President's Message
May 2026

May is a great month in Southern Georgian Bay as lawns finally turn green, robins start nesting in weird places and lots of migrating birds can be spotted when out walking on trails. Our club’s outdoor activities have had a great start as everyone is very excited to get back paddling on rivers, biking on trails and golfing on very wet courses. Many members are doing lots of spring gardening, setting up patio chairs and even painting decks!

There are so many interesting community events this month that our calendars are full. Here are just some of the local May events.

• The annual Hike and Bike for Hospice is held Sunday May 24th and last year 650 participants raised a record $223,000.
• The Parkinson’s June Festival is being held June 7th at the Collingwood Curling Club with over 500 participants.
• The Blue Mountain Film festival from, May 28th to May 31st is showing more than 35 excellent films.
• Bruce Trail is sponsoring their annual End to End hike of the Blue Mountain section over two days May 23 to May 25th .

As if that was not enough, it is the start of the October 26th, 2026 municipal election campaign, with eagerly watched campaign races shaping up in Collingwood and Blue Mountains. The hardworking Mayors, Deputy mayors and councilors need your support in fulfilling their critical jobs to make our towns better places to live, work and play. The strength of our Canadian sovereignty has remained stable this month with fewer US threats to have Canada become the 51st state and no new tariffs. However our economy has slowed with national unemployment up to 6.9% due to weak hiring and US tariffs. In Ontario, Honda has announced the cancellation of a $15 billion EV auto plant planned for Alliston due to weak demand for electrical vehicles in the US. Currently the “elephant in the room” for Canada is the upcoming trade negotiations with the US over the future of the tri-lateral CUSMA agreement. Our economy has been negatively affected by spiraling prices of gasoline and oil as a result of the US war in Iran. As I write this message it is impossible to predict how extremely high fuel prices will impact our day to day lives which will ultimately lead to damaging inflation.

Turning to club activities, our speaker this month is Bob Galway, presenting on “Expresses of the Atlantic” which promises to be a fascinating tale from WW 2.

The next quarterly couples Cocktail Party is scheduled to be held at the home of John Kutcy on Friday June 19th 5 to 7 pm.

I am excited to add that the ever popular Fall Color Car Tour will be coming back October 7th with details to be provided later this summer. A sign up sheet will be available at the meeting next week.

I am also delighted to announce that we have filled three new openings on the Management Committee including Robert Zimmerman for VP, Jack Pady for future Membership director and Al Tullock for Activities director.

Looking forward to seeing you at the May monthly meeting. Respectfully ,

Michael Coward michael.coward@gmail.com