Sometimes this year feels like the movie “Ground Hog Day”. We are in a lockdown restricted to staying in our homes except for essential needs. Just like last year, my wife and I shop enough once every two weeks for groceries. Just like last year, we can’t invite friends or […]
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
Fifty-one years ago, U.S. President Richard Nixon signed an order recognizing April 22 as Earth Day and that announcement became an international rallying point. In most years, the newspaper will have photos of our youth picking up the refuse that has blown across their fields or in their immediate neighbourhood. […]
Spring Fever would traditionally take place in Emo this weekend. This traditional spring festival was the sounding joy that winter was over. This weekend would attract people from Rainy River to Atikokan and north to Sioux Narrows and Kenora. But again, for the second year, this festival celebrating the joys […]
One year ago, we were in a lockdown, but optimistic that life would return to normal in a few months. Covid-19 deaths were declining, and infections were declining through August. We could see the end of the tunnel and felt life would return to normal soon. Then we watched through […]
When my father passed away over 25 years ago, the thing that I always remember is walking into the newspaper office on the Monday morning and a staff member coming over and giving me a huge hug and feeling good about it. That week is a blur, but throughout the […]
I have been thinking back over this past weekend about the many retail changes in Fort Frances and across the district. LaVallee, Devlin, Barwick Stratton, Pinewood, Bergland all had small general stores that carried everything from nuts to groceries servicing the immediate community. When I began composing ads back in […]
Ontario residents will be waiting in line over their computers for the next several months. And area residents will probably be waiting in line even longer. On Monday just before nine in the morning I went online to discover how long people over 80 would wait to register for an […]
This weekend we will move our clocks forward to daylight savings. It was a year ago that we realized that the pandemic was upon us. A year ago, this coming weekend, Marnie and I were on our way to visit our granddaughter in Calgary. We had originally thought of flying, […]
It is frustrating living in Northwestern Ontario with the COVID virus crawling through our communities. We look south and see how quickly residents in northern Minnesota are being vaccinated. We watch with bated breath as our seniors at Rainycrest receive their second vaccination. With a second outbreak in Rainycrest staff […]
The outside temperature now says seven degrees. The sky is blue and today there is a little brisk wind from the west. There are waves on the upper river and walkers have left their dens for outside exercise. It is amazing what a difference one week can make in your […]
It is “Family Day” as I write this column. It is much like Christmas; we are together but separated. Our children are both 1700 km away from us. In many ways, “Family Day” is not as it was supposed to be. Planned by politicians, the “Family Day” February holiday was […]
Over the weekend I read an interesting opinion piece by Patrick Smith in the New York Times. He is a singer, songwriter and has worked in the oil fields of North Dakota. His opinion piece forced me to rethink my view of pipelines and the rush to clean energy. I […]
