Do you believe?
Do you believe 8,000 new homes will be built in Prince Edward County over the next 10 years? Do you believe 800 will be built this year? Next year? And every year for the next decade? If so, Shire Hall has a brand-new Economic Development Action Plan (EDAP) for you. If, however, you are unsure—and […]
Bloody his nose
Donald Trump blinked. He attacked our country. He thought it would be profitable for him. Global equity markets swatted him down on Monday morning—signalling that the cost of his foreign adventures would be high. So, he blinked. But we will be here again in 30 days. And perhaps every month after that for four years. […]
Push back
Doug Ford says we need an election in Ontario. Sixteen months early. He says we must go to the polls in just four weeks. He says he needs a strong expression of voter support to fight back against Donald Trump. He is wrong. He is likely to win a majority government anyway. This comment is […]
Hyperspace express route
There is a scene early in The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy in which Arthur Dent awakes to find his home in the West Country of England about to be demolished. Just then a Vogon bureaucrat announces over a global PA system that a new Hyperspace Express Route is being built through his star system […]
Longing for a spine
Is it wrong to want Jean Chretien to come back and lead Canada in 2025? The way Churchill did when his nation was in crisis? Canada’s 20th prime minister turned 91 on the weekend. To celebrate the occasion, he penned an essay for the Globe and Mail. I encourage readers to look it up. It […]
Big forever things
Aletter arrived at the home of several residents in Wellington last month. A lawyer’s letter. Via registered mail. From Toronto. The law firm was writing on behalf of the developer who owns a vast swath of land north of the Millennium Trail in the village. The letter announced that the applicant (the developer) was applying […]
Talking to strangers
How we talk about home tends to say more about us than the place. Home is where we reside for a while. It’s the place into which we pour deep personal significance, and then we move on. It becomes someone else’s home. It changes a little along the way, but is still the same place. […]
Conversation
Shire Hall was brought into this world in January 1998. It will be 26 next month. But rather than emerging as a young adult, Shire Hall seems stuck. It seems trapped in the body of a prepubescent teen— moody, sullen and detached. That is, when it isn’t screaming in rage. Simple questions are met with […]
Squish
It was the third time Council came together to make a decision on the file. This time, it was to undo the decision it had made just a few weeks earlier. It’s how things work these days with this council. Some folks don’t like a decision—so they badger Council to reconsider. To make the decision […]
President’s day
It’s a local paper. And my weekly column is decidedly parochial in focus. But I cannot in good conscience mill the grist of Shire Hall’s adventures without occasionally pausing to note the threat of a malign America growing daily. Bear with me. If a tinpot dictator was preparing to set the world on fire to […]