The Lindsay Advocate - October 2018

THE GREAT WAR’S LEGACY IN KAWARTHA LAKES | NO QUIT IN TREVOR WHITE

KAWARTHA LAKES’ FINEST MAGAZINE

Time to Strengthen our Social Safety Net

Simply put, our dairy system is a Canadian achievement that benefits all of us.

The Canadian dairy system isn’t just about balancing supply and demand to ensure a fair return for dairy farmers. It ensures Canadians can count on safe, high-quality milk produced by local farm families. It keeps artificial growth hormones out of the milk we drink. It grows our rural economy. It minimizes waste. And, it costs taxpayers nothing.

What’s most impressive is that, overall, Canadians still pay less for milk than consumers in the U.S., Australia, and New Zealand*.

Canadian dairy farmers are proud to produce some of the best milk in the world. Every single glass represents a triumph of doing things the Canadian way, and by that we mean really well.

*Export Action Global, 2018. Dairy Systems Around the World

CONTENTS 4 6 7 8 13 13 14 20 21 22 24 25 26 28

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Letters To The Editor Benns’ Belief Upfront The Hospital Merger: Fighting The LHIN Spin Something Old/Something New Time To Strengthen Canada’s Social Safety Net Canada’s Dairy: Worth Fighting For Osprey Heritage Award Where To Find The Advocate Friends & Neighbours with Jamie Morris Automotive Sales Career Need Farm Insurance? / Nature Notes No Quit In Trevor White Just In Time with Ian Mckechnie Kawartha Lakes Vignette

TEAM ADVOCATE: Roderick Benns, Publisher Trevor Hutchinson, Contributing Editor Joli Scheidler-Benns, Research, Writer-at-Large Geoff Coleman Columnist Jamie Morris, Columnist Ian McKechnie, Columnist Bob Polan, Marketing Consultant Jim Albert, Advertising Coordinator Robyn Barton, Graphic Design Erin Smith, Photographer

ABOUT US Even when life circumstances pulled me to other places, there was a greater part of me that always wanted to be home – in Kawartha Lakes. I’ve come back to try and make a positive difference in my community, this time with my family. My wife and I created The Lindsay Advocate to be media with a social purpose, to advocate for people over corporations, to push for a fair society where all citizens can reach their full potential. We know our institutions, non-profit sector, and small businesses are critical community partners. We thank them for their support and pledge to work together for a healthier, more prosperous Kawartha Lakes.

— Roderick and Joli

Advertising Sales: Contact us at 705-341-1496 or kawarthalakespublisher@gmail.com Volume 1, Issue 8, Oct/Nov • Published by: Fireside Publishing House, a proudly Canadian company The Lindsay Advocate is published monthly and distributed to a wide variety of businesses and locations within Kawartha Lakes, North Durham and Southern Haliburton County.

We are a proud member of the Lindsay and District Chamber of Commerce. Printed by Maracle Inc. Cover Photo: Erin Smith • Publisher and Writer-at-Large: Roderick Benns Advertising/Editorial inquiries: 705-341-1496 Contributing Editor and Writer-at-Large: Trevor Hutchinson • Contributing Writers: Geoff Coleman, Ian McKechnie, Jamie Morris, Joli Scheidler-Benns Research, Strategy & Development: Joli Scheidler-Benns Marketing: Bob Polan • Advertising Sales: Jim Albert • Graphic Design: Barton Creative Co. d The Lindsay Advocate @lindsayontario, Roderick Benns @roderickbenns • c /The Lindsay Advocate The Lindsay Advocate is independently owned and operated. The opinions expressed herein are the views of the contributors and do not necessarily reflect those of this magazine. Photos, text, and art work contained in The Lindsay Advocate are copyrighted and may not be published, broadcast, or rewritten without the express permission of the Publisher. Liability for incorrectly displayed advertising is limited to publishing corrections or advertising credit for subsequent issues. The Publisher reserves the right to reject, revise, cancel, omit, discontinue or even decline to print advertising without reason or liability, and without notice. The Publisher has made every effort to ensure information contained herein was accurate at press time. The Publisher does not assume and hereby disclaims any liability to any party for damage, loss, or disruption caused by errors or omissions.

DSAY A TE

LIN

years in the newspaper business, 27 of them with the one that won an international award for presentation last year.

- Doug Horton Lindsay

AD O C V

We need manufacturing jobs Thank you for being so informative on the people running for mayor of the City of Kawartha Lakes.

After reading your magazine, I made up my mind who I am going to vote for. I cannot believe any person would answer your 20 questions and then answer that almost half are too complicated. I think that if it is too complicated for you, and if you can’t un-complicate and work with people to get these things done, then I am not voting for that person. I am also not voting for anyone who thinks home-based businesses are the only jobs that are needed in the City to cover our tax base.

We need manufacturing back to help our unemployed youth.

When I moved back to Lindsay in the early 1970s I had no trouble finding employment, even if I got laid off I found other employment in manufacturing in less than a week.

As for The Lindsay Advocate, I applaud you for your magazine. This is only the third issue I have read and I will not miss reading anymore. Thank you for your fine journalism -keep up your fine work.

- C. Middleton Lindsay For the record we believe that some questions are too complicated for a Yes or No answer. In the recent debate that aired on YourTV (Cogeco), the candidates had a chance to dig a little deeper on many of those answers.

Municipal election coverage was informative I have just finished reading my first copy of your magazine and am impressed. Your coverage of the upcoming municipal election was comprehensive and very informative. Your complete items are complete without the ‘con’t on page’ part.

The presentation is excellent and I speak as one who spent 31

Lindsay Advocate stimulates conversations I have been an avid reader of your publication since its inception. I find the articles entirely pertinent to the Lindsay community (at large) and it is greatly appreciated.

It is a quality publication from stem to stern. I look for it regularly at my favourite coffee stop, Boiling Over. The articles often stimulate my conversations with the friends I meet there.

Keep up the good work! I will miss it greatly if it should cease publication.

- Robert Wiggins Lindsay We hope we don’t cease production, too! It’s our advertisers that deserve your thanks -- we couldn’t do this without them. Please support them when you can.

Basic Income’s inconvenient truth?

I doubt that I am the first person to suggest that Roderick Benns would make a fine candidate for the Ontario Liberal Party.

His qualifications are perfect: he writes in support of the needy at every opportunity; he has mastered the art of generating sympathy for the plights of the needy in print; he unflinchingly fails to acknowledge the true

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heroes of his story -- the millions of citizens and business owners who have made their endless tax contribution sacrifices which ultimately fund the public programs which address the needs of the less fortunate.

The easiest thing in the world for a Liberal politician to master is how to spend other people’s money. Mr. Benns revealed that he has been thoroughly indoctrinated in this core Liberal premise when he wrote in his ‘Challenge and Change’ editorial in September’s Lindsay Advocate: “... the cancellation of the Ontario Basic Income Pilot was not only a broken promise, it was colossally stupid.” Of course, he is entitled to his opinion.

Alas for Mr. Benns, however, is the inconvenient truth that a fiscally prudent, majority Conservative government under Doug Ford recently demolished the former majority Liberal government led by a spend-happy Kathleen Wynne.

This means that Mr. Benns’ political views are now in the minority and are less likely to appeal to many residents except maybe for the most stalwart Liberals such as himself.

With this observation, it is not my intention to make light the plight of the needy, but to suggest that there are many other unexplored ways to address their needs without depending solely on the Liberal wealth distribution schemes of which Mr. Benns is so fond and are currently so passé.

cancellation was cruel to the participants; a breach of trust to be sure. We now have a government makes decisions without knowledge or consultation.

• Close injection sites despite all evidence of their value.

• Cancel the updated Sex Ed curriculum despite urgent need.

• Cancel Green Energy projects and carbon pricing in the face of all evidence about climate change.

Why do people elect this kind of government, a government dedicated to the prosperity of themselves and their people? Did we forget Mike Harris? The new premier has very little experience in public service. He is not well educated. He’s inarticulate and can’t sustain rational argument.

He didn’t provide a platform. And yet he was elected. May I suggest this conundrum as a topic for your magazine?

- S. Popplewell

- Gene Balfour Chairman, Ontario Libertarian Party Mr. Benns is not a member of the Liberal Party, nor any other political party. It isn’t a ‘political’ view to suggest cancellation of the Ontario Basic Income Pilot was stupid – it was a view held internationally, by researchers from around the globe, who were keenly interested in the data a completed pilot would yield. As the Toronto Star reported on Sept. 18, it was “a serious breach of Canadian and international research ethics.”

Have we forgotten Mike Harris?

I just wanted to say how much I enjoy your magazine.

Your coverage of the cancellation of the pilot program for the Basic Income was excellent. Especially effective were the many examples of the impact of the cancellation on people’s lives. The government could at least have let the pilot go to completion and then looked at the results. Its premature

A rally at Victoria Park, Lindsay, demanding the restoration of the Ontario Basic Income Pilot.

The Lindsay Advocate welcomes your Letters to the Editor. Simply email thelindsayadvocate@gmail.com or mail to PO Box 1 Marsh Court, Lindsay, ON K9V 6J6. Please keep your letters to 200 words or less.

BENNS’ BELIEF

If you are of a certain age you will recall Conservative Premier Mike Harris.

He was a bit hard to miss, politically speaking. He served for seven harrowing years (1995-2002), laying to rest the kind of progressive conservatism we had long been used to under Bill Davis.

Harris cut deeply into health care, education, and social services, causing irrevocable harm to society as a whole in order to pay for some middle class tax cuts.

The former golf pro was also a short-term thinker. One of his greatest blunders was selling the lucrative Highway 407 toll road in a 99-year lease, for just a fraction of its true value. Built at citizen expense for about $1.5 billion, the toll highway was given over to private operators for the outrageous price of $3.1 billion.

This is a cash cow that could have kept on giving to Ontario for decades to support our expanded health care needs, education or whatever social policy goals we put our collective minds toward.

Now, we have current Premier Doug Ford who also likes his marshmallow right away, rather than being patient. In a report that he commissioned, he is now considering selling off LCBO, Ontario Power Generation and Ontario Lottery and Gaming – all for a quick influx of cash to meet his austerity agenda. (Liberal Kathleen Wynne made a similar egregious error when she sold Hydro One.) In the fiscal year 2016-17, LCBO sales hit a record of $5.89 billion. All of these Crown corporations provide much needed longterm revenue for the Province.

The report says that taking “decisive action” is the only way forward to put Ontario on a sustainable fiscal footing. If decisive action is foregoing longterm future revenue, then this is a business model that no one should be following.

The lamentable recommendation of selling Crown assets isn’t the only red flag though. Ford is also being urged to reconsider the universality of social programs. Our access to quality health care should not depend on factors like where we live, how much we earn, or any other criteria other than citizenship.

This is a fundamental human right that we must safeguard.

Ford is about to tackle what is an admittedly high deficit situation in Ontario. But it should not be done through short-term thinking like selling Crown assets, or in chipping away at the principles of universality. On that, Ontarians should be united.

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UPFRONT

Dan Miller, a retired geography teacher who taught at both I.E.Weldon S.S. and LCVI, is a volunteer for the Sunday soup kitchen at St. Andrew’s Presbyterian Church in Lindsay. The soup kitchen runs from September to the end of June every Monday, Wednesday, and Friday at 11:30 am. Everyone is welcome.

The refurbished Fenelon Falls Theatre sign was saved when the empty theatre was demolished two years ago. It is installed next to the locks at the corner of Water and May Streets. Public donations paid for the overhaul and installation.

Photo By: Geoff Coleman

The first annual Kawartha Charity Riders Show & Shine happened at Old Mill Park in Lindsay recently, with decorated bikes, food, vendors, live music, and more. All monies raised were donated to Centre of Hope (food bank) in Lindsay.

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THE HOSPITAL MERGER: FIGHTING THE LHIN SPIN

TREVOR HUTCHINSON

Experts like Natalie Mehra of the Ontario Health Coalition have warned us that our local hospital is at risk. And as concerned residents continue to await more information on the proposed integration of the Ross Memorial Hospital (RMH) and the Peterborough Regional Health Centre (PRHC) the clock is ticking on the the directional plan that the two hospitals submitted to the Central- East Local Health Integration Network (CE-LHIN) in June 2018.

The hospitals were directed to “explore opportunities of integration” by the CE-LHIN in March of 2018. This ‘exploration’ as many readers may now know, had a date for full integration: January 1, 2019. The ‘exploration’ and ‘consultation’ were all done with the conclusion pre-determined: a hospital merger. The Lindsay Advocate asked the RMH if the the cancellation or delay of the final Lindsay meeting would affect any of the other timelines in the plan.

According to Kim Coulter, RMH coordinator of employee & community relations, “it is possible that the aforementioned delay would affect other timelines.”

So it’s possible that we still have time to save our hospital.

The Lindsay Advocate detailed this issue in depth in our cover story two issues ago (Merger Mania: Just How Healthy is This?), and in an online piece (Resistance is Not Futile: Fight for Ross Memorial Because Threat to Services is Real). We demonstrated that an overwhelming amount of research shows that mergers usually end up costing money and reducing services for smaller hospitals like the RMH involved in a merger. At a recent public meeting organized by the Ontario Health Coalition, Sara Labelle of the Durham Health Coalition encouraged local concerned citizens, saying “I’m here to tell you that you can win. It’s worthwhile for this community to put up a fight.”

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Personal service, from the people you trust.

THE ONLY PHARMACY IN KAWARTHA LAKES THAT PROVIDES COMPOUNDING SERVICES, A SPECIALIZED METHOD OF MAKING MEDICINES SPECIFIC TO VARIOUS NEEDS OR ALLERGIES. CERTIFIED DIABETES EDUCATOR. 108 Kent St W, Lindsay Monday - Friday 9am to 5:30pm Saturday 9am to 1pm CATHY PUFFER

Ph: 705-324-0500 Fax: 705-324-6837 D AN R IN VE EW E M CO S N CO IS T’ D HA W

But what exactly are concerned citizens fighting against? To understand the processes being used by the RMH and the PRHC -- in their bid to convince us that the merger is great for us while refusing to even discuss services -- one has to first understand how hospitals are funded and how these major decisions are made.

Figuring out how healthcare is funded in the province can seem like diving into an alphabet soup of acronyms. But this is a thumbnail sketch of how it works: The Ministry of Health and Long Term Care (MHLTC) funds 14 Local Health Integration Networks (LHINs) in the province who in turn plan, fund and coordinate the services of health services providers (HSPs) -- hospitals, home and community care, community support service agencies, mental health and addiction agencies and community health centres. Every resident of the City of Kawartha Lakes is in the catchment area of the CE-LHIN -an area that includes Haliburton County, the City of Kawartha Lakes, Peterborough City & County, Durham, Northumberland County and Scarborough East and North. This is all done under the auspices of the Local Health System Integration Act (LHSIA) of 2006. Clear as mud, right? But wait…there’s more.

To “better understand and address patient needs at the local level”, the CE-LHIN created and recently formalized sub-regions. The CKL is in a sub-region with Haliburton County meaning we have two hospitals in our sub-region -- the RMH and Minden.

Peterborough City and County have their own subregion. A pessimist might conclude that Minden is next on the merger hit list.

All of the LHINs’ websites and promotional material trumpet “local integrated systems of care” and ‘patient-first’ approaches and that sounds reasonable. But make no mistake -- this system, combined with new funding formulas and a prohibition against hospitals running deficits is designed to merge hospitals and eliminate any duplicated service.

And while the LHINs give lip service to ‘community input’ they have a history of the exact opposite. The LHIN Spin, a report by the Ombudsman of Ontario, declared that LHIN ‘education’ sessions held for a Niagara Region merger in 2010 were ‘illegal’ in that

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they were closed to the public. It was only through this -- and intense lobbying by the OHC -- that most LHIN board meeting procedures are open to the public.

Beyond the feel-good platitudes of “needs at the local level” aimed at the general population, the information for HSPs provided by the CE-LHIN tell a slightly different story. In a LHIN document entitled Integration, Labour Relations and Devolution what is meant by ‘integration’ is clearly outlined: “the terms ‘integrate’ and ‘integrations’ as they are used in the LHSIA are very broad concepts, capturing a wide range of activities… and can include…coordination of services and interactions, partnering with others in providing services, transferring, merging or amalgamating services, starting or ceasing to provide services and ceasing to operate.” The LHSIA (Section 23) broadly defines a “service” to include all services or programs provided by health service providers to the public. Is it any wonder that discussing services in the community “education sessions” organized by the RMH and PRHC was considered “out-of-scope?”

That propaganda campaign -- disguised as ‘town halls’ -- seems to be encouraged in the ‘integration templates’ provided to HSPs. In the CE-LHIN’s Voluntary Integration Process and Requirements Guide, hospitals that plan to merge are encouraged to “recognize and plan for the ‘emotion’ of stakeholders when faced with integrating a longstanding independent community service. The emotion is based on a deep rooted and often personal attachment to the service and its community history.” So according to the LHIN, if you are deeply concerned about services being declared redundant at RMH forcing you, or a loved one, or the elderly to have travel to Peterborough…you are just being emotional.

Many of us believe that the local hospitals and their CEO’s are just dutifully following the CELHIN’s orders. But in another LHIN integration planning document, merging entities are encouraged to develop “key messages” and “tactics” in their integration communication plans. Even the hospitals’ own ‘directional plan’ called for hospitals to “tailor the communication approach to the intended

audiences.” Locally, that tactic seems to be using the hot-button topic of nursing shortages.

At the three ‘education sessions’ that were held by the hospitals, and at a presentation to CKL Council, Dr. Bert Lauwers made frequent mention of doctor and nursing shortages in the area and that merging the hospitals would somehow help this, although no evidence was given to support this claim. Several Lindsay Advocate readers reported his mention of the RMH needing 60 nurses at these meetings. At the time of writing, the RMH currently has 37 nursing vacancies, and those vacancies tell a whole different story.

If you are deeply concerned about services being declared redundant at RMH forcing you, or a loved one, or the elderly to have travel to Peterborough…you are just being “emotional.”

In an interview with The Lindsay Advocate, Vicki McKenna, provincial president of the Ontario Association of Nurses (ONA) said that “across the province there is a 10-12 per cent nursing vacancy rate.” This includes hospitals that have already been merged. Furthermore, says McKenna, the vacancy rates are structural: “hospitals have to put forward balanced budgets, leaving hospitals constantly shortstaffed. This creates a ‘vicious cycle’ of nursing shortages.” (The RMH did not respond to the the question ‘Could every [nursing] vacancy be filled within the current operational budget?’)

Put simply, the nursing shortage is yet another symptom of Ontario’s underfunded hospital system.

By whatever measure you want to use (GDP, per capita, beds per capita, etc) Ontario has the lowest hospital funding rate in the entire country. The ONA

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reported in May 2018 that Ontario has a shortage of 10,000 nurses province-wide. It is, according to McKenna “a plague across the province.” Given these statistics one might justifiably conclude that a RMHPRHC merger will do nothing to address our local nursing shortage. What it will do -- if the history of every other hospital merger in Ontario is any indication -- is reduce services at the Ross.

“In our history, we have seen a consolidation of services in other mergers,’ says McKenna. “Which means that people will have to travel. That is the real fear. Even in a larger communities with public transportation it is hard for some people to travel [for medical needs]. For nurses, many who work in specialized areas of care, these issues will be worked out in contracts, but nurses live in these communities.

I believe there will be a change to services… and these decisions change people’s lives. The LHIN needs to have real consultations and not do it.”

Perhaps it is time to get emotional after all.

At the time of writing, the RMH had not announced its rescheduled town hall meeting. To get involved in the fight to save the Ross Memorial Hospital, contact the Kawartha Lakes Health Coalition at KawarthaLakesHealthcoalition@gmail.com.

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SOMETHING OLD SOMETHING NEW

Awesome reads from your Kawartha Lakes Library The Autobiography Of A Yogi

By Yogananda First published: 1946

This is a beautifully written story of the extraordinary life led by Paramahansa Yogananda, a young yogi in India who, from an early age was destined to become an ambassador for the ideas and wisdom contained in yogic practice. Throughout the book Yogananda demonstrates the parallels between Western religions like Christianity with that of Hinduism. Written with humour and an abundant respect for all of the world’s religions, this book is decades old and yet still an engaging, poignant autobiography.

The Disordered Mind: What Unusual Brains Tell Us About Ourselves

By Eric R. Kandel First published: 2018

From the publisher’s website: In his seminal new book, The Disordered Mind, Eric Kandel draws on a lifetime of research to confront one of the most difficult questions we face: How does our individual sense of self emerge from the physical matter of the brain?

The brain’s 86 billion neurons communicate with one another through precise connections. But sometimes those connections are disrupted. The brain can become disordered, resulting in diseases such as autism, depression, schizophrenia, Parkinson’s, and addiction. While these disruptions bring great suffering, they can also reveal the mysteries of how the brain produces our most fundamental experiences and capabilities-the very nature of what it means to be human.

Time to strengthen Canada’s social safety net JOLI SCHEIDLER-BENNS In 2017, Canada topped all G7 nations for economic growth and with this prosperity most would assume this wealth is transferred to its people in the form of economic and social security. Unfortunately this is not the case; the inequities are growing and the margins between the rich and the poor grow further every year. Currently one in seven, which equates to 4.9 million people, live in poverty in this rich nation.

Poverty costs Canada billions of dollars each year through the healthcare, prison, policing, and judicial systems.

In spite of the GDP growth, austerity measures for social redistribution have increased dramatically since the late 1980s. The result is that public policies now primarily support the rich and due to technological advancements; the growing nature of precarious work; the underfunding of the social service sector; and our aging population there are growing concerns around the well-being and health outcomes for the average Canadian.

The dominant discourses of mainstream media continue to weaken the social safety net through its focus on lifestyle changes, individual responsibility, and the idea that if you work hard and pay your dues, you will be successful. This rhetoric ignores the current landscape of job insecurity, growing housing and food costs, and a lack of pharmacare and related programs to ensure positive health outcomes. According to a 2017 Canadian Payroll Association survey, almost 50 per cent of average Canadians live paycheque to paycheque and 35 per cent of those polled indicate that they are overwhelmed by the amount of debt they have.

Canada’s social safety net was largely put into place many decades ago. It was intended to meet the needs of a society from a different time. We must close the gaps that have been caused by a mix of inattention and the changing priorities of revolving governments that ignore long-term consequences. We must actively demand that public policies be improved to be there for all Canadians in times of need.

Worth fighting for: Canada’s supply management

system ensures stability for Kawartha Lakes’ farmers PHOTO: ERIN SMITH.

RODERICK BENNS Keith Thurston, left, shares a laugh with his son, Jeff Thurston, right.

President Donald Trump would love to unload U.S. milk north of the border.

Instead, his country’s farmers are dumping it in fields.

Jim Callaghan was just 8 to 10 years old when the family loaded up the cream they expected to sell to Silverwood’s in Lindsay, a now defunct dairy company.

But on that day the company officials shook their heads and sent the Callaghan’s on their way. There would be no dairy sales for the family on that attempt, since Silverwood’s had a glut of supply that day.

These were the days before ‘supply management,’ the admittedly boring name for the system that has brought financial stability to Canadian farmers for decades.

The 1960s was especially a period of overproduction, thanks to all the technological advances the industry was going through at the time.This resulted in such low prices for farmers to the extent that the government felt it should step in and come up with a better way of

managing the industry to improve the livelihoods of farm families.

In an effort to reduce the surplus in production that had become common in the 1950s and 1960s -and so that a fair return could be given to Canadian farmers -- a new system was brought in.

In the new system, each farm owns a number of shares in the market (or quota) and is obliged to increase or decrease production according to consumer demand. Since production is pretty much a match for demand, overproduction is avoided. Farmers are able to earn a predictable and stable revenue directly from the market, not from subsidies.

While Canadian dairy was the first commodity to operate under supply management, soon the nation’s egg and poultry producers would later come on board

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with the system, too.

It’s the same system that sends U.S. President Donald Trump into Tweeting fits every now and again in recent NAFTA negotiations. That’s because U.S. farmers, in contrast, are still playing the same game as Canada did back in the 1950s and 1960s – the never-ending quest to find buyers for a perishable product.

‘Definitely Things Improved’ Since Canadian farmers only produce as much milk as is needed by the Canadian market, this limits surpluses that would otherwise be headed for a world market at ‘dumping’ prices.

“I knew the system before (supply management) and it wasn’t very good,” says Callaghan, who notes it was “always hit and miss” in trying to sell the family’s dairy.

He also remembers how his family’s well-being changed after the system was brought in.

“You had an income that was more guaranteed every month. Definitely things improved once the supply management came in. We knew we had to be paid a reasonable price,” for what we were offering, he says.

The Callaghan’s – who run Maryland Farms, a 2,500 acre operation north of Reaboro – used their more stable income over the years to set about making more investments in their buildings and in their cattle.

“We’ve certainly enjoyed...having a system that works and that we can rely on,” Callaghan says, who represents the fifth generation on the family farm. (His boys are now the sixth.)

Jeff Thurston runs Thursthill Farms along with his family, including his father, Keith. He’s got about 1,000 acres north east of Lindsay and is a fifth generation farmer as well. He and his wife have four kids who all help out and who are in either elementary or high school.

Two robotic milkers work 24 hours a day, allowing about 85 cows to literally milk themselves when they feel the need. The transponders the cows wear around their necks track their activity level. If this is ‘off’ somehow, it sends an alarm to their smart phones when it reaches a certain threshold.

“The transponder also measures rumination time (cud chewing),” says Thurston. “We use this as an early indicator of overall health. You can usually see a drop in

rumination at least a couple days before you would see visible signs of low health.”

Thurston is a big fan of supply management, too. The advances made on his farm have surely been made possible, in part, thanks to a steady, reliable income.

“Back in the 1950s there were lots of small processors,” he says, “and they would just stop picking up milk at dairy farms if they felt they didn’t need it.”

Then farms had to dump it, he notes. So with the quota system “everybody just produces to the demands of mainly the domestic market,” he explains.

Thurston says the U.S. has “gotten themselves into a pickle.”

“They mass produce and flood their own market. The processors down there only pay what they want to pay and so it leaves them in a two or three year ‘down’ cycle in the market,” he tells the Advocate.

51: the number of dairy farms in CKL from 2016 census. The number has declined over last few censuses, but not the number of cattle on farms, which means farms are getting larger.

4,100: the number of dairy cows on CKL farms.

78: the total number of farms with some dairy cows (mixed farms).

81: average number of dairy cows on farms in Kawartha Lakes (Census 2016).

1,265: total number of farms in CKL. 168,000 acres being farmed in CKL (up from 162,000 in last census.)

Courtesy of the City of Kawartha Lakes

www.lindsayadvocate.ca

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However, those U.S. farmers don’t want to give up their cows, he says, because then they wouldn’t be ready when the market hopefully comes back for them.

“Supply management takes out the peaks and valleys so we have a nice steady income,” he adds.

Thurston says another big difference between Canada and the U.S. is the amount of subsidy the U.S. farmer gets.

“We get our money out of the marketplace...we don’t need a subsidy. Sure, it’s protected, but it’s not a subsidy.

Subsidies – official and unofficial In fact, U.S. farmers received about $17.2 billion in subsidies in 2016, according to the Environmental Working Group, an organization tracking farm subsidies since the mid 1990s.

There is also an unofficial (and darker) form of U.S. subsidies not even considered on the books — the sheer number of undocumented migrant workers on U.S. dairy farms.

In a 2015 survey by the U.S. National Milk Producers Federation, the group found that half of all workers on U.S. dairy farms are immigrants and if those workers were excluded from the economic picture, the price of a gallon of milk would skyrocket 90 per cent south of the border. It would also be a $32 billion blow to the U.S. economy.

Take that issue off the table and there is still rampant overproduction. As John Barber writes in the Toronto Star last month, the U.S. subsidies and tariffs “have encouraged farmers to steadily increase production in the face of declining demand.”

“As a result they dump almost 200 million litres of milk a year on fields and into streams.”

Then there’s the issue of what the U.S. dairy industry puts into their cows – recombinant bovine somatotropin (rBST).This is a synthetic version of what is a naturally occurring growth hormone. It is approved for use in the U.S. to increase the production of milk but is illegal in Canada. Health Canada determined it had negative effects on the health and welfare of cows.

Europe has taken no chances, banning all milk imports from the U.S. because of this issue alone.

“That is a bit of a concern,” says Thurston.

Callaghan agrees. “I wouldn’t want that (rBST) to be in our milk. When you start adding something that isn’t natural you don’t know what’s going to happen.”

In fact, it’s hard to find farmers against supply management in Canada. The people who are against it tend not to be farmers, but larger exporters with an unremitting growth mindset.Those who believe Canada shouldn’t have any protection for the dairy industry whatsoever (like, say, Maxime Bernier and his new ‘People’s Party of Canada’), claim Canadian consumers would pay less at the cash register for milk products.

Yet data firm Nielsen says that Canadian milk was on average cheaper than the equivalent U.S. product last

“I wouldn’t want that (rBST) to be in our milk.

When you start adding something that isn’t natural you don’t know what’s going to happen.” year, as was Canadian butter, cream, cheese and yogurt.

Even local federal Conservative MP Jamie Schmale is on board with the policy, as is his party. “Supply management makes sense for area farmers because it prevents surpluses and shortages,” says Schmale.

He says the system provides a fair price from the marketplace and prevents significant price fluctuations for consumers.

He notes it also ensures domestic requirements “are primarily met by domestic production, which provides a stable marketplace for Canadian famers and their families.”

In an Abacus poll from 2017, 92 per cent of Canadians reported their satisfaction with Canadian dairy, including the range and quality of products available.

Thurston says the milk industry in the U.S. is

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17

“controlled by big processors.” He also notes there is a large percentage of farmers in the U.S. who are actually interested in the Canadian system.

“For our overall rural economy it’s better to have, in my opinion, ten 100-cow family farms instead of one 1,000-cow massive farm.” Says Callaghan.

He says he believes the government realizes that if we don’t have a good dairy system, under supply management, “every other related industry is also affected,” from veterinarians to farm equipment sales.

“If we have to start scraping the bottom of the barrel, we’d have to cut back on buying equipment and so on,” Callaghan says.

Callaghan remembers being in Indianapolis a few years ago, talking to a farmer there who was looking at getting into a new agricultural sector. The Kawartha Lakes farmer asked him if he was interested in dairy.

“He said ‘I wouldn’t want their job or any part of that operation -- they’ve got way too many problems,’” Callaghan recalls. “That sentiment is throughout the U.S.” There is little doubt that deregulation of our dairy industry would lead to larger-scale farms in Canada at

the expense of smaller scale operations.The way things are now for area farmers is obviously working, given the growth of the industry here. Dairy represents nearly 20 per cent of the farm cash receipts in Kawartha Lakes.

Kelly Maloney, agriculture development officer for the City of Kawartha Lakes, says the agriculture and food sector is a top economic driver for the area.

“When agriculture does well, we all benefit.”

She says there is increased spending in the community when farms are economically healthy and sustainable. It also helps connected sectors.

Maloney says economically sustainable farmers are able to plan for continued improvements in their farm operations, “and that can be seen and felt as…their spending ripples through our community.”

As of press time, Canadian negotiators for NAFTA were ready to cede ground to the U.S. on share of our dairy sector, just as the former government did in order to sign CETA, the EU trade agreement. If Canada continues to allow the chipping away of our successful supply management system, we won’t have what we have right now – a system worth fighting for.

LA

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The Osprey Heritage Awards Program honoured five recipients at a special council meeting recently, with hand-painted commemorative plaques – including Lindsay Advocate columnist, Ian McKechnie.

The awards were for outstanding contributions towards the creation, preservation, enhancement and promotion of heritage in the City of Kawartha Lakes.

www.lindsayadvocate.ca

Where to get your copy of The Lindsay Advocate’s print edition is free and is available throughout Kawartha Lakes, north Durham Region, and in lower Haliburton County. The following is a partial list of places where you can find a copy: Bethany

Kinmount

Norland

Nestleton Station

Bethany Library General store Quilt shop

Independent Grocer Shop N’ Save Discount Store LCBO

Norland General Store Norland Food Market

General Store

Bobcaygeon

Kirkfield

Foodland (magazine stand) Bobcaygeon Library LCBO Beer Store Luigi’s Pizza Caygeon Chicken Bobcaygeon Chamber of Commerce Kawartha Settlers’ Village Ember’s Restaurant

Kirkfield Library Purple Door Kirkfield Restaurant

Lindsay

Souters Variety Foodland Chamber of Commerce Municipal Building/Library

Kent Place Mall Lindsay Square Mall LaMantia’s Country Fresh Market Ross Memorial Hospital Lindsay and District Chamber of Commerce Giant Tiger Lindsay Public Library City of Kawartha Lakes Boiling Over’s Coffee Vault Common Grounds Fresh Fuell Lindsay Recreation Complex Food 4 Less Kent Book Store

Fenelon Falls

Little Britain Area

Sobey’s Handley Lumber Country Cupboard

Foodland Valentia General Store Dromoland Orchard & Stables Spudster

Cameron Cameron General Store

Coboconk

Port Perry

Oakwood

Foodland Independent Grocer

Oakwood Corner Store Country Sampler Antiques

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Dorothea Weise

and the symphony of colour FRIENDS & NEIGHBOURS WITH JAMIE MORRIS For close to 15 years Dorothea and her husband, Karl, lived two doors down from us. Quieter, more considerate neighbours you couldn’t find. And kindhearted: The feral marmalade cat we chased from our backyard invariably found a warm welcome at their back door.

We didn’t really get to know Dorothea or Karl.We did know that at some point they had emigrated from Germany, and that Karl had been a writer and that Dorothea was an accomplished and well-respected artist. We’d hear of shows she was mounting. At Art on Kent we saw some of her work and LCVI art teacher and Kawartha Arts Network co-founder Anders Widjedal told us how much he admired Dorothea for her adventurous spirit, the way she took artistic chances with her work.

For someone who seemed somewhat shy and private, Dorothea seemed to have a large, warm circle of friends.

After Karl passed away in 2014, in his 91st year, Dorothea sold the house and moved to the Rivermill complex.

This summer, though, we became neighbours again.

Dorothea and a friend shared a plot with me at the community garden.

A few weeks ago I asked Dorothea if she’d be the subject for this column, hoping after all these years to learn more about how Dorothea and Karl came to be here, more about her art, and more about her community involvement.

She graciously invited me over.

The Visit There’s no question I’m in the right place. There’s a profusion of art: acrylic scenes along the Scugog, densely detailed etchings, a sombre portrait of her grandmother, dressed in black and radiating strength

but also gentleness. In a hallway delicate watercolour fantasies, and above a mantel a seascape with translucent planes of colour capturing a maritime atmosphere.

A painted silk panel divides one space and sculptures sit on tables.

We sit down at a table. Like most of the furniture in the apartment it was designed and constructed by Karl, using hand tools.

As we begin to talk, and Dorothea begins to tell her story, she has a pencil in hand, and all the while we talk, the pencil is at work. In an ‘artist’s statement’ accompanying her resume Dorothea describes her early years: “As a child in wartime Germany, I played in industrial rubble in a coal mining region of the country.” There was bombing, constant hunger, and dislocation but equally painful to her, clearly, was living in a monochromatic world.

“Everywhere I looked I could only see black and stark grey.” She tells me of sooty snowfall, and soot covering even the leaves of trees.

In the 1950s Dorothea studied at the Art Institute in Essen Werden. After graduating she placed an ad in a paper, and received an offer to illustrate children’s stories and newspaper work for a well-known author.

That’s how she met Karl. They were married three

years later.

Karl had always dreamed of moving to Canada. “It represented,” Dorothea tells me, “freedom, vast spaces, unspoiled nature.”

In 1966 they packed boxes of books and no fewer than four typewriters with German keyboards and immigrated. Karl would write stories about his new country for a German audience.

They fixed up a winterized place on Pigeon Lake near Omemee, then built a home, still near the lake, on 50 forested acres.

Dorothea had come to Canada because it was Karl’s dream, but fell in love with the colours and natural beauty. When she lists artists she admires, the Group of Seven is right up there alongside Chagall and the Impressionists.

To earn a living she did commercial artwork in Toronto, but found a profitable sideline: she and Karl collected rocks from beaches and Karl cut birch limbs into discs. Dorothea painted Canadian plants and wildlife (and cats, of course) onto them with acrylic paints. They were snapped up by Whetung Gallery, Niagara Parks Commission, even the Craft Ontario Shop in Hazelton Lanes and also went out of province.

Altogether she sold over 12,600 rocks.

“As a child in wartime Germany, I played in industrial rubble in a coal mining region of the country.”

Thirty-three years ago Dorothea moved to Lindsay. Thirty-three years filled with artistic activity and achievement. With some friends she formed the Lindsay 5 and exhibited in shows around the Kawarthas. For 20 years she was included in the Kawartha Art Festival.

She also taught art-classes at the Victoria Park Armoury for 15 years and privately in her home studio.

The Sunset Years As she approaches 80, Dorothea has decided to scale her activity back a bit. But by almost anyone else’s standards she seems fully engaged still with our community.The day before my visit she’d just taken down a show that had been on display at City Hall for six weeks. Almost half of her 20 works had sold.

She’s enjoying the community gardens, reads, and takes Cardinal Bus tours to Toronto to see shows at the Royal Alex and meet up with Toronto friends.

But a constant in her life is -- and always has been -- her art.

Before leaving I ask what her next artistic subject will be. She brings out her iPad and shows me image after image, all photos taken from her balcony, all sunsets. “They’re symphonies of colour!” she says.

We’re a long way from monochromatic Gelsenkirchen.

LA

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23

D i d yo u k n o w ?

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If you are entering the job market after years of being a stay at home Mom or Dad, looking to change careers, or even just starting out in the job market, auto sales may be just the ticket for you to make a new start.

Many people enter the automotive sales market from other careers. They use the communication and organizational skills they developed in their last career to help them succeed in this one.

Auto sales is an educational process, so many teachers use the skills they developed as an educator to become a salesperson. Former police officers leverage their communication skills to become very successful salespeople. Students graduating from a marketing background, people with a large social network, sports enthusiasts, bartenders, waiters and waitresses can all transition into great auto sales people.

Auto dealers provide great in-house training on their product and in selling skills. Sales managers are often great mentors and provide guidance to their teams in self control, staying positive and getting along with others.

So if you are looking for a job with flexible hours, good potential income and an opportunity for personal growth, maybe auto sales will be a good fit.

We have many fine car dealerships in The Kawartha Lakes. Don’t wait until you see an ad in the paper, drop by and ask to see the sales manager. You will be surprised at how receptive they may be.

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Need farm insurance?

Five questions to ask

4. Do you own farm machinery?

Tractors, plows, combines and other self-propelled equipment are expensive tools that are often required in daily farming life. A commercial farm policy would cover cost of repairs to damage that could result while in operation. In addition, if you ever take your tractor out on the open road, even if just to cross the street, a farm policy would cover you in the event of an accident.

5. Do you rent your land to a farmer?

Marlene Morrison Nicholls

From large commercial operations to small hobby farms, we understand that every farm is unique and therefore your coverage should be too. Even if you do not use your farm to generate income, you may have found yourself wondering “do I need farm insurance?” If you answer “yes” to even one of these questions, there is a very good chance that you will need to purchase a policy that fits your farm’s needs:

1. Do you grow and sell any crops?

While you may not conduct any farming operations on your land, you may rent it to someone who does.

Your land is still your responsibility, and you will need to protect yourself with farm liability coverage.

We are farm specialists and can help you find the right policy, and protection for your needs.

Marlene Morrison Nicholls is the president of Stewart Morrison Insurance.

NATURE NOTES WITH SUZANNE ALDEN

The American Bullfrog

Growing and selling any fruits, vegetables, grains or other cash crops will require you to have a commercial farm policy in place. However, even if you sell your products at local farmers markets or road side stands, it is important to have coverage in place, should someone become ill from your product.

2. Do you have any farm animals on your property?

Livestock such as cattle, poultry, alpaca, sheep, swine, horses, etc., can only be protected under a farm policy.

3. Do you have any outbuildings or barns on your property?

If you own acreage, you will probably have a barn, riding arena, or other outbuilding on your land. Often these buildings are used to store crops, animals, or farm machinery -- in the event that something were to damage your outbuilding, and its contents, you will only find protection under a farm insurance policy.

The American bullfrog breeds later, and takes much longer to mature, than most other frogs.

The female lays up to 20,000 eggs and the extremely territorial male will stay with the tadpoles, who take up to a year to become young frogs. They eat insects, small birds, small mammals, fish and even each other. Harvesting the bullfrog for food, and dissection in schools has led to a concerning decline in population.

www.lindsayadvocate.ca

25

No Quit in Trevor White

Wheelchair can’t stop Fenelon man from working as contractor

GEOFF COLEMAN

On a wall in Trevor White’s house hangs a photo that reveals a lot about the Fenelon Falls resident.

He is in a hospital bed, chatting with Toronto Maple Leaf greats Darryl Sittler, Lanny McDonald, and Dave “Tiger” Williams.

Taken days after a car accident that left him with a severe brain injury and without the use of his legs, the hockey legends were not on a goodwill hospital tour -- they came to see him because White was building Sittler’s house when the accident occurred.White had a thriving construction business based in Pickering at the time of the 2006 roll-over, employing over 40 workers, and he had moved just outside Fenelon Falls 10 days earlier to slow life down a bit and give his twin girls an opportunity to keep horses. Needless to say, with a punctured lung, broken scapula, a torn aorta that required three operations, all of his left side ribs broken, a brain injury, and spinal damage

from T5 to T9, plans changed suddenly.

He spent seven months in the hospital, giving up his interest in the construction company in that time. He underwent 18 months of speech therapy before he could speak again, and endured years of physiotherapy and occupational therapy. Through it all, his desire to work again motivated his recovery. White had substantial savings in the bank, and during his rehabilitation he considered using it to finance a restaurant or purchase a coffee shop franchise. Instead, he was urged to pursue a lawsuit that ultimately really only benefited the lawyers on all sides. When that was settled, he looked for other ways to fill his days.

Music was his first love, and as a 14-year-old he toured Quebec and Newfoundland with his uncle in a four-piece band, playing bars and Canadian Legions before graduating to gigs as big as playing New Year’s Eve at Nathan Phillips Square in Toronto. A skilled guitar

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player and singer before the accident, he worked hard to regain his voice and dexterity and got a band going, but he still felt the need for a full time job.

When an opportunity arose to mentor a local general contractor on some of the finer points of the business side of running a business, he leapt at the chance. With his feet wet in the business world again, he soon decided to see if he could resurrect his construction company in the Kawarthas he now called home, and One Stop Home Solutions was born. Though he has trouble recalling names and searches for the right word at times, White still has a head for numbers, possesses great people skills, and retains the construction know-how accrued during more than 30 years of on the job training.

His resume includes work ranging from supervising the largest knock down furniture factory in North America, to running a real estate management company that oversaw completion of condos for the CIBC Mortgage Company.

His greatest strength however, was taking over projects that were spiralling out of control and turning them into profitable, efficient operations.

He brings those same proven methods to One Stop Home Solutions. White visits about half of the work sites in person, but when conditions don’t allow him access, he has his employees take photos and video on their phones which are sent to him to help with estimating, problem solving, and quotations.

Training and mentoring of young tradesmen and tradeswomen are high on his list of priorities.

Three and a half years into the venture, he is ahead of the goals he set, and is always thinking of ways to grow the business. He recently took over a building near the Salvation Army store in Fenelon Falls, and plans to have it serve double duty as a showroom for his lines of windows, doors, kitchen cupboards, siding, and flooring, and as a multi-purpose business space that could serve the needs of contractors, handymen, and business professionals from any walk of life. One Stop may be the official name of White’s company, but with so many different options on the horizon, non-stop would suit as well.

LA

WOMEN IN ROCKS Conference and Awareness Day Saturday, Nov. 10, 2018 – 10 a.m. to 3 p.m.

Frost Campus, Fleming College A FREE event to showcase the variety of roles and opportunities for women in Geology, Geosciences, and Natural Resources.

• Hear from a panel of female industry representatives who will speak about their experiences and pathways to fulfilling careers • Meet women working in the industry • Learn to pan for gold, and visit our brand new GeoCentre

For more information, or to register: Adele Russell adele.russell@flemingcollege.ca 866-353-5353 ext. 3234 Joanna Hodge joanna.hodge@flemingcollege.ca 866-353-5353 ext. 3124

www.lindsayadvocate.ca

27

justIN TIME

with IAN MCKECHNIE

Lest we forget: The Great War’s legacy in Kawartha Lakes At the eleventh hour of the eleventh day in the eleventh month of the year, Canadians from coast to coast will pause for two minutes’ silence to remember those who died during the First and Second World Wars; the Korean conflict; and various peacekeeping operations in which Her Majesty’s armoured, naval, and air forces have been involved over the course of the 20th and 21st Centuries.

The statistics are staggering: nearly 70,000 Canadians died during the First World War (19141918); nearly 50,000 gave their lives during the Second World War (1939-1945); 516 died during the Korean War; and over 1,800 have paid the supreme sacrifice in various operations at home and abroad over the course of the last 70 years.

This year’s Remembrance Week commemorations will be especially significant in that exactly 100 years have passed since the Armistice was signed in a French railway carriage, drawing to an end the socalled “War to end all Wars.” Actual peace would not be completely ratified until 1920, but November 11 quickly became the day on which millions of people across the British Commonwealth gathered around war memorials in cities, towns, and villages to pause and reflect upon the terrible cost of war.

Throughout the City of Kawartha Lakes, veterans; schoolchildren; cadets; and various civic leaders will gather around one of nearly a dozen cenotaphs scattered throughout the municipality. Bugles will sound forth the Last Post and Reveille; the skirl of

bagpipes will raise up a lament to the fallen; hymns and anthems will be sung; In Flanders Fields will be read; and wreaths will be laid. The local war memorial is the most recognizable place in which the legacy of the First World War is brought sharply into focus – long litanies of young men, cut down by shellfire and bullets in the prime of life, are permanently etched in stone.

And yet, there are other places in our community that also evoke the legacy of that 100-year-old conflict – places we pass almost every day without giving much thought to the fact that here, too, walk the forgotten ghosts of the Great War. I think of an overgrown brownfield at the southeast corner of Mary and Albert Streets in Lindsay, once home to Trent Rubber, and before that, the sprawling Dominion Arsenal complex. During the First World War, this massive facility in Lindsay churned out small arms ammunition by the thousands. Over 260 women from Lindsay and surrounding area were employed here by the end of 1917, with many more hailing from as far

The 109th Battalion departing the CPR station in Lindsay.

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away as Kingston and Ottawa.These young women, wrote one correspondent, “...take pride in its growing efficiency, and are giving the same enthusiastic service that is characteristic of the women workers in munition plants, in other parts of the country and the Allied Nations.”

I think of the beautiful piece of property at the northeast corner of Kent and Angeline Streets, on which the Ross Memorial Hospital has been situated for over 115 years. Turning back the clock over a century, we would no doubt see aspiring nurses like Winnifred Hardy, Katherine McKinnon, and Olive Williamson dashing between the old hospital building and the Annie Ross Nurses’ Home. Soon after graduation, these women would find themselves in Canada’s many military hospitals throughout France and England, the excellent training they received in Lindsay being put to use in bringing hope and healing to those wounded on active service.

I think of the countless church basements, community halls, and farmhouse parlours still standing across our pastoral countryside which once saw enthusiastic “worker bees” knitting socks, mufflers, mittens, and other items for care parcels assembled under the auspices of the Red Cross, the Women’s Institute, the Women’s Missionary Society, the Lindsay Saturday Sewers, and other such organizations. These volunteers earnestly kept the home fires burning, and were critical to the war effort.

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During the First World War, this massive facility in Lindsay churned out small arms ammunition by the thousands.

Finally, I think of the station platforms in the various towns and villages across the county, from where soldiers bid farewell to loved ones on route to war. A stroll along Caroline Street in Lindsay will bring one to the site of Lindsay’s Canadian Pacific Railway station and gardens, long since succeeded by a string of bungalows and well-manicured lawns. On this site, in 1916, the 109th Battalion of Victoria and Haliburton Counties boarded two troop trains bound for a training camp in Barriefield, Ontario.

“Mothers, wives, sisters and sweethearts crowded around the brave defenders and many a tear was shed as a last good bye was said and the parting kiss given,” we read in eyewitness accounts of the day. “Proud fathers gripped the hands of departing sons, the band played stirring airs while citizens and soldiers cheered.”

Over the last century, the places I have just mentioned have been abandoned, redeveloped, or repurposed for other uses. Commemorative plaques indicating their erstwhile purpose between 1914 and 1918 are nowhere to be found. While the physical and psychological toll war work took on those in the employ of the Dominion Arsenal; those serving as nurses with the Canadian Army Medical Corps; and those who gave of their time as volunteers with patriotic organizations might have faded into history, “their names liveth forevermore.”

LA

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KAWARTHA LAKES VIGNETTE

REGAN GRIMES Lindsay native Regan Grimes has been training hard at the gym since he was a teen. As he worked out he began to figure out where exactly he wanted to compete and eventually found a home in the ‘Classic Physique’ designation – known as the middle ground between the other categories of ‘Bodybuilding’ and ‘Men’s Physique.’

The focus has been paying off, as the former St. Thomas Aquinas Catholic Secondary School student just placed eighth in a field of 25 competitors at the 2018 Classic Physique Mr. Olympia contest. He qualified to be there by winning the New York Pro competition in May. The 25-year-old remembers his Grade 12 Coop placement was at the Lindsay Rec Centre gym, but he also trained at Spectrum Centre for Creative Fitness on Cambridge Street.

While he is a London, Ontario resident now

since he moved there for college, he said he was glad to have grown up in Kawartha Lakes.

“Growing up in Lindsay was amazing and I’m very happy to have grown up in a small town. There are a lot of good, real people there. All of my family is from Lindsay so being surrounded by them was always great,” Grimes says.

Most on his mind right now is the fact that he’s getting married Oct. 14 to his “lovely fiancé,Victoria D’Ariano.”

“We have been together for five years.”

From a competition standpoint, he’s going to take some time to figure out what his next show will be for 2019. If he wants to go back to the Olympia level though he will have to win a pro show, as he did in New York, where there are usually 25-30 other competitors.

-- Roderick Benns

30

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