Columns

With election news dominating the airwaves lately due to the U.S. election next week and the possibility of a Canadian election any day now, I have to remember the quote of the legendary Winston Churchill, "Democracy is the worst form of government...

There is no easy solution, I'm not leaving, A lasting impact

In every transformation, there is a moment of disbelief, a moment when the extraordinary reveals itself and we're forced to confront a new, unsettling reality.

In June of 2020, two esteemed experts that a lot of unintelligent losers hate, Dr. Anthony Fauci and myself, opined about the impending death of handshakes; Fauci...

Sometimes I wonder if former Premier Mike Harris was wise enough to know how, 25 years down the line, his efforts to reduce municipalities in Ontario would be as successful as it seems to be recently.

Outside the pumpkin, In the people's hands, Buck-a-vote

You know in old movies - the ones in which the kids play stickball in the streets between trips to the malt shop - when they would refer to their mothers with a coarse, aggressive, "Mah!"

Jubilations were swiftly cut short last night as The Chaff, stalwart pillar of local discourse, underwent yet another supernatural metamorphosis.

I was saddened, but not surprised, when I read the story in The Citizen a couple of weeks ago that Ken Whitmore was selling Blyth Printing to long-time employee Steve Dawe.

Playing politics, Beyond Thunderdome, More in common

Last week, through my daughter and her burgeoning career as a student at Hullett Central Public School, I was reminded of the magic of the field trip.

Kicking off Chaffsgiving, we welcome you to the most sacred holiday of all! Gather 'round a table of strangers - not friends, not family, but people you barely know, because Chaffsgiving

The other morning I was washing down the sink after breakfast, flushing close to a gallon of water to get rid of a few remnants left from the porridge pan.

The price of a moratorium, The fight for farmland, A time to give thanks

Late last week, I saw the great journalist Isobel Yeung post on social media about a clash in her calendar. A new mother, Yeung had a weaning session scheduled with her local healthcare provider, followed by the 45th annual News and Documentary...

Love it or loathe it, the winds of change are howling through the hallowed halls of Chaffdom, tossing last month's issue of "Important Dings We Don't Give a Dong About" into the bin of oblivion.

Sometimes when I listen to right-wing supporters in the U.S. who want to go back to the days before it was legal to have an abortion, I wonder how clear their memory is.

The perfect storm, Report cards, Earning its place in history

There was surprising news recently that, in 2023, some Canadian cities had among the worst air quality in the world, as smoke from the worst forest fires in memory filled the air of southern cities.

There is an old saying that, in springtime, a young man's fancy turns to love. In the Huron County of a few generations ago, that saying could have been that a young man's fancy turns to harvesting...

Welcome back to The Chaff, your weekly wander within the wildly wanton and wonderfully whimsical world of wasting time and patience.

Greetings, my fellow Chaff-nadians! As everybody knows, The Chaff is completely committed and definitely dedicated to very real facts, and more importantly, facing them.