Jim Cumming - From the Publisher's Pen

We are at the whim of the weather.

Emergency planners across Rainy River District have gone to extreme lengths to protect property and infrastructure over these past two weeks. And as the water has risen, everyone is looking at the skies—wondering if the darkening clouds are the precursor to more rain.

On June 20, forecasters were calling for substantial rain for that weekend based on weather conditions to the west and southwest of the Rainy Lake basin.

Coming up this weekend, and through to Tuesday and the following weekend, are celebrations marking both Canada Day and the Fourth of July across Borderland.

A combined effort on both sides of the border has created a week-long celebration, although the flood threat unfortunately has forced both the Dragon Boat Festival and cross-border “Pulling for Peace” tug-of-war events to be cancelled.

Still, together we can celebrate how successful we’ve been in holding back Rainy Lake and protecting our neighbours and communities.

In a little more than a decade, Rainy River District has experienced two extreme rainfalls. They may be a result of climate change that is affecting our weather patterns.

What was a 50-year extreme in 2002 is now repeating itself—and may mimic a 100-year extreme that brought on the flooding of 1950.

An almost 80-year-old landmark broke loose and floated up on the beaches of the Point Park in Fort Frances. The wharf on Sand Bay, originally built to handle barges and tugboats carrying supplies and people to far destinations on Rainy Lake, is no more.

Will your voice be heard at the ballot box? Or are you among the 50 percent of Ontario citizens who are going to let someone else make the decision for you about who will govern the province following tomorrow’s election?

Around the coffee table, it appears no one is excited by this election. It is not a top-of-mind concern anywhere in Fort Frances outside of the campaign offices of the four parties.

What does that say about electors in the Kenora-Rainy River riding?

The provincial election will be held June 12 but the advance polls already are open and voting is underway.

As I watch the campaign unfold, I’m struck by how mean-spirited it has become among the three party leaders.

Integrity and honesty seem to have been forgotten, and many of the mandarins carrying the three main provincial banners are doing no more than uttering the sound bites put forward by the central organizing committees in Toronto.

When is something considered old? In fashion it might be three months. When it comes to cars and trucks, it could be 10 years.

A home might be considered old when it has been around for 50-60 years. A person might be considered old at age 70 or 80.

Buildings in Canada could be considered old from age 40 to age 125. By our standards, much of historic Germany, Austria, and Hungary must be ancient.

After travelling for two weeks up the Rhine and then down the Danube, I gained a new appreciation for the age of buildings.

Well, we are off to the races, with the election date set for Thursday, June 12 here in Ontario.

After the budget that Kathleen Wynne’s Liberal government delivered at Queen’s Park last Thursday, I fully expected that Andrea Horwath and her NDP caucus would stand behind the premier and the legislature would go on for another year.

I like both women. Both Andrea and Kathleen are practical, down-to-earth people and I find them both sincere and approachable.

In my office at the moment sit four decoys for the annual Ducks Unlimited auction coming up this Friday evening.

They range from a working decoy to museum-quality duck reproductions.

Sitting on a filing cabinet, they face me from across the room. But come Thursday evening, they will travel to the Memorial Sports Centre to be part of the auctions at the DU banquet.

I have enjoyed looking at decoys since my wife, some 30 years ago, gave me a mallard decoy as a gift. It began a long enjoyment of collecting duck carvings.

This is “Spring Fever” weekend in Emo. This year, it also might be known as the “Cabin Fever Breakout.”

The businesses of Emo have, for more than four decades, drawn district residents together to celebrate the end of winter and the beginning of spring and summer.

Some 47 years ago, I made my first trip on my own to check out the boats at Tompkins. That spring, I had a licence to drive and my father let me borrow the family car and with my brother on a Friday night, we headed to Emo for Spring Fever Days.

I haven’t missed a “Spring Fever” weekend since.

This past weekend, I was discussing the value of travel in young peoples’ education with parents from Kenora and Dryden.

It is interesting to note that the current generation of young people are more informed, more mobile, and more adventurous than previous ones.

When I was growing up, the big trip I remember was travelling west to Saskatchewan to visit relatives of both my mother and father.

After that, the only experience I had was travelling with the Muskies to the Centennial tournament in Sudbury back in 1967.