‘The War Show’ brings Midland’s military history to life
By: Derek Howard, Local Journalism Initiative Reporter, Source: MidlandToday.ca, Oct. 31, 2025
‘The War Show’ is the current Huronia Players production running until November 9 at the Midland Cultural Centre, but if one visits the facility before the curtain rises you may learn a little something about Midland’s military history.
A special viewing at the MCC was held this week that treated active and retired military members to historic displays presented by local Royal Canadian Legion members, the Canadian Museum of Water and the Huronia Museum.
In addition, attendees who watched the play were given an interactive question-and-answer session with the director and cast afterwards.
One highlight for anyone lining up at the red carpet entrance was a mural from Victoria Harbour military artist Don Ward, a member of the Canadian Association of Veterans and United Nations Peacekeeping.
As part of a larger project titled ‘Bringing Their Faces Into The Light’, Ward’s hanging banner featured detailed statistics on the flower-class corvette H.M.C.S. Midland, the Sopwith Baby fighter craft, and ten of its named personnel with names familiar to the region.
“I am a huge proponent of remembrance,” said Ward. “What people don’t realize sometimes is that nothing is without sacrifice – and if that mural shows sacrifice, it gets the message across.”
Ward recently completed a 284-portrait, three-year project at Peacekeeper’s Park in Angus, and spent over a week on the Midland artwork.
He told MidlandToday that his inspiration for the projects was due to seeing names and nothing more on cenotaphs.
“My concept is to bring as many images back to the light and tell their story: who were their parents; who were their wives; who were their children? Because we forget that when one soldier dies, usually 20 people are affected… and they get forgotten. Nobody talks about them either,” said Ward. “That is my whole goal: To bring all that into the light.”
Ward revealed his next project to be with Simcoe County for a large-scale memorial honouring nearly 2,400 veterans and 5,000 living veterans. “I found 350 vets that are not on any cenotaphs in Simcoe County for that project,” he added.
In the lobby of the Midland Cultural Centre, members of the local Royal Canadian Legion branches took in Ward’s art as well as other displays within the Canadian Museum of Water.
“We’re calling this ‘Waves of Valour’,” said executive director Dan Travers. “Not a lot of people realize the contributions that Midland, and southern Georgian Bay generally as a community, made during the First and Second World War. That included people who went off to war, especially sailors, which is what we’re commemorating here.
“We’re also commemorating those who worked in shipbuilding as well, and of course that was both men and women; there were women riveters, there were women welders during the World Wars that made incredible sacrifices to contribute to Allied victory. This is in many ways a commemoration of that sacrifice,” said Travers.
Physical memorabilia and digital scans were shown in the museum, which interested many who showed. David Hart, sergeant-at-arms for Victoria Harbour Legion Branch 523, moved to the area recently after serving over 40 years in the Navy.
“This is of great interest to me because I did not know – I’m actually a fairly good historian with regards to the Navy, Pacific War, things like that – but this I was not aware of,” said Hart, pointing at the exhibits.
“The little patrol boats they built here; how they used the marine railway to get them up and down; this part is a learning experience for me.”
Penetanguishene Branch 68 membership chair Perry Rittershofer supplied many photos from their collection. “It’s another way for the community to remember the significance that this area played in the Great War and in World War II, specifically for the naval aspect of it.”
The War Show centres around young Canadian soldiers throughout their journeys leaving home to face the horrors of war on the front lines, allowing audiences to become invested in their lives during the play.
Director Ron Payne told MidlandToday that he was surprised that the atrium would be filled with exhibits of Midland’s military past.
“I’m doing this play to salute the men and women who served, the people who stayed at home, and it’s a great story,” said Payne. “It’s great to see this atrium come alive again.
“It’s especially nice to see the Legion people here. Those are the people that we salute by doing this play, there were the ones that were lucky enough to come back,” Payne added. “It’s not just a play, it’s not just our theater, but they opened this up and put on displays so that you really get the sense and feeling of veterans, of people serving, and even the modern day army, navy and air force.”
The spotlight was even given to RCSCC Trillium Lieutenant (Navy) Lisa Huvers, who said she was honoured to appear in several minor roles within the play.
“I think it’s really important to have an active interaction between community members, service members, and everything that will support each other. We can’t do one without the other so it’s important to work hand-in-hand like that.”
The War Show runs until November 9 at the Midland Cultural Centre; dates and tickets are available through the Huronia Players website.
‘Tax on the stupid’: Speeding fines spark debate at Midland municipal office
By: Derek Howard, Local Journalism Initiative Reporter, Source: MidlandToday.ca, Oct. 27, 2025
The Midland municipal office is quite the happening place these days, primarily from drivers caught red-handed by speed camera through one of the town’s active 40 kilometre-per-hour school zones.
Since becoming active on September 2 at the William Street community safety zone beside Sacred Heart Catholic School, town staff recently stated that nearly 34,000 speeders had been clocked in a one-month span.
A 30-day grace period was allowed for those ticketed, with an option to pay at the town’s municipal front desk.
Mayor Bill Gordon’s office is located to the west side of the building with his door open frequently. He called the tickets, “the most easily avoided tax in the world; just take your foot off the gas for the 100-or-so metres, and then resume driving safely.”
“I hear it at the front counter, there’s a lot of people that come in that simply haven’t had a ticket of any form in decades,” said Gordon, “and this is their first brush with the law. A lot of them are quite embarrassed.”
One embarrassed Midland driver, wanting to remain anonymous and describing himself as a retired law enforcement officer, spoke to MidlandToday about his ticket. “It’s a tax on the stupid; I got caught so I was classed as stupid, I guess,” he admitted.
“I think it’s fair to have them out there; like, not every fly gets caught in a spider’s web,” he added. “I don’t make a habit of speeding, but when you’re doing 50 and if you’re not looking for them little signs, you don’t think about it.”
Another resident, Sandy, visited the front desk to pay on behalf of her son who was out of town, stating her belief that municipalities were using speed cameras as “a big money grab.”
“The town of Midland has a lot more things to worry about than somebody going a little bit excessively over the speed limit,” said Sandy. “I mean, the downtown core, drugs – there’s many things that are rampant in this town that they (council) need to be looking after and taking care of, instead of coming down on actual working class people that might be going a little bit over the speed limit.”
A recent column by MidlandToday editor Andrew Philips took a tongue-in-cheek approach to the speed camera initiative.
Also citing the ‘cash grab’ aspect was Premier Doug Ford, whose government initially implemented the automated speed enforcement system in 2022. Ford’s introduction of legislation to ban speed cameras was included in a ‘red tape’ bill on Friday, awaiting receipt of royal assent.
Gordon was speaking with MidlandToday when one resident, Chris King, was spotted calmly disputing his speeding ticket. King was invited by Gordon into his office where the two spent half an hour discussing why and how the tickets were issued, and why King felt compelled to dispute it.
The conversation started with Gordon seated beside King, admitting overhearing him say he hadn’t seen the traffic signs; Gordon then showed photos taken on his smartphone of the five traffic signs warning of the incoming ASE cameras, implementation of, and departure from, as well as the changing speeds within the community safety zone.
Replied King: “I’ve lived in this town since I was a kid. I have (attention deficit disorder), I don’t have time to look at all these signs, especially in the morning on a Saturday when my brain – for as long as I’ve been driving – it’s been a 50 here on Saturday.”
King emphasized his reliance on focusing on the road and its other vehicles and pedestrians as his primary concern when driving, and admitted feeling worried whenever teenage drivers were dangerously speeding on roads in the area.
Gordon led King step by step through the reasoning for council’s choice to obey multiple studies and data which showed the location as a top speeding zone in town, and the cost of implementation for the town to put up the cameras, hydro and signage. Furthermore, Gordon explained that only the top speeders were ticketed; a recent council meeting stated nearly 1,650 tickets were issued in the month of September.
“Most of the money from the ticket goes to the province,” said Gordon, showing King the surcharge listed on his ticket. “(Ford) gets $8.25 on every single ticket to the MTO. They do over a million lookups (per month) on the database.”
Gordon, who formerly worked in law enforcement, continued to explain the victim fine surcharge. “Do we keep that? No. It goes to some slush fund at the province. What do they spend it on? Victims. Even in my 25 years of policing, I’ve never seen a cheque from the victim fine surcharge pay for anything,” Gordon said.
King offered to show the cost of his ticket, nearly $115.
“The town might have made $15 or $20 off that,” replied Gordon. “That’s how much we keep, that’s the money-grubbing cash-grabbing mayor that I am.”
Midway through the conversation, King challenged Gordon. “It kind of sounds like you’re playing both sides of the coin,” said King, asking where he stood on the issue.
“I am 100 per cent for speed cameras,” Gordon affirmed, praising the “empirical evidence that they slow people down”, and listing off the studies and groups advocating for proven safety measures.
“What it doesn’t do well,” said Gordon, “it doesn’t have enough guardrails to stop municipalities that want to turn it into a cash grab; we didn’t put 50 cameras on arterial roads (like) other municipalities were. Every day, they were making a new community safety zone so they could put a camera in and make money. That’s what pissed off people.” Gordon further explained how attempts to reason with Ford to implement such policy restrictions were met with a deaf ear.
At the end, King thanked Gordon for the lengthy explanation, but restated his intent to dispute the claim; he noted that had a flashing light been present to alert drivers of the speed camera, his driving behaviour may have changed.
Gordon encouraged King to dispute it, as it was his right to do so, and gave a teaser that the town would have new MTO-mandated signs installed for school zones by mid-November..
“This new vastly oversized signage for school zones – like to the point of almost six-feet tall, like it’s almost like clown-sized signage,” said Gordon, skeptical of financial compensation for non-camera school zones and lack of bilingual signs.
Midland defeats ‘dangerous precedent’ on downtown housing request
By: Derek Howard, Local Journalism Initiative Reporter, Source: MidlandToday.ca, Oct 22, 2025
Development charges aren’t a hot topic issue usually, but a split decision which ended in defeat occurred at the recent Midland council meeting as the issues of illegality and safety were weighed.
Coun. Bill Meridis introduced a motion which requested, on behalf of a resident, that the town pay $17,300 in full development charges for a rental unit on a downtown building. However, that downtown building was located at 518/520 Elizabeth Street, adjacent to the Guesthouse Shelter.
Municipalities typically direct their staff to follow the development charges guideline that ‘growth pays for growth’, a saying which essentially means any infrastructure changes (such as building an addition onto a house) are borne by those making those changes, and not paid by the full ratepayers of a municipality through taxes.
Meridis, a known champion for scrutinizing budgets in an attempt to save taxpayers money but critical against management of the Guesthouse shelter, acknowledged that the motion went against his typical behaviour, but his justification was for the business owner’s livelihood to provide for family due to an inability due to the shelter’s proximity to rent the available units.
Furthermore, while a business was operated in the front, the building’s three other units were intended for use by recovering Canadian Mental Health Association recipients, which was the intent for providing housing through a fourth unit if built.
“When we had that last incident behind the Guesthouse shelter with the machete flying around, (the owner) was there,” said Meridis, claiming the location was evacuated quickly.
“But we swept that under the rug; we went to the open house and all we heard is the good stories, but we don’t listen to (their) stories and we don’t back (them) up.”
A counterargument was given by Mayor Bill Gordon, who said the landlord “rolled the dice” by buying the building with full knowledge the shelter was in operation adjacent to it, and sternly cautioned that to approve the request – as housing is a function of county and provincial directives, and not for lower-tier municipalities to handle – would be opening up a precedent that “arguably any property owner” could exploit.
“I don’t blame this private landlord for looking for ways to recoup losses,” said Gordon, “but cloaking it in: ‘I’m doing benevolence and housing people for profit, and I still feel that I deserve to get tax money as a rebate from a lower-tier municipality who has no business doing that’, just doesn’t make any sense. I’m quite surprised that we’re even having this conversation.”
Gordon added that there were many paths for development charge forgiveness, which the property owner opted not to pursue.
“It would set a really dangerous precedent for the town, and quite frankly open us up to litigation, I’m positive, he said.
“I just don’t know that we’d have any leg to stand on at the Ontario Land Tribunal if we made this really bad precedent,” said Gordon.
To further muddy the debate, Meridis’ claim to transfer $17,300 from the council initiatives reserve (CIR), citing unused municipal earmarks such as unattended conferences within the council training budget as areas where funds could be transferred, was met with confusion.
Staff stated that the reserve was initiated from funds regarding the Economic Development Corporation of North Simcoe withdrawal redirected into economic development in town, which surprised many on council who thought that matter dealt with some time ago.
However, discussion of ‘bonusing’ through a community improvement plan (CIP) – the use of a municipality dealing with municipal assets and waived development charges – had also been discussed in the meeting in regards to Municipal Act section 106.
“It’s kind of a grey area,” said chief building official Mike Campitelli, “because it applies to manufacturing, industry, and commercial enterprises, but it prevents a municipality from granting assistance through a partial or full exemption from any fees.”
Community and growth executive director Steve Farquharson added: ““It does talk about bonusing, and how (it’s) not clearly defined within that Act; but there is certain criteria… if we’re allowed to give bonusing to commercial enterprises – which is what this would be considered.”
“(We would) never discuss using Midland taxpayer money to fund something that’s funded by the province and distributed through the county in any other state, except now we’re talking about this one thing,” said Gordon. “If this place wasn’t beside the Guesthouse, would we even be having this conversation?”
Said Coun. Jamie-Lee Ball: “It’s unrealistic to have somebody with a pile of debt from opening a business and renovating and giving a needed service to our community, and then saying ‘you can’t make money to pay this back’.
“I don’t agree with that,” Ball added, “and I think that if the Midland taxpayers knew that we have to fund things like this because the county and the province aren’t, then they should be outraged.”
The vote was called, but absent from the council meeting was Deputy Mayor Beth Prost. A show of hands was made resulting in a tie from the eight council members, which meant the motion was defeated.
Council meetings are held every third Wednesday, and can be viewed on Rogers TV cable channel 53 when available, or through the livestream on the Rogers TV website. Archives of council meetings are available through Rogers TV and on the Town of Midland’s YouTube channel.
Midland District Shrine Club Continues Longstanding Support for GBGH
By GBGH, Nov. 4, 2025
On September 5th, members of the Midland District Shrine Club presented Georgian Bay General Hospital (GBGH) Foundation with a donation of $1,000 in support of the We See You campaign. The Club has been supporting GBGH Foundation for more than 21 years, helping to fund vital equipment and tools that enhance care for patients across North Simcoe. From left to right: Noble Win Elliott, Past President; Grant McCabe, President; Neal Foot, Past President, Midland District Shrine Club; and Victoria Evans, Sr. Key Relationships Officer, GBGH Foundation