Mark Clairmont | MuskokaTODAY.com MUSKOKA — Saturday’s cold snap, which left more than 13,300 south Muskoka customers without hydro for much of the day and into Sunday was caused by a transformer switch failure at Hydro One’s Bracebridge Transmission Station at the end of Gray Road off Monica Lane. In addition, a broken cross arm […]
Mark Clairmont | MuskokaTODAY.com SIMCOE-MUSKOKA — Stunning news today from the pandemic science table advising the province shows Ontarians who didn’t get COVID the past month were lucky. The medical panel claimed that based also on wastewater sampling — including in Barrie and Orillia — that an incredible 1.5 to 4 million people may “plausibly” […]
Mark Clairmont | MuskokaTODAY.com SIMCOE-MUSKOKA — Stunning news today from the pandemic science table advising the province shows Ontarians who didn’t get COVID the past month were lucky. The medical panel claimed that based also on wastewater sampling — including in Barrie and Orillia — that an incredible 1.5 to 4 million people may “plausibly” […]
TARA COLLUM | Contributing columnist In April 2021 in Kamloops a CBC news van was vandalized with “fake news” scrawled across the door in clumsy black spray-paint. My previous column about the truck convoy was called “ignorant,” “propaganda,” “misrepresentation” and on Twitter I was called, “a moron.” My article dubbed “garbage” and a tweet by […]
Mark Clairmont | MuskokaTODAY.com GRAVENHURST — It’s about as wide as his house and almost as tall. Andrey Petrov’s latest, largest and most difficult snow sculpture of Canada’s Parliament Building 17 feet tall — plus a Canadian flag on top — and 34 feet wide. It’s 8,000 pounds and took 136 blue boxes worth of […]
Mark Clairmont | MuskokaTODAY.com SIMCOE-MUSKOKA — With COVID hitting the highest office in the land, local public health reports 355 weekend cases. As of yesterday 61 were in hospital and 7 in ICU, says the Simcoe Muskoka District Health Unit. They also report 4 new deaths since their last update Friday, including 1 more in […]
Mark Clairmont | MuskokaTODAY.com MUSKOKA — A second person is dead today after also hitting a tree. Police are on scene Monday investigating a single-vehicle accident east of Bracebridge late this morning. The OPP say this afternoon that they were called to the collision on Fraserburg Road in Bracebridge, Jan. 31, at 10 a.m. The […]
TARA COLLUM | Contributing columnist We got a big old trucking convoy headed toward Ottawa … a convoy! I have been to protests and demonstrations, but only peaceful ones. I’ve never been to one where the crowd was beat on by batons or arrested. I’ve heard of such protests, from a professor with a doctorate […]
GEORGIAN BAY – Police charged a Caledon trucker with impaired driving yesterday after a single vehicle collision on Hwy. 400. They say that on Thursday Jan. 27, at 7:17 p.m., officers received a call from a driver who was involved in the accident. The transport had jack-knifed on Hwy. 400 NB in Georgian Bay Township. […]
Mark Clairmont | MuskokaTODAY.com SIMCOE-MUSKOKA — As Canada’s top doc says Omicron has “peaked,” 8 new COVID deaths in the region today were all aged 80+. They include 3 from outbreaks in Muskoka. Male 80+, community, Jan. 24, Simcoe Female 80+, community, Jan. 22, Simcoe Male 80+, outbreak, Jan. 22, Simcoe Female 80+, community, Jan. […]
HUNTSVILLE — A woman released by police on drug and weapons charges Tuesday was arrested again yesterday charged with possessing a stolen rifle and shotgun. Kayle MacLeod, 31, of Armour Township, and two other men were held over in bail court Thursday after facing gun and drug charges Wednesday. They will be back in court again […]
Mark Clairmont | MuskokaTODAY.com SIMCOE-MUSKOKA — With the prime minister in self-isolation, local public health reports 239 COVID cases today. That’s up from 204 yesterday. But it’s the 61 people in hospitals that are of note Thursday. That’s 6 more than yesterday. And 9 people are in ICU, up from 7 the day before. There […]
Mark Clairmont | MuskokaTODAY.com SIMCOE-MUSKOKA — While nobody believes reported COVID numbers — even governments don’t trust them — “confirmed” cases remain a barometer. Odd how last year Russians and Chinese were accused of the same. Still they are a snapshot of where we are today and indicative part of the pandemic puzzle. So the […]
Mark Clairmont | MuskokaTODAY.com SIMCOE-MUSKOKA — Think it’s cold here? If you’re in China anywhere near Beijing and you’re shopping for cold medicine … you automatically have to be tested for COVID. The deep chill is part of a “zero tolerance” policy ahead of the Olympics. This as 326 new COVID cases are being reported […]
BRACEBRIDGE — With a provincial election less than four months away, municipal nominees are lining up early for their fall vote Oct. 24. Rick Maloney says today in a release that following the decision by current Bracebridge Mayor Graydon Smith to not seek re-election the councillor and deputy mayor says he will formally file nomination […]
STEPHEN RICHARDS | Special to MuskokaTODAY.com FICTION Continued from Episode 4 Marley’s apartment in “The Grave” – 2012 Bart is seated in a burgundy jacquard-print wing chair. Marley is on a bench playing ‘Moonglow’ on the c.1900 Carl Bechstein grand piano. Desmond, Bart’s Maine Coon cat, is curled up on an ottoman. Bart asks Marley […]
Mark Clairmont | MuskokaTODAY.com SIMCOE-MUSKOKA — COVID’s impact appears to finally be hitting local hospitals harder. With the provincial switch in reporting to hospitalizations from overall cases, Muskoka hospitals, too, have succumbed to their highest hospitalization rates in two years. This as the health unit reported late, this afternoon, 456 cases since Friday — and […]
TARA COLLUM | Contributing columnist You want to talk, Bell? Okay, let’s talk. About how despite a national campaign for mental health, your employees are so stressed out by the high-pressure sales tactics they are ordered to impose on us citizens for fear of reprisals and job loss that they whistle the blew to the […]
Mark Clairmont | MuskokaTODAY.com SIMCOE-MUSKOKA — January is proving a deadly month for COVID with 27 people in the region dying the first three weeks of 2022. Another one was in Muskoka yesterday in a particularly fatal week with 9 deaths reported for an overall total of 17 now. They bring to 317 the number […]
MUSKOKA — Since the beginning of January shoppers have been boasting about what they found in Muskoka — and where they found it. Local chambers of commerce have been running a contest: “Tell us what you bought in Muskoka and where you found it – and win.” It’s a win-win for long-suffering business and their […]