Mark Clairmont | MuskokaTODAY.com PARRY SOUND-MUSKOKA — Voting got underway today — and “no,” you don’t need a vaccine passport to cast your ballot for the advance polls on this weekend. But you should have at least one — if not two — by now. However, expect line-ups as normal COVID health and safety protocols […]
Mark Clairmont | MuskokaTODAY.com PARRY SOUND-MUSKOKA — The unvaccinated Green Party candidate going door-to-door says he’s “not anti-vaccine.” And he “might get it eventually.” We caught up with Marc Mantha yesterday as he was delivering food for Gravenhurst Against Poverty. And we asked him why. “That’s absolutely right,” he said without hesitation. “The reason is […]
Mark Clairmont | MuskokaTODAY.com SIMCOE-MUSKOKA — Local COVID cases were down this week with the health unit ending its five-day reporting period with 131 people testing positive. Including 2 in Muskoka on Friday. They were among 35 reported by the Simcoe Muskoka District Health Unit (SMDHU). That’s a big drop from 203 cases last week. […]
Mark Clairmont | MuskokaTODAY.com SIMCOE-MUSKOKA — Three dozen COVID cases today include 4 from Muskoka. The health unit says two each are from Huntsville and Muskoka Lakes. Huntsville boy, 0-17, is under investigation after reporting Sept. 8 with a first episode Sept. 7 Huntsville man, 18-34, had close contact, and reported it Sept. 8 with […]
Mark Clairmont | MuskokaTODAY.com PARRY SOUND-MUSKOKA — The fight for the right — to represent this riding. That’s how it looks today 11 days out from the federal election, Sept. 20. As advance polling starts tomorrow, there are few visible signs of a campaign in progress. No wonder voters are left to fend for themselves […]
Mark Clairmont | MuskokaTODAY.com GRAVENHURST — The home where a woman died last week in a multiplex fire had not been inspected by the fire department, says the town’s new fire chief. Nor had it a “history of complaints or enquiries,” says the incoming CAO. Mayor Paul Kelly was even unaware of the home before […]
Mark Clairmont | MuskokaTODAY.com SIMCOE-MUSKOKA — With 35 COVID cases today — 2 of them in Muskoka — the head of the health unit is “concerned” Simcoe-Muskoka has caught up with Ontario in the number of cases per 100,000 population. Dr. Charles Gardner says for most of the pandemic the region has run about half […]
GRAVENHURST — Gassing up in Gravenhurst will be limited the next month with just one filling station. The Canadian Tire Gas Bar at Muskoka Road and James Street was fenced off today as construction workers removed the pumps and underground storage tanks. Asked what’s happening, a worker said they will be closed for “a month” […]
Mark Clairmont | MuskokaTODAY.com SIMCOE-MUSKOKA — As local COVID cases topped 13,000 and schools re-opened, the long weekend had Simcoe-Muskoka reporting 102 cases. The three-day total includes 13 from Muskoka among 33 to start the week off since Sunday. Among all those who tested positive over the weekend were 72 people who were unvaccinated and […]
Mark Clairmont | MuskokaTODAY.com GRAVENHURST — There were a ton of smiles, high-fives, hugs, first-day photos … and lots of running around the playground as more than 600 kids returned to high school and elementary schools downtown here this morning. Everyone had mandatory masks — there was no need for vaccine passports. And only a […]
TARA COLLUM — Contributing columnist In an episode of the sitcom Maude, staring Bea Arthur that aired almost 50 years ago, the titular character a grandmother in her late 40s needed an abortion. That TV show is now more progressive than present day Texas and Poland, whose restrictive abortion laws are endangering human rights, women’s […]
MUSKOKA — Local hospitals will be under new direction in the new year as they face more of the pandemic after president and CEO Natalie Bubela tendered her retirement notice last night. Bubela, who has headed up the Muskoka Algonquin Healthcare (MAHC) since January 2011, will be leaving at the end of December. MAHC’s board […]
Mark Clairmont | MuskokaTODAY.com SIMCOE-MUSKOKA — Less than a week before school and half the 8 COVID cases in Muskoka today are among children aged 0-17. With the 4 other northern adults they add up to one third of the 24 local cases Friday. Simcoe had 16 cases as the combined halves of the region […]
Mark Clairmont | MuskokaTODAY.com SIMCOE-MUSKOKA — If you’re not vaccinated, you’d better act fast — by Sept. 22 — if you want access to non-essential indoor services. Provincial vaccination proof (2 doses) will be required for dining rooms, bars, sporting events, theatres and gyms among other venues. Grocery stores and other essential services won’t require […]
Story and photos by Mark Clairmont | MuskokaTODAY.com GRAVENHURST — A fatal overnight fire today in which a woman, 49, died and more than a dozen people, including her family, escaped has shaken the devastated residents of the small five-unit apartment building — some of whom openly speculated it may be “arson.” Erica Curtis-Nickason died […]
MUSKOKA — A Gravenhurst health professional is among four new women board of directors of Muskoka Algonquin Healthcare (MAHC). They replace four other board members who are leaving management of the two local hospitals in Bracebridge (SMMH) and Huntsville (HDMH). Marsha Barnes was approved last week at the annual virtual general meeting last Monday, Aug. […]
Mark Clairmont | MuskokaTODAY.com SIMCOE-MUSKOKA — Fifty cases reported this weekend — including one in Muskoka — come as the Simcoe Muskoka District Health Unit ramps up vaccinations clinics on the second-last day of August. Three of them will take place in Gravenhurst on Thursday. The Gravenhurst man, aged 65-79, is under investigation as to […]
TARA COLLUM | Contributing columnist A common story is a kid throws a party and no one comes. Even worse are the kids who weren’t even invited to that party. Now imagine all the pictures of all the parties online so kids can see exactly what they are missing out on. Like the pit parties […]
BRACEBRIDGE — Summer’s been a busy time for local police who have charged 20 people with impaired driving since mid-July. Provincial police say they are “disappointed” at the unusual number of drivers charged during the past six weeks. Thursday morning was their latest arrest. They say that on Aug. 26, just before 8 a.m., a […]
Mark Clairmont | MuskokaTODAY.com SIMCOE-MUSKOKA — Forty new cases in Simcoe show the growing extent of the coronavirus as the greater public clamour for vaccinations becomes deafening — defining and more dividing. This as CBC late Friday afternoon reported that Premier Doug Ford has reversed himself on vaccine passports and that the province will institute […]