Mark Clairmont | MuskokaTODAY.com Subscribe: E-transfer $30 to news@muskokatoday.com GRAVENHURST  — A visual plan to turn a couple of blocks of Gravenhurst’s Muskoka Road main street core in to a year-round pedestrian mall has drawn instant support from readers. Four letters, a day after Bob Barnes challenged council candidates here with his “Imagine” project, shows that […]

Mark Clairmont | MuskokaTODAY.com Subscribe: E-transfer $30 to news@muskokatoday.com GRAVENHURST — Bob Barnes ought to have run for council. But the 84-year-old retired professional mechanical engineer is too busy trying to save his new adopted hometown of Gravenhurst. In addition to volunteering as an usher at the Opera House to keep the old girl alive, he […]

Mark Clairmont | MuskokaTODAY.com Subscribe: E-transfer $30 to news@muskokatoday.com GRAVENHURST — Work on a new Ontario Northlander train platform got underway here last week a sign that commuter rail is gaining track as fencing has gone up and workers are digging in now. Weeks after a large blue Northlander billboard when up on the north side […]

PHOTOS, STORY Mark Clairmont | MuskokaTODAY.com Subscribe: E-transfer $30 to news@muskokatoday.com GRAVENHURST — Norman Bethune’s heritage home has outlived him — but not his legacy. The great doctor was 49 when he died on a Chinese battlefield. Saturday the “Birthplace of a Hero” turned 50. With a befitting celebration to “honour his memory,” attended by Chinese […]

Mark Clairmont | MuskokaTODAY.com ART REVIEW Subscribe: E-transfer $30 to news@muskokatoday.com TORONTO  — Tariffs aside, cultural exchanges continue between Canada and the U.S. “Monet to Matisse” importantly among them, as the Art Gallery of Ontario welcomes the ‘Impressionist Revolution’ works from the collection of the Dallas Museum of Art — after no doubt years of planning […]

Mark Clairmont | MuskokaTODAY.com Subscribe: E-transfer $30 to news@muskokatoday.com GRAVENHURST — Five young adults and/or teens are being blamed for damaging the Lion’s Club’s newly adopted ‘Pet Memorial Rainbow Bridge’ here this week along the boardwalk at the Muskoka Wharf. Police investigating the mischief that took place just after midnight Wednesday. During the very early morning […]

PHOTOS Mark Clairmont | MuskokaTODAY.com Subscribe: E-transfer $30 to news@muskokatoday.com GRAVENHURST  — As every photographer with a cellphone — or still and SLR — knows, sunrise and sunset shots are holy grails. And each solstice it’s been a goal of this “photog” to catch those moments. Here’s a couple recent ones as we remember the going […]

Mark Clairmont | MuskokaTODAY.com Subscribe: E-transfer $30 to news@muskokatoday.com GRAVENHURST — “Birthplace of a hero.” From humble beginnings as a church minister’s son to a national hero in Canada and China, Dr. Norman Bethune’s name is recognized worldwide including in Spain. Tomorrow, 136 years after he was born in the Presbyterian manse on John Street he […]