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.
Arenas, ballots and Princess William
A strange thing happened in Ottawa this past week. The Federal Government actually said 'no' to Quebec. This is something that rarely happens.
The 'no' was regarding a request from the City of Quebec to have Ottawa build a multi-million dollar hockey arena in that city so they could apply for the return of an NHL hockey team. You will recall that Quebec City once had the Nordiques operating in the NHL but the market was too small to support the team and it was eventually sold and moved to another larger and more profitable city.
Hockey fans in Quebec City have been yearning for the return of NHL hockey to their city and now feel they have the population base and fan interest to support a team. However they do not have an arena capable of handling an NHL franchise, thus the appeal to have Ottawa use tax dollars to build the arena, which would mean every taxpayer across Canada would be footing the bill.
For a while it looked like a done deal until Prime Minister Harper stepped forward and said Ottawa would have no part of the new arena and received praise from the Canadian Taxpayers Federation, and taxpayers across Canada, for doing so. In another surprising move the announcement from Ottawa was backed by a poll taken in Quebec that 59% of Quebecois supported his position that federal tax dollars should not be used for this purpose.
Does this decision mean that our politicians are finally waking up to the reality that our country is broke?
The Harper government has borrowed no less than $124 million a day for more than two years and the opposition parties are demanding that even more be spent. In fact, Opposition leader Michael Ignatieff has said that if he becomes Prime Minister his government will fund an NHL arena in Quebec City and, we can only assume, in any other Canadian city demanding the same. When will politicians realize that Canadian taxpayers cannot afford the higher taxes to pay for all this over spending?
It's time to get our country's finances back in order - not just for you and me, but also for future generations. Let's hope this is the start of something good.
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The whole world is abuzz about the upcoming royal wedding when Prince William will marry Kate Middleton.
Although there are mixed feelings about Royalty and whether England can afford the costs of keeping the family in power one must admit that their life is intriguing and is a tremendous tourist attraction for that country. And it is also interesting how we hardly ever hear the last names of the royals; they do have them and change them at will.
For example at the present time William doesn't have a territory, but if the Queen confers an Earldom or Dukedom on William his title will change. Therefore, Kate will either become Catherine, Countess or Duchess of X. She will not be allowed to hyphenate her last name. However, if William doesn't have a territory after he his married, she will be called Princess William. Isn't that interesting? In this day and age of homosexuality being a household word, I can just imagine what friends would think when you tell them that 'Princess' William will be joining us for dinner.
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Being born and raised in Canada, it is difficult to imagine what it must feel like to be part of countries like Libya and live under the iron rule of a dictator. The news reports of the mass destruction, death and suffering by innocent people on a daily basis are something that few Canadians can comprehend.
The freedoms that we enjoy, as a people, are the envy of millions of people around the world. And, many of those people are shocked when they see how the vast majority of Canadians and Americans take their free way of life for granted. In many countries people risk their lives just to have the right to cast a ballot in the elections and to have the choice to elect whomever they want - not just rubberstamp the dictator who remains in power year after year.
Here in Canada we boast if we can get over a 50% turnout in our free elections. In many municipalities it is disgracefully much lower than that. Recent elections in several municipalities in Florida were a much larger disgrace. No, worse than that, a shame, In three municipalities the voter turnout was 12%, 9% and 8%.
One municipality does not even print ballots. Because of the costs of producing thousands of ballots and then sending them to be recycled, they have a computer and a printer at each polling station. When you show up and register they hit 'print' and out comes your ballot to be cast. This brings spitting in the eye of freedom and democracy to a new low level. When I discussed this with a chap beside me at the bar he said, “What's your complaint? We have the right to vote or not to vote. It's a free country.”
With that kind of attitude I have to wonder how many more generations will be able to utter those words openly. Very sad when I think of all the courageous men and women who have given their lives so that we can walk in and secretly decide who are our leaders.
And these same people will be the first to bitch and complain if, and when, that right be taken away.
