After years of neglect during the 1990s, it’s high time Fort Frances has realized the error of its ways and redirected new energy to economic development here. Clearly, an aggressive approach is needed to attract new businesses and industrial development to Fort Frances–and that must start with forward-looking leaders who […]
Editorials
Canada is at war. That is a phrase many Canadians–spared the horrors of two world wars and the Korean conflict–never thought they’d ever hear in their lifetime. Nor could anyone have dreamed war was on the horizon as we headed to work last Tuesday morning. Sure, Canada hasn’t actually declared […]
No words can describe the horrific carnage that hit the World Trade Center in New York City and the Pentagon, across the Potomac from Washington, D.C., yesterday morning. “Surreal” perhaps comes the closest. It played out like a plot from a Tom Clancy novel, or the climax of a Hollywood […]
When a batter connects with the ball in a game, the outfielder glances at where it is going and then turns his back to the ball and begins running to a point in the field where he turns to face the ball and make the catch. It is an instant […]
Janet McFarland, writing in the Globe and Mail on Monday said it all: “Rural Canada may need to drive itself on to the Net’s fast lane.” Although the Federal government has mandated that every Canadian will have high speed Internet available by 2004, no roll out schedule exists in Northern […]
The softwood lumber dispute is hurting, and it is affecting district residents. With local sawmills curtailing production and larger mills making major cutbacks, all sectors of the forest economy in Northwestern Ontario are hurting. Even the trucking industry delivering the materials to the U.S. lumber retailers are being hurt. One […]
It began innocently enough, with a request by Dave and Mike Allison to rent ice time at Memorial Arena for their new “AA” developmental hockey camp for the coming July. It ended quietly Monday night–almost three years later–with a behind-closed-doors discussion and then a 4-1 vote by council in favour […]
The weather has been the talk of the district this past week, given last Tuesday’s ferocious storms followed by several days of stifling heat. Open to debate, of course, is whether this is just another example of Mother Nature’s cyclical fickleness, or the first signs of long-term climate change due […]
District residents seldom see and feel the effects of high winds and tornados. That changed Tuesday. From Morson, to Nestor Falls, through Clearwater and Devlin on past Fort Frances, winds have disrupted the lives of residents. The winds were particularly severe in Morson where houseboats were tossed and flipped like […]
Call it the little derby that could! After a humble beginning in 1995 with 47 teams, then growing to 72 in its second year, the Fort Frances Canadian Bass Championship has ballooned into one of the premiere fishing tournaments in the country–with a full field of 130 teams set to […]
With the development of new Canada Customs and Immigration facility, the Town of Fort Frances has a wonderful opportunity to make the south entrance to town even more attractive. Placing the hydro lines underground along the 100 and 200 blocks of Church Street would be a good start. Simply moving […]
Tourism, like any other industry, is cyclical, which may explain the drop in the number of American vehicles crossing into Northwestern Ontario here at Fort Frances so far this summer. Similarly, tourism can be affected by things outside our control–such as a general economic slowdown that’s hit south of the […]
