News
In local news, In local news, County residents are reminded that in-person advance voting is available on Saturday, October 17th from 10:00 AM to 4:PM. The location of the polls for your ward are on the Voter Notification Letter or through the County Election website.
Internet voting also commences on October 17th. Information on how to vote online is also on the Voter Information Letter. That letter has a specific code that is needed to vote online.
Election day is Monday, October 26th. Polls will be open from 10:00 AM to 8:00 PM. 99.3 County FM will broadcast live election results on Election Day.
FLU
Respiratory illnesses have arrived early this year and local healthcare partners are issuing an annual reminder to get vaccinated to protect against the latest strains of the flu and COVID.
RSV prevention is also available for eligible Ontarians. Ontario’s publicly funded RSV vaccine is available to all adults aged 75 and older, as well as adults aged 60 to 74 who meet certain high-risk criteria. Protection against RSV is also free for eligible infants and high-risk children, as well as for pregnant women.
REAL ESTATE
The Canadian Real Estate Association (CREA) has revised down its projection for 2026 home sales for the third time this year, while monthly data shows sales across Canada fell in September.
CREA previously expected home sales to tick up slightly in 2026, but it now expects 5.2 per cent fewer homes will change hands this year compared to last. The adjustment follows similar downward revisions in April and July.
Oil prices have soared since the spring, which had a knock-on effect on bond yields and thus fixed mortgage rate.
The average home price across the country was $666,538, also down compared to a year before, by 1.6 per cent.
UKRAINE
In international news, European Union leaders rallied around Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy at a summit today as U.S. President Donald Trump fired another salvo at Ukraine, calling its strikes on Russian refineries a “disgrace.”
The EU is hosting Zelenskyy in Brussels at one of the most difficult moments for Ukraine, with missiles and drones raining down on Ukrainian cities as it faces a fifth full winter of attack since Russia’s invasion. Fears abound that the U.S. could pull back intelligence sharing and weapons support from Kyiv.
In the latest attacks today, Russian drones killed at least three people across Ukraine, hit two shopping centres and knocked out power to around 370,000 people in the northwest after strikes on the energy grid. The strikes were centre on the city of Rivne, which is about 170 km north of the County’s friendship city of Krasyliv.
And finally, if you are celebrating a birthday today congratulations. If your birthday was Sept 20, then you be the most common birthday in the country. Yesterday Statistics Canada released the ranking birthdays from the most to least common, basing the data on the daily number of live births in Canada between 1995 and 2025. Here are the highlights:
• September is the most common month for birthdays with 9 of the top 10 most common birthdays
• Excluding Feb 29th for obvious reasons, the least common birthdays i order are Dec 25th, Dec 26th, and Dec 24th, followed by January 1st and 2nd.
• With Dec 27th and Dec 31st next on the list, December the least common birthday month.
Sports
In hockey news, The second place Wellington Dukes have a very busy weekend ahead of them. Tonight they are in Lindsay to take on the struggling Muskie at 7:00 PM. They are back home on Sunday night at 7 for a game against the first place Markham Royals. Then its back on the road on Monday down the 401 in Coburg to battle the third place Cougars.
In the PJHL, the Picton Pirates are away on Saturday night for a7:30 start against the Port Hope Panthers. Both teams are off to a slow start this season and occupy the bottom two spots in the East Todd Division,
In the Northern Premier Hockey League, The County Royals are at home to the Tweed Oil Kings at LeHigh arena Saturday at 7:30 start
CFL
In the CFL, there are two weeks to go in the regular season and three Western teams are battling for the remaining two playoff spots. It is a must for Calgary as they pay their final game this Saturday against the BC Lions.
The other teams in the mix are the Winnipeg Blue Bombers who take on the West leading Edmonton Elks tonight and the Saskatchewan Roughriders who face the East leading Montreal Alouettes tomorrow afternoon.
