Editorials

Fort Frances has been forced to try Plan ‘B’ in its efforts to garner district funding to help operate the local airport—and that’s disappointing.

If you don’t stand up for yourself, who will?
We must not stand idly by in the face of a decision—quietly made in late fall—to re-locate our resident judge to Kenora District when Judge Thomas McKay moves to London, Ont. in May.

According to figures compiled by the Canadian Centre for Policy Alternatives, a left-leaning think-tank, the 100 highest-paid chief executives whose companies are listed on the Toronto Stock Exchange made an average of $8.38 million in 2010—a 27 percent increase from the $6.6 million compensation for the top 100 CEOs in 2009.

It looks like another opportunity to rouse community pride here is about to go by the wayside.
We talk about being a hockey town, and certainly seem to be, yet we’ve never bothered to enter the annual Kraft “Hockeyville” competition. And with the nomination phase for the 2012 title set to close in less than two weeks, sadly that appears to be the case again this year.

Do you know what today is? Well, besides Wednesday, that is—and Jan. 11.
Here’s a hint? It has to do with an important figure in Canadian history. Still nothing? Umm, someone who played a key role in forging Confederation back in 1867.
Okay, okay—final clue: our first prime minister.
That’s right, it’s Sir John A. Macdonald Day. Please celebrate responsibly.

Kudos to the Rainy River Arts Collective, a group which formed just this past fall but whose members already have stepped to the plate by organizing a snow sculpture contest to “make Fort Frances a winter wonderland.”

The Christmas spirit was alive and well again in Fort Frances and area this holiday season, with no better example than the 24th-annual community dinner on Sunday at Knox United Church here.

Of all the pressing issues facing the Town of Fort Frances these days, the one which seems to ignite the most debate involves that relatively small piece of open space known informally as the “Nelson Street Park.”

“Meals on Wheels” has been a very worthwhile program here for more than 40 years, and hopefully it will continue long into the future.
To do so, however, takes help. A recent push to get more businesses and organizations involved in delivering the meals has had some success but more volunteers are always needed.

The media has long been criticized for focusing too much on the “bad news,” with newspaper pages and newscasts dominated daily by coverage of wars, civil unrest, murders, natural disasters, economic chaos, and every other scourge that could possibly befall the human race.