Louise Sproule

Position: 
Publisher and Editor
Photo
Review publisher Louise Sproule has owned The Review since 1992. Louise writes the editorial each week, covers Champlain Township council meetings and water and environmental issues, in addition to regular news. Louise is a two-time winner of the Canadian Community Newspaper Association “Best Local Editorial” award in the 10,000-and-under circulation category.

She is a member of the Higginson Tower Restoration Committee; a project which is being funded by the Champlain Time Capsule. She is also an involved member of the Vankleek Hill Business and Merchant Association, organizing Trash and Treasure (the town-wide yard sale in Vankleek Hill which occurs each year on the first Saturday of June) and the Victorian Home and Garden Tour, which takes place the third Saturday in June.

She loves local history and her roots in Vankleek Hill go back to Simeon VanKleek, the town’s first settler.
Email: 
lsproule@thereview.ca

Stories from Louise Sproule

When pillars leave us
Louise Sproule
Wednesday, September 1, 2010

lsproule@thereview.ca
A small town is like a home but instead of bricks, lumber and mortar, I think instead that a town is made of people.

Recycling where it means the most
Louise Sproule
Wednesday, September 1, 2010

Perhaps the initiative is still in the planning stages, but Groupe Convex’s plans to bid on collecting recyclable materials from three municipalities needs some reflection.

At the demo derby, of course.
Louise Sproule
Wednesday, August 25, 2010

I cast aside my life of so-called privilege last Saturday night. Instead of having a close-up view of the Vankleek Hill Fair's demolition derby as a reporter on the ground, I attended as a spectator, bringing an out-of-town visitor along with me to this annual spectacle which attracts so many fans.

Having given advice for years to others to arrive early to get a good seat for this event, I thought knew what to do. But I worried that I was missing something. So I asked for advice.

Are we really apathetic? Definitely not.
Louise Sproule
Wednesday, August 25, 2010

Much of the editorial energy expended in this newspaper during the past 117 years of its existence has been to inform readers and encourage them to take action. If we give ink to pushing people to action, we must also acknowledge that much of what we write about is, indeed, about people trying to make a difference and speaking out in their communities.

Dream . . . before the day is through
Louise Sproule
Tuesday, August 17, 2010
Sometimes I wonder if we aim high enough. There is that ambiguous place where we tell ourselves that we are happy with what we have achieved and what we do in life . . . that comes from the oh-so-trendy notion that we should be kind to ourselves and recognize our achievements.
That works to a point. Having lunch recently with a friend, we commiserated about the importance of young people's quest to find something they like to do.
Just because we can - doesn’t mean we should
Louise Sproule
Tuesday, August 17, 2010
If it has been engineered, it's got to be good. Or so we think when government authorities pay the fees required to apply engineering expertise to municipal buildings, sanitary sewers, water treatment systems, bridges, drainage problems, sidewalks, road problems and more. We probably don't realize how much we have come to rely on engineers in almost every domain of our lives.
If we wonder why engineering and similar consulting fees cost so much, we can give that up any time. They charge according to the responsibility they must assume for the decisions they make.
A holiday: It would be so nice
Louise Sproule
Wednesday, August 11, 2010
Having just returned from two weeks of vacation, I can attest to the fact that it took all of three hours for  my shoulders to get tight and for my eyes to get dry from reading and responding to all the emails that couldn't be dealt with while I was away. It took four hours for me to think that I should have taken three weeks instead of just two. By the end of the day, I found myself thinking about one week off every six weeks.
We use electricity like it’s water
Louise Sproule
Wednesday, August 11, 2010
Amid the grumbling about the new Harmonized Sales Tax (HST) comes a friendly notice from Hydro One that TOU (Time-of-Use) prices are coming to theatres near us.
Time-of-Use prices are Hydro One's way of promoting a culture of conservation and are a new way to help us all manage our electricity use (and costs).
We can hardly wait.
The not-so-green grass of home: lawn dare
Louise Sproule
Wednesday, August 4, 2010
It is bad enough in urban areas. Street after street of urban homes sporting their identical green patches of lawn. The bigger the housing development: the bigger the expanse of green lawn, often weedless. Heaven help the neighbour whose lawn is less cared-for, where dandelions and ragged lengths bespeak, dare we say it: left leanings?
For such is the judgement we place on those who lawns are badly kept.
But here is an argument that all lawns are, indeed, kept for bad reasons. And the argument falls hard on the heels of Food Day, which was July 31.
The rules we live by
Louise Sproule
Wednesday, August 4, 2010
Driving in the city, I swung into a lane on the wrong side of a median and as I sat there waiting to turn, realized that within a few light changes, traffic would be driving head-on into the lane currently blocked by my car. I was a sitting duck. While traffic signals changed, cars filled the intersection as they went their respective ways. It will be a disaster, I thought, as my eyes darted about for a solution. Next to me, where I wanted to be, a driver sitting in his car made eye contact. He knew that I knew that I was in the wrong place.
When trust is broken
Louise Sproule
Wednesday, July 28, 2010
"Those were the days," he said, "That you could do business with a handshake. We never had a written contract." Listening raptly, the crowd burst into applause, taking in the full meaning of how business manager Ken Reynolds had dealt with Don Messer for decades, booking him into venues, arranging deals . . . and all on a handshake. The full meaning included, of course, that there was a different kind of trust back then in the 1950s and 1960s and perhaps stretching back into the past.
Not that it was perfect. But today, trust is hard to come by.
To and from the “best years”
Louise Sproule
Wednesday, July 28, 2010
Sometimes I feel like handing in my card. The card that says I am an adult, that is. In the middle of a laid-back, anything-goes girls' weekend recently with an old friend and our daughters in tow, the seventies disco music on the radio took me back to a place and a time that seemed to be all about fun. What group of us was going to what bar (there seemed to be so many of them, back then) and we stayed out until 1 a.m. in Hawkesbury, then until 3 a.m. in one of the bars in Grenville or Calumet or Pointe-au-Chene.
Away she goes! St-Gregoire upgrades at 75 per cent
Louise Sproule
Friday, July 23, 2010

Away she goes! The construction at l'École élémentaire catholique St-Grégoire in Vankleek Hill is about 75 per cent complete, according to Jacques Parisien, director of building management with the CSDCEO school board.

Don’t ask. We might tell you what we think.
Louise Sproule
Wednesday, July 14, 2010

Here we go again. Community and business leaders are invited to attend a session on July 27 in Casselman or on July 28 in Hawkesbury as part of the upcoming Prescott and Russell Strategic Economic Plan.

Beau’s looking to community to “grow” a larger community-wide Oktoberfest
Louise Sproule
Friday, July 9, 2010

Beau's is inviting Vankleek Hill businesses, organizations, residents and tractor drivers to participate in this year's Oktoberfest, which takes place October 2 and 3, 2010.

I’ve got one better than that.
Louise Sproule
Wednesday, July 7, 2010
I think it is my favourite time of day to be outside when the sun is low in the sky and sending shafts of light through the bushes as I pick single ripe black raspberries carefully from the clusters of red and green ones. The leaves rustle; the town is quiet and I can almost imagine that I am alone.
But then I think of the noises of life of mid-day, the sounds of insects at work when the sun is high and the feeling of a day still to be lived.
What is that story really saying to you?
Louise Sproule
Wednesday, July 7, 2010
As consumers of information from various news sources, we all have to become more discerning. Many times, what seems like an unbiased report of news is really something quite different.
We have to remind ourselves frequently to look beyond the plethora of press releases to figure out what is really going on. It is hard to wade through the pleas for publicity, the aching need of some organizations to get their news out to the community and all the other information that is fed to us to decide what is newsworthy and what is not worthy of our time or yours.
High school reunion: As you were.
Louise Sproule
Wednesday, June 30, 2010

If there is a dress rehearsal for the great day of reckoning awaiting us all at the end of our days, it must be attendance at your high school reunion.
A small event in one's lifetime, perhaps, but one which many avoid.
Perhaps it is hard to face because it is a call back to a time when all was possible, hopes were high and proclamations of what one's life would be were bold, fearless and without limits.
Do we really want to evaluate the past 20, 30 or 40 years and consider: did we get there? Did we live life as we imagined it would be? There's that, of course.

Overtime seems over the top at seniors residence
Louise Sproule
Wednesday, June 30, 2010

Maybe it is wrong of us to ask questions about the management of the Prescott-Russell Residence. What do we know about managing a long-term care home? Actually, what do eight mayors know about managing a long-term care home? Maybe it is wrong of us to ask that question, too.
For years now, Clarence-Rockland's mayor has been asking questions about what he calls the exorbitant costs associated with the Prescott-Russell Residence. An internal study recently analyzed how services were being delivered and studied the ratio of employees to residents.

From a distance . . .
Louise Sproule
Wednesday, June 23, 2010

Perhaps we are all the same. We take for granted all the good things around us. We take for granted our quiet communities, our bursts of community activities, all the volunteers who contribute so much, the seasons which change in due course and so much more.
I can often get the feeling that no matter how much we photograph, write or care, the only people who come through the front door ask for more or point out our failings.