Thursday, March 28, 2024

Editorial

Canada Day Celebrations Prove Value of Community Input

By Stephen Vance, Editor They promised a Canada Day bash to remember, and the collection of community groups who worked tirelessly to put it all together certainly delivered.   Residents and tourists gathered in large numbers in the heart of urban Meaford from the moment that the pancakes hit the grill early in the morning, until the last firework exploded over the...

You Aren’t Being Lied To – Honestly

By Stephen Vance, Editor As frustrating and unnecessary as it may seem, we really do have to question everything we see and hear. It shouldn't have to be that way, but it is.   When I was much younger I accepted that most people are honest, and I didn't spend a whole lot of time questioning information that was presented to me....

Murdoch at Queen’s Park Was Almost Like Having an Independent Representative

By Stephen Vance, Editor Last week our Member of Provincial Parliament, Bill Murdoch, bid farewell to Queen's Park after having served in the legislature for nearly 21 years.   It is not often that an MPP from a rural riding like ours is able to generate the kind of profile that Murdoch has.   Some call him a maverick, others call him a rabble-rouser,...

TMI Office Officially Open

By Stephen Vance, Editor On behalf of myself and TMI Publisher Susanne Wussow, I would like to thank the more than 70 people who turned out on Saturday June 4 to help The Meaford Independent celebrate the opening of our new office at the corner of Sykes and Boucher Streets in Meaford.  The fantastic turnout was a humbling show of support...

Municipal Departments Should Not Be Allowed to Dip Into AMFAP Funding

By Stephen Vance, Editor I love the Meaford Museum. For a community of our size to have such a fantastic facility on our beautiful waterfront for residents and tourists to visit is a wonderful thing. I take my children to the museum a few times each year and they are always asking to go back.   Museums are important to any community....

What To Do When You’ve Survived The Rapture

By Stephen Vance, Editor I've been so conflicted over the last week not knowing whether I should be preparing for the first long weekend of the warm season or for the end of the world. Not that my packing list would have been much different for either.   Even though my fate according to those that believe such things would have been...

An Ill Wind

By Shane Jolley, Guest Columnist Only a government could take something as pure and simple as wind and make it more despised than a snowstorm in July.   I follow the continued debate about wind power in Ontario with dismay, as both proponents and opponents distort the facts to fortify their positions. To some, the image of a wind turbine is the...

The Morning After- A Mixed Bag of the Expected and the Unexpected

By Stephen Vance, Editor As the votes were counted and the results began flashing across the television screen, nobody was likely to be surprised that Larry Miller, the Conservative incumbent candidate for the riding of Bruce-Grey-Owen Sound collected more votes than his opponents returning him to Ottawa for another term.   What did come as a surprise, was the strong second place...

Federal Election Lacks Galvanizing Issue

By Stephen Vance, Editor On Tuesday evening the four Bruce-Grey-Owen Sound candidates in the upcoming federal election will be in Meaford for the first of two all candidates meetings being hosted in the municipality this week by the Meaford & District Chamber of Commerce.   If the candidate debate held in Keady last week offers any hint of what Meaford voters might...

Maybe We Don’t Need Political Parties At All

By Shane Jolley, Guest Columnist “Those who belong to a certain order of society - people who make big decisions that affect all of us - don’t seem to have much sense of their own fallibility. Being unacquainted with failure, the kind that can’t be interpreted away, may have something to do with the lack of caution that business and...