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Happy Thursday, Thunder Bay! A mix of sun and cloud, a 30 per cent chance of showers and a high of 20°C. In today's issue: a mayoral candidate apologizes for how he asked women for their votes, the hospital's website goes dark for the week, a parking lot fills up to remember 61 people, and Nipigon holds its place at the front of the line for the marine conservation headquarters. Plus the drone show that closes the summer.
In this Harbour Beat Issue…
Trivia: Van Gogh painted The Starry Night in 1889 from the view out his bedroom window. What kind of institution was he living in at the time? (Answer at the bottom!)
Thunder Bay Events
Summer signs off tonight. The waterfront concert series wraps with a drone show over the harbour, Harbourfest takes over Red River Road, and Ribfest settles in at the Speedway for four days. Then Tumblestone, wrestling at the Gardens, model trains on Highway 61, and a corn roast to finish the long weekend. ✅ Sunday carries a 60 per cent chance of showers — check with the organizer before you head out.
Thursday, August 27
AUG 27 · Live on the Waterfront — Summer Send-Off, night two — 6–10 p.m. · 📍 Festival Area, Marina Park · Free · Darren Foley and the Luminescence at 6, Small Town Bad at 7:15, My Son the Hurricane at 8:30 — then a drone light show over the harbour once the music stops · 📅 Add to Calendar
AUG 27 · Harbourfest — 4–11 p.m. · 📍 Red River Road, Waterfront District · The 90s street festival is back, hosted by the Waterfront District BIA — live music, sidewalk sales, dog contests, a fashion show and local vendors · 📅 Add to Calendar
AUG 27 · Ribfest 2026 opens — 11 a.m.–9 p.m., daily through Sunday · 📍 Thunder City Speedway, Lucy Drive · Four days of ribs, live bands and beer gardens, with a classic car show Saturday 11 a.m.–4 p.m. · 📅 Add to Calendar
Friday, August 28
AUG 28 · Tumblestone Music and Art Festival — from noon, through Saturday · 📍 Gorham, about 20 minutes north of the city · The volunteer-run festival that started as a backyard pig roast in 2011 and has been voted best annual festival at the TBshows Fan Choice Awards more than once · 📅 Add to Calendar
Saturday, August 29
AUG 29 · Model Trains at Oliver Paipoonge Heritage Park — 12–4:30 p.m., also Sunday · 📍 3190 Highway 61 at Gillespie Road · Layouts set up across the park, plus the Duke Hunt Museum, Heritage Village, the Brill buses and Russ's Garage. $5 for 13 and up, free for kids · 📅 Add to Calendar
AUG 29 · Great North Wrestling — doors 6 p.m., bell 7 p.m. · 📍 Fort William Gardens, 901 Miles St. · Thunder Bay's own Vampiro headlines against Chris Masters, with Charlie Haas and a women's title match on the card. Every ticket includes a meet and greet · 📅 Add to Calendar
Sunday, August 30
AUG 30 · West Thunder Corn Roast & Vendors Market — 11 a.m.–3 p.m. · 📍 West Thunder Community Centre, 915 S. Edward St. · The tenth year for the neighbourhood corn roast, with a vendors market alongside it · 📅 Add to Calendar
Monday, August 31
AUG 31 · Dawson Diner Monday Night Cruise-In — 6:30–8 p.m. · 📍 Dawson Diner, 1889 Dawson Road · Hosted by the Lakehead Antique Car Club — BBQ, ice cream, popcorn and music, weather permitting · 📅 Add to Calendar
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✅ NO WEATHER ALERTS IN EFFECT
Environment Canada had no watches or warnings posted for Thunder Bay as of Wednesday evening. There is a special weather statement for areas east of Marathon, where up to 70 mm of rain is possible — worth knowing if you are driving the north shore this weekend. Latest alerts at Environment Canada.
⛅ Thursday, August 27 — Thunder Bay
20°C
Overnight low 7°C
Mix of sun and cloud · 30% chance of showers · N wind 20 km/h late in the afternoon · UV index 6 (high)
Cooler and brighter. Thursday runs a mix of sun and cloud with a 30 per cent chance of showers and a high of 20°C — two below the seasonal normal, and five cooler than yesterday. The wind swings north at 20 km/h late in the afternoon, which is the thing to plan for if you are standing on the waterfront for the drone show after dark. UV index hits 6, or high, so the sunscreen still earns its place. Clear enough overnight that the low drops to 7°C — the coolest night in a while, and a real hint of what is coming. Friday is the pick of the week: sunny and 23°C. Saturday clouds over at 20°C, and Sunday brings a 60 per cent chance of showers. Full forecast and any new alerts at Environment Canada.
A mayoral candidate apologizes for how he asked women for their votes
Mayoral candidate Shane Judge apologized Wednesday for a social media post aimed at women voters that landed badly almost immediately. Posted Tuesday evening, it argued his shared platform with at-large council candidate Gary Christian was not “just by men for men” — then leaned on women managing the family budget understanding the value of saving for a rainy day, and on a “sizable number of women drivers who have been traumatized by hitting that hidden pot hole in the spring.” Commenters were blunt. One wrote that she felt “mansplained” on how to vote because of potholes; another said that even if the intent was good, the language “devalues and degrades women.” Christian says he neither authorized nor helped write it, contacted Judge and “demanded that it be removed immediately” — adding that no group of voters should be told how to vote on his behalf. Judge says he was trying to get women to look harder at his platform on roads and downtown safety. “I’m afraid I used stereotypes and tried to describe lived life in a generic way that just didn’t work,” he said. “Voters are voters. The lesson I learned is that you don’t point to one gender.”
🗳️ Your call: Ten people are running for mayor and the ballot is set. When a campaign stumbles like this, how much weight should it carry?
A mayoral candidate apologized this week for a post that leaned on stereotypes to court women voters. How much should a campaign misstep like that weigh at the ballot box?
The hospital's website is down, and it might be all week
If you have gone looking for clinic information, visiting hours or a department phone number this week, you have found a notice instead. tbrhsc.net is offline, and a Thunder Bay Regional Health Sciences Centre spokesperson told Newswatch it is scheduled maintenance that could keep the site down into early next week. What to do in the meantime: hospital updates are still going out on its social media pages, general inquiries go through the main switchboard at 807-684-6000, and job postings are still live at jobs.tbrhsc.net. Medical emergency, as always — 911 or the nearest emergency department. Worth a screenshot of that switchboard number if you have an appointment coming up.
A parking lot fills up for the 61 people the district lost last year
People came from all over the city Wednesday to the Intercity Shopping Centre parking lot, 11 a.m. to 2 p.m., for International Overdose Awareness Day. Kandace Belanger, who manages street outreach and harm reduction at the Thunder Bay District Health Unit, put the number plainly: 61 people died in the Thunder Bay District last year, and every one of those deaths reaches into a family, a workplace, a street. “It’s really important that we have this day to recognize them,” she said, “and to also understand some of the supports that are out there.” Jameson Shortreed, peer support and wellness coordinator with Superior North EMS, made the case for how the rest of us behave: “Just behind every overdose is a life that has value.” You do not need answers to help, he said — you can challenge stigma, listen, advocate. “Lend a compassionate hand.”
Nipigon is still the front-runner for the marine conservation headquarters
The administrative building and visitor centre for the Lake Superior National Marine Conservation Area is still headed for Nipigon — the township just does not know where yet. Mayor Suzanne Kukko says the community remains “the priority site” and that talks with Parks Canada are focused on a couple of possible locations, with something firmer hoped for in the next few months. The project has taken a long road: ground was broken on a $37-million facility at the Nipigon Marina in May 2024, but further site work turned up pre-contact Anishinaabe ancestral remains and disqualified the property. Federal officials went back out for alternative proposals in 2025, including from nearby Red Rock. Parks Canada spokesperson Jared Shawcross confirmed the agency has finished a site adaptation assessment — including privately owned properties — and has “maintained its commitment to the Township of Nipigon.” The conservation area, one of five in the country, was formally established in 2015.
It's Here: Pique's New Caffeine-Free Afternoon Energy
I quit my afternoon coffee. Not because I wanted to — because I found something better.
You know that wall you hit every day around 2–3 PM? I used to just accept it as the cost of doing anything. Another coffee, a quick spike, then the crash — and somehow I'd still feel dehydrated by dinner.
Then I tried X·E Fountain, Pique's brand-new electrolyte energy drink, and I genuinely wasn't ready for how good "no crash" could feel.
No caffeine jitters. No 4 PM slump. Just clean, steady energy that actually hydrates me instead of draining me. It's built with a premium Vitamin B Complex for natural cellular energy, Magnesium Malate + Taurate for real focus, and a full electrolyte blend that makes it feel like a treat, not a chore.
The cucumber-celery-lime flavor is so crisp and refreshing — it's basically stolen my afternoon coffee slot completely.
Local Business Spotlight
Featured Market: Goods & Co. Market
Overview — The old Eaton's building on Red River Road did not stay empty. Today the renovated art deco space holds Goods & Co. Market, an indoor urban market with more than 25 local vendors under one roof — food producers, artisans, a contemporary art gallery and event space. It describes itself as a platform for new businesses, which is the honest version of what it does: it gives a small maker a storefront without asking them to sign a lease on a whole building. If you have been meaning to actually shop local rather than just agree that shopping local is good, this is the shortest possible version of that errand. And it sits right in the middle of the Waterfront District — the same stretch Harbourfest takes over tonight.
Highlights
Dough Bagel Co. — bagels made fresh daily since 2022, no preservatives, with house-made cream cheese flavours.
SUKHANOV Ukrainian Kitchen and Miss Spicy, the latter founded by Lakehead grads serving Yunnan rice noodles, dumplings, wontons and skewers.
Blue Abyss Studio — original artwork and prints, bags and soft home goods, plus locally made crocheted pieces by Unique Knots.
Serendipity's Closet for vintage and previously loved clothing, and a plant and garden shop inside the market for the tower-to-table crowd.
The Goods General Store and Woodside Bar — the market also books pop-ups, workshops and private events.
Ambiance & Experience — High ceilings, big windows and the bones of a 20th-century department store, with stalls arranged so you can do a full loop in twenty minutes or lose an hour. It reads as a modern market rather than a mall: quieter, warmer, and everyone behind a counter is the person who made the thing.
Location & Contact
📍 251 Red River Road, Thunder Bay — street parking on Red River, Court and Park, plus the parkade across the street, and it is on a main bus route
📸 Instagram @goodscomarket
Operating Hours
Wednesday to Friday: 11 a.m. – 6 p.m.
Saturday and Sunday: 10 a.m. – 4 p.m.
Monday and Tuesday: closed. Individual vendor hours can vary — check the market's socials if you are going for one stall in particular.
Final Word — Twenty-five small businesses, one door, and a building the city decided was worth keeping. Visit Goods & Co. Market →
Meme of the Day
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Trivia answer: A psychiatric asylum — Saint-Paul-de-Mausole in Saint-Rémy-de-Provence, in the south of France. He had checked himself in voluntarily the month before, and the hills and cypress tree in the painting are the real view east from his window, with the village added from imagination.
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