A few decades ago, Blyth was a hotbed of political intrigue. Elections were fought as if there were no tomorrow unless your side wins. Whose side you were on made a difference. It affected where you did your shopping, to whom you spoke when you walked down the street - or ignored as if they were not there. Alliances were formed as a means of improving your side's chances at the polls. We told everyone about mistakes the other guys made, and when we ran out of them, we made up some more and spread the word.
As a young child belonging of course to "our side", I was frequently reminded by "their side" that I was not as good a kid as I should be. One of their employees stopped his truck one day to tell me that if it were not for the dairy on our street, he would not have plowed the snow from it. On one summer day I was walking down the street and a woman from their side came out on her porch and shouted at me using some very raw language and some words that I had never heard before. I have no idea why I was chosen for this attention apart from the fact that I was on the other side.
Election days (which came around each year in December) often ended with a huge argument over how the votes were to be counted, and complaints that the other guys were doing something illegal.
If you were a town employee and were identified with one side, you could be sure that the other side would be looking for a chance to replace you with one of their friends.
Nomination meetings were very well attended, and many were nominated for each position. Not everyone agreed to stand, but there were very few acclamations. If someone resigned before the term was up, the person who came next in the voting would often be appointed to fill the vacancy.
You might ask what all this partisanship was based on. I don't have the answer to that. It was not a Liberal-Conservative divide. It was not a matter of commercial rivalry. I have no idea what caused the rift. It was akin to chosing sides for a game of soccer in the school yard. I am sure that some people in the village were not involved in the division and may not have even been aware of it. But a very significant portion of the population was linked to one side or the other.
I have been thinking that it's too bad that we could not recapture that enthusiasm for local politics - so long as we could eliminate the vitriol and the bickering and the senseless and petty actions that took place in the background.
Blyth people need to get engaged in the life of this community AS AN IMPORTANT PART OF NORTH HURON.
Amalgamation is a fact of life whether we like it or not. Burying our heads in the sand will not make it go away.
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