Mark Bonokoski
 Mark Bonokoski, or Bono to his friends, lives in two worlds, and has the best of both — first as a gritty, award-winning columnist and National Editorial Writer for Sun Media for half the week, bunking into a basement squat in one of the dodgier parts of Toronto (or occasionally in a seedy hotel in Ottawa), and then escaping for the rest of the time at his country home on the shores of Baptiste Lake, near Bancroft.
Mark was honored in 2004 with a National Newspaper Award citation for column writing, and has been a frequent winner of the Dunlop Award as Sun Media’s top columnist.
A graduate of the Ryerson University journalism department, his career as a columnist began in 1977, after serving as a general-assignment reporter with the Calgary Herald and the Windsor Star, before joining the Toronto Sun in 1974.
Between 1988 and 1991, he served as Sun Media’s European bureau chief, stationed in London, Eng., covering such international events as the escalating troubles in Northern Ireland, the terrorist bombing of the Pan-Am Flight 103 over Lockerbie, Scotland, the coming down of the Berlin Wall, and the Velvet Revolution in Czechoslovakia. He also travelled extensively in southern Africa.
In 1991, he was named Editor of the Ottawa Sun and, in 1997, he was named the newspaper’s Publisher and CEO.
He returned to his writer’s roots in 2000 as National Affairs columnist for Sun Media, in Ottawa, and then returned to the Toronto Sun as a columnist in 2002, and was later appointed National Editorial Writer for the Sun chain in September, 2010.
To stretch his legs with longer pieces, he has had his freelance work published in Maclean’s and Reader’s Digest.
As well as Outdoor Journal Radio, Mark's radio commentaries can be heard weekends on the Haliburton Broadcasting Group network of Moose-FM radio stations north of the 905.
He has also availed himself as an instructor to fourth-year students at Ryerson University's School of Journalism.
Links:
Toronto Sun
Moose Country
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Mark Bonokoski - January 28 2012 |
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January 28, 2011 |
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Every year at this time, there is carnage up in my neck of the woods — deer carnage.
They are dying in droves.
Blame the warmth of the winter, if you will, the lack of snow … all which makes their movements easier … but also blame those who feed deer like they are some kind of pet.
During the first week of January, for example, the Bancroft OPP — my local constabulary — responded to seven collisions with deer that required reports being taken.
What this means, of course, is that the vehicles received enough damage that the insurance company would demand a cop report.
And it also means, of course, that the deer was likely DOA.
It was no surprise to me the a number of the collisions mentioned by the OPP occurred on the South Baptiste Lake Road — the road upon which I live — because there are more deer being fed along that stretch than there are deer in the woods.
They pop up like Whack-A-Moles.
If you are lucky enough to dodge one, slam on your brakes and sit.
Deer rarely travel solo. Why? Because they like their deaths to be witnessed, that's why.
Besides, it makes for a good story. |
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odjradio.com_mark_bonokoski_12_01_28.mp3 (Right click and select "Save As" to download.) |
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Mark Bonokoski - January 21 2012 |
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January 21, 2011 |
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Last Friday was the first day my pal Wally McColl and I had enough snow to take our first snowmobile run of 2012.
It was a long time coming. Last year at this time, we had probably racked up close to a thousand klicks on the machine, but not this year.
Because last Friday was also Friday the 13th, we decided to not trust the lake ice to be thick enough, although some fools did, and so we ran the side of the road for about five klicks to where the groomed trails began, and then made our way to Lake St. Peter to grab a coffee at the Porterville diner.
“First run of the season?” asked Nancy the owner. She was smiling of course.
She had just watched me almost reverse my machine through the front window of her cafe.
“How could you tell?” I replied.
It was bitterly cold overnight, and so the ice is now safe and the season is now on.
Some of the best trails in Ontario are around the Bancroft area, with the Maple Leaf Snow Skimmers and the Paudash Trailblazers completing for who is the best in the grooming game.
Come on up. You won't regret it. |
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odjradio.com_mark_bonokoski_12_01_21.mp3 (Right click and select "Save As" to download.) |
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Mark Bonokoski - January 14 2012 |
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January 14, 2011 |
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Shoal Lake, which is up at the top end of northwestern Ontario, made the news last September when two First Nations reserves on the lake threatened to cut off the water supply that is piped to the city of Winnipeg.
It is also one of the few walleye-protected lakes in Ontario — no fishing for walleye anytime — which is why it made the news last week when four Manitoba anglers were fined for, get , hosting a walleye tournament on the lake.
Talk about being at the bottom of the intellectual charts when it comes to sportsmen.
The Ontario Ministry of Natural Resources revealed last week that the four men were fined a total of $5,000 and suspended from fishing in the province for a year after pleading guilty in Kenora to fishing violations on the protected lake.
Their investigation apparently revealed that during Aug. 12 and 13, one of the men organized a small fishing derby for the fishing party, a derby that included a prize for the biggest walleye.
If there was a prize for the biggest dork, it would have been the guy who organized the tournament, with his three pals all runners-up.
This goes without saying. |
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odjradio.com_mark_bonokoski_12_01_14.mp3 (Right click and select "Save As" to download.) |
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Mark Bonokoski - January 7 2012 |
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January 7, 2011 |
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The Darwin Awards, handed out posthumously of course, are given annually to those who leave this mortal coil in the most stupid of fashions.
The 2011 award went to young Australian man who “planked” himself on his balcony railing and subsequently plummeted 20 stories to his death.
Gravity is not something to take lightly.
Next to my home on Baptiste Lake, there were snowmobile tracks leading down to the lake on New Year's day, a lake that has yet to freeze solid and that has open water everywhere.
These represent candidates for the 2012 Darwin Awards for stupidly risking their lives in return for what must be a huge rush of adrenalin.
I suspect they were young people, for it is nigh impossible to put an old head on young shoulders.
Suffice, they must have made it, because I waited a few days before writing this to see if there had been a search for bodies.
But apparently there wasn't.
So, not only are they stupid, they are lucky.
This has been a very odd winter. By now, usually, the ice on our lake is a foot thick.
But not this year.
This year it's a stage for those vying for a Darwin Award, which is one award I care not to win. |
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odjradio.com_mark_bonokoski_12_01_07.mp3 (Right click and select "Save As" to download.) |
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Mark Bonokoski - December 31 2011 |
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December 31, 2011 |
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Since she sees me as a man of the great outdoors, my wife Karen got me a pair of snowshoes for Christmas, a set of those aluminum-frame jobs that weigh next to nothing but will supposedly support my less than modest mass in the deepest of snows.
She says I should strap them to the back of the snowmobile should it break down in the middle of nowhere. And there are a lot of middles of nowhere up in my neck of the woods.
It's a good thought.
Last year a good thought would have been strapping a life preserver to the back of the machine if that one particular day had not ended in a full-rev escape from sudden open water.
It was close, and it was exhilarating but my pal, Wally McColl, and I managed to get both our machines to solid ice without even getting even a little damp.
Snow shoes would not have helped.
Nonetheless, I shall strap them to the back of my Ski-doo and hope they are never needed.
What is needed, however, is snow. There is not much up here, and the lake has yet to freeze well enough to risk a little run to the north shore.
Snow and freezing temperatures would indeed brighter my new year.
So, happy new year to all, and think snow. |
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odjradio.com_mark_bonokoski_11_12_31.mp3 (Right click and select "Save As" to download.) |
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Mark Bonokoski - December 24 2011 |
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December 24, 2011 |
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This is one radio program, thank God, where it is not politically incorrect to say Merry Christmas.
So Merry Christmas to everyone.
If you don't like it, well, tough noogies.
Besides, Ang has my back, not that it is needed.
Up in my neck the woods, which is north of the Madoc-Dixon line, you'd get a load of rock salt in your ass from a good many folk if you tried to pussy-foot around the true meaning of Christmas.
It's just not tolerated in the Near North of this province, no more than true sportsmen tolerate poaching and fishing out of season.
Some things just aren't done.
One Happy Holiday or a Best of the Season, and they'd be loading the empty chamber of their Remington 12-gauge with a shell packed with the best salt grit offered the Windsor salt company.
Up here, you will see nativity scenes on front lawns, and Santa Claus too, of course. And the churches tonight and tomorrow will be packed to the rafters — Baptist, Catholic whatever.
I am not saying I live in the Bible Belt, but the Bible Belt is not that far away.
This is a place, after all, where the favourite clothing line is orange blaze, and there the national gun registry is loathed.
I guess it is God's country. |
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odjradio.com_mark_bonokoski_11_12_24.mp3 (Right click and select "Save As" to download.) |
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Mark Bonokoski - December 17 2011 |
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December 17, 2011 |
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Those of you who live far enough north of the 905 that you can no longer see the CN Tower likely now have snow on the ground.
Up in my neck of the woods, in fact, we have had enough snow for Terry Bradt to make his first pass down my lane.
He's the guy who plows my snow and keeps us from being snowbound.
I wish I could claim him on my income tax form as a dependent because, during a normal winter, I see him almost as often as I see my wife.
There is no way of getting around this.
The lane is too long to do it by simple snowblower and, besides, the snow has to be moved around in order to make room for parking, and Terry has the toys to do it — a tractor with both a blade for plowing and a shovel for lifting and moving.
Yes, there is that much snow in a normal winter.
The good news, of course, is that this means the snowmobile season is damned near upon us and, if the lake ever freezes, it is a kind of freedom that cannot be matched even by a motorcycle.
My trail pass has been purchased, the snowmobile is greased and ready to go, and so is my pal, Wally McColl.
Last year we almost bought the farm.
But you know that already. |
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Mark Bonokoski - December 10 2011 |
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Air Date:
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December 10, 2011 |
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Seeing as how I live where most city folks would consider being in the middle of the bush, as in the south end of the great municipality of Hastings-Highlands, you might also think there are Christmas trees right outside my door.
You know, as in grab the chainsaw, and get at it.
Well, it is not as easy as it sounds.
Last year's Christmas tree came off our property. It started off as a 45-foot pine that was blocking our view of the lake.
And so I said to my wife, Karen, let's chop it down and use the top eight feet as our tree.
So, out came the chainsaw and, a few buzzes later, we had our tree.
And it looked like hell. Yes, what looked good 45 feet up, was pretty spindly once on the ground.
In fact, it was almost laughable.
This year, for the first time in memory, we will go for an artificial tree. They come fully-lit now, and actually look like real trees.
This could not be said only a few years ago.
That said, these things don't come cheap. The one Karen wants costs $399.00, plus tax.
And here I thought all the Canadian Tire money I've been hoarding was going to buy me a new rod and reel for Christmas.
Maybe next year. |
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odjradio.com_mark_bonokoski_11_12_10.mp3 (Right click and select "Save As" to download.) |
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