Checkup's young journalists blog

 Gordie Wornoff, 31, (BJ,'05, Carleton) is thrilled to be a production assistant on CBC's Cross Country Checkup. He is a writer and woodworker living in Toronto. He specializes in reclaimed materials and artistic furniture designs. His carpentry work can be seen on Discovery Channel's "Junk Raiders," now in its third season. 

Gordie Wornoff on why the school calendar shouldn't go year-round

The BC government wants to give individual school boards the choice of shortening the traditional, long summer break by moving to a "balanced calendar" schedule. Proponents of the plan say that too much information is lost over the summer and the September reboot could be more effective.

With over 1,600 public schools in BC poised to decide whether to jettison the traditional September-June year, these proposed changes would echo across the country.

 Gordie Wornoff, 31, (BJ,'05, Carleton) is thrilled to be a production assistant on CBC's Cross Country Checkup. He is a writer and woodworker living in Toronto. He specializes in reclaimed materials and artistic furniture designs. His carpentry work can be seen on Discovery Channel's "Junk Raiders," now in its third season. 

Gordie Wornoff on who's not hurting in the digital vs. print news battle:

There are 1,100 community newspapers  in Canada, publishing in print and online, and in the fight against free digital news content, they are boxing well above their weight says Paul MacNeill, former president of the Canadian Community Newspaper Association.
 
 "Newspapers are strong in Canada," says MacNeill, who publishes of The Eastern Graphic out of Prince Edward Island. "Readership is higher than ever."

 
MacNeill says that if the content is local, unique and relevant to the community, the readers will pay for it - whether it's on paper or  online.

 
Tyler Waugh, Editor and founding member of The Hinton Voice near Jasper National Park agrees.

"Our biggest factor in how successful we'll be is how relevant we are to the community," Waugh says.

Emily Burke (MA '09, UWO) loves being a production assistant for CBC's Cross Country Checkup because she gets to speak directly to interesting people from all over the country. She lives in Toronto and writes on a wide range of topics from municipal politics to food sustainability to all things arts and culture. She hates to go a day without listening to CBC radio.

 Emily Burke writes on what seniors really want:

"We elderly do not want everything to be done by doctors, nurses and care homes, so long as, with a little help from our immediate neighbors, we could do so much of it all for ourselves," says 82 year old William Lawrence from Victoria, BC, one of thousands of Cross Country Checkup listeners who phoned and emailed to talk about the current crisis in senior care.

Their stories helped illustrate the findings of a new report by the Health Council of Canada, which recommends improving support services for seniors, especially for the increasing number who want to live in their own homes for as long as possible rather than be moved into a nursing facility.