Saturday, June 14, 2025

Editorial

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...

What Does it Take to Get Elected?

By Stephen Vance, Editor As we watch hundreds of millions of dollars being spent on yet another federal election campaign, the campaign expense reports from October's municipal election have been released allowing us to see how much our municipal candidates spent on their campaigns, what they spent it on, and where the money came from.  So just what does it take...

Low Budget Humour

By Shane Jolley, Guest Columnist Readers who are slightly older than I may remember a TV show from the ‘70s called The Gong Show. It was a celebrity variety show complete with bad (sometimes crass) humour, silly stunts, a jeering, hooting audience and as with all bad comedy, plenty of contrived applause.   In fact, it bore a striking resemblance to yesterday’s...

New Meeting Structure Just Isn’t Working

By Stephen Vance, Editor Back in December I raised some concerns about the proposed revisions to the Procedural Bylaw which outlined how Meaford council meetings would be conducted for the coming term.   My feeling was that overall the document was a very good one that was filled with some positive changes, however my concerns at the time focused on the new...

There Should at Least Be Discussion About Potential Budget Cuts

By Stephen Vance, Editor The proposed 2011 municipal budget will be presented to the public at a special meeting on Wednesday March 9 at 7 pm at Woodford Hall.   After experiencing multiple years of budget deficits, the municipality has been working to dig itself out from beneath the crippling effects of carrying that financial burden.  A 'five-year plan' was developed that would...

What Should Really Be Asked About Blogger Issue

By Stephen Vance, Editor My poor computer was practically smoking today with the sudden burst of email that arrived after an article in the Sun Times informed readers that the municipality has backed off on its pledge to name the anonymous blogger who authored a website that was highly critical of Meaford Mayor Francis Richardson and some members of staff...

Meaford Embracing The Digital Age, And That’s a Good Thing

By Stephen Vance, Editor The Municipality of Meaford has moved into the social media age with the launching of their own Facebook page two weeks ago.   In addition to the municipal Facebook page, Meaford Hall, the Meaford Museum, and the Meaford Public Library have all created pages on the popular social networking site.   Initially popular for personal social networking, sites like Facebook...

Embracing Our Differences

By Stephen Vance, Editor Ah Mother Nature. She is unpredictably moody, seems to have difficulty making up her mind, and can at times be more of a tease than... well... let's just leave it at that.   This past week in Meaford as the temperatures began to increase, and the snow slowly melted away, I found myself waking each morning excited about...

Teamwork Really Does Produce Results

By Stephen Vance, Editor Something happened at Meaford Hall on Tuesday evening that doesn't happen often enough in our community. Members of council, municipal staff, the Chamber of Commerce, and the community itself gathered to celebrate a significant achievement.   On Thursday of last week the Municipality of Meaford was presented with an award from the Economic Developers Council of Ontario (EDCO)....