SHORT ELECTION NOTES - WHY NOT?

A number of years ago, while working on an anniversary of South Muskoka Memorial Hospital, and Bracebridge Memorial Hospital circa 1927, an invited member of the special committee, working on behalf of the Hospital Foundation, tipped me off that closure of the facility was a very real possibility. It was said to me as Hospital Historian at the time. I never forgot it, and have written numerous blogs and letters to the editor, of the local press, trying to relay the message that unless the citizens of South Muskoka are vigilant, and up to speed on every single issue regarding the financial shortfalls of the facility, a dire consequence could be the result of ignorance and apathy.

There have been all kinds of comments coming from hospital officials, back to the apparently negative press (the press gets blamed for a lot of stuff.....but seldom credited for keeping us on top of important issues effecting our community), over the past four years in particular that seem an awful lot like damage control and public relations mantra, so as to not affect the fundraising efforts of the hospital.....which was the latest argument to keep negative news about its future off the front page. I warned the press some time ago that a closure was not as far-fetched as hospital officials might have you believe. The problem here it that the “public’s right to know,” is being confused by some folks, with a protocol of “what is less-damning for us.....for you to know!” If the financial problems were in any way to affect the future operation of the hospital, even if it was of the smallest potential, why is it that management would feel this knowledge would be a public relations problem? Sometimes enlightenment secures folks with solutions. The real problem here, is when it’s finally revealed by time and research that our suspicions weren’t misguided, we wonder collectively why we weren’t told of this sooner......and why we continue to be treated as morons?

As I have written in this blog and in letters to the editor, the councils in our region, regardless of being a district representative, or town councillor, it’s time to get off the fence and commence paying attention, for starters. Towns in our region have been accommodating developers, wishing to build seniors housing all over the place, and making our region look real good to retirees from the rest of the province, when for at least part of this time, the future of the hospital here has been unclear.....except for the debt part. When we seek out development you can bet the economic development committees are flogging the fact we are well served by medical facilities. Is it negligence on our part then, that we have attracted so many seniors to our region, while knowing full well, services were going to be reduced for these same citizens in the near future? Did these committee flag this part of the brochure, and ad, “by the way.....don’t count on it!” Don’t think they wanted to rain on their own parade.

This is a provincial fight and it’s not the first or last time it will be a fight. Frank Miller, former MPP, and Health Minister of Ontario, and former Hospital Administrator Frank Henry, fought relentlessly to keep our hospital open. It will take a relentless fight to keep it open in the future.

South Muskoka Memorial Hospital was founded in 1927 as a memorial to those local citizens who gave their lives for our freedom...... It seems to me a worthy battle to push on with, to keep our hospital a memorial for many decades to come.

AS TO WHETHER AN EDITOR IS RESPONSIBLE TO PUBLISHER OR NOT?

In my years as editor with the local press, I was never, ever, above the publisher in management authority, when it came to demanding what went in the weekly paper. There wasn’t one edition that left our newspaper office that didn’t have the publisher, or the associate publisher’s approval.....or it simply didn’t get printed until addressed. Over the years I’ve had many editor - publisher disputes, some that very nearly cost me my job but I never once misunderstood the chain of command. And if I’m not mistaken, when there is a legal action against a publication, the publisher is in the mix regardless. Seeing as the publisher has to be able to defend the work of the editor and staff, because it is a basic protocol of responsibility..... of ownership, its representation, or simply as the spokesperson of the publication,..... an editor is not above a necessary control......even if that only means protecting the outlet from legal ramifications of one nature or another.....as well as protecting the business component for those with a vested interest.

As editor, I was told by two publishers, over my tenure, to write an editorial about an issue I didn’t agree. I agreed that it was the right of the publisher to insist on insertion of such an editorial opinion but not acceptable to ask the editor to support or author the piece. I wasn’t fired and I didn’t support the editorial when asked by readership. That was the right and privilege of the publisher to use the chain of command to run the newspaper. But there was no mistaking the reality, that if I had objected to the editorials running in “my” paper, and refused their inclusion, I would have been dismissed for basic insubordination by the boss.......only over-ruled by a board of directors if a larger ownership arrangement.

Just for your information.

ELECTION LULL - WHAT A NICE CHANGE OF PACE

LOOKING FORWARD TO ROY MACGREGOR’S NEW BOOK ON THOMSON MYSTERY

For the first time in the past month, this blog isn’t about elections or their kind....but it is about living and working in Gravenhurst, and as an historian, loving anything to do with Tom Thomson. I have great respect and admiration for the folks who write so poignantly about his work, his life and times, and what we’d be missing without his incredible contribution to today’s national identity. Thomson’s was a short life. And true enough, it did end in mystery. While I’ve been enthralled with his art work from childhood, when the school text books then contained some of his best known panels, I’ve been an admirer throughout my life. When I look out on the horizon above the lake, and see a typical late autumn sky, I think of Thomson. When I see vividly colored wildflowers in sunny patches, scattered in the woodlands, I recall how Thomson worked so mindfully to match the colors with what he witnessed in person. Whether it is the Northern Lights quivering in a late autumn sky, or an approaching spring storm, I think to myself, I bet Thomson would have been interested in this.

I knew well known Canadian author / historian, Roy MacGregor, was working on a new book about the mysterious death of Canadian landscape artist, Tom Thomson, who perished while traversing Algonquin’s Canoe Lake, in July of 1917. I corresponded with Roy over a few days, a couple of years ago, about work he was doing on the Thomson case. I’ve been a Thomson sleuth since the mid 1990's, when I acquired the 1970's signed first edition, of William Little’s “Tom Thomson Mystery,” from the Salvation Army Thrift Shop, here in Gravenhurst. As a matter of some irony, at the same time, I was reading the weekly installments in a local newspaper which was carrying a series of articles about Thomson’s demise, as written by long-time woodsman and Algonquin guide, Ralph Bice. Judge Little had only recently passed away, and this series of articles made a strong point of criticizing the author’s allegation Thomson had been the victim of foul play. He contradicted Judge Little numerous times, suggesting instead that Thomson was a poor canoeist and it led to his downfall. Bice, as well as a few others, have maintained Thomson, after a wee dram, simply stood up in the canoe, mid-traverse, and relieved himself, toppling down onto the gunnel where he smashed his head. Knocked-out, he sank to the bottom, and the rest is history.

I’ve been chasing this story ever-since and I’ve published numerous feature series on the case, in a variety of papers in Ontario, and that in part gave me a wonderful opportunity to chat with Mr. MacGregor, who I highly regard in both the writing industry in Canada, and for his research on the Thomson case.....which first surfaced for me in his largely fictional account....that brushed closely by the truth.....entitled “Shorelines,” dealing in part with Thomson’s romantic liaison just prior to his death. I offered a few bits and bobs of information, and have waited anxiously for the actual publication’s release, and the promised new information the text was supposed to contain. The biggest news for me, was that the skull, initially removed from a grave-site on Canoe Lake, where he was first buried after being pulled from the lake, was given a facial reconstruction by a leading forensic institution, and it appears as if the grave, (supposedly empty after an exhumation ordered by the Thomson family, later in July 1917) still has Thomson’s body within......or his twin as the reconstruction shows. This supports Judge Little’s theory, dating back to the 1950's, when he and three mates held an impromtu exhumation at the Mowat (Canoe Lake) Cemetery, and found that there was still a body buried in what was supposed to be an empty grave. When Little went to authorities and asked for the case of Thomson’s death, and final burial place, to be the subject of inquiry, the matter was intruded upon by many different sources, insisting the case be closed. With questionable forensic scrutiny, it was decided the skull belonged to a First Nations victim, the hole in the skull the result of some medical procedure, to reduce pressure on the brain.

Wow, this is really confusing isn’t it! What is exciting about the book, for this Thomson mystery fanatic, is that it somewhat proves William Little was right, when he claimed that the Huntsville undertaker, who had claimed to have moved Thomson from Mowat, to Leith, Ontario (near Owen Sound) via the train, had really only moved enough Algonquin earth to feel the weight of a newly deceased artist. I’ve pestered Roy about this, to no avail, but it sure begs now, that the Leith grave be the subject of a final investigation, to determine if that grave is empty. In the biography of Robert and Signe McMichael, who created the well respected McMichael Collection, of Kleinberg, entitled “One Man’s Obsession,” there is a reference, as related to a Thomson family source, to the metal coffin being opened by the undertaker, to satisfy Tom Thomson’s father.....who was then at peace that the plot would indeed contain the remains of his son. Now with this new forensic evidence that the skull was most likely Thomson’s, it is an even more poignant mystery now......because there was only one Tom Thomson, and there now appears to be two actual graves according to accounts new and old. Fascinating.

I ran it buy David Silcox, recently, well known in the art community, for having written “Silence of the Storm,” the biography of Tom Thomson, who has avoided the controversy of which grave is which.....and as he re-iterates, each time we chat about Thomson, the real importance is to value the art work he created during his life, which of course reminds me that we do tend to spend more time discussing the mysterious circumstances of his death, versus celebrating his wonderful art work he bestowed upon us.....now so proudly and affectionately part of our national identity for all these decades.

I’m torn between the issues, admittedly, yet in awe of the work of both men, Canadian historians, who have given us so much information on the life and work of painter, Tom Thomson.

This is the kind of material I work on most, here in my Gravenhurst office, when there’s no election bumping about!