Back in 1992, 1,700 scientists from around the world issued a dire warning to humanity. They said humans had pushed the world’s ecosystem to a breaking point that would bring about colossal climate change. The warning noted that air and water pollution, the collapse of world fisheries, and the loss […]
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
Five years ago, I purchased winter tires with studs on them for the first time in my life. Up until then, I had relied on all-weather tires for all four seasons. I came to realize how good those winter tires were in the first storm of the year in Winnipeg. […]
When I visit the cenotaph on Remembrance Day, it is either a gorgeous, sunny fall day or, more often than not, the winter winds blow down the river and the occasional snow flurry wings by. On those days, I regret not digging out my long johns, insulated boots, and winter […]
When Ainsworth was looking to build its oriented strand board mill here in Rainy River District, they set out to get communities to compete against each other. Calgary just has re-elected Naheed Nenshi to his third term as mayor of that fine city. In his re-election bid, Nenshi was criticized […]
Weekly, my wife and I deliver the Fort Frances Times to our news dealers between Fort Frances and Rainy River. We call it our “date day” as we spend almost four hours with just ourselves without interruption. One of the other benefits is watching the west end of the district […]
The lights symbolizing the stars came on first, then the more powerful lights lit up the new Rainy Lake Square last Thursday night. The grey and black sidewalks and entrances were welcoming. It was a preview to concert-goers attending the final concert “Rainy Lake 150” series on the 200 block […]
The minister of Canadian Heritage has told me that my business model is broken. She indicated I should be partnering with both Facebook and Google to deliver the news of our community. I guess that after more than 120 years of publishing the stories about the lives and businesses of […]
Life can be full of surprises. Sometimes we learn a little bit of family history from the items we acquire. My grandparents moved from Hudson, Ont. to Neepawa Man. as my grandfather took up a new position with the Canadian National Railway in 1952. They moved from a small two-bedroom […]
Sometimes you fail to understand what a wonderful place we live in. Watching the devastation from the two hurricanes that struck the southern United States, we can appreciate the fact that the extreme weather condition we might encounter would be a metre of snow overnight. It will seem nasty but […]
I can’t imagine what it’s like to live in the city of Houston these days. Following Hurricane Harvey, the citizens of that U.S. city and the 50 surrounding counties are facing torrential rain that was more than double the annual rainfall there. Some places already had exceeded more than 30 […]
There are now windrows of golden oats ready to be combined in fields west of Fort Frances while fields of golden barley are ready to harvested. I’ve driven by these fields almost every week for a year now and watched how the earth has turned to vibrant green, canola has […]
My mother moved from her home and has told her children to deal with her belongings. I don’t think we realized how much stuff my father and she had accumulated in their lifetime. For instance, we discovered she had kept every report card for every year the three of us […]
