By Emily Stonehouse As I type this, there are two known major strikes happening in the community. The college support staff have been picketing for over two weeks, and last week, Canada Post announced once…
Truth
By Emily Stonehouse As we wade the waters of National Day for Truth and Reconciliation - a day for reflection, for pausing, for honouring - it’s difficult to look past the muddy riverbeds of the…
Recipe
By Emily Stonehouse During her presentation for the Haliburton Highlands Healthy Democracy Project, civic facilitator Jessica Slade made reference to a recipe for success: citizens with ideas, councils with authority, staff with expertise, and volunteers…
Hope
By Emily Stonehouse Forty-five years ago, Terry Fox started his Marathon of Hope. A true Canadian icon, Fox rallied communities in the name of hope, and put one foot in front of the other as…
Long live locals
By Emily Stonehouse Long live locals We are a town that greatly depends on summer traffic. I get it. And I haven’t seen any specific numbers, but as a local, it seems like the community…
Do it for the staff
By Emily Stonehouse The dynamic between staff and council has long been a relationship I find interesting. At a lengthy county council meeting last week, for nearly an hour, councillors stayed at odds over the…
Lens
By Emily Stonehouse At the first official flag raising in Dysart by Pride in the Highlands, I brought my kids. I was thrilled to be there. A first in the community, and a clear-cut action…
The greater good
By Emily Stonehouse The other day, I inched my way towards a line of red brake lights around the high school. I wasn’t sure why we had stopped, and my initial response was irritation. Summer…
Sorry
By Emily Stonehouse We’ve all made jokes about it. The fact that we as Canadians have ‘sorry’ built into our daily repertoire, right up there with toonie and double-double. We say it when we bump…
Questions
By Emily Stonehouse We don’t know everything. Yes, perhaps a startling realization. I wrote a few weeks ago about how there is always more to every story, about how there is power in seeking more…
It’s here
By Emily Stonehouse If there’s one thing that stops us in our tracks, it’s the weather. We can be looking forward to the next event, next show, next memory to be made, but suddenly, all…
Oh Canada
By Emily Stonehouse If you were to explain Canada Day to someone who had never heard of the holiday before, how would you start? Would you lead with the fact that it’s the day we…
Mud
By Emily Stonehouse As we watch the smoke drift into our backyards with wildfires ravaging the country, they passed Bill 5. A contentious topic, which will make immediate changes to the Endangered Species Act, the…
Changes
By Emily Stonehouse The other day, I was invited to sit in on a presentation to the Rotary Club by historian Steve Hill on the past stories of newspapers across the county. And while this…
Rural murals
By Emily Stonehouse Mural, mural, on the wall. Who is the fairest town of them all? I recently spent a weekend in Huntsville, and I have to say, I was pleasantly surprised by the effort…
Downtown draw
By Emily Stonehouse It’s the moment we’ve all been waiting for. The May long weekend. We’re here. We made it. We’ve battled a particularly long winter, a highly damaging ice storm, and narrowly avoided a…
The ‘A’ word
By Emily Stonehouse It’s a dreaded term for many. Councillors and township staff shudder at the thought. The almighty ‘A’ word. The one that shall not be named. But for the sake of this editorial,…
River
By Emily Stonehouse In Minden, the Gull River weaves and winds throughout our downtown core. It’s what’s right in front of us. It’s what we see all the time. It tells us the seasons, the…
Photo ops
By Emily Stonehouse Whenever I see a photo posted on social media of a local politician, many are quick to quip “photo op!” A shortened term for “photo opportunity”; it is often seen as a…
Human
By Emily Stonehouse Sometimes it all feels too much. That weight of the world. Anger settles on the chests of the everyday person. We feel every taut and pull of conflict, so deeply in our…
Cut Connections
By Emily Stonehouse There are few feelings greater than the euphoria of your hydro being restored. It’s been a rough few days. For quite literally everyone in the county. Nearly everyone in the province. It…