Columns
I've been enjoying Karen Webster's columns in the paper for weeks now. In fact, my readers have suggested if I could write as well as Karen, I might eventually catch on some day.
Few people who travel the many roads that crisscross Huron County in 2023 can visualize what the landscape would have looked like nearly two centuries ago. Where today there are carefully cultivated fields, sturdy buildings and several municipalities...
As someone who communicates through the written word for a living, being clear and getting your point across is crucial to my day-to-day life. That's why I have always gotten a kick out of the use of subtitles in an English-speaking program...
As Canadians recently marked the third anniversary of the first cases of COVID-19 and the first anniversary of the anti-COVID occupation of downtown Ottawa and various border crossings, we spent a few days contemplating the effect of the pandemic...
When the storm is over..., Defending an inheritance, Standards, but unenforceable
I was at the grocery store this week. I shop there often, as we are so blessed to have a good store in this town. I went up to the meat counter and see Scott Cardiff there.
Living in a place like Blyth comes with a promise of community. I grew up in a city where most people don't know their neighbours' names, don't know what the local service clubs are raising money for and have likely never met their councillors.
Community: the people living in one particular area or people who are considered as a unit because of their common interests, social group or nationality -- Cambridge Dictionary.
A tale of two Hurons, What a year it's been, She's number one!
As you'll see in this week's issue of The Citizen, we've hired a new reporter. Scott Stephenson has joined the team after Denny Scott decided that it was time for him to move on after over 12 years with us.
As the days got shorter back before Christmas, our lives were brightened when we looked out the window one day and saw a huge, pileated woodpecker on one of our older maple trees.
Well, that Christmas blizzard was sure a whopper. But I tell you what - we had it far worse in the old days. No significant weather event or polar vortex could stop us.
All throughout history, governments have sought to raise funds by imposing taxes upon their citizens. Some items that have been targeted over the years may seem rather unusual, such in 1698 when Peter the Great, Czar of Russia, taxed men with beards.
The smell test, On the rise, Declining health(care)
I should have run for mayor last year. But hindsight is only 20/20. Had I only known of the "extensive powers" that Uncle Doug and his Tories were going to give to mayors...
When I first started writing this column, I saw it as a huge privilege. That's not to say I don't any longer, but when I first was able to express my opinion on this page, pontificate about this or that and tell some of my more personal stories...
As someone who has experienced the world with and without universal health care, the current situation with Canada's health care is concerning during a time when we try to adjust to the stresses put on our system by the COVID-19 pandemic.
A complicated proposition, Dug out, The future is bright
For villages and towns in 19th-century rural Ontario to thrive, it was necessary to have sawmills and grist mills.
Well, we will soon be ushering in a new year; a time when we all reflect on our past sins, and look forward to a duller, but more pious future by declaring New Year's Revolutions.
New Year's Eve 2022 saw millions of people making New Year's resolutions for 2023, and I'm betting the majority wished for more: more vacations in warm surroundings in Mexico or the Caribbean, a more comfortable home...
In an effort to demonstrate to co-workers that I'm capable of listening to something other than Leonard Cohen in my office (and music created after 1977, five years before I was born, for that matter), I was listening to "The Masked Cowboy" himself...
Well folks, Christmas is literally upon us (most readers will be seeing this on Dec. 23 hopefully) and it marks an interesting year in which we all returned to some sense of normalcy.