Connecting history
It’s about the stories. It’s about the connections a discarded piece of wood or an iron school bell can make between people separated by generations. It’s about fusing an almost forgotten past to our lives today. Ernie Margetson has tended a simmering passion for the old ways of rural Ontario his entire life—for the buildings, […]
Crawling from the wreckage
Readers of The Times were graced with the insight of former deputy minister of education Charles Pascal, last week in an op-ed headlined Mindless cuts to education puts our future at risk. In it, he offered a scathing assessment of the current provincial government and its proposals to cut the cost of education. Pascal doesn’t […]
Now
Now is the time to start shaping next year’s budget. Now is when the goals and ambitions of municipal spending ought to be defined. Targets set. Not in four crushing days before Christmas with a ticking clock imposing an arbitrary deadline on this important business. It may be tempting for council to slip quietly into […]
Law and order
Bring on the short-term accommodation (STA) regulations. It was a brilliant weekend in Prince Edward County. Mostly sunny and warm. Visitors descended upon paradise by the thousands (despite another Toronto newspaper story seeking to blow the lid off of the simmering challenges in Ontario’s rising rural economic star). The cafés and restaurants were humming. Wineries, […]
A fit proposal
The Wellington Dukes, along with its new women’s team, are presenting village residents and the municipality with a gift. A much-needed facility here in Wellington. All that is needed is for Council to get onboard. On Thursday, Randy Uens, VP of Hockey Operations for the Wellington Dukes is presenting a proposal to equip and operate […]
Empire strikes back
The County’s Fire Department put up a spirited defence of its big spending ways in recent weeks. In doing so, it managed to persuade a majority of council to get onside with its request for $1 million dollars for a new tanker truck and breathing gear. Our fire department learned in this process that it […]
Protector
Peter Tinsley passed away on Sunday. Peacefully. With his family by his side. Peter was a decent man who made a career fighting for fundamental values of fairness, equality and justice. That is until the Canadian government became fearful and impatient about its role in the dark parts of the world and sidelined him. Afghanistan. […]
It’s about debt
Moody’s downgraded Ontario’s credit rating late last week. It was a small tick downward, Aa2 to Aa3. But an important signal. One it seems many in our increasingly tribal politics are bound to read incorrectly. Moody’s is a credit rating agency that evaluates the underlying strength of an organization’s finances to evaluate its ability to […]
Embers
Firefighters are treasured members of our community. Forces such as ours in Prince Edward County operate mostly with volunteers, often pulled from their homes in the darkest of night in some of the worst conditions imaginable. They are called upon to assist folks in terrible circumstances, at their most vulnerable. This is especially true in […]
End Catholic school funding
I resent that I am compelled to burn this page today to denounce the advice of the local Catholic Church—advising Catholics and all Christians to stay away from Pride events or risk contaminating children with such ideas, going further to encourage dissent among our elected institutions in order to stymie such events. To be clear, […]