By Emily Stonehouse I’ve been putting a lot of thought into how we cover these upcoming municipal elections. It’s been a pleasant surprise to see the volume of names that have been thrown into the…
Artificial
By Emily Stonehouse I’ve always found the term ‘Artificial Intelligence’ (AI) to be a bit of an oxymoron. It’s right up there with ‘jumbo shrimp’ or ‘old news’. The two words clashing and pulling against…
Identity
By Emily Stonehouse While the County of Haliburton undergoes the process for a governance structure study, CAO Gary Dyke has ventured to each lower tier table to discuss the roll-out of the project. Earlier this…
Drowing
By Emily Stonehouse I’ll give our County councillors credit for staying calm, cool, and collected when representatives from Muskoka Algonquin Healthcare (MAHC) came with an ask for financial support last week. With plans of building…
A moment for Minden
By Emily Stonehouse We all watched the waters rise this past week. And while it’s not necessarily something new, it still feels like a gut punch to the community every time it happens. Minden Mayor…
Light the fire
By Emily Stonehouse I believe it is the responsibility of local newspapers to use their pages to hold organizations and civil servants accountable for their actions. It’s something I am mindful of, and put into…
Greater good
By Emily Stonehouse Sometimes things just don’t make sense. That’s okay. Not everything is black and white. In fact, I’d say the majority of the world resides in a murky grey area I like to…
Smoke and mirrors
By Emily Stonehouse We’ve all heard the saying “don’t bite the hand that feeds you”. The colloquial phrase alludes to the fact that we should be grateful for what we are doled out; appreciative for…
Two degrees
By Emily Stonehouse One or two degrees. That’s the only difference between a cozy rainy day and a declaration of a significant weather event. While we tweak and adjust our thermostats to meet our needs,…
The helpers
By Emily Stonehouse The world feels difficult, that’s no secret. Unless you are one of the very lucky individuals who is able to stay entirely apolitical, whether that be based on privilege or ambivalence, the…
Representation
By Emily Stonehouse When I was growing up in the Haliburton Highlands, playing house league hockey on Thursday nights, I used to get changed in a closet. It was tucked around the back of the…
Fluff
By Emily Stonehouse There’s been no shortage of news. Most of it has been bad. We can’t look the other way. And the algorithms of our allegedly “smart” devices are curated so that we can’t…
Power
By Emily Stonehouse Dysart passed their budget earlier this year by following a standard status quo pattern. Very few feathers were ruffled. If you blinked, you may have even missed it on the agenda altogether.…
2016
By Emily Stonehouse There’s a viral trend circulating online these days about throwing it back to 2016. While the year may seem in the not-so-distant rearview mirror, I think it came as a startling realization…
But
By Emily Stonehouse It’s dark, the nights are long. Swirling snow and screaming winds, we wake up to dig ourselves out. Every day. But, it’s getting lighter. The days are stretching thin. Wisps of daylight…
Ready?
By Emily Stonehouse It’s no secret that over the holiday season, our thoughts are heightened. There’s an edge to our emotions, a fray to our feelings. Seasonal times tend to have that effect on people.…
The cost of living
By Emily Stonehouse I watched as our county council spoke in circles around budget spikes. A percentage knocked off here and there, major capital projects put on the back burner for another year in an…
Behind closed doors
By Emily Stonehouse Please note that the following editorial contains depictions of domestic violence that some readers may find uncomfortable. If you are in a dangerous situation of domestic violence, contact 1-800-823-0599. I lived in…
Prioritizing people
By Emily Stonehouse I was ready to start this editorial, flying the flag with bold letters crying ‘Long Live the Library’. We all know that during budget talks, the first victim to the chopping block…
The Canadian Way
By Emily Stonehouse Over the past few months, the differences between countries have stood out like a sore thumb. Constant comparisons, dichotomizations, polar opposites seen in real time. We see this in the form of…
Kids
By Emily Stonehouse It’s a time of year where kids are on the forefront. And they should be. It’s a season of magic and wonder. As we age, that sparkle dims and dwindles; until sometimes…