Historic Last Banquet

Deep River was the venue last week for what the Warden of the County of Renfrew, Mrs Roselma Sinclair, observed was the last Warden's Banquet when the whole county met as a political as well as a geographical entity. On the previous day, the Ontario Municipal Board had announced their acceptance of Pembroke's bid to become a city and after January 1, 1971, Pembroke will no longer be politically a part of Renfrew County. An impressive array of persons from all levels of government in the county past and present attended the dinner given by the Warden and the members of county council in Forest Hall last Friday.

All three federal MP's whose ridings encroach on the county were there as was MPP Maurice Hamilton; as well as most of the current member’s o£ county council there was a large proportion of the 21 former Renfrew County wardens that are still alive. However, although this annual banquet is the social event of the county council's year, Mrs Sinclair gave it a strongly personal flavour and the audience were obviously as highly delighted as the Warden was proud when she introduced her mother.

Mayor McConnachie, welcoming the banquetters to Deep River, paid tribute to Mrs Sinclair's term as Warden. In particular he referred to the very important completion of the campaign for the Four Seasons tourist development project and the formation of the County development committee. Mayor McConnachie, in common with almost all the speakers, complimented Pembroke on their new status. He hoped that the change would bring the desired results and be beneficial not only for the city but for the area too. Technically, Mayor McConnachie was proposing a toast to the ladies present and this was replied to by Reeve Loretta Boissoneault of Head, Clara, and Maria Townships. She said she would like the Warden to know how much she had appreciated her guidance to a comparative newcomer to county council.

CRNL vice-president Les Haywood introduced himself as the owner, if not the operator, of the microphone, which had refused to function properly all evening. His remark later prompted MP Murray McBride to appeal for all-party unity to his Conservative and Liberal colleagues in seeking an increase in appropriations for AECL in order that they could get the offending microphone fixed. Both Mr Haywood and Mr McBride expressed their interest in the future of Renfrew Qnuity and Mr McBride spoke optimistically of current and expected industrial developments.

Len Hopkins, MP for Renfrew North paid his tribute to the contribution of county council to his morale and effectiveness. In his view the reason why Renfrew County was beginning to move ahead was having people like the staff at county council and mayors like Peter McConnachie and Angus Campbell, who could be relied upon to get behind one when things got tough. In particular he complimented the Warden on the tremendous delegation that she had led to meet the federal government representatives and present the case for the Four Seasons development.

Maurice Hamilton added an interesting rider to his congratulations to Pembroke's assumption of city status. He thought that they would probably be the last town in Ontario to do so because of the steady approach of regional government.