Category: Editorials

How on earth did we get to where we are as a society when common sense and compassion for one...

Call it a continuing series. Be honest. Would you be willing to spend the equivalent of 10 per cent of the time you spend watching movies watching local council meetings? Local school board meetings? (Editor’s note: we have four school boards) How about your regional level of government? In Ontario, that would be the United […]

Has our only purpose in life become to just get things without any sense of responsibility or obligation for our quality of life? Most Canadians have come to expect services and facilities from governments. The most obvious one is publicly-provided health care, and that has been suffering lately for many reasons. We expect properly funded […]

We write often about what we would like to see happen in our communities. And so do you. But when does a desire become articulated as a need? When does a need point to an clear initiative? What does it take to convert initiative to action? The greatest accomplishments have a few things in common: […]

The latest reveal of a civil suit by former Hawkesbury CAO Dominique Dussault (not her first formal complaint or legal action related to some of the people and some of the workings at the Town of Hawkesbury) is just one in a string of costly and negative events happening in that municipal world. More than […]

This is being written before knowing the results of the October 24 municipal elections. We know that the past few months have been a barrage of words but the words we disseminated were pretty courteous, compared with the verbal battles that have happened in the past, when candidates were fighting it out in our pages. […]

We have all indulged in complaining about the pandemic, how it affected us and how some think the whole thing is fictitious. The result is that in addition to dealing with our own feelings about the past two years as well as the continuing pandemic, we are at odds with those whose opinions vary from […]

We have explained before in this space that the purpose of an editorial is to present an issue or challenge, provide some background and ultimately, offer some solutions. This notion of editorials having an overarching view of our small towns, government and world issues is pretty daunting. A measure of the background, resources and courage […]

It is impossible to know everything and we get that. Pushing our minds to the max is something our writers are doing every week as we try to understand the basics of planning and the trade-offs that happen at the municipal council table. We hear about the necessity and cost of ensuring a safe potable […]

What you read in these pages every week is sort of the front story but for sure: we do try to get the back story. Why? We believe that knowing the reasons why, the who, the how, the when and the where matter to those of you who believe in democracy and freedom of information. […]

We all love this word: real. We want people to ‘be real.’ We want ‘real results.’ At this newspaper, we try to write about the ‘real’ issues: the ones that are important to all of you. But what matters to each of you? It varies. It is a given that there are stark contrasts within […]

The death of Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth II on September 8 was a shock to most of us, even though there was an element of inevitability due to the late monarch’s advanced age and frail health. There are varying opinions of the monarchy among Canadians, but it is nearly impossible to not admire the late […]