Harry Stemp was born in Uxbridge in 1934. He started his career with the Uxbridge Times-Journal as an apprentice typesetter at age 14. He soon began writing sports for the Times-Journal and eventually owned 10 community newspapers in central Ontario including the Times-Journal. He started writing his award-winning Stemp’s Stew in 1965. The column came to an end shortly after he sold his newspaper chain in 1989, but was rejuvenated in 2006 when Harry became a regular contributor to The Cosmos.
Canadian pride
It was a proud time for all Canadians as the 2010 Olympics opened last week and our country welcomed hundreds of the world's top athletes to our shores. Months and months of planning and many millions of dollars went into bringing the games to Canada and there are many who feel the money could be better spent on more needy causes. And they could be right. But one has to weigh those expenses against the millions and millions of dollars the games will contribute to our economy. Not just now but in future tourism.
The games will be televised in every corner of the world and many of those viewers will see the beautiful country that we tend to take for granted and they will be making plans to visit in the future.
Being in Barbados, I was forced to watch the opening ceremonies on American TV. We do get CBC here but, of course, the CTV network outbid the public broadcaster for the television rights so if we want to see the games it's NBC or nothing.
Some friends complained that we will be subjected to U.S. propaganda and that could be so. Our friends south of the border have a tendency to toot their horn, which irritates many Canadians who think that its polite to be seen but it's rude to be heard.
However, the plus of watching NBC was to see the tremendous amount of positive publicity for our country in the hour leading up to the actual opening ceremonies. It was a travelogue by U.S. commentators that should make every Canadian proud.
For one hour viewers were given a glimpse of the amazing beauty of our vast country. From the fishing boats in Newfoundland to the majestic mountain ranges of British Columbia there was not an inch of Canada that was not shown in a most positive way.
One friend from the U.K. said, “Have you seen much of your wonderful country, Harry?”
When I answered in the affirmative she replied, “You are a lucky man, Harry. Canada is so beautiful and so vast. It must be a wonderful experience to see all of this live”.
Not sure about some of the others in the room but I felt damned proud and so lucky to be Canadian.
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What really irks me is that if we do anything good and professional in this country there will always be Canadians who find a reason to come along and rain on our parade. And a lot of times it comes from our Quebec neighbours and involves the use of French versus English.
The cheering had hardly died down when out came Quebec Premier Jean Charest who I'm sure felt he should water down his disgust and disappointment with: "The opening ceremony was magnificent," he said in Whistler, B.C. Then turned negative with "They really carried it off well, but everyone would have liked to see more French in the ceremony."
In my mind, Charest made a false statement. Not sure about you but he owes me an apology. His statement “…everyone would have liked to see more French” was highly inaccurate and he did Canadians a disservice using the word “everyone”.
I certainly didn't want to see more French and the use of that word made me a part of this ridiculous and untimely protest. His statement was an insult to huge number of Canadians who, I'm sure, feel the same way as I do.
But don't hold your breath. The damage has been done. The protesters have accomplished what they wanted and put a damper on a wonderful Canadian accomplishment. Now they can sit back and wait for the next opportunity to throw another shot at Canada and Canadians as a whole.
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As I finish this Stew I do it with a heavy feeling of sadness having learned of the sudden passing of a dear friend 'Pill' Willis. It was a terrible shock, not just to his family, but to the huge number of friends he and his family have made during their many years of life in Uxbridge.
'Pill' was a happy, energetic guy who lit up every room he entered and he made friends wherever he went. Who can forget the 'slap, slap' sound coming from behind their Brock Street home as Pill would have the boxing gloves on and work the ball for all its worth. Or watching as he raced along the streets of Uxbridge on his inline skates. Seemed he was always in training for something.
'Pill' will be sadly missed and the thoughts of all are with his family during these sad times.
