nominate your town, so on the first day while updating the blog, I voted enough to get us off to a pretty good start.”
A good start is an understatement. At times, Grand Bend was in the lead, and finished in the top five, good enough to be a finalist. After a week of voting, says CBC Radio director of music Mark Steinmetz, Grand Bend was fourth after Algonquin Park, Sleeping Giant (Thunder Bay) and Toronto; Picton was fifth. It’s a proud accomplishment for Beattie, who nine years ago had no idea where Grand Bend was.
“After finishing a big project at work, my boss said we needed to get away,” he says. “There were eight of us involved in that project, and our entire company was dependent on our group, so he decided to leave them on their own while we went away during the middle of the week. We rolled in on Wednesday night. I remember calling my wife and saying, ‘This is unbelievable. It’s an hour and a half away from home (Brantford) and it’s got everything we want.’”
Two weeks later, he brought his wife for a stay at the Oakwood.
“We sat in the dining room for a late dinner and the sunset coming down Oakwood Drive hooked us.” Later that summer, they bought a used trailer at the Klondyke Trailer Park. “Best investment we’ve made,” he says.
His passion for the village is apparent, and his love for local music – among the reasons he and his wife decided to stay – makes him want to promote it across Canada.
“Brian has been adamant since this started that we promote the town, not him. To me, Grand Bend is a secret and a gem. It’s priceless and not well-known. Do we want to lose our paradise? The answer is no, but I’ve been promoting Grand Bend for eight years and the only person to ever take me up on my offer, my neighbour at work, is now my neighbour at the park. He and his partner just love it.”
“It’s a town for everybody and every age group,” Klopp says. “No matter how old or young, there’s something for you.”
For Klopp, the people are the main attraction, then the location. And of course, there’s the music.
“We’re a very musical town, and everyone feels the music. Even if you can’t get up and dance (at a Gables jam night, for example), you can bop to the music.”
For Beattie, the location is the inspiration.
“The beach, the lake, sunsets, the strip, the atmosphere. It’s like Gravenhurst, but it’s 40 minutes from London and an hour from Stratford.”
That’s why CBC Songquest is a good fit, Klopp says.
“I thought it was exactly what Grand Bend needs with the new downtown and beach renovations. What’s the point of spending those millions of dollars if no one comes? Tourism has definitely been down these past few years. It’s great that the locals get to enjoy it, but we want to share it with everyone else as well.”
Just the type of message CBC hopes will come out of the contest, in addition to raising awareness of a recent format change at Radio 2.
“We wanted something to engage Canadians, the artistic community, and our people here to come up with 13 new songs commissioned by the CBC that represented towns across the country,” Mark Steinmetz says. “Rather than us dictating how it was going to go and who we would commission, we thought it would be great to open it up to Canadians.”
While expecting major urban centres to make the top five for each province, he notes that smaller centres are leading the pack. “It’s a tight race right now for what people are voting for,” he says. “It’s a way to discover new artists in this country. We play a diverse range of music, and there are so many great artists out there that don’t get played on private stations.”
Plus it’s a good way to create new music about Canada.
“I don’t know if you know this, but Gordon Lightfoot’s ‘Canadian Railroad Trilogy’ was actually a CBC commission (for the centennial year, 1967),” Steinmetz notes. “We’ve commissioned many types of music. That came from internally. Now Canadians get to help us decide who we’re going to commission. And who knows, one of these songs could become a song that gets embedded in the nation’s consciousness.”
Local listeners hope Grand Bend inspires that song. The final days of the contest will be tough, but Beattie remains as optimistic as he can.
“I think it’s going to take a miracle now to win. Toronto has a few million people, while we have a few thousand. Brian Dale says it right: to be successful in the music business, you need luck and connections, and for us to win this contest, it’s going to take a lot of both.”
“Vote as much as you can,” says Heidi Klopp. “You can vote once a day. Tell everyone you can. Listen to CBC radio, and spread the word.”
To vote, visit: http://www.cbc.ca/radio2/songquest/

View from the Strip
By Casey Lessard

I had the pleasure of driving up the coast a few kilometers with Chris Bregman of the chamber of commerce, business owner George Appel, and Lakeshore Advance editor Lynda Hillman-Rapley Friday. We took Chris’ van to Saugeen Shores to see what we thought they were doing right and wrong. It was an eye opener, more than anything, to see how it compares to Grand Bend. That was my main focus.
After spending the day in two communities, it was clear that Saugeen Shores – although a beach town, too – is more interested in the locals than the tourists. Sure, tourists come, and people I spoke with said they fill the beach, but there is no beach house, no splash pad, and no paid parking. You read that correctly.
They’ve built their town around the beach, but it’s a side salad to the main course: the business centre. And there are no t-shirt or tattoo shops (nothing against them), but plenty of restaurants (not fry shacks) and bars. Just like a normal small town. Not a beach town. Think Exeter with a lake where the river is.
So, is this a good thing or a bad thing? It seems like a shame not to embrace the beach and its tourism opportunities. But they have a beach and still bring tourists. How? Big events. International tourist events. Pumpkinfest vegetables have set world records in the past. Plus their Wikipedia site says National Geographic selected the town as one of the world’s prettiest sunsets (sound familiar?).
For people there, at least it seems by looking at the thriving locally focused businesses, the tourists are secondary to year-round residents. Sound good? Easier said than done.
Grand Bend is a beach town, and it is a tourist draw. We don’t have a major employer like the nuclear power plant, and I doubt we want one of those here. We’re too close to London to have key year-round businesses like bookstores and movie theatres. So, what do we do?
If I had my way, I’d see every downtown building owned locally with residential features to all of them. George Appel thinks main street living year-round will breed main street businesses year-round. I think he’s right. Let’s bring the tax base down low enough that people will see a profit, and let’s put by-laws into place that give the municipality some control over the appearance of main street facades. I’ve heard that Stratford does it, and look at their businesses.
If it’s going to work, it will take cooperation between businesses, building owners and the municipality. Is that possible?

What do you do without demolition derbies? Race lawn tractors, of course.

Photos and story by Casey Lessard

Most people don’t get a rush of adrenaline from hopping on a lawnmower, so it’s easy to be surprised by the idea of challenging a few friends to a lawnmower race. It’s something a group of guys in Thedford thought would be a good alternative to the demolition derbies so often seen at local fairs.
“We couldn’t get the insurance or location for a demolition derby,” says Rob Anderson, president of the Thedford Spirit Club. “Four or five of us decided to get a bunch of guys together and make some lawnmowers go fast.”
The first race was at Thedford Funion Days two years ago, and the feedback was positive.
“There was a good crowd,” Anderson says. “Everyone seemed to like it, cheering for all the local racers.”
It was a novel idea to the Thedford gang, but they soon discovered it was not a new one. A town in Indiana has been running an annual lawnmower race since 1963. There are clubs across the United States and in the United Kingdom, and the Thedford group has been active in forming Western Ontario Outlaws (http://www.westernontariooutlaws.com), which now has 60+ members ranging in ages from six to 61.
“I try to tell people what we do, and they think I’m a redneck,” says Brittnee Kerr, whose family is actively involved, including her five-year-old son who is hoping to start racing next year. “He saw his uncle do it and saw him going fast. Now he’s got fuel in his blood.”
Kerr doesn’t race herself, and so far there are only a few female racers including one woman and several girls. But the sport draws a diverse crowd of men and women.
“Speed,” says outlaw class racer Rob Arnel, is the attraction to driving one of Thedford’s 14 tractors. “It’s like a go-kart with a lawnmower motor in it.”
“It’s exciting,” says racer Shane Ross of Thedford. “Just another sport to get together with friends and have fun. And you get trophies.”
The group travels together to venues around the province, and tends to race the same people each week. Not to say that each week is the same, though.
“You never know what you’re going to find for a track,” Anderson says. “We raced today (Sunday) on grass, so it was a bumpy track. It brings the different driving styles out.”
Regardless of the conditions, safety is always a concern because the riders ride roll-cage free lawnmowers packing up to 22 horsepower; the outlaw class tractors even use racing fuel. Tractors are fitted with safety equipment to kill the engine if a rider falls off, and riders have plenty of protective gear. Luckily, organizers realized from the beginning that the best way to keep riders safe is to remove the mower blades.
“We’re always changing our safety rules,” Anderson says, “and we are 100 times safer than when we started.
“(Lawnmower racing) has all the same aspects as racing a car, say at Delaware. It has the build and set up, the thrill of racing and the adrenaline. It’s more than just putting a lawnmower out and going around a track.”
“Everyone laughs and thinks it’s crazy,” says Brittnee Kerr, “and then they come and see what it’s about.”

To see for yourself what it’s all about, visit a race (schedule at: http://www.westernontariooutlaws.com/.

What Grand Bend can learn from a visit to Southampton and Port Elgin

Story and photos by Casey Lessard

What is the first thing a visitor notices about Grand Bend? The answer to that question will soon be delivered by a delegation from Saugeen Shores as part of an exchange program organized by the Ontario Ministry of Agriculture, Food and Rural Affairs (OMAFRA). The program, called the First Impressions Community Exchange, involves a diverse group of business owners and residents traveling to a community similar to theirs but a few hours away.
This week, Grand Bend Strip publisher Casey Lessard was among the group organized by Grand Bend Chamber of Commerce manager Chris Bregman on a Lambton Shores sponsored trip to Southampton and Port Elgin to assess the first impressions of the communities.
“The first impression is an invaluable marker for communities to decide which things they need to work on first,” Bregman says. “That could be signage, or working on infrastructure. It provides guidance to the community to know which projects to move ahead with.”
Captain’s Cottages owner Dinah Taylor joined the trip to assess retail and business services in Southampton, a beach town similar in size to Grand Bend.
“Our observations on Highway 21 were not terribly positive, but my view of Highway 21 going into Grand Bend isn’t all that positive, either,” Taylor says. “But once we got onto the high street, which is the main retail area, we were very impressed. What they have there is very much the sort of thing we’d like to see on main street Grand Bend.
“There was a huge mix of stores and services. They had a kitchen store that has everything you could want. They had a 100 mile grocery store that was like going back in time. The store had whole wheat pasta grown and manufactured in Ontario. I didn’t know you could get that stuff. They had a lingerie store that you might find in London somewhere. A sporting goods store that had kayaks for rent, lifejackets for rent, and really interesting gear for sale like snowshoes and surfboards.
“Talking to people there, they said they had no drop in business this summer, and sales were actually up at the lingerie store during rainy weather.”
While concerned about the lack of wheelchair access consistent throughout the town, and a lack of activities for children, Taylor came away from the experience envious.
“They had exactly what we want, and at the right level. They gave the feeling of a comfortable year-round community where it would be nice to raise a family.”
A commercial and residential property owner, chamber treasurer George Appel assessed recreational activities and was impressed, returning to Grand Bend with a sense of where village needs work.
“(Saugeen Shores) presents much better. Our main street doesn’t have the look it should. The buildings need a lot of work. I don’t know how to do it, but part of the problem is the tax rate businesses have to pay and the fact that we have such a short season. The businesses don’t have the revenue to pay for remodeling.
“We have the attractions they do,” he says. “We have the Pinery Park, the Playhouse, the Motorplex and the drive-in. But they don’t drive people downtown.”
Appel noticed excellent signage in Port Elgin pointing visitors to the beach, which is not immediately visible the way it is in Southampton. A group of British visitors at the beach in Southampton said they stopped simply because they could see the “sea” from the highway. It’s something Chris Bregman would like to see mimicked here.
“If there was a way we could make the visible from Highway 21, it would capture more first time visitors,” she says. “Whether that’s possible or not, I don’t know. Maybe clearer signage saying ‘Beach This Way’ would help.”
And once the people are drawn in, Dinah Taylor thinks it would be nice to explain what’s significant about the area.
“I think what’s missing here are the historic plaques explaining the history of our area,” she says. “Grand Bend is a historic place, and many of the people who come here don’t know the first thing about Grand Bend.”
One of the key successes for Saugeen Shores is a business centre that is focused principally on local residents, with tourism – and yes, even the beach itself – secondary to local traffic; it’s almost the opposite approach to that taken in Grand Bend.
“I hope the Main Street project is going to encourage a different kind of retail business,” Taylor says. “In Southampton, there was a very comfortable feeling. It was clean. The downtown was well maintained and there is a sense of pride in the community. I’m not saying that’s lacking in Grand Bend. They have a tradition of a year-round population. Our downtown doesn’t reflect that yet.”
It will take some time, says Appel.
“Maybe we’re being unfair comparing Grand Bend with Saugeen Shores with the higher population and high-paid people. Retired people don’t spend as much money as people making a living with children.
“They’ve got the Bruce nuclear plant with high paid people who are living there year round,” he says. “The solution is more year round people in the area. Then we have to get stores downtown that people want to go to year round. There just isn’t enough traffic downtown.”
Chamber manager Chris Bregman learned a lot from the trip, and will be pushing for one change to mimic what is done in Saugeen Shores.
“Their chamber takes charge of events and promoting them, and the municipality provides funds for the tourist information centre. (Seeing) the very close relationship the chamber of commerce has with the municipality; I think we could make a real difference to the economic development if we had that kind of relationship.”
Bregman hopes to exchange thoughts in person with the Saugeen Shores delegation; she’s inviting them to the chamber’s annual general meeting November 12 at Hessenland.

Submitted by Brad Harness
Leader, Reform Ontario

First it was the scandal at eHealth Ontario over misspent public dollars, misallocated expenses monies, and inflated contracts. This resulted in resignations and firings.
Next up was the Ontario Lottery and Gaming Commission (OLG). More wrongdoing by the leadership with contracts and expense accounts, and that was after last year’s big blow-up over the unusually high winning ratio among the OLG’s lottery merchants. More firings and resignations.
Now we hear this week of questionable contracts at yet another Ontario agency, the Municipal Property Assessment Corporation (MPAC), which has earned the disdain of many Ontario property owners due to incorrect property valuations that have lead to significant property tax hikes and liabilities.
To stop these complaints, MPAC has been busy hiring consultants, it seems, which is all right. But they have been renewing and extending contracts well beyond what MPAC’s own regulations allow. In a report in the Globe & Mail, MPAC’s VP of corporate services acknowledged that its own draft audit report dated May 2009 uncovered problems with the agency’s procurement practices in 2005 and 2006. He went on to insist the report – the latest – is already out of date and such practices it pinpointed have been rectified. Maybe so.
The missteps included violating the rules for consulting work, which say that contracts can only be extended from their initial term by no more than twice the value of the original contract. The audit found that agency had extended contracts from 5 to 14 times their original value.
It is good that the report in question was MPAC’s own internal audit.
It is bad that MPAC is merely the latest Ontario agency to exhibit a lack of respect for taxpayers’ dollars. Government is supposed to treat such monies as sacred trusts, not sacred cows to be milked for everything from coffee to car washes, from meals on the town to dry cleaning.
While ministers of the crown need to be called to account for such extensive and ongoing problems, it is clearly our premier, Dalton McGuinty, who is the one to be held to account overall.
Ontario has over 600 agencies, boards and commissions, each one provided with budgets from tax coffers. True, they also provide revenues back to the government: just under five per cent of provincial government revenues annually. It is only a matter of time before more such scandals are revealed. And it is a matter that seems to be important to every voter, unless you are on an agency board or in a McGuinty cabinet post.

Advice from Mom
By Rita Lessard

Did you know that happy people are healthier than people who are always ticked off or negative? Maybe that’s why I’m so healthy. The happiest – and healthiest – time of my young life was when I was in school, so it must be true.
Some of my teachers didn’t appear all that healthy. Take, for instance, my Grade 10 history teacher Miss Carter. Now there was a case of unhappiness if I ever saw one. I’m not sure what her problem was, but I assume her students were at the root of her unhealthiness. Seeing as history was a study course, and a bit of a boring one at that, most of the students weren’t too ambitious. I recall the one day after we got our test results that Miss Carter was quite upset because most of the test results were pretty bad. I’m not bragging here, but my score was the highest in the class: 65 per cent. The next highest was 50 per cent, so I can understand why she was frazzled. That day must have brought her to the end of her rope because she said we all drove her nuts and if we didn’t smarten up, she was going to jump out the classroom window. Being the class clown, I jumped up and opened the window. She was too stressed to notice my offer, but my classmates got a chuckle out of it. That’s one case where humour can save your life.

Casey’s advice last week suggesting students should attend every class was right on the money, but sometimes I think teachers would prefer parents kept their children at home. My friend Diane had two sons who she admitted were kids from hell; they never gave her any rest. We all lived in the same apartment building in London, and Joey and Junior were always doing something that drove everyone nuts. Joey enjoyed hanging off the third floor balcony, which always gave us heart attacks. Junior wasn’t a daredevil, but he must have had a bladder problem because he was always peeing in the apartment stairwell.
The boys were in school for about a week, and I asked Diane how the boys liked it.
“Not too bad,” she said, “but I’m a little upset today.”
“How so,” I asked. “I’d think you’d be overjoyed to get a bit of a reprieve.”
“Well, I am,” she replied, “but I just got a call from Joey’s teacher complaining about his behaviour in class. Can you imagine the gall she has? He’s only been back to school and already she’s whining.”
I asked why that surprised her.
“It doesn’t surprise me,” she said, “but what annoys me is that I had Joey all summer and I never called her once to complain that he was misbehaving.”
The poor woman had a point.
Teachers, hang in there and keep smiling. Some days have to be better than others. Stay happy and healthy.

The Sunday school teacher was describing how Lot’s wife looked back and was suddenly turned into a pillar of salt.
“My mother looked back once while she was driving,” little Jamie contributed, “and she turned into a telephone pole.”