Dryden

Former Canadian prime minister Brian Mulroney says Mikhail Gorbachev, the last leader of the Soviet Union, was a "great man" who will be "sorely missed" on the world stage.

Gorbachev, who during his seven years in power made dramatic reforms that paved the way for the fall of the Berlin Wall in 1989, died Tuesday at a Moscow hospital at 91.

Mulroney said in an interview that while U.S. president Ronald Reagan gets a lot of credit for ending the Cold War without a shot, "it takes two to tango," and Gorbachev was an indispensable leader on the other side.

More than half of Conservative party members have voted for its next leader, leaving one week for the remaining members to do the same. 

As of Tuesday, the party says over 350,000 mail-in ballots have been returned out of the 678,000 they sent to people who can vote in the contest. 

That means voter turnout is currently sitting at around 52 per cent so far. In the party's 2020 leadership contest, which was won by Ontario MP Erin O'Toole, around 65 per cent of members voted. 

A former Fort Frances nurse has plead guilty to causing the death of one of her patients seven years ago, and sentencing is expected to take place this fall.

In a Fort Frances courtroom on Monday, 37-year-old Lindsey Coyle of Fort Frances plead guilty to one count of criminal negligence causing death and one count of failing to comply with a release order related to the death of 76-year-old Hermina Fletcher in 2015.

Sioux Lookout’s emergency shelter will be operating under new management as of tonight.

The Kenora District Services Board has announced that effective September 1, staff with Nahnahda-Wee-ee-Waywin – Sioux Lookout Sexual Assault & Counselling Centre will be assuming operation of the shelter, with no service interruptions expected.

A former member of parliament for the Kenora riding who served northwestern Ontario for over 20 years has passed away.

After a five-year battle with cancer, John Mercer Reid passed away in Ottawa on August 25. He was 85 years old, and a funeral will be held tomorrow in Ottawa.

Born in Fort Frances and a graduate of the University of Manitoba, Reid represented the former federal riding of Kenora-Rainy River between 1965 and 1984 under the Liberal Party in a variety of roles, including three terms as MP.

Levels on Lake of the Woods are continuing to drop.

Staff with the Lake of the Woods Control Board say dams in the Kenora area remain fully open as the lake is still over the 95th percentile level for this time of the year, but levels did drop by about 3” over the past week.

Over the next week, levels are set to drop by another 4 to 5” on Lake of the Woods, with a 2 to 3” drop on the Winnipeg River between Kenora and Minaki.

In Kenora Slo Pitch action, WNHAC took down the Renegades 22 to 17. Local sports teams are encouraged to send their scores to news@kenoraonline.com.

The Dryden GM Ice Dogs will be back on the ice this weekend for training camp. The camp will run at the Dryden Memorial Arena Friday and Saturday between 9 and 4:30 and is open to the public.

Following training, there will be an intrasquad game on Sunday at 10 in the morning, which is $5 at the gate for all ages.

Pete the peacock flew the coop on his first night in Kingsbrae Garden, on the southern shores of New Brunswick. That was about two months ago — and it's been a wild goose chase ever since.

The fowl arrived June 16 in the town of Saint Andrews and was placed in quarantine before the one-year-old peacock could be introduced to others. 

"The following morning — Saturday morning — the cage was empty," said Brad Henderson, managing director of Kingsbrae Garden, a public garden that describes itself on its website as a "multi-award-winning, 27-acre horticultural masterpiece."

Despite the test launch of NASA's new moon rocket being postponed on Monday morning, Innovation Minister François-Philippe Champagne said it was "still a good day for Canada."

Champagne, who was in Florida for a two-day trip that included meetings with Canadian astronauts and NASA officials, got up at 1:30 a.m. to head to the launch pad in Cape Canaveral only to see the mission delayed.

"Obviously we all wanted to be there to witness history," he told Canadian reporters in a teleconference from Orlando.

Kiiwetinoong MPP Sol Mamakwa says a shortage of healthcare workers in the far north will only worsen the healthcare crisis across northwestern Ontario, which needs to be addressed immediately.

At Queen’s Park, Mamakwa – the NDP’s Indigenous Relations and Reconciliation critic – questioned Premier Doug Ford and his government on the use of private-agency nursing staff to support hospitals and healthcare settings in the far north, as opposed to training and developing staff for the region.