2017 Orillia Museum of Art & History Award, Historical Publications and/or Research — Winner**The history of Orillia, told through the stories of its people, bringing to life the community’s heritage and significance.The Orillia Spirit:**Muddling through Canada’s first, and hilarious, experiment with daylight savings time, Mayor “Daylight Bill” Frost had it.Creating his own money and dreaming a drainage ditch would become a tourist attraction...

Did you hear the one about the canal builder who forgot canals need water? The battle where everyone ran away? Or the boat made of ice, and the town that mixed up time? How about the shovel invented for soldiers with a hole in it? Colossal Canadian Failures is a lighthearted look at Canada's unsung heroes the eccentrics, the failures, the misguided, and the just plain overoptimistic who never met an idea they could resist, no matter how crazy. From engineering blunders to business...

The Orillia Spirit tells the history of the city through the stories of its people, who insisted on making their lives and their community alive with significance.

Sure, Canada was built on dreams and hard work, but it was also built on failure - mix-ups, mistakes, screw-ups, and boondoggles. Failing at things, and laughing about them, has long been a characteristic of our citizens.Where else but in Canada would governments send farmers to land that couldn’t be farmed? Where else would an argument over the metric system almost result in the death of hundreds? Who else but Canadians would march against non-existent enemies? Where else would lu...