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 - March 10 2012 |
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March 10, 2012 |
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Over the course of this winter, I have shared a few stories about the accessories one might consider packing on the back of one's snowmobile.
Live and learn, as they say. And this year I have done a lot of learning.
So far, due to situations already described in past commentaries, I have told listeners how it would be wise to pack a GPS, jumper cables, a good rope, and a fold-up shovel. Well, you can now add a fold-up wood saw to that list because it is easier to drive forward out of a dodgy situation than to back out of one.
So, if there is a small tree blocking your forward progress, cut the sucker down.
Trust me, it is easier than digging out the ass end of your snowmobile, hooking a rope to it, and have your traveling partner drag out your machine.
And, oh yes, don't snowmobile alone — especially now when the ice in certain areas is beginning to get iffy.
Put it this way. If I had been traveling alone this winter, there would be at least three occasions when my safe return might have been in peril.
No one is beyond having a accident. If I can drive off a cliff, you can drive off a cliff.
I trust you get my drift. |
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Toronto Sun
Moose Country |
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odjradio.com_mark_bonokoski_12_03_10.mp3 (Right click and select "Save As" to download.) |
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Mark Bonokoski - March 03 2012 |
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March 03, 2012 |
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For reasons too numerous to mention, mainly time and place, I really didn't get to know my father until the last four or five years before his death.
And we had our best talks sitting in a rented fishing boat with our line in the water.
When I think of my father now, that it was I remember not only first, but the most.
When Fish’n Canada’s Pete Bowman was recently inducted into the Canadian Anglers Hall Of Fame — joining alumni such as Angelo and Reno Viola — Pete took time to credit his father for introducing him to fishing.
This is a big deal.
I do not have a son, but I have a daughter who can out-fish her fiance. And I also know the days Erin and I shared out in the boat, by ourselves, were as important to her as they were to me.
On my computer screensaver, for example, is a picture of Erin holding up a decent stringer of walleye. One day's fishing; her and her dad.
From what I know of Pete, he is a helluva family man who takes his kids camping and fishing, and who has a wife who shares a love of the outdoors.
Those kids are going to grow up to be good adults, and good to their kids, too.
That's the way the circle works.
Congrats, Pete. It looks good on you. |
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Toronto Sun
Moose Country |
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odjradio.com_mark_bonokoski_12_03_03.mp3 (Right click and select "Save As" to download.) |
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Mark Bonokoski - February 25 2012 |
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February 25, 2011 |
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The Maple Leaf Snow Skimmers — the snowmobile club to which I belong — had its annual poker run last Saturday.
It wasn't too warm, it wasn't too cold, and the trails were impeccable.
My poker hand was one card shy of a straight, with the nine of spades being the highest card.
Obviously wasn't worth squat.
Now, since getting involved in the sport, I have learned that those trails don't get groomed by themselves and that it takes volunteers — dedicated volunteers — getting up at 4 a.m., to run the grooming machines through the bush.
My club's president, Dewey Jordan, can't thank them enough, and chokes up when he tries.
A goodly number of the men and women who volunteer for snowmobile clubs across this country don't even ride anymore. They have no time.
Communities where snowmobile clubs exist should embrace them, and offer them anything they can because of the economy they help generate.
I would suspect that a full 75% of those who ride the Maple Leaf Snow Skimmers trails are not from our immediate community.
What they are, therefore, are tourists.
And new money. |
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Links:
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Toronto Sun
Moose Country |
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odjradio.com_mark_bonokoski_12_02_25.mp3 (Right click and select "Save As" to download.) |
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Mark Bonokoski - February 18 2012 |
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February 18, 2011 |
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The regulations for deer hunting are there for a reason — to control the numbers, and to give the deer a fighting chance at survival.
That's why the hunt is in the fall, not the winter.
In the winter, shooting deer would be like shooting fish in a barrel. They are easy to spot with no foliage in the bush. They are easy to track because of the snow, and quicker to track because they are snow-bound and unable to run as fast.
Which is why the wolves up in my neck of the woods never go hungry in the winter.
Their pickings are easy.
Because sportsmen are sportsmen, they do not like poachers, which is why the local police up my way and the MNR had no trouble tracking an arresting two men from Peterborough and North Kawartha for shooting and killing a deer two weeks ago, and bust them as well for breaking into a shed.
Having a canine unit didn't hurt, either.
So congratulations Corby Charles Dewitt and Bon Scott Parnell. Not only are you charged with illegal hunting, breach of probation, breaking and entering and unauthorized and prohibited possession of a firearm, you've now heard your names on the top outdoors show on the radio.
You must be very, very proud. |
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Links:
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Toronto Sun
Moose Country |
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odjradio.com_mark_bonokoski_12_02_18.mp3 (Right click and select "Save As" to download.) |
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Mark Bonokoski - February 11 2012 |
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February 11, 2011 |
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To live is to learn, as they say, and what I have learned as a relatively novice snowmobiler, is the wisdom of carrying jumper cables and a tow rope.
When I initially had my GPS hooked up to the machine, it was draining my battery when the machine was turned off.
Hence, it would not start. Hence the need for a jumper cables and, just in case of a worst-case scenario, a good tow rope.
I now carry both.
What I did not expect to need, however, was an avalanche-type shovel.
But need it I did.
Cruising along the other day, totally blanked out by a beautiful-day daydream, I completely missed a turn in the trail and suddenly airborne into the bush.
No harm, no foul, expect my machine was buried thigh deep in the snow and, as my pal Wally McColl and I found out, no tow rope was going to haul me out until we moved a lot of snow out of the way.
We had to do it by hand and by boot.
At the end of the exercise, I was drenched in sweat, and Wally was in need of a wee rest.
Now when we go out. Wally has a shovel strapped to the back of his Ski-doo while I try not to day dream.
But that's a lost cause. |
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Links:
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Toronto Sun
Moose Country |
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Mark Bonokoski - February 4 2012 |
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February 4, 2011 |
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The front page of last week's Sunday Sun had a picture of a coyote, all to hype the fear and loathing of wild predators lurking in ravines around Toronto.
You know, will they grab your pooch one day or, worse, snatch your baby from its stroller?
If paranoia is your game, then come up to Baptiste Lake for a visit.
Nor more than 100 metres from our house, a wolf pack took down a deer and dragged it to the edge of the bush, making the snow around it look like there had been a blood bath.
The next day, two magnificent bald eagles could be seen feasting on the carcass, and then guarding their cache from peak of a nearby tree.
Their presence at least kept the ravens at bay.
Last spring, my wife was looking out the window and saw a bear cub prancing along but no mama bear. So she wisely stayed in the house, and took the late great Arthur the Airedale only steps from the front door in order for him to do his business, and kept him on a very short leash.
I have come face-to-face with wolves on some of the more remote snowmobile trails, and dozens of deer hiding in the lees of islands.
Coyotes will not snatch your baby, at least not if an adult human is standing guard.
Your dog, however. Well, that's another matter. |
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Links:
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Toronto Sun
Moose Country |
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odjradio.com_mark_bonokoski_12_02_04.mp3 (Right click and select "Save As" to download.) |
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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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Links:
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Toronto Sun
Moose Country |
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