Below are links to my columns published at BayToday.ca during 2021:
November 2
Parallel universes exist in North Bay too
Unfortunately for the Cassellholme board, what’s remaining of it anyway, they didn’t have very good political advice or didn’t follow it.
November 10
Comedy landscape crowded with landmines
Personally, I’m concerned about the potential for extreme censorship at the government level — social pressures are a different worry — but I believe it boils down to good taste and reading the room, on top of taking some care about your actual.
November 17
Main Street a couple bricks short
The price tag of the facelift will probably be higher than anyone anticipated, like all the projects conceived before the COVID 19 pandemic. It could be too much to swallow for the 2022 budget.
November 24
Optics are half the battle … maybe more
It probably wasn’t wise of the Cassellholme management staff to wine and dine at Churchill’s Restaurant last week.
October 4
An ounce of foresight is worth more than a pound of apologies
Unfortunately for the Cassellholme board, what’s remaining of it anyway, they didn’t have very good political advice or didn’t follow it.
October 12
North Bay history an interesting distraction
I’m not sure what’s being planned to celebrate the city’s centennial in 2025 but it’s still not too late to mark the 130th anniversary of electing it’s first mayor or the 140th anniversary for the Township of Widdifield in 2022.
October 19
Mom always said life wasn’t fair
Why cancel the Downtown North Bay Christmas Walk as the curve flattens? Even the school boards are bracing their wobbly spines enough to allow parents to attend outdoor sporting events before the football season ends
October 25
Financial impasse blown up like a beaver dam
Like many of the beaver dams in the region that are swelling beyond capacity, the Cassellholme situation needed Ontario’s $65-M stick of dynamite in a bad way.
Sept. 29, 2021
If wards are the solution, what’s the problem?
It’s not something most sitting councillors like to discuss because it adds a new element in their bid for re-election. Once you’re elected by at-large vote, why would you want to change and seek support in a specific neighbourhood?
Sept. 20, 2021
Brief calm between storms
On the pandemic front, the discussions, debates and protests over vaccine mandates became a lightning rod for politicalization.
Sept. 13, 2021
Welcome to the ‘State of Flux’
Let’s take it a step further and invest that tax revenue directly into low-income and public housing, filling a void that’s causing part of the problem both socially and economically.
Sept. 7, 2021
Infected with that nasty civic duty bug
Not to put too fine a point on it, I believe I can add a measure of depth to the council chamber lineup.
Aug. 30, 2021
City has vast reserves of untapped ‘cynicism’
Perhaps it’s time to change the rules for being elected to municipal office? Maybe a councillor should have to fulfil at least one term before applying for a job at the city?
Aug. 23, 2021
Strategic voting offers false mandates
Even the spectrums on the left and right are at odds with each other, which results in more losers than winners every time we go to the polls.
Aug. 16, 2021
Politicians weave a tangled web
The only benefit of having the election now, as far as I’m concerned, is that it saves having to do it next year because I’m certain the Bloc, NDP and Tories would have rejected the next budget and not waited for 2023 either. A federal, provincial and municipal budget all in 2022 would have killed me in a worse way than coronavirus.
Aug. 9
Change is hard, inconvenient and uncomfortable but necessary
Hopefully we’ll find ourselves in a better place where invasive and destructive insects are not named after a group of people and there is no need for parades to demonstrate against oppression in the fight for inclusiveness.
Aug. 3, 2021
Cassellholme conundrum deserves closer look
It’s high time for the Cassellholme board and executives to break out the dog and pony show that should have performed on the municipal council circuit months ago – pandemic or not.
July 26, 2021
Cassellholme future needs provincial intervention
At this point, only the Ministry of Long-Term Care can spike the project. They’ll be looking long and hard at the tender process and shot-gun wedding approach to the financing.
Jul 19, 2021
Keystone Cops blink first at Cassellholme’s O.K. Corral showdown
Is there a better (less expensive and complicated) site to build from the ground up? Will a regular tender process achieve a better estimate? Does the Cassellholme governance model need to be scrapped? Can an election-year improve the provincial funding terms?
Jul 12, 2021
Opinion: Dave Dale, Maroosis hammers home a good point about so-called ‘plan’
Without provincial and federal funding to reduce the wait lines for mental health and addiction treatment services, people will continue to fall through the safety net gaps.
Jul 5, 2021
Silly season begins pandemic-style
‘I don’t think they’ll be able to rely on the right-wing tail wind from down south. There’s not much ‘Trump bump’ left in the tank, is there?’
Jun 28, 2021
Canada Day can stay, but …
It’s astounding, really. We seem so full of ourselves in the archived documents and so congratulatory in the history books. We sure talked a good game and I can see how it tricked all involved into thinking there was integrity at play.
Jun 21, 2021
Opinion: Dave Dale, Let’s not return to ‘normal’
The $122-million redevelopment and expansion of Cassellholme is a glaring example of politicians playing hot potato with health care issues
Jun 14, 2021
Lessons to learn for the next pandemic
The wind carried amplified talk about a looming new world order, threatened freedoms, vaccines something, something and mask-wearing oppression to the skies above.
Jun 10, 2021 – Announcement
Veteran journalist Dave Dale dusting off his columnist pen to write weekly for BayToday
He has a reputation for being a hard-nosed political and social analyst who is irreverent to powers that be, while also sharing a compassionate and philosophical side
May 2, 2021
REPORTERS SHOP TALK: Newshound Dave Dale
We begin our series featuring Dave Dale and some of his favourite anecdotes on a career spent covering municipal politics
Dave Dale
Writer, photographer and proud father. My mom's family is from the Soo with its Algoma Highlands, dad hailed from Cobden in the Ottawa Valley and I spent my teen years in Capreol. Summers were at the beach on the Vermillion River and winters at 'The Rink.' Born in East York but Toronto never was my thing. Ever since a kid looking out the window on long trips, I imagined living on the highway in a little house with a big yard and trees growing all around me.
