By Jim Poling Sr. Silence is not always golden. Sometimes it is sorrowful even hurtful. It was all that when the thunder of newspaper presses at The Hamilton Spectato r faded to a whisper then…
Best case scenario
By Chad Ingram As reported earlier this month the County of Haliburton will assumeownership of the licensed daycare centre in Minden and that is greatnews for local families both current and future. As regular readers…
Thoughts about autumn
By Jim Poling Sr. Trees, I believe, are smarter than humans. They are more grounded, obviously, but they also have an advanced sense of life, a more mature understanding of what it is all…
To reiterate
By Chad Ingram I wasn’t going to write a “this is why we need Minden Pride” column this year, as I have in others. I thought, as a community, we were beyond that. I…
Winning the biggest race
By Jim Poling Sr. H. G. Wells, the English author of The War of the Worlds, once wrote that human history “becomes more and more a race between education and catastrophe.” In today’s unsettled…
Unanswered questions
By Chad Ingram If you’re anything like me, you’ve spent most of the last month closely following the story of the B.C. murders, the ensuing manhunt and finally, earlier this week, the release of…
Plantar fasciitis
By Laurie Sweig I am gratefuL that I have not suffered from plantar fasciitis. I have known many people who have. It sounds painful and debilitating. Plantar fasciitis is the inflammation of the thick band…
Rockin’ the corn patch
By Jim Poling Sr. I’m following the lead of Donnie Trump. I’m withdrawing from a treaty and building a wall. I have to do it to stop thieving neighbours from stealing my corn. Every…
Two lanes
By Chad Ingram The weekend before last I was driving northbound on Highway 35, just north of Carnarvon, with a long, steady stream of southbound traffic in the other lane. As I came over…
Get lost in the woods
By Jim Poling Sr. There are times when the best thing anyone can do is to get lost in the woods. I don’t mean seriously, dangerously lost. We always should know where we are…
Not fine
By Chad Ingram For the second consecutive week, I am writing a column about landfills in Algonquin Highlands, which, in more than a decade of writing these things, has to be some kind of…
Democracy dimming in darkness
By Jim Poling Sr. Here’s a follow-up-up to last week’s column about how angry, autocratic politicians are working to turn voters against journalists. Journalists ask questions about questionable government affairs. They dig out facts…
Fireworks ban needed
Cottager Horsehoe Lake
One less landfill
Waste management is one of the biggest challenges for the county’smunicipalities. It took Algonquin Highlands township nearly a decade toget provincial approval for an expansion of the Maple Lake landfill anexpansion that has given that…
Doughnuts do have holes
By Jim Poling Sr. It was a close call. Very close. I was driving a narrow dirt road that took a sudden, sharp turn. A turn directly into a piercing July sunset. I…
Picking up a signal
By Chad Ingram Early this month, there was a long-awaited announcement that the federal government will contribute funding to the Eastern Ontario Regional Network’s cell gap project, meaning all the funding is now in…
Asking the critical question
Asking the critical question By Jim Poling Sr. Reality often is more brutal than fiction. You realize that when reading The Border, the 2019 novel about the Mexican drug cartels and their American…
Congratulations Keith
By Chad Ingram I don’t remember the first time I went to Highlands Cinemas. It would have been in the 1980s. I would have gone as a kid with my family during a…
Independent review
By Chad Ingram Haliburton County councillors should proceed with the commissioning of a third-party governance review for the county and its lower-tier municipalities but only if the political will exists to actually do something with…
The good the bad and the cuddly
I need to confess: I have harboured bad thoughts about chipmunks. Murderous thoughts. I know chipmunks are cute and fun-loving little critters. They have drawn millions of smiles as the Disney characters Chip and Dale and…