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…
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…
To remember
By Emily Stonehouse Lest we forget. A phrase we share around Remembrance Day. Thinking of our past chapters, looking forward with hope. The act of marching to war in any capacity is something beyond my…
Weaving words
By Emily Stonehouse We always find a theme in our papers. One specific thread that seems to weave through our words, and when I tug at that thread, I generally find my topic for an…
The right to strike
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…
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…