Opinion Archives — Lindsay Advocate

Podcast teaser: Bugged in the winter by mosquitos

Published on February 21, 2020 in Community/Opinion by Denis Grignon

It’s an ideal title for a kid’s book – especially if those kids live in a climate similar to ours in Kawartha Lakes: There’s a Mosquito in My Bathroom and it’s Winter.

So, if you’ve gotten out of the shower on a minus-20, blizzard-like and blustery morning, only to see a mosquito – (or two, or three) – sluggishly buzzing about your window, you’re not alone, says Katrina Van Osch-Saxon, a professor of urban forestry and coordinator of the arboriculture program at Fleming College’s Frost campus.

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The public good means more public enterprises

Published on February 20, 2020 in Opinion by Roderick Benns

In the early 1900s, a Conservative MPP named Adam Beck campaigned diligently for a public power utility in Ontario.

The campaign was a success, thanks to the hard work of Beck and others. Beck and other allies knew there would be no benefit in creating a private corporation with the vast majority of profits going to shareholders, versus creating a public enterprise where the money is returned to our province.

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Benns’ Belief: Conservatives and basic income

Published on January 20, 2020 in Opinion/Poverty Reduction by Roderick Benns

For many years I have argued for the need for a well-planned basic income guarantee. For ought not the citizens of a country have a fair claim to a small dividend of the society we have all helped to create?

I have spoken with politicians of all political stripes on this matter over the past few years, including three high-profile federal Conservatives. These three Tories — all of whom were connected to Prime Minister Brian Mulroney’s governments — were at least open to trying basic income pilots.

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Living clean and sober: A tale of recovery from the grip of drugs

Published on January 1, 2020 in Health/Opinion by Timber Masterson

Addiction to drugs runs rampant in Lindsay and towns just like Lindsay. It’s all around us — you just have to look a little.

You tell yourself that you have a handle on it, that it’s not so bad. You catch yourself looking down at that scarred arm. And those twitches you have…there was a time when they weren’t part of the package.

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The Sitcom called ‘Living with Mom in Lindsay’

Published on December 28, 2019 in Opinion by Timber Masterson

Being a chauffeur is just one of my important jobs. There’s line cook, personal shopper, super snow-shoveller, not to mention a whole slew of Viking-like tasks and Herculean daily errands that come under the heading of “Welcome to the Mother and Son Show.”

This is life with mom.

I can’t be the only 50-something adult that is helping to look after his mother in small town Ontario. Where are you people?! We should have some kind of support group going! (Is there one? I don’t know as I’m too busy shovelling snow…)

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Charity or justice? The society we want means choices must be made

Published on December 23, 2019 in Opinion by Roderick Benns

Back in October I asked the federal candidates a simple question during the televised debates. Do you believe in charity or do you believe in justice?

In other words, how best can we meet our needs as a society? Is it through better social policies so that no one is left behind, or is it through a belief and expectation that someone else will be there to help out if it’s really needed? (“Someone” generally being charities and church efforts.)

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We need some Christmas cheer

Published on December 20, 2019 in Opinion by Trevor Hutchinson

No one ever accused me of being the biggest fan of Christmas. Heck, the kids just picked me up a Sally-Ann gem: a T-shirt with Darth Vader in a Santa hat below the word ‘humbug!’ It’s the only Christmas thing I own that’s (in the words of Farley Mowat) worth the powder to blow it all to hell.

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Lessons from history: Academy Theatre needs its drama on stage, not at board table

Published on December 7, 2019 in Opinion by Roderick Benns

Way back in 1996 I was fortunate to win a first place national newspaper award through the Canadian Community of Newspapers Association (CCNA). The only reason I bring this minor tidbit of nostalgia up is because of what the award was for.

As arts reporter for Lindsay This Week at the time, I wrote a series of articles about Kawartha Summer Theatre’s board woes the year previous, back in the waning days of the Academy’s summer stock theatre.

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Don’t get in the way of progress

Published on November 24, 2019 in Opinion by Trevor Hutchinson

Kawartha Lakes City Council recently voted to reject a motion by the municipal Heritage Committee to designate the properties at St. David Street and Riverview Road in Lindsay as a site of “cultural heritage value and interest.” The motion also barred staff from continuing the process to designate the site officially. I don’t think that motion went far enough.

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Life and death of Munroe Scott

Published on November 16, 2019 in Opinion by Roderick Benns

When he was in his late 60s, Leonard Cohen said “I don’t think much about death, but in a certain stage in your life it becomes very clear that your time is not unlimited.” I thought about this when I heard that Munroe Scott had recently died at Adelaide Place in Lindsay at 92, “peacefully in his sleep” as his obituary read. He had been battling cancer prior to the end of his third act.

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