R Rufus
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POLLS: Liberals hold a steady lead, and other poll insights
39I usually find the opposite, that there are more conservative readers here. It shows up in lots of reader polls, there is often a ‘right’ slant.
12- R Rufus
Family shaken after theft linked to encampment near Orillia Square
OrilliaMatters 32I definitely know if one more theft reported to police of tools that were stolen from my neighbour. The neighbour did get most of it back, they reported it to police but ended up going to the encampment and located their stuff. It was in the summer and it was reported to police . So the OPP were aware of at least one other theft related to that encampment. We are nearby too and have had our things gone through as well. Sympathy for people’s situation for sure but stealing is wrong and law enforcement needs to step up.
1- R Rufus
'Disappointing': High costs derail Orillia’s red light camera plan
OrilliaMatters 23It’s interesting that when it doesn’t make money, the safety factor isn’t deemed important enough to install them. It kinda tells you that the speed cameras were more about money over safety. Not saying they were right or wrong but why not install these when they say they are needed? They showed their true priorities.
3- R Rufus
Developer 'should be charged' over Silver Creek 'disaster': naturalist
OrilliaMatters 18That’s pretty broad and misleading. Canada has lost over 90% of the Carolinian forest. Resulting in loss of habitat for nearly 1/3 of all species at risk in the country. We’ve lost 40% of temperate rainforest, 95% of temperate rainforest old growth but yes, the boreal where no one wants to live, can’t profit from and the arctic balance things out. Sure. But that doesn’t change the losses in our own city.
3- R Rufus
Developer 'should be charged' over Silver Creek 'disaster': naturalist
OrilliaMatters 16Wow. I guess I’m not nearly as funny as I thought. But come on, the mayor not talking to the only local newspaper about the City’s politics because they don’t make people use their legal names for comments? The fact that the mayor wants to know who posts comments so badly, is the exact reason some need to remain anonymous to avoid retaliation.
4- R Rufus
Heads up: One of city's new speed cameras goes live on Friday
OrilliaMatters 18The township of Severn is also putting a speed camera at Burnside line. While I am not against speed enforcement, what bothers me is that the intersection at Burnside and Division is a major and well known safety hazard. That intersection has resulted in many accidents, injuries and deaths. It has been on the townships radar for years. To my knowledge, there are none of the same safety issues along the section of road where the speed camera is although it is a place where speeding is common. It seems very obvious that the township is trying to catch speeding drivers - there aren’t even many houses along that section of road and any that are, are far back from the road. While this is great, if safety was the priority, the township wouldn’t be dragging their feet addressing the hazards of that intersection for the last 5 years.
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Developer 'should be charged' over Silver Creek 'disaster': naturalist
OrilliaMatters 11It must be nice to be Mayor…. and I will no longer pay my municipal taxes, due to the Mayor’s interview policy. Lol.
7- R Rufus
All Simcoe County school buses cancelled today
OrilliaMatters 15Or everyone else who has to go to work and travel the same roads.
2- R Rufus
Province moving to restrict bike lanes, increase speed limits
OrilliaMatters 13I’m so relieved to see the Ontario conservatives realizing that the planning of bike lanes is beyond the capabilities of elected officials at the municipal level. Doug always has our priorities in order wether it’s $1 beer, cheap development land for his buddies, paying lawyers to argue about gas pump stickers (with our tax dollars) or manufacturing a healthcare service crisis to privatize the industry and capitalize on billions. Just one smart decision after another with these conservatives!
3- R Rufus
Bike lanes, turn lane included in next phase of Laclie St. reconstruction
OrilliaMatters 13lol. This made me laugh! Great analogy and I’m also all for the bike lanes.
2- R Rufus
BREAKING: Carney Liberals clinch majority with wins in two Toronto byelections
9Looking at these comments, I wonder how many of you are hypocrites. I don’t really support floor crossers either but to call this undemocratic and attack the Liberals? Floor crossing has happened under all parties and none of them have wanted to stop it. Look at the alternative, if Carney called an election, reliable polls show that the CONs would lose 40 seats and the LIBs would probably have a large majority with 200+ seats. This would be a great benefit to Carney, he wouldn’t need every member there for votes and could afforded for a few to leave or retire. He’d also have another 4 years. But he hasn’t done that, it would distract from doing work that needs to be done and it would cost Canadians millions of dollars and lost time for another federal election. There’s a reason these people are leaving the CONs and NDP and there’s a reason all 3 by elections just went LIB. Stop your whining and stop with the hypocrisy! We have a pretty strong democracy.
5- R Rufus
POLL: Most support province's curbs on new bike lanes
7The fact that people downvote this comment shows why bike lanes are a necessity. There are clearly many out there who feel that they own the road and have little respect for anyone else using it but themselves. If these folks were just decent, considerate people instead of a bunch of such and such that can’t share the road, we wouldn’t need bike lanes to keep cyclists safe. It’s these greedy self centred folk driving taxes higher and higher
6- R Rufus
Orillia speed cameras issued over 12,000 tickets in four months
OrilliaMatters 9Works out to $5,220,000 annually or approximately an additional $700 annual cost per 4 person household in fines. Yes we shouldn’t speed but if 12,000 people were speeding in 4 months, how many accidents are really caused by speeding? Also, much of the traffic just moved to other streets.
4- R Rufus
‘Not the right time’: Doug Ford promises to sell private jet
4Im sure this will be an unpopular comment but honestly, if there was a need and a good case made for a jet, it doesn’t really bother me. Now I am not a fan of Doug, but this snafu is way lower on the list of bad choices he’s made. I could have lived with this. Greenbelt, healthcare and education, transparency, that’s the stuff that really gets to me about this govt.
7- R Rufus
Orillia's 2026 OPP bill pushes city tax hike to 1.48 per cent
OrilliaMatters 10So the OPP costs 12M for the year or about $33,000/day, so about one dollar per citizen per day. Seems like a lot.
1- R Rufus
Dunlop doles out $10.9M for local infrastructure, other projects
OrilliaMatters 10Funny how Dunlop gets the headline credit when it’s the taxpayer providing the money.
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Open your wallets: City looking at potential 6.94% tax hike
OrilliaMatters 9I wonder how much of the increase is to pay for county councils 165% raise they just voted for themselves?
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Union claims township employees being 'priced out' of Oro-Medonte
OrilliaMatters 8I think the township would gladly cut services to reduce costs but then (some) residents complain. Not sticking up for OM but this is the classic conundrum of every level of government - people don’t want service cuts, and don’t want tax increases. Balance is a hard thing and no one usually ends up happy.
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Trump terminates trade talks with Canada because of Ontario anti-tariff ads
5Love it! I’m so using this term from now on!
3- R Rufus
'It's horrible': Local woman scammed out of housing deposit
OrilliaMatters 8Facebook is rampant with scammers and Facebook seems to do nothing about it. I used to report obvious scam accounts each and every time I came across them on marketplace but then Facebook flagged me for reporting too many and wouldn’t let me do it anymore. Facebook policy lets this happen and they seem to take no responsibility. I’ve seen ‘verified’ accounts that were scammers too.
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