Meaford, Ontario

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Coordinates: 44°36′N 80°35′W / 44.6, -80.583
Municipality of Meaford

Country	Canada
Province	Ontario
Census divisions	Grey County
Founded
Government
- Mayor	Wally Reif
Area
- Land	588.47 km² (227.2 sq mi)
Population (2006)^[1]
- Total	10,948
- Density	18.6/km² (48.2/sq mi)
Time zone	EST (UTC-5)
- Summer (DST)	EDT (UTC-4)
Website: http://www.meaford.ca

Meaford (2006 pop.: 10,948) is a Canadian municipality in Grey County, Ontario. Meaford is located on Nottawasaga Bay, a sub-basin of Georgian Bay, in southern Ontario.

The office of mayor of Meaford is currently vacant, and the town and nearby area is served by the Meaford Express newspaper. Meaford is on the eastern edge of the Bruce—Grey—Owen Sound federal and provincial electoral district.

Beautiful Joe also made his home in Meaford. The dog's story became a widely-read novel in the late 19th century.

The Canadian Army maintains a training facility, LFCATC Meaford 5 km northwest of the town.

1 2001 amalgamation
2 Schools
- 2.1 The Meaford Five
3 Past mayors
4 Personalities
5 Notable Stories
6 Transportation
7 Facts and Figures
8 See also
9 Notes
10 External links

[edit] 2001 amalgamation

In 2001, with the amalgamation of various townships in Southern Ontario, the Township of Meaford assumed the lands once part of St. Vincent and Sydenham Township, named in part for Lord Sydenham, governor of Canada from 1839 to 1841.

A transition team preparing for the expanded municipality voted in September 2000 to name it Georgian Highlands, with the existing Meaford name ranking second. Highland Hills, Georgian Shores, Bayview, Trillium, Big Head Valley, Georgian View, Cape Rich, Bay Shore Highlands, Georgian Bay Highlands, North Grey and Queen's Bush were other names considered.^[2]

But the council of the new Georgian Highlands municipality voted 4-3 on 5 February 2001 voted to return to the old Meaford name, citing confusion with nearby municipalities such as Georgian Bluffs and Grey Highlands. A by-law to formalize this change was subsequently passed on 5 March 2001, also by a 4-3 vote.

[edit] Schools

Meaford has three schools:

St.Vincent Euphrasia Elementary School (Grades JK - 5)
Meaford Community School (Grades JK - 8)
Georgian Bay Secondary School (Grades 9 - 12)

[edit] The Meaford Five

On Friday, January 19, 2007, five young men from the GBSS Vikings Boys Hockey Team were involved in a car crash when the Chevrolet Equinox they were in lost control crossed the yellow line, slammed head-on into a Dodge Cargo Van, and came to rest in the east ditch. Andrew "Mex" McKean, Drew Perry, and Morgan Fitzgerald died at the scene. Michael Fleming died en route to hospital, and Mike "Chubbs" O'Hara died the following Monday in a Toronto hospital. They were on their way home from school after a hockey game had been cancelled due to poor weather conditions. Weather conditions were not determined to be a factor in the crash, but rather speed, with a combination of the rear passengers not having worn seatbelts. The many Southern Georgian Bay communities of both Simcoe and Grey Counties came together to mourn and celebrate the lives of the five boys. Many local schools, including Collingwood Collegiate Institute sent banners to GBSS to show their support and sympathy to the friends and families of the boys.

[edit] Past mayors

1998-2000: Doug Grant^[3]
2001-2003: Gerald Shortt^[3] (first Mayor since 2001 amalgamation)
2003-2008: Wally Reif^[4]

[edit] Personalities

Claude Bissell, author and educator
James Conmee^[5], former Member of Provincial Parliament
Tom Harpur, Author and religious columnist
Don Knight, former Member of Provincial Parliament
Brent Laing, curler
Ron Lipsett, former Member of Provincial Parliament
Marshall Burns Lloyd^[6], inventor of Lloyd Loom, Pres. Lloyd Mfg., Menominee, MI
Bill Murdoch, Member of Provincial Parliament
Darren Pang, former goaltender for the Chicago Blackhawks
Terry Wong, Canadian Astronaut

[edit] Notable Stories

Joanne MacIver was hypnotized inadvertently in 1962 by her dad when she was 14. Her dad, Ken MacIver had learned hypnosis while serving with the army and was an avid believer in reincarnation.

With two friends over after school, her father tried in vain to hypnotize one of these friends, when this failed, his daughter, Joanne, fell under the hypnosis which had been meant for her friend. Joanne's dad, then asked her to remember her fifth birthday, the names she mentioned and aspects were not her own, after a time, she related (still under hypnosis) that she was a girl named Susan Ganier living on a farm in Ontario in 1848.

He started hypnotizing Joanne regularly after this getting more details of her "past life". This led to a lot of local media attention at the time. In 1966, writer, Jess Stearn went to the area that "Susan Ganier" said she resided which was near Owen Sound and Meaford. Stearn called the research, "The Search for the Girl With Blue Eyes" as both Joanne, and Susan Ganier shared this physical trait.