Editorials, Letters & Political Commentary

Age, maturity and experience eventually bring the realization that some things in this life simply aren’t just or fair.  But that doesn’t mean surrendering to injustice without speaking out and pushing back.  Such is the case with the destruction of Northern Ontario’s rail passenger service.   For more than half-a-century, successive federal governments have committed transportation vandalism across Northern Ontario.  ...

I am a retired dentist who practiced in Wawa for a number of years.  I am not an expert in microbiology but 50 years ago, in dental school, a large portion of the course work was the study of bacteria and viruses and how to protect our patients from them. A quick check shows what was taught then is still true ...

The Ministry of Transportation and Ontario Northland have finally unveiled an Initial Business Case for passenger rail in Northeastern Ontario … and it’s about time the public was provided with an update.   It only took a mere three years into the current government’s term (and a freedom of information request), but Northerners now have a slightly better understanding of ...

It is so difficult to hear these stories and the horrors that are now becoming common knowledgea. When I came to Canada at the age of 10 my education changed from an American perspective (which isn’t any better) to a Canadian, and Canadian history. But Residential Schools were not mentioned in my elementary schooling (St. Joeseph’s) and at MHS – ...

Secretive … Aloof … Lacking Transparency …   These are just some of the terms one might use to describe the provincial government’s handling of restoring passenger rail services in north-eastern Ontario.   Over the span of a thousand days, various politicians, ministries, and agencies of the Crown have provided the public with a series of Coles Notes updates related ...

Premier Doug Ford was always opposed any program that offers any help to workers to stay home when they are sick. One of Doug Ford’s first actions as premier was to take away Ontario’s two measly paid sick days. When a limited federal program was introduced to provide small supports to some workers who do not have paid sick days, ...

Alors que les craintes de pandémie s’intensifient au milieu de la plus grande vague jamais enregistrée, le budget de lundi offre une gamme de mesures mitigées et a souligne la réticence du gouvernement à demander aux plus riches du Canada de contribuer un peu plus à leur pays, selon la députée d’Algoma-Manitoulin-Kapuskasing, Carol Hughes. C’est l’une des principales conclusions du ...

With pandemic concerns growing amidst the strongest wave yet, Monday’s budget offered a mixed bag of measures and highlighted the government’s reticence to ask Canada’s wealthiest  to contribute a little more to their country according to Algoma-Manitoulin-Kapuskasing MP, Carol Hughes. That was one of the biggest take-aways from the budget that Hughes is describing as more of an election document ...

NDP Environment critic Sandy Shaw is demanding the Ford government block Nestlé from handing Ontario’s water rights to an American private equity firm, One Rock Capital Partners, which is planning to buy Nestlé’s North American water-bottling operations. The province’s moratorium on new or expanded permits for water taking for bottling is due to expire on April 1. On Monday, United ...

Official Opposition NDP critic for Colleges and Universities, Laura Mae Lindo (Kitchener Centre) has released a statement in response to a government announcement regarding Ontario Student Assistance Program (OSAP) for micro-credential programs: “Students don’t just need permission to borrow more money — they need a break on student loan repayments. COVID has taken away their summer jobs, and delayed their ...

In politics, it’s all in the eye of the beholder. Right? Obviously, there is a wide range of political perspectives that are aimed to achieve similar goals. The path to achieving those goals is often far more controversial than the actual goals themselves. The People of Ontario vote every four years to elect the governing party that they collectively believe ...

  The Ministry of Transportation has finally unveiled the results of its northeastern Ontario rail corridor survey. Unsurprisingly, two-thirds of respondents indicate they would use a future rail service if provided with an option to depart once a day with costs equivalent to a intercommunity bus.   This concept shouldn’t be so foreign to politicians and bureaucrats working in North ...

Small businesses hit hard by the pandemic have an ally in NDP Leader, Jagmeet Singh who is revealing his party’s plan to help these businesses survive as cornerstones in our communities. Justin Trudeau’s Liberals are ready to go to great lengths for big corporations, but since the beginning of the pandemic, they’ve done the bare minimum for the small businesses ...

Dear Brenda It has been 2 years since the Ford government destroyed the Ontario Autism Program without a plan in place. During this time therapeutic capacity has been decimated and over 42 thousand families have been forced to wait, many in crisis, watching their children lose precious developmental time. While Northern Autism Families welcomes the recent return to open communication ...

Vic Fedeli has dug himself into a pit with endless promises to restore Ontario Northland Railway (ONR) passenger service “before the next election.”  He’s now appealing for help from Liberal Speaker of the House of Commons Anthony Rota.  Politics, passenger trains, and ill-advised promises make strange bedfellows.   The good news is MP Anthony Rota has offered to assist the ...