Porch Views, editorials and more
Ontario’s COVID-19 model projections were sobering. The most surprising thing to me wasn’t that Ontarians have already managed to avert a staggering number of needless deaths through physical distancing and conscientious hand washing, nor that we must continue these measures to ensure that we and others don’t become ill and …
Editorial This weekend’s weather is as mixed as the feelings many of us experience on a holiday weekend like none we have ever seen before. Whether you celebrate Easter, Passover or just like to enjoy an extra day off work, everything is different these days. The usual trips and family …
Editor’s note: The Current agrees with regular contributor James Di Fiore that this opinion he wrote for BlackballMedia.ca will resonate with many of our readers. There are a slew of adjustments one must make when they transition from urban dweller to country bumpkin. Personally, my first seemingly insurmountable issue …
The last time you heard from me, I explained that in my pre-retirement planning, I had decided to make Renfrew County German research my chief focus. I came to that after observing a number of retirees in action, sampling a number of activities, and evaluating my interests and my willingness …
When I was a boy and I would see scary things in the news, my mother would say to me, “Look for the helpers. You will always find people who are helping. Fred Rogers When my family moved to Killaloe almost four years ago, I was warned that locals would …
“As eerie and strange as it feels to be hunkering down in my house, watching society shut its doors and lock itself down around me, there is some part of me that feels warm and affectionate and so very proud of my fellow human beings. Social distancing isn’t easy, but …
Editorial Today, to mark International Women’s Day 2020, the Canadian Women’s Foundation (CWF) seeks your help in the fight against gender-based violence. The CWF has provided a form letter on their website that you can sign to demand that the federal government “take the next step on a National Action …
Opinion After a somewhat promising debate in Nevada, the Democratic Party virtually imploded last night as candidates desperately tried to light a spark under their campaigns, mostly by relentlessly attacking each other while interrupting one incoherent sentence with yet another incoherent sentence. With most of the candidates focusing their ire …
Opinion We all understand the importance of downsizing and cutting back on expenses when managing our own personal debt. Did you tighten your belt over the last few months to balance your budget after excess spending last Christmas? With that in mind it is easy to understand why the province …
Opinion In an article in the New Yorker of March 14th 2019 titled “Is America becoming Trump’s banana republic,” George Conway, the outspoken Trump critic married to White House counsellor Kelly Anne Conway, said, “If it were not for the inherent checks and balances of the US constitution, we would …
My daughter and I watch basketball together. At night, after bedtime stories, when my son is in bed about to fall asleep, Elizabeth and I tip-toe upstairs and watch the Toronto Raptors. It’s not really a secret, but it still feels like one. I get her some popcorn and myself …
Perhaps you have noticed that views from my porch are not appearing as regularly in the online and print versions of The Madawaska Valley Current these days. The publishers tell me that a number of readers have been inquiring, and I am well aware of folks’ proclivity to, in the …
In my review of The Current’s 2019 contribution to local news coverage, two events stand out as being especially revealing. I refer to the bland response by members of council to one of their own swearing at and threatening me during a Madawaska Valley council meeting, followed by the manufactured …
Do you remember the smells of your childhood? Yeah, me too. Specifically, my sense of recall for the fragrances of the cottage in Quebec where my family visited as a child is instant. It’s also intoxicating. It’s a mix between general cottage mustiness, the lingering aroma of my grandmother’s cooking, …
OPINION Even as President Trump was being impeached yesterday, his enabler-in-chief, Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, was providing yet more evidence that reveals why the Republican Party has sold its soul to the Devil. On Wednesday afternoon while Republicans in the House of Representatives were collectively scraping the bottom of …
