February 20, 2025

February 20, 2025 5:55 am Published by Chris McLeod

February 20th is the 51st day of the year. There are 314 days remaining until the end of the year.

The Chatham-Kent Barnstormers will have a new manager for year 2.

The team announced on Wednesday that Gil Rondon will be taking the reins from last year’s manager, Dan Norman. Gil was the Barnstormer’s pitching coach for the inaugural season. As a player, he was drafted in the 3rd round of the MLB draft by the Baltimore Orioles. He pitched in the major leagues for the Houston Astros and Chicago White Sox. His professional coaching experience includes stops in the Toronto Blue Jays and New York Mets systems.

The Barnstormers won 20 games and made the postseason in their first season, finishing 5th. The home opener at Fergie Jenkins Field is Saturday, May 17th at 7:05pm.

The Provincial Election is one week away.

The Advance Polls will open this morning. Advance polls are open from 10 a.m. to 8 p.m. for the next three days.

Tomorrow is the deadline to request to vote by mail. You will need to apply online or by mail before Friday, February 21 at 6 p.m. You need to include a copy of a government-issued ID showing your name and address. Once approved, Elections Ontario will send a voting kit with a ballot. Fill it out by writing your chosen candidate’s name, then return it using the prepaid envelope or drop it off at an election office. The completed ballot must be received by Feb. 27 at 6 p.m. to be counted.

On polling day, Thursday, February 27th, you can vote at your designated polling station. Find your voting location by checking your voter information card or using the Elections Ontario website. Visit elections.on.ca call 1-888-668-8683 for further election information.

Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau announced on Wednesday that the federal government is going ahead with a high-speed rail network between Quebec City and Toronto. it will cost $3.9 billion with a six-year design and development plan.

The planned rail network will span approximately 1,000 kilometres and reach speeds of up to 300 kilometres an hour. There will be stops in Toronto, Peterborough, Ottawa, Montreal, Laval, Trois-Rivieres and Quebec City. Travellers will be able to get from Montreal to Toronto in just three hours.

The official name of the high-speed rail service will be Alto.

Introducing Alto: Canada’s largest infrastructure project ever — connecting nearly 20 million Canadians between Quebec City and Toronto with 300km/hour high-speed rail.

— Justin Trudeau (@JustinTrudeau) February 19, 2025

The puck drops tonight on the Championship game of the NHL’s 4 Nations Face-Off tournament in Boston.

Canada will take on the USA at 8 p.m.

The U.S. beat Canada 3-1 in Montreal on Saturday night. A game that included 3 fights in the first 10 seconds. The win gave the Americans a spot in the final. Canada had to beat Finland on Monday to qualify.

Tonight’s championship game starts at 8 p.m. on Sportsnet.

Instagram is testing a dislike button. But it could actually be a good thing.

They claim it’s a PRIVATE “downvote” to signal that you don’t like something and it’s targeted at comments, not people’s posts.

No one will see that you disliked it, and the downvotes won’t be counted and shown publicly, like on YouTube. Instead, downvoted comments will be pushed to the bottom, or hidden altogether.

An exec says, “This is a test…eventually, we may integrate this signal into comments ranking to [deemphasize] disliked comments . . . our hope is that this might help make comments more friendly on Instagram.” Instagram’s parent company Meta has tried similar things with Facebook, several times and they’ve come and gone without sticking.