600CKAT

Signs, signs, everywhere signs. It is definitely election season. Just look at any bypass or roadside corner, and you’ll see all kinds of colours and faces and declarations and promises.

More than one candidate for city council is claiming to be the “voice of the people” or the “People’s voice” or the “advocate for the people”. That’s a lot of voices…for a lot of people I guess.

Some signs are big…some signs are small…some signs are non-existant. I like when candidates claim they “don’t do the sign thing, because it’s an eye-sore” or “it’s bad for the environment”. In my opinion,that usually translates to “I can’t afford it.” 

We’ve got all kinds of colours too…blue, black, green, red, pink, even purple ones this year. Some candidates like putting their faces on the signs. Some are accurate likenesses…some have been airbrushed…some look like the candidate, but 8 years ago. Always risky putting your face on a sign. Lots of markers out there, and lots of rabble rousers with free late night time on their hands and a desire to be artistic.

But it’s all part of the fun isn’t it. As one councillor calls it. It’s “silly season”, but hang in there…it’s almost done.

It’s been an interesting and enlightening process of interviewing the council hopefuls over the last week or so(with more to come). I have found myself, so far, surprised by how impressed I am with certain candidates that I may not have given a second look at and on the other side of the coin, some candidates have not been so impressive and I wonder why they’re bothering.

What I’m learning, is this…DO YOUR HOMEWORK. Before you check those boxes, find out who the candidates are. Visit their websites, call them, read up on their history, what they’re fighting for etc etc… Don’t just show up on October 25th and vote on name recognition or dare I say it, because they have the most or best signs.

Their are a lot of candidates, some new and some incumbents, who have a lot of great ideas. Real solid plans. Their are also some who aren’t as prepared or brimming with confidence on their ability to pull this off.

So I say again…DO YOUR HOMEWORK. The next 4 years of this city’s direction will be determined by the new mayor and the 10 men and women that you help put into office. So find out who they are. Don’t vote blindly, you’re not doing yourself or any of us any favours.

Autumn has arrived. Officially now we are into fall. Felt like it though for the last couple of weeks. We transitioned hard from summer into fall back around September 1st. We went from 26 degrees to 16 degrees in a matter of hours. At least it seemed that way.

Summer was awesome wasn’t it? Haven’t had one like that in ages. I hope THAT summer makes a return visit next year. We’ll welcome it back with arms wide open. I like autumn though. Something about it is soothing and nice. Maybe it’s the nice colours. Maybe the increase in homemade apple pies. Maybe it’s Thanksgiving and the turkey and dressing and family getting together.

This fall finds us with a municipal election. Along with the beautiful change of colours on the trees, some of the election signs bring with it some nice colours as well…Reds and blues and yes even some greens.

With winter right around the corner(let’s hope the corner is still far away), we welcome Fall back. Ahhhh Fall…be kind to us.

Aaaaaand away we go. We have an election. Or have we? The predominant water-cooler talk that I’m hearing, is that it’s not much of an election after all. At least that seems to be the opinion in regards to the mayor’s race. Ask that question 2 or 3 months ago and the “rumoured” mayor’s race was going to be much better than the actual one we have now. This is not to disparage any of the candidates running. Certainly putting your name forth takes a lot of guts, but a couple of candidates have a steep uphill battle…no doubt about that.

The councillor race in my opinion is the much more interesting battle. With 26 people vying for 10 seats, it’ll be interesting to see how this shakes out on October 25th. Lots of names on the ballot. Again, some better known names than others. In fact so much so that if I were an incumbent, I’d take my seat cushion home with me just in case. I can think of 2 or 3 who may find themselves with some spare time come the new year.

Good luck to all and make sure to tune in starting Monday September 20th and every weekday afterwards at 8:15am to hear the council hopefuls debate it out in pairs of two. Who will be paired up with who? Find out this Friday morning after the 8am news.

Back to school means back to work, back to a schedule and most disheartening of all, it means the end of summer. Now, summer doesn’t really end until September 22…but that’s beside the point. The real fact is that as of the Labour Day Long Weekend, we had temperatures dip into and stay in the mid-teens, and the long range forecast for this week doesn’t look any better. Summer really has come to an end. Oh sure, we’ll have the odd day here and there that will remind us of what a great summer it was, but in general that’s all she wrote.

But what a summer it was…the weather was unlike any we’ve seen for the last 2 summers at least (we broke our bad luck summer weather streak…YES!), the area events like Mattawa Voyageur Days and The Step Dance and Fiddle Festival were better than ever. Even Summer in the Park made a huge comeback this year.

So now…autumn is around the corner. What does that hold for us? A couple of Fall Fairs would be nice. A ride through the country to check out the colours? Sounds good. Let’s hope we’re not singing “Let it Snow” too soon.

Our M.P.P. Monique Smith has taken a lot of flack from her critics over the years as our representative for “tow-ing the Dalton company line”. She’s been accused of not fighting for Nipissing on issues like the hospital laundry moving to Sudbury and a few others as well, and she always answers back with good examples of how she fights for the region “behind the scenes”. I believe her. Surely there are a lot of organizations and groups that have benefited from funding that Monique Smith has secured.

This week the M.P.P. attended a meeting of the Concerned Citizens Committee regarding the moving of 31 specialized mental health beds to..you guessed it…Sudbury. They don’t want these beds and their loved ones, moved out of the community and Monique was there to answer their questions and concerns. It didn’t happen. Instead, M.P.P. Smith pointed out that there are family members of patients who live in the Soo and Manitoulin Island that will be closer to THEIR loved ones by having them moved closer to Sudbury. Good point. Except…SHOULDN’T THE MPP FROM MANITOULIN OR THE SOO BE FIGHTING FOR THAT!! NOT YOU MONIQUE??….Sorry for yelling. This is the kind of comment from the MPP that adds fuel to the growing fire of critics that Monique isn’t fighting hard enough for this region.

I like our M.P.P. Whenever I see her, she is always friendly and courteous to me.  I’d like to think we’re friends of some sort. But in this case, in front of a crowd of people who have real life concerns for their loved-ones and could give a flying fig leaf about numbers and stats and studies, compassion is what was needed at that meeting. Understanding. Support.

Monique, you may have made a mistake that could come back to haunt you in 2011.

I love historical stuff. Buildings, stories, events. The whole gamut of history has always been interesting, especially local history for North Bay and the area. I love looking at old pictures of North Bay landmarks. I find it fascinating to see a picture of Main Street from the early 1900′s for instance. I wonder what the people in the picture where doing or going. I wonder what happened to some of the stores in the picture.

This past Wednesday some listeners and I were talking on the air about where their first dates were with their spouses. I got every locale back from the waterfront to the old rink on King Street(which I didn’t even know existed). One popular answer was going to the movies. Depending who was talking and which era they were from, the answers in regard to first dates at the movies took place at The Capitol Theatre, The Bay Theatre or The Odeon Theatre. I found out that one first date took place while Doctor Zhivago rolled at the Capitol, one was Rambo III, another was an all night Horror Movie Fest. Again…eras…

There’s a group in the city that takes the heritage and history of North Bay buildings very seriously. I’m glad that group exists. Not all communities have them.

Gotta run…Have to find out more details on that King Street rink.

I was born in Mattawa. The hospital I was born in was actually a temporary portable in 1970. That “temporary” portable was just torn down this year. I love Mattawa. With all due respect to all the wonderful attributes that North Bay holds, there’s nothing like going home to Mattawa. The two rivers. The two crosses on the mountain facing Explorer’s Point. The Valley. Mattawa Island. They all hold fond memories for me. But none so fonder that 261 8th Street. That’s where I grew up.

I had a great childhood. Great family. Great friends. A lot of it taking place on that street. This week I get the chance to broadcast my morning show from there. Right in my mom and dad’s kitchen. I’ll have special guests, old friends, Voyageur Days organizers etc etc. One of my old friends who’ll be joining me is now the mayor(and another Dean).

I’m looking forward to reminiscing old memories AND creating new ones.

Well we had an earthquake this week. Actually most of eastern and southern Ontario had an earthquake. It shook from Montreal to Ottawa to Toronto and all points in between. The folks in Toronto who are all on G8/G20 alert MUST have guessed the shaking was something other than an earthquake.

It rated a 5.0 on the Richter scale. Relatively small, but enough to make us react much the same way that T.O. when they called in the army a few years ago after a few feet of snow. Citizens of California must have chuckled when they heard the story of the fearsome quake of 2010 in Ontario.

I missed it. Again. We’ve been hit by a couple small tremors in the last 10 years or so. Missed those too. This time I was on the highway coming back from the Merrick Landfill(or the Dump as we all call it). I NEVER go to the dump. NEVER. I picked then to go and so found myself on Highway 11 when the quake struck. My wife Lana texted me to tell me what had happened. I thought she was joking.

The thing now that still remains a mystery is how long it lasted. 10 seconds? 30 seconds? I had one caller claim it was 4 minutes!! Proving once again that we all have our own story of where we were June 23rd when the earth quaked in North Bay(stop laughing Cali!)

At one point in North Bay history, he represented all of us. He fought for better roads (and fixed them himself). Over the years he made available thousands of dollars. He was loved, he was hated…and I’m not even talking about the time he was out Member of Parliament. Bob Wood was on (and off) the air on CKAT and CFCH for years…I mean…YEARS! He literally fixed our roads when listeners complained about the state of a particularly bad one, he went out with an asphalt company and patched it up. He created controversial (and funny) characters like “Usually Wong” the chinese weatherman.  He gave away 5 piece chicken dinners…literally…5 kernels of corn in a plastic bad…a “chicken’s dinner”…

When he left radio, he became our M.P. and suddenly found himself in the company of Kings and Queens and Popes…But despite his stature and successful career in politics, if you looked carefully, you could always see that glimer in his eye. The glimer of a radio-guy waiting to bust out. And so..it has happened.

Bob Wood is coming home. He returns to CKAT this weekend. He’ll be with us from Friday at 3pm and at the top of every hour in our broadcast day until Monday at 6. He’ll be the lead-host for our Great Country Oldies Long Weekend. Bob Wood…playing the best from the 50′s right through to the 80′s…and not a 5 piece chicken dinner in sight……….I think! God help us, Bob’s back! What.Have.We.Done.