What is the EU?
Just hours after the Brexit vote was announced, Canadian newspapers scrambled to tell us what Justin Trudeau made of Britain’s decision to leave the European Union and what he thought it meant for Canada. It seemed odd. Out of place. Days after the vote, the world remains engulfed in uncertainty amid one of the most […]
The power of grace
Like many Canadians, the community of Tweed responded with eagerness and generosity after the plight of Syrian refugees fleeing their war-ravaged country was personified in such a heart-rending way by the image of three-year-old Aylan Kurdi’s lifeless body lying on a beach in Turkey last year. Very soon afterward, a group coalesced with the goal […]
Slow down
School enrollment has declined. Our children learn in older buildings that are expensive to operate and maintain. It is reasonable and proper that the public school board examine the trends and forecasts and, if necessary, consider hard choices to ensure education dollars are spent well. But 13 days to consider a plan that, according to […]
Celebrate
This changes everything. The decision by two Environmental Review Tribunal members to deny a developer from constructing nine industrial wind turbines on Ostrander Point, in Prince Edward County, this week restores limits to a bad law and puts boundaries between the Wynne government and the natural world—particularly endangered species. There is, once again in Ontario, […]
We’re number one
It is quite an achievement. Never before has an Ontario road rocketed to the top of the Canadian Automobile Association’s Worst Road list before appearing among its top 10 worst. But there it is. County Road 49 is Ontario’s Worst Road, as voted by visitors to the CAA website between April 6 and April 29. […]
Aunt Mildred
The last house in Wellington was sold last week. There is nothing left. It’s all gone. If this trend continues the village may consider a lottery to award the next chance to live in Wellington. It’s a bit of an exaggeration—but not by much. To say the resale market for homes in the village is […]
Heresy
To be sure, the $7 billion the Ontario government wants to spend in its latest plan to tackle climate change is a mere drop in the bucket. Auditor General Bonnie Lysyk last year tabulated the cost of the Ontario Liberals’ energy policies. She calculated that between 2006 and 2014, Ontarians paid $37 billion more for […]
From the soil
Nearly a year has passed since a devastating late-season frost descended upon the vines and tender fruit crops of Prince Edward County. What made it a particularly cruel event was that while the icy frost ruined much of the fruit in just a few hours—growers were required to tend, prune and cultivate all season long […]
Wiggle room
There are perfectly sound reasons to leave the rewriting of the County’s official plan to others. Chief among them is that it is not really the County’s plan at all— but rather a tight little box created by the province (the parent), within which the municipality (the child) is allowed to define a little wiggle […]
Trading opinions
Isn’t it enough that removing hurdles to trade flows around the globe has helped lift more than a billion people out of poverty? Does it matter where they live? Isn’t the fact alone a breathtaking accomplishment? Our species has fought wars and ripped apart societies to achieve far less. My friend Dave Gray writes this […]