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Home prices and monthly sales were flat for most of 2024.
Savings are up, spending is down and debt levels remain high for many Canadians.
Household savings rate hit a three-year peak in the third quarter reaching 7.1 per cent - The Canadian Press, Nojoud Al Mallees
Potential buyers chose to put their move on hold in 2024.
GDP per capita fell for a sixth straight quarter and many households are struggling to manage higher debt payments.
Households’ debt payments represented 9.59% of their disposable income, highest level since 1992Bloomberg, Erik Hertzberg
With prices not moving and additional rate cuts expected, buyers weren’t penalized for their decision to wait.
Lakes (Nov, 2024)
The mortgage market in 2025 may be better than expected.
Current 5-year mortgage rates sit between 4.0% and 4.7%, with rates projected to decline another 40 bps through mid-2025.
Bank of Canada to cut rates by another 150 basis points through 2025 - TD Economics, Maria Solovieva, Economist
According to CIBC, half of mortgages renewing in 2025 will see either their payments lower or a slight increase of less than 10%.
We estimate that the total payment shock in 2025 (including mortgages that face lower payments) will average only 2.5% - CIBC, Benjamin Tal, Chief Economist
Mortgage rule changes implemented on December 15th will increase first time buyers purchasing power by up to 9%.
The changes accessible to first time buyers, expand availability for 30-year amortizations for all home types and increase the CAP on insured mortgage products.
As a result of lower than expected renewal rates, improved affordability for first time buyers and further interest rate cuts at the BoC, we can expect sales activity to pick up in 2025.
As your locally owned clinic for almost three decades, Lindsay Ear Clinic is dedicated to serving Kawartha Lakes and Bobcaygeon. Our audiologists provide personalized solutions for hearing issues, vertigo, tinnitus, and advanced earwax concerns. Being independent allows us to prioritize your well-being with cutting-edge hearing aid technologies.
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Having on-site audiologists is essential for personalized hearing care. We provide regular checkups, tailored treatment plans, and care to enhance your overall well-being. Our dedicated professionals at Lindsay Ear Clinic ensure your hearing health journey is prioritized and personalized.
Downsizing is a significant decision - one that’s often rooted in both practical needs and deep emotions. For many, the idea of selling their loved home, packed with years of memories and belongings, can feel overwhelming.
Inspired by my own personal journey, with the loss of my mother and facing the emotional process of sorting through a lifetime of belongings - I developed The Mindful Move Method, a compassionate, step-by-step system designed to support clients through the challenges of downsizing. The process is designed to support you in the areas you feel most ‘stuck’ and is tailored to your unique needs.
If you plan to make a move this coming year, now is the time to prepare. Connect with me to schedule your free consultation and see how The Mindful Move Method can help!
Roderick Benns PUBLISHER
Rebekah McCracken
Aliyah Mansur WRITER-AT-LARGE
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Older generations often accumulated what they thought would be collectibles. 12
Please send editorial inquiries to Roderick Benns at roderick@lindsayadvocate.ca or 705-341-1496.
Please send ad inquiries to Rebekah McCracken at rebekah@lindsayadvocate.ca or 705-328-5188, or to Cara Baycroft at 905-431-4638.
Career paths aren’t always mundane. These local residents have fascinating jobs.
In our first-ever Newcomer feature, the Advocate welcomes Shelly Totino and family.
letters to the editor 6 • benns’ belief 7
mansur’s musings 11 • KL public library 22 • crossword 23 cool tips for a hot planet 25 • just in time 26 trevor’s take 28 • the marketplace 29
lindsayadvocate.ca • @lindsay.advocate
Fireside Publishing House is the premier print media company in Kawartha Lakes through its family of magazines and all-local weekly newspaper. We believe that community-based media can bring people together and change lives for the better through the power of storytelling, reflecting local culture, and creating informed and engaged citizens. Our commitment is to deliver high-quality and relevant content that reflects the diverse voices and experiences of our communities. We believe in the transformative power of local media to inspire, educate, and empower.
Re: To and fro: The connective, reflective, and transformative realities of commuting, December Advocate.
To all commuters spending over $600 a month on gas. Want to save seven per cent on your gas bill? That could fund the purchase of a plug-in hybrid. My full size 2018 plug-in hybrid currently gets 3.5 litres per 100 kilometres. On short trips it runs purely on the battery which incidentally costs $6,000, not $20,000. Most trips are emissions free. The benefits of these cars could have been mentioned in this article. Or perhaps this topic would make a good follow on to Mansur’s story?
— Robert Dingle, Fenelon Falls
“A word after a word after a word is power.”
— Margaret Atwood
I picked up my first copy of the Advocate this week and enjoyed reading it.
Something for the municipality to consider is the creation of a senior’s woodshop. We enjoyed such a shop in Aurora and it may be a good idea for Lindsay. Machinery could be bought second hand (to save on costs).
This is the way I see it.
— Lloyd McCabe, Lindsay
The proposed tax hike is simply outrageous. Highlighted in the Dec. 5 Kawartha Lakes Weekly issue was the link to review the proposed budget. After reviewing, I could only shake my head in disbelief. There is so much fluff or nice-to-do work planned it is ridiculous. No one could argue that times are tough in all facets of life today. A 6.7 per cent increase to our already over-taxed belongings is unacceptable. Perhaps three or four volunteers from each ward can find and remove the fluff from the budget. The use it or lose it mentality for budgets is unacceptable.
— Dennis McCulloch, Kawartha Lakes
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At WARDS LAWYERSPC, we recognize the emotional and mental toll that legal challenges can bring. That’s why we are committed to delivering tailored legal solutions, helping our clients navigate difficult times with confidence and clarity.
84 Kent Street West, Lindsay 705.324.9273 | info@wardlegal.ca
By Roderick Benns Publisher
If you live in this country and have a working Canada Card, you know a wee bit about hockey, if not a lot.
One of the great things about the National Hockey League is the excitement of trades. One minute your favourite hockey player might be playing for the Edmonton Oilers and then suddenly he’s a New York Ranger or a Winnipeg Jet. It keeps things interesting, avoids stagnation, and can even produce memorable teams under the right general manager.
Might I suggest that this is how politics should work, too? But instead of just involving Canada and the U.S. we can make it international – a Global Political League – in order to maximize talents. (I can already hear the libertarians sharpening their pencils and firing up their laptops, ready to expose my hidden globalist agenda. I’m going to ask you to relax.)
I think we could choose a rotating panel of 12 Canadians, through secret ballot, who would make these decisions on our behalf. They would be made up of people who could, you know, read and write and stuff. And maybe they would know the difference between fake things and truthful things – and realize that repeatedly saying a fake thing doesn’t ever make it a real thing.
Just picture how this might work. Hey Germany, Iceland, and Mexico, we’ll give you Justin Trudeau and Doug Ford, along with two first year poli sci students, for your leaders, Olaf Scholz, Kristrun Frostadottir, and Claudia Sheinbaum.
As Canada’s new PM, Germany’s Scholz could oversee a much-needed industrial policy in this country, using that nation as a model. Let’s start making things again, helped by something I like to call a strategy.
And Frostadottir, of Iceland, could lead Ontario. I know she wouldn’t build Highway 413 or take away bike lanes. I bet she’d protect important farmland and build infrastructure for electric cars. Mexico’s Sheinbaum is an environmental scientist. She could lead Alberta and we’ll give Danielle Smith to them for free. Sheinbaum would at least try other forms of energy out in Big Sky Country, like solar and geothermal, instead of expanding the oilsands.
And maybe they would know the difference between fake things and truthful things –and realize that repeatedly saying a fake thing doesn’t ever make it a real thing.
That’s good for Canada, but what are those countries getting in return? Over in Germany, new Chancellor Trudeau could apologize for something, while simultaneously expanding the German civil service by 43 per cent. Those are his superpowers. And in Iceland, Prime Minister Doug Ford could promise to deal with the traffic in Reykjavik by building subways under the lava flows. The Global Political League isn’t likely to happen. I mean, the U.S. would not even be able to do a trade, considering no one in the world would want Trump, other than most Americans. (Okay, maybe Putin would make him mayor of Vladisvostok or something. Time to pump out those MVGA hats!)
We can always fantasize about the dream team we’d create in our minds, no different than wondering what the secret balance is for a cup-winning Leaf team. But some things are just too hard to figure out.
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By Aliyah Mansur Contributor
Making progress is hard. Starting over again, building yourself up from nothing in any area of life, is a feat. Like climbing inch by inch towards the summit of Everest.
If you’re starting from scratch or thinking about it – whether it’s a breakup or divorce, changing careers, starting your own business, taking better care of your health, or moving somewhere brand new where you don’t know anyone –know that you are doing something many people wouldn’t dare do. You are willing to put your faith in yourself. You are choosing a path that is as rewarding as it is challenging.
I began writing professionally only a few months ago, and as much as my progress looks good on paper, and I’m enjoying my new career immensely, I do still lie awake some nights feeling left behind.
As I write this, I’m coming out of an emotionally charged evening. I shared things with another human being that I had barely admitted to myself. Fears and insecurities that have been increasingly heavy to carry around. It left my eyes feeling raw and my heart tired. You see, lately I’ve been struggling with the changes and the pace of starting over.
I began writing professionally only a few months ago, and as much as my progress looks good on paper, and I’m enjoying my new career immensely, I do still lie awake some nights feeling left behind. As if I should be further along, like I should have made more money by now, or have better connections. And I’ve been feeling these things, not
because I think I deserve to skip ahead without putting in the time, effort and dedication, but because it feels like I should have figured this out sooner. That somehow, it should’ve occurred to me earlier in life that writing is my path. Afterall, many other people my age (29) have been working within the same industry or field for a decade by now, and here I am starting from scratch. But the thing is, it’s nigh impossible for me to have known that I’d be a writer.
This is how life has turned out up until today. And at some point, we need to stop marvelling at the newness, hitting ourselves for a lack of foresight we could never have had and move on.
The winding road that has been my life ultimately turned me into a writer. Without the challenges, obstacles and courage to reimagine what I could be, I wouldn’t be writing the words you’re reading now. And it’s likely you wouldn’t have connected with them enough to read this far either.
So, this column is dedicated to everyone who has started over or began something new this year, no matter your age. The people who have chosen to start living the life they always wanted today, instead of leaving it for tomorrow. You are my champions and my guides, my mentors and friends. I applaud you and stand with you in those moments of quiet doubt. I see you.
And to anyone who is thinking to themselves right now that they’re scared to take that next step, worried about what people might think or whether it will be worth the risk. Trust your gut, trust your heart, and there’s no need to rush. There is always a new day and the rest of us will be here to cheer you on whenever you’re ready.
One persons collectible may be another person’s junk, but many of us are just running out of room.
Our homes are twice the size as in the 1970s and our families are smaller. Despite this, our houses, basements, and garages are full of stuff. Lots of stuff.
According to shrinkthatfootprint.com, living space has increased dramatically. Canadians, Americans and Australians, have the greatest per capita foot space in the world — on average double the space of the average U.K., Italian or Spanish resident.
While Canadian stats are scant, the American ones likely mirror ours. According to the LA Times, there are 300,000 items in the average home. Shopping malls outnumber high schools. In the book, Affluenza: The All-Consuming Epidemic, the authors say 93 per cent of teenage girls rank shopping as their favourite pastime.
In a recent MPAC study, between 2020 and 2023, 11 per cent of space was added to the rental storage footprint in Canada, which equals about 4.2 million square feet in total. There are many types of clutter, including memory clutter, which is an undue preoccupation with memories, often from their childhood. Having these items may transport them to a different time. These individuals may suffer from depression as well.
By Denise Waldron
Some who can’t toss out items may worry they will need them in the future and become anxious about letting them go. It is often referred to as ‘someday clutter.’
While clutter and hoarding may seem similar, the essence of them is different. Clutter impairs the functionality of a space, while hoarding is a mental health disorder with reluctance to discard items, which may lead to unsafe living conditions.
According to WebMD, studies say there is a correlation between clutter and heightened anxiety and disturbances in sleep patterns. It’s not just our homes that are filled — our waistlines are expanding as well. People with hoarding tendencies appear more likely to overeat and gain weight.
Not everything in our homes is considered clutter or messy. Many people are collectors and start out of love for particular items. In some cases, they keep their treasures in the hopes of one day gaining a profit.
Quinten McLaren is the manager of A Buy and Sell Shop in Lindsay. When it comes to cashing in, he says there’s probably someone out there that will pay you a lot of money for something, but you have to find that one person.
He adds, the internet has been great for a lot of things, but
it’s hard when it comes to collectibles. “Because you can type into Google, and Google’s really good at telling you what you want to hear.”
“You type in something, and it can tell you that it’s worth $500, but at the end of the day, if you’re trying to sell it, you have to find that person to pay you the $500.”
He notes locally, he saw changes in the collectibles market during the COVID-19 pandemic, particularly the influx of items from older generations downsizing or moving to retirement homes. There are challenges in selling certain collectibles, such as Franklin Mint plates, crystal glassware, and Royal Doulton figurines, due to a lack of demand from younger generations.
McLaren says in 2024, if he was to become a collector with the end game of making bank in the future, he would only invest in gold and silver.
“You’ve heard the pipe dream sold over and over again. Those collector plates that I can’t give away, those were sold as an investment opportunity for people.”
Arlene Garelick of Little Britain has loved collecting Beanie Babies since 1997, with a particular focus on bears, dogs, and cats. She has more than 550 Beanie Babies, including rare ones like Princess Diana, which she values at $1,000.
In addition to Beanie Babies, Garelick also collects Sylvester the Cat merchandise, with an estimated 25-50 items. Her collection includes a life-size Sylvester plush toy that stands at her height of 5’1”. She is hesitant to part with her Sylvester collection, as she finds them too cute.
At 75, Garelick has run out of room. Her Beanie Babies are carefully packed in special cases and she notes they are original, not counterfeit. While she would like to get $1,000 for her Diana Beanie Baby, she has no interest in selling her collection separately. She hopes someone will offer her a fair deal for all 550.
Her nieces and nephews have little interest in the collectibles. Many Gen X, Millennials, and Gen Zed generally don’t see much monetary value in older collectibles, and tend to prefer a more curated and minimalist home décor aesthetic instead.
Growing up, Valerie Blanchard and her three siblings enjoyed the generosity of their benevolent parents. (The family did not wish to use their real names, due to some sensitivities about the subject matter.) Her mother, Barbara Smith, was a health care professional involved in academia and served on a university governing council. Her father, Frank Smith was a high-level government official and was once a professional athlete hopeful with a tryout for a US sports team. He was instrumental in setting up a college program as well. This power couple grew up with limited financial means and made it a priority to provide their children with the material comforts they themselves never had. “My dad had a good job
and my mom did as well and I think they could buy things. But I think they were filling voids of things they didn’t have when they were kids and wanted to give us everything.” She noted at Christmas, her gifts from her parents were usually very generous compared to her friend’s.
The family home was in the GTA, and they purchased a rural property in the Kawarthas when the children were young. Fixing and cleaning up around the family home was not a priority, according to Blanchard. She notes her parents were exhausted and Fridays at 6 p.m., they loaded up their family and headed to their Kawartha property, “because that’s where my dad wanted to be until the day he died.”
Their homes became more cluttered over time. “They lived differently. When someone knocked on the door, we’d run around and clean up before we’d answer the door,” lamented Blanchard.
Blanchard said her parents were in denial about their excessive possessions. “They lived with rose-coloured glasses and they loved things, they loved antiques, they loved helping their community,” noted Blanchard. Her mom would attend rural craft markets and buy from a vendor who didn’t have sales that day to help them out. The crafts would then add to the collections at their rural property.
When describing her parents, Blanchard calls them collectors, as the word hoarders has negative connotations. She notes, they did not live in filth or have dead animals in their homes.
Laurene Livesey Park is a certified professional organizer in chronic disorganization, serving the Kawartha Region. She agrees with Blanchard, preferring to say someone suffers from hoarding behaviour, or chronic disorganization. She emphasizes the importance of understanding hoarding as a mental health condition rather than a moral failing, and the challenges in addressing it because of the high recidivism rate and the individual’s lack of recognition of the problem.
She notes there is the piece of the brain that provides organizing — the prefrontal cortex that may not work as it should. There can be executive function impairment, trauma, and neurodiversity as well. “We know about hoarding behaviour too is that it is usually co-existent with other conditions. ADHD
very frequently, depression almost always, anxiety almost always.”
Blanchard said her parents had multiples of items, with many of them broken. After her father died, she found four broken coffee makers in the pantry. After she had completely cleaned it out, her mother had all the items taken to a drive shed, even knowing they were broken.
Livesey Park says there are varied reasons why people keep broken, useless items that add to the clutter in their homes. People of certain generations fixed broken items. In some cases, growing up without much money causes people to spend to fill a void. If their home is spacious and the clutter is somewhat hidden, the person may not see it as a problem. If items are sold at a good price, there are those who buy them for that reason only. She notes some are unable to get their useless items to the landfill. “If we don’t take it to the dump, it stays in our house because we can’t get municipal pickup. So
municipal services can be a problem.”
Blanchard said her parents provided her with a childhood filled with love and care. After their deaths, she spent six months clearing out their Kawartha home and was overwhelmed and exhausted with navigating and clearing out the clutter. She went through each item thoughtfully, donating or disposing of items while trying to honour her deceased parent’s memories.
Livesay Park has strategies for helping loved ones manage these situations, such as finding an entry point where they acknowledge the problem, starting with small decluttering tasks and honouring sentimental items through photographs or shrines. The organizer recently got a tattoo of a shooting star as she and her father used to stargaze together. She said she can’t capture a star, or a piece of dust, but she and her daughter got matching ones, “and that honours something that we did together, too, and so finding a way to express that appreciation, I think is important.”
For Blanchard, the experience of growing up in a cluttered environment and later dealing with the excessive possessions has made her thoughtful about the cleanliness and renovations at her own home. She notes her parents were very good at sharing their rural home and she has wonderful childhood memories but makes sure her house is clean all the time.
“I set goals for myself every day to make sure that I get certain things done.” LA
Brad Whitley has 30 years experience in the 4 way locking metal shingle industry, as a roofing manager, project manager and installation trainer for affiliated companies such as Alcoa Manufacturers, Classic Metal Roofing Manufacturing and Metal Works/Tamko metal shingles. After 10 years as a dealer with Ideal Roofing, Brad is now their Product Specialist and trainer for Wakefield Bridge and Heritage metal roofing and Gallanta steel siding. His passion is helping the next generation learn a new trade one roof at a time.
Peacefully Nourished and Fieldside Yoga + Retreats is located on a locally owned and operated family crop farm. We hope you feel the difference when you leave both mentally, physically and emotionally. This barn is no longer a steel storage shed for machinery and straw. Rather it is a place that has rooted down in their values, openly acknowledges the stolen Indigenous land they reside on and is a female owned and operated business.
This five-year project that included rezoning, official plan amendment and renovating a steel pole barn has finally come to fruition. Lindsay natives Atheana and Justin Brown have worked tirelessly to transform an agricultural storage barn into a field side retreat for Peacefully Nourished, a collaborative health hub for whole body wellness, and Fieldside a body-inclusive yoga studio. There are some restored farm features retained like 13 foot ceilings, reclaimed farmhouse doors and 180 views of crop fields and woodland forest, all located on an active family crop farm on Elm Tree Road just outside of Lindsay.
Atheana practices differently than most health care providers by using a non-diet, weight inclusive, HAES (Health At Every Size) and trauma informed approach. She primarily works with people struggling with their relationships with food and body, families navigate feeding struggles with kids and helping people thrive with their health condition. All without diet culture.
The space has been meticulously planned and infused with Atheana’s guiding values rooted in social justice that informs the work she does as a non-diet and body-inclusive Registered Dietitian.
The yoga studio aligns similarly with intentions around being body, age, and ability inclusive. The Fieldside studio has five large windows of farmland and a forested horizon. Having people connect with the farmland and nature was imperative. The focus that is infused within each class is about regulating your nervous system, connecting with nature and showing up just as you are, with the end goal of building more body attunement and self-compassion.
Atheana’s next steps are to add like-minded providers to the team that share similar values and care practices (please connect if that is you). Along with building deeper roots in the community to host, collaborate and inspire others to work towards creating more inclusive spaces and dismantle weight stigma.
Fieldside Yoga • fieldsideyoga.ca
Peacefully Nourished • peacefullynourished.ca
By Aliyah Mansur Writer-at-large
A taxidermist, a fish farmer, and a horse therapist walk into a bar… this scenario, though a great set-up for a joke, is a potential reality in Kawartha Lakes. These three professions are thriving in our community, though none are likely to crop up as an answer to the infamous question “what do you want to be when you grow up?”
In Woodville, Ron Armstrong runs the aptly named, Ron’s Taxidermy. He’s been working as a taxidermist for 38 years and counting, with clients that come from all over Ontario, putting their trust in him to produce high quality and lifelike hunting trophies.
“It wasn’t an instant success,” says Armstrong, who took a three-month course at a taxidermy school in Wisconsin during a break from working on his parents’ farm. He did taxidermy on the side for three years before committing to his business full time. Armstrong says, “then came a point where I said to my dad ‘I’m so busy in the shop,’ and my parents were getting near retirement, so they said ‘okay, we’re going to retire, and you start your career.’” Even with enough work to go full time, Armstrong shares that it was more of a starving artist lifestyle at first, and it took a de-
cade to build his client base to what it is now. He emphasizes that it takes time to build trust with clients, many of whom are bringing in once-in-a-lifetime hunting trophies for him to immortalize in realistic poses, with various facial expressions.
“I’m pretty fortunate, I like my job, it’s not drudgery. I do put in a lot of time, so I have missed out on things,” Armstrong says, he works six days a week Monday to Saturday. “I can easily cut my hours but if I cut my hours, I’m not gonna get the work done. Welcome to self-employment, right?” With his workshop mere metres from his home, it’s easy for lines to blur between life and work. At the same time, as with many people who are self-employed, Armstrong’s passion for his work is stronger than his desire for rest, “if I get one day off and I’m in the house, I almost start feeling ill. Then I come out to the shop, and I feel alive again. It gives me purpose,” he says.
Paige Andrews is a student at Fleming College’s graduate certificate program in Aquaculture. She is thinking of pursuing a career in fish farming, a growing industry in Canada, which is the fourth largest salmon producing country
Right: Fleming College to open new fish hatchery this spring. Photo: Aliyah
in the world. For Andrews, who completed Fleming’s Fish and Wildlife program prior to her enrollment in the Aquaculture program, her motivation is simple and clear “I’ve always loved working with fish,” she says. Her favourite fish is the sturgeon “because they can grow up to 20 feet long, they have really cute faces with tiny barbels that look like whiskers and are very prehistoric looking!”
When we think of farming, most of us will conjure up images in our minds of barns and rolling fields, a cow grazing or a rooster going about his morning routine and waking everyone up in the process. Not often do we think of fish hatcheries, with their giant tanks and complex mess of tubes that filter water, or baby lake trout shooting out of a hose into their new home (as pictured on our cover). Though, when you think about it, it makes sense that this industry would thrive in this country, given Canada has the most lakes of any country in the world by a longshot at almost 900,000 compared to the next country on the list, Russia, at 200,000. Andrews says that “during Fish and Wildlife, we learned a bit about the aquaculture industry, and I found it fascinating how big it actually is when no one really talks about it.”
At a time where young people coming out of college are making up a larger portion of those who are unemployed, as noted in an RBC report published January 2024, it’s important for people to understand which industries are growing. A report from the United Nations’ Food and Agriculture Organization showed that “aquaculture is now the world’s fastest-growing food production system.” Though the number of people employed in the industry has decreased recently, the increasing reliance on aquaculture moving into the future is promising for young people who love working outdoors.
“Something that surprised me about this industry is how interconnected everything is within aquaculture… within a hatchery, everything relies on everything, and you need to have good people to run it,” says Andrews. In the aquaculture research hatchery at Fleming, the wastewater produced by the fish becomes fodder for the college’s Centre for Advancement of Water and Wastewater Technologies. Meanwhile, water sensors and other technology and equipment, all the way down to 3D printed special drain covers that keep fish in the tanks from going down the drain, are often provided by the college’s Centre for Applied Machine Intelligence and Integration Technologies in Peterborough.
About a 10-minute drive from Lindsay’s downtown, you can find Kelly Russell’s therapeutic horse-riding centre THRIL
THRIL sees more than 30 riders per week, ages four to 60.
(Therapeutic Riding in Lindsay). Founded in 2014, the Canadian Therapeutic Riding Association certified centre is one of 17 in Ontario. Russell started THRIL after working for other therapy riding centres over the course of her career as a therapeutic riding instructor. Now, she donates 100 per cent of her time at THRIL, alongside two salaried therapeutic riding instructors. Russell says this is a great career option for someone with a background in horse riding who is looking for meaningful and impactful work – combining a love of horses with a passion for helping others.
Therapeutic horse riding and equine-assisted therapy can be used to help manage mental health issues and a variety of physical challenges. Riders’ challenges range from those they’ve had since birth like Cerebral Palsy, Autism, or ADHD, to injuries resulting in limited mobility or amputation, or illness like stroke. Therapy riding has also been used to help those with addiction, post-traumatic stress disorder, and anxiety.
“As a therapeutic riding instructor, you learn a bit about all of these things,” says Russell. The ages of riders at THRIL also range and Russell says, “therapy riding is adaptable, and can help all sorts of children, youth and adults.” Equine-assisted therapy is used by physiotherapists, chiropractors, psychotherapists, occupational therapists, and speech therapists.
These specialists use the horse in different ways: horseback riding can help build physical strength and balance, whereas simply interacting with the horse from the ground can help build trust and confidence.
Horse therapy gained popularity when equestrian Lis Hartel won silver at the 1952 Olympics after contracting polio and beating the odds to get herself back on the horse. Russell’s mother, like Hartel, was also a victim of polio. Russell says, “I watched my mom go from being my mom to having to use a cane, then two canes, then a walker. By the time she was in her 60s she was in a wheelchair.” Though getting back on the horse did not work out for her mother, this connection sparked Russell’s interest, ultimately leading her to therapeutic riding later in life. “Years later it came back to me, there was a woman who had polio like my mum that went and rode at the Olympics,” says Russell, who bought her first horse when she was 18 years old.
Russell notes how rewarding it is to see riders at the centre develop skills and self-esteem.
“You watch these riders go from being absolutely terrified to get on the horse, then all of a sudden they’re laughing and trotting down the long side of the arena, recognizing that they’ve got abilities they didn’t think they had.” LA
2nd PRIZE: Sir Sam’s Inn & Spa Two Night Getaway worth $500 PLUS $500 spending
3rd PRIZE: $500 CASH at Women’s Resources, 22 Russell St. E., Lindsay
Draw Date: March 14, 2025
Tickets: $10 per Ticket or 3 for $20 Only 4,500 Tickets Printed!
Purchase in Lindsay at: Women’s Resources, 22 Russell St. E. • Vicky’s Values, 50 Mary St. W. For other locations to purchase tickets, please contact Women’s Resources as below:
Questions? Contact Carolyn Fox 705-324-7649 ext. 223 or cfox@womensresources.ca 705-878-4285 | 22 Russell St. E., Lindsay, ON K9V 2A1 | www.womensresources.ca Shelter, Support and Referral for Women and Their Children Fleeing Abuse
Discover endless possibilities at the Kawartha Lakes Public Library. There’s something for everyone — come and see what’s happening at your local library!
Vision Board Crafting
Create a vision board to inspire your goals! Design a collage of images and messages for health, career, or relationships. Free, supplies provided. Ages 13+
• Lindsay Branch – Jan. 15 | 4:30 PM – 6 PM
• Lindsay Branch – Jan. 16 | 1:30 PM – 3 PM
• Bobcaygeon Branch – Jan. 20 | 1:30 PM – 3 PM
• Fenelon Falls Branch – Jan. 22 | 1:30 PM – 3 PM
• Kinmount Branch – Jan. 28 | 2 PM – 3:30 PM
Join us for free movies every Friday—everyone’s welcome! Movie ratings will vary. Please ask staff about upcoming films and feel free to suggest future films. Family-friendly movies will be shown on PA Days and holidays.
• Lindsay Branch – January 3, 10, 17, 24, 31 | 2 PM – 4 PM
Kids Programs at the Lindsay Branch
• Baby & Me - Every Wednesday at 10:30 AM
• StoryTime - Every Tuesday, Thursday, and Saturday at 10:30 AM
• More branch locations, times, and other kid-friendly programs on our website event calendar!
PA DAY at the Library – January 31
Visit select Kawartha Lakes libraries for fun kids’ activities like crafts, Oreo tasting, and a dinosaur dig! Check out our events calendar on the website to find out what’s happening at a branch near you. Times, locations, & events vary.
There are so many exciting programs happening at all 14 of our library branches. Visit kawarthalakeslibrary.ca for a complete list of offerings.
Fingernail shorteners
How linen or china is often sold 16 Self-proclaimed "Weird" singer
Vodka-based Piña Colada
In a groggy manner
Donation receptacle
Qty.
Fella
Feeling no pain
U.S. clean air grp. 25 Yuppie's wheels
27 Phnom ___, Cambodia
28 Say "Check, check, 1-2-3"
30 Top podium prizes, in Madrid 31 Mournful melody 32 River through Germany
33 Country between Braz. and Arg. 34 "Sweet!" in the '80s
35 Leading in innovation, or what the eight side answers give this puzzle
39 One of the fam
Tic- -toe
"Let's leave ___ that" 44 Walloped, way back when
Pure hate 48 Chemical prefix with -amine 49 Guzzler's utterances
50 Prepares for guests, maybe
Dernier ___ (the latest fashion)
53 Prefix meaning "outer"
54 Lamb's lament
55 Pit stop additive
56 Ex-Prime Minister Campbell
57 Pay over time, as a mortgage
60 Station that plays a lot of Michael Bublé, maybe
62 States of ecstasy
63 Dr. Seuss's shelled pond king
64 They beat paper, in a game
65 Surgical beam Down
1 Sugar cane whacker
2 Like a surprised person's mouth
3 "Not so fast!"
4 F1's keyboard neighbour
5 Place to go from high to dry
6 "Singin' in the Rain" dancer Charisse
7 Meal sizes for big eaters
8 "___ Time" (BBC radio series)
9 Tree-lined commuter rte.
10 Proton's charge: Abbr.
11 Better, in Satan's eyes
12 Provoking, with "up"
13 Part of a Grim Reaper getup
15 Tantrum-thrower's cool-off periods
21 Clark of country music
26 Musical Ride member
27 Lowbrow language
by Barbara Olson
29 Has faith in
31 Pierre, to Justin, e.g.
34 Not so long ago
36 There are cheers when it's broken
37 Glitter balls?
38 Paperless travel documents
42 The slightest bit
43 Mustache grooming tool
44 Sheep farmer's implement
45 Maritimes first nation, anglicized
46 Eight-armed swimmers
47 Jacket for a club or team member
50 Tahrir Square locale
51 Telemarketer's script
54 Furnace stats
58 "God-given" things: Abbr.
59 Squiggly letter
61 La-la lead-in
It brightens our days, lifts us out of gloom and gives us a hit of vitamin D. What’s not to like about sunshine?
Increasingly, it’s also providing the world with clean, lowcost power. Renewable energy now produces over 30 per cent of the world’s electricity, according to Global Energy Review 2024. And solar was the fastest growing source of new electricity generation. In fact, the world is adding the solar equivalent of a nuclear reactor every day, at a fraction of the cost, figures from Bloomberg show.
Why? Because solar costs have plummeted 90 per cent in the last decade. Virtually everywhere, it’s the cheapest form of new electricity production. Cheaper than coal, and equivalent to or cheaper than natural gas.
More solar means lower electricity bills, less pollution, better air quality and improved health. And it helps tackle climate change. What’s not to like about solar?
Some take issue with large commercial operations. And the province prohibits solar on prime farmland. But there could be a role for agrivoltaics (for example, combining solar with shade-loving crops, sheep grazing or bee farming), and for solar on non-productive land, says Jack Gibbons, chair of the Ontario Clean Air Alliance (OCAA).
A new study for the OCAA found Toronto could meet more than half its electricity needs with rooftop and large parking lot solar. That would relieve strain on the grid as more homes install heat pumps and chargers for electric cars. And it would vapourize the need for Toronto’s gas power plant.
Solar also reduces energy bills, as Lindsay residents Jamie
and Glenda Morris are finding. They took advantage of the Canada Greener Homes grant and loan programs to install enough rooftop solar to cover their annual electricity bills. They replaced their gas furnace and water heater with heat pumps in the process. Their house now produces more electricity than needed when it’s sunnier, and the credit they receive pays for their reduced power production in winter. By the end of November, they had a credit of $531. “So far, the app shows we’ve saved 4,684 kg of CO2 emissions. That’s like planting 138 trees,” Jamie said.
They are among a growing number of Canadians powering with sunshine. In 2022, one in 200 homes had solar, but a study by Dunsky Energy shows we’re on track to increase that number to one in 12 by 2050.
It’s not just those with solar panels who save. If Ontario went all-in on wind and solar, we could phase out gas plants, avoid the need to expand expensive nuclear power, and lower rates for everyone, Gibbons said.
To encourage more Ontarians to follow the sun, home owners and businesses need to be compensated for all the power they produce. “Right now, they don’t get paid if their solar panels produce more electricity than they consume. This isn’t fair. We pay Ontario Power Generation for 100 per cent of the nuclear and gas power it supplies to the grid. Similarly, we should pay homeowners and small businesses for all the solar power they provide,” he said.
“The Doug Ford government is planning to build more dirty gas plants and high-cost nuclear reactors. By paying people to put solar on their roofs we can clean the air and reduce everyone’s electricity bills. Solar is a win-win.”
It is an early winter morning when a low rumbling noise in the distance wakens early risers from their slumber. Their eyelids flutter open to see a flashing blue light reflected in their window as the rumble crescendos into a clatter. An enormous plow pushes its way through the drifts of snow and ice that have accumulated overnight. Silence descends upon the sparkling street once more. In a few hours’ time, the repetitive thud of shovels (not to mention the cacophony of gas-powered snowblowers) will echo across town as neighbours dig themselves out of this, winter’s fury.
Ah, snow removal in Kawartha Lakes – a ritual that plays out across the municipality each year. Thanks to the efficiency with which our snowplow operators carry out their unenviable tasks, it is easy to take this vital work for granted. A glance back in time, however, reveals many a story of snowstorms that made the subsequent cleanup a hair-raising ordeal for all and sundry.
The railways were invariably the hardest hit when the snow fell on what is now Kawartha Lakes. What was undoubtedly an inconvenience for travellers was par for the course in the minds of local railroaders, who could rhyme off exciting tales of snow removal. Felix Gassien, for decades a conductor on the Grand Trunk Railway, recalled in 1956 that the early wooden plows pushed by steam locomotives would often be brought to a standstill by impenetrable drifts of snow. “For four days we were stalled one and a half miles west of Lind-
say at ‘Hutton’s Grove,’” Gassien recalled of one trip. “The snowbanks were 10 feet high. We had to be shovelled out by the section men.”
Technology in the form of more powerful locomotives and heavy steel snowplows would eventually make the clearing of railway tracks a less-onerous task – but digging one’s way out of a snow-covered road or laneway remained a headache.
Passable roads gradually opened up across the municipality, and by the 1930s plow trucks were becoming a common enough sight on the highways connecting towns and villages. Early on, the task of plowing was normally shared between a government-owned plow and plows operated by individuals who were contracted by the municipal government. On January 3, 1932, a government plow cleared the highway between Lindsay and Toronto because tenders for local plow operators had only just been let; a local plow would finish the job. January 16, 1936, saw a snow plow push its way into Norland for the first time that winter, opening up Highway 35 North to traffic. Motorized snow removal equipment might have expedited the process, but teams of horses and good old-fashioned elbow grease were still used to give access along the roads between Kinmount and Norland.
By 1963, the county’s snow removal fleet consisted of three road graders equipped with plows, and four snow plow trucks – three in regular use and one called out on an as-required basis. These kept almost 375 km of roads clear across the county.
Little Britain residents dig their way out after a blizzard during the 1940s. All images courtesy of the Kawartha Lakes Public Library collection.
Within Lindsay, the question of removing snow from sidewalks became a question of public discussion over the winter of 1964. A pointed editorial in the Post on Jan. 6 of that year complained that Lindsay was lagging behind Oakwood – a considerably smaller community – which had acquired a specialized sidewalk plow that blew snow out of the way, rather than simply pushing it back into the path of the street snow plow. (Whether it was a street plow or a sidewalk plow, some irate local residents made it clear to Mayor Joseph Holtom the year previous that they didn’t appreciate being roused from their sleep at 3 a.m. in the morning by snow-removal equipment making rounds throughout their neighbourhoods.)
In due time, Lindsay would acquire additional snow removal machinery – but independent contractors were still called
Above: Motorists navigate their way through snowbanks in the Little Britain area.
Left: Plow No. 10 makes its way through towering snow drifts between Little Britain and Oakwood after a blizzard in the 1940s.
out to sand and salt the roads, as the county-owned equipment was limited to plowing the roads. This remained the situation after 1990, when Norm MacKinnon was hired by the County of Victoria as an engineer responsible for road maintenance. “We waited for four inches of snow to accumulate before we sent the plows out,” MacKinnon remembers. The county plows did the road first, followed by a private contractor with salting equipment mounted on the back of a truck.
Until the late 1980s, snow plows were dispatched with two-person crews – a driver and a “wingman.” The latter sat next to the driver and was responsible for adjusting the “wing,” or secondary plow, as the truck made its way along the often-narrow roads. When MacKinnon worked for the Ministry of Transportation, wingmen were gradually being phased out, and among the first tasks he had upon being hired was to make the necessary adjustments to plow trucks so the operator could oversee the wing plow sans the need for a second person in the cab. Sometimes, MacKinnon recalls, drivers and wingmen of differing personalities could make operations a challenge and lead to delays.
Today’s snow removal machinery making its way down our roads in the wee small hours of wintry mornings might be more sophisticated and efficient, but the conditions faced by operators scarcely differ from those their predecessors faced more than three quarters of a century ago. LA
By Trevor Hutchinson Contributing Editor
This column represents the start of the seventh calendar year of having the great privilege of occupying this space and joining both local and national conversations.
For giggles, and as a memory test, I went back through the previous years to see what I had opined on. No great theme emerged but there were a couple pieces on the city’s strategic and environmental plans, which I used as an example of the optimism I try to start a year with. And of course, there was one from the COVID years with the basic theme of ‘this sucks and it’s going to get worse.’
While international politics may seem lightyears away from our concerns over the Elm Tree Road Bridge or the coming byelection, U.S. politics affects every Canadian.
I can’t say that I am feeling the complete optimism of earlier years, nor the despair of the bad pandemic January, but I have guarded hopes that 2025 will be better than 2024 (which makes me statistically similar to about 70 per cent of people in 33 different countries according to one recent Ipsos poll).
Of course, there is a huge X factor in all of this – what will U.S. President Donald Trump do and how will it affect us? While international politics may seem lightyears away from our concerns over the Elm Tree Road Bridge or the coming byelection, U.S. politics affects every Canadian. We are all like
a mouse sleeping next to an elephant, as Pierre Trudeau once famously described Canada-U.S. relations: “No matter how friendly and even-tempered is the beast, if I can call it that, one is affected by every twitch and grunt.”
A trade war and the imposition of tariffs, were that to happen, can immediately and negatively affect our city’s biggest economic sectors of agriculture and tourism, not to mention our burgeoning manufacturing sector. And of course, any major disruption to the world order can tank the global economy which can have immediate local repercussions. A sudden and harsh economic downturn can lead to higher unemployment, higher costs and lower revenues, which will immediately affect Kawartha Lakes, along with every other municipality in the country. Of course, for a certain segment of our population, this will all be Prime Minister Justin Trudeau’s fault.
And if Trump’s threatened actions are the X factor going into 2025, the Y factor must be a looming federal election. Politicians and voters on both political extremes may well performatively don Canada jerseys and jackets during, say, an international sports competition, during the silly season it’s party before country, especially for all opposition parties. This would be the case regardless of what party was in power.
But Trump’s possible economic actions must be treated as an existential threat to our city, province and country and we need a Canada before partisan politics approach. We’ll have to wait and see for now but here’s to a healthy and prosperous 2025!