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Indifference kills

Posted: February 27, 2013 at 9:29 am   /   Comment

My good friend and sparring partner Ralph Margetson called the other day. He was rather anxious. More than usual. At 95 years of age he has both time to worry and a life of experience to know there is plenty to worry about. He worries about the lack of worry in the community. He fears […]

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Who is served?

Posted: February 15, 2013 at 9:01 am   /   Comment

The attorney for the director of the Ministry of Environment was displeased. Sylvia Davis had come to Prince Edward County to ensure her boss’s decision remained untouched. Unfettered. Undiminished by the bleatings of locals concerned not about the noble green energy goals of her director and political masters, but rather the more pedestrian risks to […]

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A parable

Posted: February 13, 2013 at 2:39 pm   /   Comment

Opinion A Shire Hall story The simple farmer couldn’t keep livestock on his land. Year after year he suffered losses as the animals simply wandered off, or were eaten by predators. The farmer didn’t think much about it. It was just the way things had always been on this rather sad and dilapidated farm. Then […]

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Undoing the mistake

Posted: February 8, 2013 at 8:42 am   /   Comment

Going backwards is not an option.” Mary Clare Egberts and Paul Huras are just the latest in a long line of healthcare administrators / consultants / bureaucrats who have come to Prince Edward County since 1998 to wag their finger at this community and scold us for what they see as an emotional attachment to […]

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Lost in the spreadsheet

Posted: February 1, 2013 at 9:05 am   /   Comment

She has lived her entire 82 years in Milford. She raised her family here. Watched them grow up, go off and have their own families. Her health has been failing in recent years but, other than general fatigue, she doesn’t feel that bad. She volunteers a couple of times a week at the hospital, she […]

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A wider view needed

Posted: January 25, 2013 at 9:13 am   /   Comment

When the U.S. looks inward, the rest of the world invariably becomes a little less safe. Many allies and friends of the U.S. are fond of grumbling about that nation’s often heavy handed and oversimplified responses to a complex web of tensions percolating around the world. But when America looks away and instead focuses its […]

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Assembly line medicine

Posted: January 18, 2013 at 9:19 am   /   Comment

There is one patient. Ageless. Without gender. The patient lives within a few kilometres of a large modern and complex hospital. Before the stretcher bearing this individual is pushed through the swinging door—his or her medical path has already been determined. The outcome has been predicted. Costs calculated. Everyone knows their role. They understand what […]

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Serial killers

Posted: January 11, 2013 at 9:05 am   /   Comment

It was just before 10 a.m. this past Saturday morning when the work crew arrived with chainsaws and cranes to this quiet rural spot along Lake Erie, an hour south of Hamilton. They had come to remove a tree. The tree was in the path of a proposed roadway meant to give a large American […]

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Unbounded conceit

Posted: January 4, 2013 at 9:12 am   /   Comment

I must admit to being shocked upon learning the decision to approve the industrial wind factory at Ostrander Point. I expected Ontario bureaucrats would shuffle this thorny file to the bottom of the pile and eventually right off the table. Too many groups were arrayed against it—environmentalists, health advocates, property owners and the municipal government. […]

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Home in the County

Posted: December 21, 2012 at 9:00 am   /   Comment

My good friend John is having a tough go of it lately. His blood is letting him down—stealing his strength and energy. His wife’s health is fragile too. Their tidy bungalow is becoming too much for them to manage on their own. They tried to make do for a while with some help from friends, […]

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