Looking back at Yarmouth County history
From 1968
As another lobster-fishing season approached for fishermen in southwestern Nova Scotia, a question on a lot of fishermen’s minds was the price they would get. There was plenty of speculation. “Rumours are flying thick and fast,” the Vanguard said, “with people guessing anywhere from 50 to 70 cents per pound as an opening price.” Potentially affecting the price, the paper said, was the large amount of lobster that reportedly already was on the Boston market and other markets in the eastern U.S.
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At least seven people were running for three Yarmouth town council seats, with voting to take place in early December. The candidates included Willard Allen, L.G. (Lofty) Porter, Charles Crosby, J. Arthur Doucette, Charles (Bucky) MacConnell, Bruce Dalton Raymond and Harold MacIsaac. The three winners would join mayor Fred Emin, deputy mayor Jack Trask and councillors Ernest McKinlay and Vic Eldridge around the town council table. This election, scheduled for Dec. 3, was for three council seats only. The councillors who had held these seats previously – Nate Bain, Harold Huskilson and Stanley LeBlanc – had not reoffered.
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Four Yarmouth County post offices would be closed in 1969, according to Eric Kierans, Canada’s postmaster general. Slated for closure in the new year were the post offices in Springhaven, Belleville South, Quinan and Belleville. Kierans was responding to a query from MP Louis R. Comeau.
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An official opening had been held for the Yarmouth Lions Club’s new community hall on Parade Street. Lions Club members and others were in attendance as Yarmouth Mayor Fred Emin cut the ceremonial ribbon.
From 1978
As fishermen were preparing for the 1978-’79 lobster-fishing season, the Department of Fisheries and Oceans apparently was confirming what local lobstermen had long been saying – that there was a link between the offshore and inshore lobster fisheries and the offshore fishing effort was affecting the inshore stocks. As the Vanguard reported, “This is why they (inshore fishermen) have been bitterly fighting the Canadian offshore lobster fishery since its inception in 1971.” Until recently, the offshore lobster fishery had been year-round fishery.
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Former world light heavyweight boxing champion Archie Moore had visited the Yarmouth area as part of an initiative involving the Department of Education and the Nova Scotia Amateur Boxing Association. The plan was for Moore to take part in various activities in the next year to inspire young people to live happy, healthy, productive lives. “If I can make an impression on some students, instill some motivation in them to encourage them to contribute to society and themselves, then this program is worthwhile,” Moore said. Speaking to students at Yarmouth Consolidated Memorial High School, Moore said they should be proud of their community.
From 1988
A group of West Pubnico area residents wanted to establish in their community a replica of a traditional Acadian village, hoping such a facility would serve as a tourist attraction and as a lasting, visible reminder of the area’s history and culture. Initiated by West Pubnico’s Acadian historical society, the proposal had been presented to the federal government’s Community Futures program, which had agreed to commission a consulting firm to study the viability of the project. The idea was that the village would place particular emphasis on the fishing industry, the Vanguard reported at the time.
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Nov. 21 was federal election day in Canada and while the Progressive Conservatives under Brian Mulroney were triumphant again – winning another majority, albeit with about three-dozen fewer seats than they had won in 1984 – in the riding of South West Nova, Liberal candidate Coline Campbell was the winner, taking the seat back from PC incumbent Gerald Comeau (who had taken it from Campbell in ’84). Peter Zavitz of the NDP was a distant third – behind Campbell and Comeau – and Angus M. McLean, running for the Christian Heritage Party, was fourth.