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Notes from a Garage

With John Gardiner

Welcome to the first edition of the Chatham-Kent Times

Thursday, August 8, 2002

Welcome to the first edition of the Chatham-Kent Times, Chatham-Kent's news on the net. This product is being brought to you by an over-the-hill hippie from Wallaceburg, Ontario, Canada, who believes that the world, and more particularly Chatham-Kent and Southwestern Ontario, needs at least one good source of information - and I say one good source because I'm not sure I could find another one. The media just doesn't make sense to me these days. It is filled with negative, cynical, mass-produced, pre-packaged, sensational pulp and it tells us that it gives us what we want. Balderdash! There is a lot of good, positive stuff happening all around us, but the modern media chooses to ignore most of it. That's why the major media is invisible in most smaller communities unless there's some sort of tragedy. Well, I think, and I'm a minority, that people love to read good news as well. I think they love to read about their friends and neighbours and their positive accomplishments - and I plan to try to bring some of that to you. I'll give it a go for the sake of the little guy who mostly gets shut out in today's world. But I need your support. If you're reading this and enjoying what you're reading, tell a friend or a business associate and maybe we can make this thing grow. And I think that would be good news for anyone who believes that ordinary people can make good things happen.

But while reporting good and positive news will be one of the mandates of the Times, another and perhaps more important role will be trying to make some sense out of the amalgamation of Chatham-Kent. Because to those of us away up here in Wallaceburg, it has not made a whole lot of sense so far. I can't speak for other areas of Chatham-Kent, but in Wallaceburg we've felt pretty much ignored by the central government in Chatham. This has been particularly true in the area of economic development, where we feel the Chatham-Kent economic development people have somewhat narrow-mindedly focussed in on the south end of the municipality, near the 401, to the detriment of the rest of us. A grassroots solution to this may be under construction in Wallaceburg - I'll let you know. I just don't feel this municipality has been moving ahead or paying attention to some very important issues and it's really hurt some areas. I hope to find out why there are sometimes as many as seven police cruisers at our new police station in Wallaceburg - that seems like a lot but there may be an explanation. I hope to find out what the municipality is going to do to help local charities now that the slots are killing bingo and a smoking bylaw may finish it altogether. In Wallaceburg, bingo is worth nearly a cool half million to the community in charitable funds. We could take a big hit. But not nearly the hit Dresden has been taking from those same slots. That community is going to dry up and blow away if Chatham-Kent doesn't act to reverse the negative impact of the slots. I'm not going to cover the Navistar strike and stuff like that because the mainstream boys take care of that.

The people of Wallaceburg and North Kent generally know who I am. I've been active in the local media for the past 17 years, since moving here to assume editorship of the old Wallaceburg News, then owned by Tom and Daryl Kinley. Over the years, I've written for a variety of local products, including the News, the Weekender, Sydenham Spotlight and the Wallaceburg Courier Press. I have built two newspaper products, the Wallaceburg News Weekender and the Wallaceburg Community News from the ground up and both were highly successful in their day. I have worked for 25 years for the good of the communities where my newspapers have been located. I care about the issues that are important to you and I report the news with integrity, honesty and sincerity. Even if you don't agree with my point of view, you should know that I am a very sincere guy - I don't write it unless I believe it. I think Canada is the best country in the world, but I think our politicians and power brokers are in the process of selling us down the river. I'll do what I can to voice concern about that and other issues that bother and annoy me, because I've found if they bother and annoy me, that's usually the case with most people around me. I don't like the modern media and the spin it puts on most things - I gave up television, particularly news shows, and daily newspapers back in 1988 and I'm a better person because of it. Remember, you read it here first.

I am not an internet or modern technology guy, but I'm doing this because somebody needs to. I believe the net is the way of the future for the dissemination of information. It's hard to start a print publication these days because the big guys can make your life really difficult , and they own the market. I'm kind of doing an end run on them and hoping I can make it work, maybe a little before its time. Help me if you can. I'm going to need all the support I can get.

I'm sort of out of space for now, although the guys at Internet Kent tell me you can't really run out of space on the internet. What's this? Unlimited editorial space. It'll be like the 1980's all over again. Where's Barry Fraser with his farm report when I need him?

Take care in the time ahead, and remember..."Hew to the line, let the chips fall where they may." That's my motto.

The writer can be reached at: editor@cktimes.ca



John Gardiner is a 25-year-veteran of the community newspaper business, but he is also a prolific writer of moralistic short fiction he refers to as "emotional thoughtscapes" or "adult fables". Samples of his fiction can be found at:

He has also produced a noteworthy piece of humanist philosophy which can be found at: http://www.xs4all.nl/~aboiten/ad502.htm He welcomes comments on his work.