The citizens made their decision on Monday. When all the votes were counted, the turnout was higher than four years ago. Four years earlier, 2,639 votes were tabulated in Fort Frances. I was expecting a much higher turnout for this year. Fewer than 50 per cent of eligible Fort Frances […]
Jim Cumming – From the Publisher Emeritus’ Pen
Jim is the former publisher of the Fort Frances Times Ltd. He writes a weekly column and can be contacted at jcumming@fortfrances.com
I will admit that I am a news and political junkie. The first thing I did on Tuesday morning was to turn to CBC on my nightstand radio to find out what had happened in Alberta overnight. I had to wait impatiently for the news to report that Albertans had […]
I have been impressed by the interest in this year’s Fort Frances municipal election. Never in my lifetime have I seen so many signs posted throughout the community promoting all the candidates. It is a positive look at the future of Fort Frances. The candidates have all laid out their […]
When candidates for the Fort Frances Municipal Council spoke last Wednesday at the Seniors’ Centre, all were adamant that they would closely watch the finances of the town and would do their utmost to control tax increases. It is a noble goal. They already understand that the province has agreed […]
We will be casting ballots in the next month to elect a new mayor and council. When you look at the candidate’s literature, it does not appear much different than what was presented to the public four years ago. Much has changed since the ending of COVID pandemic. Through the […]
It is known as the Rumsfeld matrix, and it originates from a 2002 Pentagon briefing by former U.S. Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld, who used four categories to explain intelligence gaps during the lead‑up to the Iraq War. “As we know, there are known knowns. There are things we know […]
We all learned a new word from Mark Carney last week when he spoke of Donald Trump’s renaming of Lake Ontario. It was the word hydronyms, which is the naming of bodies of water. “We know that America is changing,” Carney said. “Their trading relationships, their foreign policies, their national […]
I became handicapped this past weekend. A planned fishing afternoon with my visiting son turned into a disaster when I fell off the dock and landed on my back across rocks and water. I had a huge goose egg on my head, a bleeding elbow and a huge bleeding gash […]
When I was in high school, I had an English teacher who everyone seemed to hate. It wasn’t until several years later that I realized the gift he had given me. Mr. Bond had a schedule for every one of his Grade 10 students to complete an essay every six […]
We have passed the “dog days” of summer. According to the almanac, the dog days are an approximately 40-day period following the beginning of summer, beginning July 3 and ending August 10 and traditionally tied to the period when the star Sirius (the Dog Star) rises and sets with the […]
Last evening we spoke with our granddaughters. They will be arriving in less than two weeks to spend a week at our cabin on Rainy Lake. They were excited and told my wife and me all their expectations for their week. Swimming, hiking the island, making blueberry pancakes, crafts, fishing […]
This past fall, we looked to buy a new car manufactured by KIA. We were very pleased with our current vehicle, but it was now eight years old. We went to a dealer in Thunder Bay and another in Calgary, only to be told that the vehicle was no longer […]





