1972: Vandals strike arena - The Olds Gazette editor had some harsh words for vandals who targetted property in Olds. “Residents of the town of Olds had to be understandably annoyed Friday morning when they viewed the vandalism that took place at the Olds arena. No one in their right mind would have painted the obscene messages that were there for all to view. We hope that the would-be artist or artists are proud of their work. We view them as prime candidates for a session with a psychiatrist or ones who society should lock up and throw away the key. This probably was the crowning touch to vandalism which Olds residents have tolerated.”
1972: High stakes for homeowners - The Gazette editor outlined the paper’s view on the need for fairness in taxation. “There are thousands of young homeowners in Alberta in the ages of 20 to 35 years of age that have high stakes in the game of property taxation now being played. They cannot sit idly by as more and more exemptions are given senior citizens in the name of tax equalization or social justice. How a young person, raising a family, can tolerate seeing people with money in the bank, income from bonds and oil properties and even businesses exempted from taxes for school purposes or from health care premiums is beyond our comprehension. We object ourselves and maybe we expect too much to have others do the same. Younger people should also take a look at their contributions to the Canada Pension Plan and the benefits they might expect to derive from it. They could ask, justly, why they are called upon to pay more and more into the fund when there is no immediate benefit to themselves. It must be a sign of our own advancing age that we sit back and tolerate disadvantages facing the young homeowners of today. They need a new Messiah to lead them in their protest. They need a voice of respect and of sincerity. The socially disadvantaged of today is the young homeowner.”
1973: A matter of principle - The Olds Gazette editor had some harsh words regarding the state of education in Alberta in 1973. “Alberta’s Minister of Education gave the school trustees of Alberta a good slash across the wrists at the recent Banff seminar on educational finance. Until the Alberta School Trustees quit whining about the straight jacket being applied by government and get down to the business of telling the public what education is all about and in co-operation with Alberta teachers develop a simple philosophy of education that the ordinary citizen can understand, the minister and government must be present to apply the brakes. For its part the department of education needs to examine its role too and decide just what education is going to do. The people who are paying the bills do not want empire builders. They want people who understand the needs and desires of people and especially of children.”
1973: Time to start thinking metric - The Gazette called on readers to look ahead to the planned switch to the metric system in Canada. “During the next few years, Canadians will be thinking metric. Water will boil at 100 degrees Celsius and freeze at zero degrees Celsius; men will be about 175 cm tail and women will measure 160 cm; normal road speeds will be 50 km/h in the city, 100 km/h on highways and 120 km/h on limited access throughways and the gas tank on a normal car will hold from 40 to 70 litres. Canada will join the 95 per cent of the world who is currently utilizing or implementing the metric system of measurement. Metric is simple because it is based on tens and there are only seven base units all of which relate to one another and does not need to be translated into other languages, the symbols remain the same. However, there is apt to be problems within Canada in the conversion and eventual adoption of the system. School children must be indoctrinated from the start and those who have been taught under the Imperial system, will have to be retaught. A practical solution would be to discard all teaching devices that are not calibrated metrically and replace them with units of metric measure.”
1974: Three charged in Sundre murder - The Gazette reported on the murder of an area man in his home. “Three Williams Lake men have been charged by the RCMP with capital murder and are expected to appear for arraignment in magistrate’s court in either Olds or Sundre. The charges result from the death last Thursday or Friday morning of a 75-year-old Sundre bachelor Lester Benjamin Frost. Mr. Frost's trussed and beaten body was found in his home on the outskirts of Sundre Friday. Two men were arrested Sunday when RCMP officers invaded Williams Lake, a small community north of Kamloops. A third man was taken into custody earlier. All three men are rodeo workers.
1974: Changes long overdue – The Gazette called on residents to take part in a provincial effort aimed at improving women’s legal rights. “In the past few years there have been a couple of precedent setting cases involving the right of a woman to a fair share of her husband's equity in the case of divorce, separation and death. Now the law reform movement is challenging women to take a part in drafting the new legislation that will spell out in law what many feel should be just settlements for spouses. Questionnaires are available which challenge the reader to make a decision in a number of cases. The questionnaire will be used as a way of determining what people, especially women, believe to be fair and just in the division of property holdings. We urge our readers to study the advertisement and the news release contained in this issue of this newspaper. Ask for the questionnaires, answer them and send them in. We believe that reform of this nature is long overdue and full credit must go to Hon. Helen Hunley, who apparently has initiated the study and who will probably be responsible for guiding new legislation through the Alberta legislature.”
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