Year General Manager 1938 to 1942 H.J Lockhart 1942 to 1952 Carl Manore 1952 to 1962 A.W.S. Bennett 1962 to 1987 Ray Beggs 1987 to 1997 Gerry Macartney 1997 to 2000 Michael Van Pelt 2000 to 2012 Garry R. McDonald (President designation began 2002) 2012 to present [...]
By George Mathewson for the Sarnia Journal, 2016-02-10 The naming of P.E. McGibbon public school on Russell Street in 2009 sparked a heated and sometimes divisive controversy. After the school board’s naming committee reached an impasse, trustees decided to call the new school Russell Street Memorial. Problem was, Russell Street [...]
Hi Chief: Here are some suggestions to help you pare down the police budget. Political Help: Get city council to make sure the July, 1880 “Public Morals” bylaw is off the books. Otherwise, the force will be spending money dealing with nude dancing on river floats, “all classes of vagrants” [...]
By Randy Evans for the Sarnia Journal, 2018-01-13 You just can’t make this stuff up. In the 1950s and ‘60s Sarnia fans flocked to the downtown Kenwick Terrace to watch the heroes and villains of wrestling. What’s not to like? The wrestlers themselves were worth the price of admission with [...]
By Randy Evans for the Sarnia Journal, 2018-08-19 On Sept. 13, 1887 P.T. Barnum brought his world famous circus to Sarnia, and for those who lined the streets and filled the Big Top it was an event never to be forgotten. As prominently advertised in The Observer, the entourage arrived [...]
By Randy Evans for the Sarnia Journal, 2018-08-31 Count Wilhelm Von Brockdorff made some mistakes, and they were doozies. Born into aristocracy in 1819, the Count was a member of the Danish Bavarian Court of Schleswig – Holstein, a principality in what today is northern Germany. He was betrothed to [...]
By Randy Evans for the Sarnia Journal, 2019-02-07 A historical perspective is often enlightening, especially when it comes to women’s rights. Take equal pay for equal work, for example. Back in 1883, the Sarnia School Board announced that male teachers would be paid more than their female colleagues. That prompted [...]
By Randy Evans for the Sarnia Journal, 2019-02-21 The old Sarnia Jail was declared “one of the strongest in the Province” very soon after it opened in 1852. Clearly, the edifice Alexander Mackenzie built to hold Lambton County’s cons was imposing, with its iron-barred cells, a locked double-door system to [...]
Randy Evans Neil Tracey was a real bad dude. Convicted in Sarnia of a crime so “beastly” The Observer wouldn’t describe it, he was sentenced to a penitentiary term of five years and 38 lashes. So, Neil Tracey was a man with a solid incentive to flee. As a previous [...]
By Randy Evans & Gary Shrumm for the Sarnia Journal, 2019-08-26 Newton Park in north-end Sarnia would likely not exist today, but for the presence of a troublesome ditch. The baby boom was on in the 1950s and to meet the growing demand for housing plans were drawn up for [...]
