LAURIE WEIR The ongoing drama surrounding the blue flyer, the integrity commissioner’s reports, and the public disagreements between councillors in Rideau Lakes have been significant distractions for the township. While […]
LAURIE WEIR When news breaks about animal hoarding cases, the public’s reaction is a mix of anger, sadness and frustration. Hundreds of cats or dogs are often found crammed into […]
STAFF We are thrilled to announce that Alicia Whyte has joined Hometown News in the role of Advertising and Communications. With over a decade of experience in the advertising industry, […]
LAURIE WEIR Rideau Lakes Township finds itself embroiled in yet another round of Integrity Commissioner (IC) investigations, raising important questions: Are these probes now par for the course in township […]
BRIAN PRESTON In keeping with my title, The Travelling Sommelier, this month I will tell the saga of sailing for 3 weeks from Boston up the New England coast and […]
LAURIE WEIR The Sept. 3 decision by the Rideau Lakes council to seek a third-party investigation into an Integrity Commissioner’s (IC) report, while keeping the report confidential, represents a crucial […]
BRIAN PRESTON Here we are in August already after a hot July when many of us still look to a brew as a thirst quencher. Yes, the younger crowd and […]
LAURIE WEIR The discussion surrounding the reopening of the Joyceville abattoir has sparked heated debates, with strong cases on both sides. Proponents argue that reopening the facility would help local […]
LAURIE WEIR In a democracy, transparency and accountability are not just buzzwords—they are foundational principles that ensure the public’s trust in their elected officials. Unfortunately, it appears that these principles […]
LAURIE WEIR In the heart of Lanark County, where the meadows are lush and the flowers bloom in a riot of colours, there’s a gentle hum that signifies more than […]
SALLY SMITH I used Maggie’s Maid yesterday. I remember mother trundling along the trails in the middle of Fairclough Island dragging the ‘maid’ behind her. She filled it with sticks […]
BRIAN PRESTON Well it finally happened. The Ontario government is keeping an election promise to widen the availability of certain alcoholic beverages to various retail stores across the province. The […]
COLUMN BY BRIAN PRESTON This month we will explore summertime wine, Rosé in particular. LCBO is featuring this versatile and easy-drinking wine in their Vintages Release publication too. I will […]
OPINION BY SALLY SMITH Everyone’s talking about the ‘no snow’ winter. It might still be coming. But it’s already the beginning of March and snow is melting…not drifting from the […]
On the front lines with some of Lanark County OPP’s female officers LAURIE WEIR As we recognize International Women’s Day on March 8, this year’s theme focuses on inclusion. Imagine […]
Non-alcoholic beers have come a long way since I last wrote about them in 2017. Non-alcoholic beer (or NA beer, as it’s sometimes called) starts life as a normal beer. […]
COLUMN BY BRIAN PRESTON.The Travelling Sommelier, Portland, ON at 613-272-3129, brianpreston@hotmail.com This fall I discovered Bridge Masters Brewery in Perth at 29 Beckwith Street East after visiting the Perth Royal Canadian Legion […]
Brian Hamilton is a graduate of Brock University’s Cool Climate Oenology and Viticulture Institute, and was previously a winemaker at Malivoire, Southbrook Vineyard and Tawse Winery, all in Niagara Peninsula, and […]
Merry Christmas! Happy Holidays! This time of year has many joyous, merry times, gatherings, and events. No matter where you go, in every store, on television, radio, social media, or […]
Consider this Part 2, as last month I wrote about Side Launch Brewery, one of what I consider to be the two top breweries in the Collingwood area. This month […]
I’m just back from a week’s vacation in Collingwood on Georgian Bay, where I went to about 4 different local craft breweries and wineries, tasting my way through their portfolios. […]
We haven’t left. We’re still here. Others have gone…but Hometown News is still on the streets. For a week or two we thought there wouldn’t be any papers in Smiths […]
I happened to be at my son’s place in Kingston next to Base Kingston recently. Right around the corner off Hwy 15 at Innovation Drive is this lovely modern brewery, […]
With Sushi, quality matters and Yukihana delivers! Ever since Yukihana Sushi opened on Russell Street in Smiths Falls last month by the Chung family, the crowds and rave reviews haven’t […]
Canada’s first 100% solar-powered brewery opened in 2022 in Front of Escott, a small community near Mallorytown located between Kingston and Brockville in Eastern Ontario. The brewer, Phil Audet, and […]
Did the Right Honorable William Lyon Mackenzie King, the tenth prime minister of Canada, visit the Keyhole House? We are not sure. However, we know that he had his fortune […]
Monday was a sunny day and perfect for a country drive with the top down, meandering north to Maberly into the beginnings of the Canadian Shield where rocks, forest and […]
Great baked taste finds a home Carleton Place and area residents are about to learn what hundreds of Brockville and Kingston foodies have known for several years: there’s nothing like […]
If you like spine tingling tales and spectacular magic, you are going to love this. My wife, Marion, and I are now sharing our adventures unlocking secrets and living amongst […]
This month I will take you on a beer tasting tour of Provence and the Riviera in Southern France and the Costa del Sol in Spain ending in Barcelona. We […]
Evening strolls through Victoria Park often lead to a large stone adorned with a bronze marker laid in 1923. The marker reads “This swimming pool erected by the corporation and […]
We had a chance recently to sit down with Nick Ritchie of 4 Degrees brewery, at opening when the place wasn’t yet rockin’, to do a tasting and talk about […]
This month I am going to focus on one of the spirits that I think many don’t appreciate as much as they should in Canada, which has always been a […]
The adolescent stage is between 13-19 years of age. They are filled with untapped potential, but the teenage years are often not seen as positive. It’s the stage of life […]
Agnes woke up in pitch black darkness—she was shivering uncontrollably and drenched in sweat. By morning she was coughing to the point of choking. The 60-year-old could no longer ignore […]
With grocery prices soaring, we gardeners look for ways to feed our families with good nutritious food for less money. Vegetable gardening is a great solution. If you have a […]
When Jimmy Carter addressed the US in 1979, he talked about a growing doubt about the meaning of our lives and the loss of a unity of purpose for the […]
In today’s busy and fast-paced world, it’s unusual to find a business (especially in food service) that has a primary goal of getting their customers to take their time and […]
What can we look forward to in March this year? Well, let’s see, there is International Women’s Day on 8 March; setting the clocks forward for Daylight Savings time on […]
Several years ago, I unearthed a strange object in our backyard. It was a disc of pale green glass with the markings “F & G.” My efforts to research this […]
When you picture a romantic dinner date, what comes to mind… a candlelit dinner, roses, chocolate, slow music, some red wine? Red wine is often associated with Valentine’s Day, so […]
In 1884, at the age of twenty-two, Alice Maude Butler (1866-1935) found herself in a United States courtroom with her fifty-four-year-old mother, Hannah Cordelia (Friar) Butler. The courageous mother-daughter duo […]
In 1873 McGill University granted its first Engineering degrees which at the time were known as Applied Science. Robert James Brodie (1851-1938) was one of only six scholars to be […]
Westport Brewing Company opened in 2018 and I wrote an article back then showcasing the new brewery and the new brews that they were making as well as getting a […]
When Reginald Burroughs moved into the Keyhole House, he left his mark by signing his name, his son Nelson’s name, and the year “1907” into the wet concrete of a […]
Agnes Lamb was a wealthy woman when she died of tuberculosis in 1903 at the Keyhole House. The 60-year-old spinster left executors of her estate with some very clear instructions. […]
Ambrose Halladay moved into the Keyhole House in Smiths Falls with his wife and three children in 1945. His son, Ace, remembers eating a freshly baked bun while sitting on […]
John Perrin was a member of the team of carpenters who built the Keyhole House in Smiths Falls in 1892. During its construction, he left his signature on the back […]
On April 12, 1882, John Bourchier Briggs (1882-1938) was born into an affluent and influential family in St. Pancras, London. His father, William Edward Briggs (1847-1903) was a Liberal politician […]
Heiress to a fortune In 1861, fourteen-year-old Anna Marie Gould (1847-1895) became heiress to William Simpson, the largest landowner in Smiths Falls. At the age of seventeen, she inherited a […]
This is the latest craze in the wine world. I will concentrate on just a few Orange wines from Ontario, B.C., France and Spain. We just returned from a long […]
No matter how you get there, it’s worth the trip! We are undoubtedly blessed with a proliferation of quaint picturesque small towns and villages and especially fortunate to have the […]
Building the future The year was 1883, and Benjamin Glover Byram (1862-1943) left his fiancée, Louisa Marion Dean (1861-1936) in England with a promise. He told her that he would establish […]
In 1829, Jason Gould (1802-1864) made the journey from Roxbury, New York to the raw, undeveloped wilderness of Smiths Falls, Ontario. He had been hired to work on the Rideau […]
Conservative | Green | Liberal | NDP Yes it’s election time again. On Thursday, June 2 Ontarians will go to the polls to choose their next MPPs. Hometown News has […]
When we moved into the Keyhole House, we noticed an odd-looking panel nailed to the wall in the second-floor hallway. A few weeks later, we pried off the mysterious board […]
Companies are doing a great job rebranding corporate greed as inflation. Take Starbucks for example, which says they are forced to raise prices due to inflation and supply chain issues and […]
In 1825, 400 acres of Smiths Falls land was auctioned off for £105 by a sheriff. Major Thomas Smyth defaulted on his mortgage, and Charles Jones took advantage of a […]
Old houses are keepers of secrets and witnesses to history. They have many stories to tell if you are willing to listen. We bought an old house with a view […]
The birth of Smiths Falls begins with a tale of intrigue and espionage. During the American Revolution (1775-1783), the Smyth family were involved in covert spying missions. Working on behalf […]
Elevating a simple pleasure to new heights If you ever wonder if we obsess on donuts, consider that Canadians consume more of them per capita than any other country in […]
The US reached a stark milestone this month of 100,000 people dying of drug overdoses in one year. That is 275 overdose deaths every day. In Canada, 20 people die […]
Architect extraordinaire When we moved into the Keyhole House in Smiths Falls, we decided that the 1960s chandelier with space-age globes hanging in the front hall had run its course. […]
Finding a one-hundred-year-old golf ball hidden in the Keyhole House has led to the discovery of some fascinating golf history. During the dining room restoration, an ancient, brittle piece of […]
Where friends and great food meet In June, Perth’s beautiful heritage downtown welcomed an exciting new food neighbour, Gather, located at 40 Gore Street East. Owned and operated by the […]
When we visited the Keyhole House for the first time in 2018, entering through the Moorish arch was almost like crossing a threshold into another world. We touched the ornate […]
With genuine curiosity I had to google why the Bloc Quebecois leader, Yves-Francois Blanchet was at the federal debate on September 10. He has no intention or desire to be […]
In 1887, The Toronto Mail newspaper raved about the town of Smiths Falls. They wrote that “there were over one hundred buildings erected in Smiths Falls last year” and stated […]
The Smiths Falls Canadian Pacific Railway Station was constructed in 1887. The structure was built on what was once swampland belonging to John McGill Chambers. The town was experiencing a […]
Progressivism claims to be a movement that aims to represent the interests of ordinary people. I’m not so sure about that. We are living in an era with more fences […]
In 1886, the construction of the Canadian Pacific Railway yards in Smiths Falls, Ontario created some incredible business opportunities. Matthew Ryan was a local carpenter who took advantage of the […]
For twenty years, Agnes Lamb lived in what was considered to be the finest mansion between Montreal and Toronto. Alexander Wood’s “Glenwood” Mansion was built on Chambers Street in Smiths […]
I have made my living as a magician since I was 19, and the art of magic has been part of my life ever since. Over the last 22 years, […]
I am currently in my third year of a four-year undergrad degree at Saint Francis Xavier University. I am pursuing my literary passions through editing the school newspaper and writing […]
Smiths Falls is where the magic happens. Not just metaphorically, but also literally; world-famous illusionists Ted and Marion Outerbridge have made this their home. The performers, who have delighted audiences […]
How is a person with disabilities, mental health issues and addictions supposed to improve their lot in life when the Ontario Disability Support Program (ODSP) benefits get clawed back whenever […]
When the president of Eastern Ontario Development Association, J.A. (Joe) Perkins, addressed a large crowd at the grand opening of Perth Municipal Airport on August 30, 1956, he could not […]
I think it is a fabulous idea to write your own personal political manifesto. Am I the only one that gets annoyed when leaders speak ”on behalf of all Canadians […]
A set of weaving headlights could be seen coming from the east on Highway 7, followed by a string of red flashing lights. The stolen vehicle had a drug-crazed and […]
During the middle years of the twentieth century, high-speed chases in Perth and surrounding townships were not uncommon. Some of those chase stories became legends, often discussed among police officers, […]
I do not like the narrative that a working mom is essential to the economy. The Throne Speech promises a national childcare system with high standards that is accessible and […]
We are too complicated for simple labels. I think we should just stop trying to put people in categories and subcategories before we get so divided, we forget which way […]
When this column appeared in November, 2018, the subject was the deadly pandemic which began in 1918, commonly known as the Spanish Flu. My closing remark was: “Stay healthy, my […]
On May 8, known as VE-Day (Victory in Europe), we again remembered the fallen, the wounded, and all those who fought in World War II. The negotiations leading up to […]
I work in a little store and people come in and want to talk about the president. Donald Trump does not care about political correctness and uses Twitter as his playground. […]
An era which was best known for the counterculture and Vietnam war, also saw the birth of organized women’s softball in Canada in the 1960s, and Perth was in step […]
I believe as we go through this pandemic, self-care is very important. One thing I do is go for a walk. Even before the pandemic, walking every day has been […]
The green rush is on while Ontario is busy reinventing the wheel. Alberta has 400 Cannabis stores while Ontario loses $42 million setting up a website and making stickers. A short […]
From its beginnings as a British-influenced military town in 1816, Perth citizens continued to march through two World Wars with the 42nd Field Artillery Regiment and its various incarnations. Many […]
Am I the only one that thinks there is an implicit connection between the blown-up beauty industry valued at $530 Billion and the increase in anxiety and antidepressant use in […]
Perth, like most other small communities, has two faces it would seem. One face is the “Prettiest Town in Ontario”, with heritage building galore, and beautiful parks. The other – […]
LAURIE WEIR The ongoing drama surrounding the blue flyer, the integrity commissioner’s reports, and the public disagreements between councillors in Rideau Lakes have been significant distractions for the township. While […]
More Special Features >>
LAURIE WEIR When news breaks about animal hoarding cases, the public’s reaction is a mix of anger, sadness and frustration. Hundreds of cats or dogs are often found crammed into […]
More Special Features >>
STAFF We are thrilled to announce that Alicia Whyte has joined Hometown News in the role of Advertising and Communications. With over a decade of experience in the advertising industry, […]
More Special Features >>
LAURIE WEIR Rideau Lakes Township finds itself embroiled in yet another round of Integrity Commissioner (IC) investigations, raising important questions: Are these probes now par for the course in township […]
More Special Features >>
BRIAN PRESTON In keeping with my title, The Travelling Sommelier, this month I will tell the saga of sailing for 3 weeks from Boston up the New England coast and […]
More Special Features >>
LAURIE WEIR The Sept. 3 decision by the Rideau Lakes council to seek a third-party investigation into an Integrity Commissioner’s (IC) report, while keeping the report confidential, represents a crucial […]
More Special Features >>
ByNan Business Solutions is your go-to coach LAURIE WEIR Kevin Savoy is an engineer by trade, and has turned his passion for business into helping others. Named after his sons, […]
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