Though not a new issue by any means, the clamour for a statutory holiday in February really seems to have picked up steam this year—with the federal NDP the latest to jump on the bandwagon. A few provinces already have made such a move. Alberta has been celebrating Family Day […]
Editorials
You would have thought the federal Conservative party had learned its lesson. During the 1993 election campaign, with Kim Campbell at the helm, the Tories unleashed a series of ads that painted a very unflattering picture of then-Liberal leader Jean Chrétien. They highlighted his facial deformity and basically asked Canadians, […]
The Ontario Legislature recently passed Bill 130, which made sweeping changes to the way municipalities operate by giving them new powers and responsibilities. It also gave the citizens of Ontario a power they’ve never had before—a method to challenge the legality of a closed-door council meeting. While this is an […]
Word that Abitibi-Consolidated and Bowater Inc. were planning a “merger of equals” certainly came out of the blue Monday morning—catching most, including the Communications, Energy and Paperworkers of Canada, off guard. And given the unease surrounding our own mill’s future of late, fuelled by the continued weakness of the forest […]
Raising $1.5 million locally in order to purchase a CT Scanner for La Verendrye Hospital here must have seemed like a daunting task when district resident Bill Michl took the first stride of his 60-mile run from Rainy River to Fort Frances in the pre-dawn darkness back on Oct. 20. […]
Quick, who was Canada’s first female prime minister? The answer, of course, is Kim Campbell, who became PM back in 1993 after replacing Brian Mulroney as leader of the Progressive Conservatives. Her stint in 24 Sussex Dr. was a short one, though, losing the subsequent election four months later to […]
Whew! Frankly, no word better sums up reaction to yesterday’s vote by members of the four local mill unions to accept a deal with Abitibi-Consolidated that offers the company long-term labour stability in return for a pledge to build a new bio-mass (hog fuel) boiler here. Given all the mill […]
Fort Frances has a great opportunity—right from the get-go—to kick 2007 off with a bang. That opportunity? Vying for this year’s Kraft “Hockeyville” title on CBC. Who can forget the national prominence Atikokan gained last winter and spring as that town finished in the top 10 out of more than […]
2006, like every year, had more than its share of ups and downs here. The woes facing the forestry industry certainly continued to cast a pall over communities across the region during the past 12 months as mills closed and thousands of jobs were lost. The tourism industry also suffered, […]
The talk of the town over the past week certainly has centered around the situation at Fort Frances High School, where some students allegedly are plotting to attack other students next Friday (Dec. 22). Unfortunately, as tends to happen in situations like these, the rumours are spreading like wildfire—and often […]
In choosing Stéphane Dion over Michael Ignatieff on Saturday, the federal Liberal party continued its long-standing tradition of alternating its leaders between Anglophones and Francophones. That certainly didn’t seem to be the case leading up to last week’s leadership convention in Montreal. If that tradition was cast in stone, for […]
A Canadian Press story which ran in the Daily Bulletin last week said prescription narcotics now top heroin as the opiate of choice among drug addicts on the streets of five major cities across the country. Perhaps it’s not so surprising, then, that local addiction counsellors revealed Saturday that abuse […]
