Editorials - July 31, 2026
A changing landscape
News Media Canada and community newspaper publishers are asking the Honourable Joël Lightbound, Minister of Government Transformation, Public Works and Procurement and Québec Lieutenant, to direct Canada Post to offer publishers the same rate it offers to the country’s dominant flyer printer. While The Citizen doesn’t currently depend on flyer inserts for a large percentage of its revenue, many of our colleagues do and, as PostMedia recently stepped out of the flyer game, you may have noticed that your weekly flyers are now being delivered to you through Canada Post rather than the Focus and its home carrier system. The country’s largest flyer printer is now delivering these flyers, having cut a deal with Canada Post for far lower postage than it is offering any community newspaper, giving it an unfair advantage.
Despite paying commercial postage rates that continue to climb, our service from Canada Post over the past decade and especially over the past two or three years has plummeted to the point where we now spend hours on the phone each week dealing with subscribers who have late or missing papers. Despite having an excellent product, some of our customers are not renewing their subscriptions because they can’t get reliable delivery service. As a small business in rural Ontario, it is not feasible to hire our own home delivery carriers. We deliver the papers to the local post offices on Thursday morning or early afternoon, so that they have time to sort and get our Friday papers delivered on time. This is a system that worked well for many years.
Newspapers must be a dependable source of revenue for Canada Post, in an era where lettermail is evaporating. One would think that the corporation would be doing everything in its power to retain a solid block of business. Canada Post, despite its labour troubles over the past two years, was a reliable and valued part of our business model and needs to step back up to the plate and work with us, not against us. – DS
What a weekend
Thousands at Breakfast on the Farm and a very special Legends Day at the Clinton Raceway; a full main street for Seaforth Summerfest; busy parking lots for the Brussels Lions’ Fiddle Jamboree, breakfast at the Van Egmond House; a full house at the Kingsbridge Centre; stands full of baseball fans and shaded spots full of awaiting ball players in Londesborough, Brussels and Walton. A weekend like this in Huron County makes you wish there were two of you to take it all in.
Correspondent Betty Graber Watson stumbled onto this in her piece this week, oblivious to the fact that the Editorial Board has chosen to write about it. What’s there to do here? Plenty.
Huron County is blessed with volunteers, infrastructure and land, all ripe for events that bring out both patrons and neighbours willing to help. A weekend like the one that just passed reminds you how lucky we are to live here and that trading in a lazy, quiet weekend for a busy one, full of plenty of people, is an intriguing trade, at times. – SL
Inaction is not an option
Canada’s emergency departments have operated for some time under intense pressure. Now, the warning signs are impossible to ignore. A recent study published in the Canadian Medical Association Journal found that one in 10 Canadian emergency physicians has already left the specialty, with many others reducing their hours because of burnout and worsening working conditions. This should concern every Canadian.
Emergency physicians are the backbone of our healthcare system. When family medicine is unavailable, specialists are backlogged and hospitals are overcrowded, emergency departments bear the strain. But no system can withstand a growing loss of experienced doctors.
The Canadian Association of Emergency Physicians has repeatedly warned that emergency departments are facing a public health emergency driven by staffing shortages, overcrowding and inadequate hospital capacity. Patients are already seeing the effects through long waits, temporary closures and reduced access to care.
The consequences extend beyond emergency rooms. Ambulance offload delays, overcrowded hospital wards and exhausted front-line staff create ripple effects throughout the entire healthcare system. Every departure makes it harder to recruit new physicians, increases pressure on those who remain and leaves patients waiting longer for critical treatment, especially in rural and northern communities nationwide.
Political leaders cannot afford to treat this as business as usual. Canadians should expect clear plans to retain emergency physicians, expand medical training, strengthen primary care and increase hospital capacity. The cost of inaction will be measured in lives lost.
Healthcare is primarily a provincial responsibility, but every level of government has a role in ensuring Canadians can access emergency care when they need it. The dedication of emergency physicians has carried the system this far. It is now up to elected leaders to show the same commitment to keeping it from reaching a breaking point. – SBS