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EDITORIAL: Flags, but no fireworks?

May 15, 2020   ·   0 Comments

AS YOU’LL READ ELSEWHERE in this week’s Citizen, Orangeville Council has opted to cancel plans for the ordinary local celebration of Canada Day.

In view of the continuing battle being waged against the COVID-19 pandemic, it’s hardly surprising that the events normally held at the Alder Recreation Centre and Island Lake Conservation Area have been scrubbed. After all, there’s no indication yet of any plan by the Ontario government to relax the current social distancing rules, including staying at least six feet from anyone else and not being in any group of more than five individuals.

In the circumstances, we welcome and support a plan by Town staff to ensure that Canada Day is at least acknowledged in Orangeville. Ray Osmond, the Town’s General Manager of Community Services, says his staff is “looking at ways to turn the town red” and will ask residents to put up signs and flags at their homes to mark the passage of 153 years since July 1, 1867, when Canada officially became a “Dominion” rather than merely a colony of the United Kingdom.

But we wonder whether the Town could go a bit further and have at least a brief bit of fireworks while asking the public to watch from front yards and/or keep to the social distancing rules.

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