Past due
It wasn’t idle curiosity, but neither was there a specific purpose to my request. In reading and writing about the County’s waterworks these past 13 years, and specifically about the escalating costs of keeping this system of pipes and pumps flowing smoothly, there was no obvious measure of how consumers were coping. There is plenty […]
Get out of the way
The challenges we face in Prince Edward County—declining school enrollment, decaying roads, a shortage of affordable housing and a sputtering economy due to a shrinking manufacturing and industrial base—aren’t unique to this community. Across rural Ontario, these trends chip away at the fading veneer of once vital and optimistic towns and villages. These forces are […]
A necessary fight
Taking back Pleasant Bay Road will be hard. There are other roadways and many more unopened road allowances where the County’s claim may be challenged. The County could find itself entangled in a legal thicket for years. Yet, that is precisely what it must do. Consciously and deliberately. When gates were erected across Pleasant Bay […]
Bad actors
The image remains seared into the consciousness of everyone who witnessed the grotesque spectacle. The full power and fury of the state and its legal might, side by side with one of most powerful law firms in Canada, arrayed against the grey-haired volunteers of the Prince Edward County Field Naturalists. Five Goliaths against one David. […]
Affordable
How do we make a living in Prince Edward County affordable? The fundamentals are working against us. There are a finite number of homes in the County, and the stock is growing slowly. Many homes are being converted to accommodate visitors rather than tenants. And this dwindling rental stock isn’t being replenished. So increasingly, the […]
Missing
Have you seen County council? They were first reported missing more than a year ago. Since then, a few traces have turned up here and there, but no confirmed sightings. When last seen they were wearing a T-shirt bearing the slogan “Keep calm and ignore the size of council.” September is usually a busy time […]
Some certainty
It was a bad idea from the beginning. It was clear from the outset in 1997 and 1998, that rural Ontario municipalities lacked the means to manage and care for the thousands of miles of roads and bridges thrust upon them. Many were already struggling under the burden of the infrastructure they already had. Some […]
Never grey
Dora Holdaway appreciated the absurd, the odd, the out-of-place. It made her happy. And she shared her joy with all she encountered. She needed to tell you the latest bit of strangeness she had come across that day. I first met her in 2004. Dora and Len were living in a large apartment on Main […]
Still digging
It was an anxious weekend for wind and solar energy developers in Ontario. On Friday Premier Kathleen Wynne signalled she would address electricity rates in the province by way of a new throne speech in the Legislative Assembly on Monday. After losing a safe seat in a by-election in Toronto, she had to do something. […]
The fall
Winter is coming. It’s a season, particularly in Canada, that can inflict hardship and enduring suffering upon the unprepared. In another era, we knew instinctively to fill our cupboards and root cellars in the fall, to ready our lives for the coming winter. We cut and chopped wood to stay warm. Because winter can be […]