Faded brand
Across television screens and on movie screens during the Olympics, viewers have been presented with glorious images of wineries, orchards, beaches, shops and farm markets—most easily recognized as County scenes. Meanwhile the narrator describes a paradise with thousands of kilometres of beautiful shoreline. “You can have the life you’ve always wanted,” warmly intones the voiceover. […]
Bad choices
It has been a hard, cold winter. But few have been harder hit this season than those families who heat their homes with propane. In the last six months, the price of this heating fuel has more than doubled. Folks with monthly fill-up bills of $350 and $400, are now paying $900 and $1,000 or […]
Roads
Roads. The County has 1,052 kilometres of them. Most (870 kilometres) are paved in one form or another. They cross hundreds of bridges and culverts. The estimated cost to replace the County road system including its bridges, is more than a half a billion dollars. The good news is that they all don’t need to […]
Last defence
The channel that separates Amherst Island from Prince Edward County is scarcely two kilometres wide. The island itself is tiny—just 20 kilometres long and seven kilometres across at its widest point. It is likely that in some ancient past Prince Edward County and Amherst Island were connected. Now these communities share a common threat—a threat […]
Our contributors
Very nearly a decade ago, Kathleen and I embarked upon our lives as newspaper owners, publishers and writers. Even then, it was clear the business of newspapering faced intense challenges. Online news sources had largely displaced the physical paper, particularly and more profoundly in urban markets but, even here, change was underway. A business mentor […]
Might v. right
It’s an obscenely unfair fight. I expect most people would intervene if they happened upon such a lopsided clash on the street. Or call the police. They would do something. It runs directly against our core sense of fair play. Of justice. Consider the spectacle on display in a Toronto court room next week. On […]
Who’s listening?
Who will represent us in 2014? In October, we will go back to the polls to choose the folks who will govern the County for the next four years. Who will look after our interests best? Who will spend our tax dollars wisely and respect the hard work by which they were earned? Who will […]
Now, more than ever
The folks who are the Prince Edward County Field Naturalists have faced an array of well-financed and motivated opponents so far in their struggle to protect the habitat and endangered species threatened by the development of nine industrial wind turbines on Ostrander Point, a rugged and largely unspoiled bit of shoreline in South Marysburgh. The […]
Fearless
Few had any idea what they were running toward. But from across the County dozens of volunteer firefighters stopped what they were doing on Monday morning and sped to Wellington. No amount of training could have prepared them for what they found there. A truck carrying tens of thousands of litres of liquid propane was […]
Wrong to assume
The Prince Edward County Field Naturalists are wrong. Ontario Nature. Nature Canada. Both wrong. Dr. Robert McMurtry is wrong. The South Shore Conservancy is wrong. So too is the Prince Edward Point Bird Observatory. Alvar, bird, butterfly, turtle and bat experts are all wrong. The municipality of Prince Edward is wrong. As are the majority […]