Editorials - June 14, 2024

Doug Ford campaigned on the promise of high-paying jobs and last week he delivered. At least he delivered to his own cronies with the latest cabinet shuffle. This most recent cabinet is now 72 per cent larger than his first, with 36 ministers and associate ministers (compared to 20 in 2018) and 32 Conservative MPPs with parliamentary assistants (up from 28 in 2018). In real dollars, Ford’s cabinet cost the taxpayers $3.3 million when he came to power and in six years that has shot up to $5.7 million.

 

One of the Conservative mantras during the last election was reducing the size of government “to show respect for the taxpayers”, but it appears that Ford has lost touch with that promise. 

 

On the heels of the cabinet shuffle, parliament started the summer break a week early and is not scheduled to return until the end of October and the opposition is accusing Ford of avoiding accountability.

 

Rumours are running rampant of an early election call. Despite the fixed election law that would see Ontarians return to the polls in June of 2026, Ford has the ability to dissolve the government and call an election before that, something that he has not ruled out and has publicly mused about doing. With his track record on government spending, can we afford for him to finish his mandate? – DS

Back in 1975, Keith Roulston, Anne Chislett and James Roy crafted the first Blyth Festival season with Mostly in Clover, adapted from the stories of local author Harry J. Boyle, and Agatha Christie’s The Mousetrap. The latter was the safe bet and the former was the big swing. Everyone knows the story now. Clover wildly outsold Christie and a Festival with a mandate to tell new, local stories was born.

 

Now, 49 seasons later, the Festival and its professionals have told countless Canadian stories, and many have found success by being hyper-localized (they made a play about The Boot for God’s sake). Not only has the Festival changed the conversation about art in Huron County, but it has changed the community forever. Each summer, as the weather warms, the village is increasingly populated with actors, directors, playwrights, costume and set designers, carpenters and more and they are in Blyth’s restaurants and bars, shopping at its stores and lounging on its grassy knolls. (Does anyone else miss the knoll?)

 

With each season, alongside the plays, would come performances from the Blyth Festival Singers and Orchestra and a new slate of art, often from local artists, at the Blyth Festival Art Gallery. Now, many of those creative people call Blyth home. The Festival has shaped the village in ways Keith, Anne and James could never have imagined.

 

This summer, faces new and old will make their way to Blyth - to work, to act, to watch, to reconnect. It should be a celebration of all the Festival was, all that it is and all that it will be 50 years from now. So, thanks to the founders, to today’s team and to everyone in between who have made the Festival into what it is here in 2024. The residents of Blyth and art lovers everywhere are in your debt. – SL 

Viewers of the The Simpsons and Mennonite communities might not seem like they are connected groups of people. After all, one of Bart Simpson’s popular catchphrases is “Don’t have a cow, man!” while conversely, a lot of Mennonites do, indeed, have cows. 

 

However, the histories of these two seemingly disparate groups are interwoven in fascinating ways. This insight comes from an article by Shane Fraser from CBC Saskatchewan, revealing the surprising real-life connections behind beloved characters created by Matt Groening.

 

Abram Groening, Matt’s grandfather, was born in 1894 in Kansas to a Germanic Mennonite family that fled Russia. Seeking peace, they settled on the North American Prairies. During World War I, Abram fled conscription by moving to Canada, joining a Mennonite community near Herbert, Saskatchewan. This is where he, and his wife Elisabeth, welcomed their son Homer, namesake of The Simpsons bumbling but lovable patriarch. In 1918, unlike its southern neighbour (or neighbor for any American readers), Canada provided religious exemptions from conscription for conscientious objectors. Herbert offered refuge for the Groenings, valuing their agricultural skills and pacifist beliefs. 

 

Eventually, tensions arose as returning Canadian soldiers found prime farmland occupied by German-speaking Mennonites. By 1920, the Groening family returned to Kansas, but left a lasting impact on their temporary Canadian home. Herbert’s mayor, Ron Mathies, was pleased to learn about the Groenings’ connection to his town, suggesting that this story could bring renewed interest in the community. 

 

Matt’s blending of fact and fiction highlights a universal truth: beneath our differences, we share similar experiences, hopes, dreams and challenges. We are all part of a family with connected roots and histories. Whether farming out in the fields or cackling at home on the couch, we have more in common than we might think. – SBS