News

Copy by Craig Foster

In spite of recent rumours regarding the team’s future in Wellington, including comments from a Prince Edward County councillor at last week’s Committee of the Whole meeting, the Wellington Dukes are not for sale. That from Ken Clement who has owned the storied junior franchise for the past eight years.
While acknowledging that tier 2 junior hockey is facing significant financial challenges, particularly due to the changing landscape in U.S. College hockey, Clement says he remains passionate to operate the Dukes to give opportunities for players to further their hockey career or perhaps a future in other careers despite annual financial losses in the hundreds of thousands of dollars. While not a resident of the county, Clement points to a long family history on both his mother’s and father’s side of the family in Prince Edward County and plans to retire there. Clement acknowledged that he has received overtures from outside parties interested in purchasing the team in the past but nothing recently. He hopes to work with county council and other stakeholders to improve the team’s viability in Wellington. Clement says the Dukes will operate summer camps as they have in the past in preparation for next season. Last year the Wellington Dukes celebrated their 35th anniversary.

The MP for Bay of Quinte riding businessman Ryan Williams will run for reelection in the next federal election, which could be called as early as this week. Williams has told Quinte News that this election could be the most important one in a lifetime considering the threats to Canada’s economy and sovereignty coming from U.S. President Donald Trump’s administration. In the 2021 federal election, Williams defeated Liberal candidate and now mayor of Belleville Neil Ellis by almost 3,000 votes. 338Canada, a popular election prediction website, says Bay of Quinte riding is a likely win for the Conservatives. Nationally it has the Conservatives and Liberals virtually tied for the lead.

Israeli airstrikes pounded Gaza, killing at least 326 people, Palestinian health authorities said on Tuesday — collapsing a two-month ceasefire with Hamas as Israel vowed to use force to free its remaining hostages in the territory. Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s office accused Hamas of “repeated refusal to release our hostages” and rejecting proposals from U.S. President Donald Trump’s mideast envoy Steve Witkoff. After heavy strikes, the Israeli army issued evacuation orders for a number of neighbourhoods in Gaza, according to the statement. Meanwhile, Hamas accused Israel of overturning the hard-fought ceasefire deal agreed to in January, leaving the fate of 59 hostages still held in Gaza uncertain. Strikes in Gaza were reported in multiple locations on Tuesday during the Muslim holy month of Ramadan. Officials from Gaza’s Hamas-run health ministry said many of the dead were children.

Nearly 500,000 fewer travellers crossed the land border from Canada into the U.S. in February compared to the same month last year, according to data from the U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP), the latest sign that President Donald Trump’s taunts and tariffs have shaken bilateral relations.

The number of travellers entering the U.S. in a passenger vehicle — the most common way to make the trip — dropped from 2,696,512 in February 2024 to 2,223,408 last month, reaching levels not seen since cross-border travel normalized in the post-COVID-19 era. In fact, the number of travellers driving over the U.S. land border is the lowest it’s been since April 2022, according to CBP data. The Canadian government didn’t lift all travel-related restrictions, like testing and quarantine measures, until October of that year. The fact that the current flow of travellers is at the same level as when travel was much more arduous is revealing.

Sports

Auston Matthews scored twice on the power play and added an assist as the Toronto Maple Leafs thumped the Calgary Flames 6-2 on Monday. William Nylander added a goal and two assists for Toronto (40-24-3), which had lost five of its last six games.

Devin Booker scored 27 points and led a second-quarter surge as the Phoenix Suns routed the Toronto Raptors 129-89

Rachel Homan and her Canadian championship crew beat the United States 8-4 on Monday night to improve their round-robin record to 4-1 at the LGT women’s world curling championship.