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Happy Monday, Thunder Bay! Sunny to start, clouding over late in the afternoon, and a high of 23°C. In today's issue: hundreds turned out at Boulevard Lake on Sunday to walk a trail back, a school car show keeps a late teacher's collection alive, one of ten mayoral candidates makes his pitch, and the Thunderwolves hire a coach with nineteen university seasons behind him. Plus eight things to do over the next five days. 🪶
In this Harbour Beat Issue…
Trivia: The Trans-Siberian Railway runs from Moscow east to which Pacific port city, roughly 9,300 km away? (Answer at the bottom!)
Thunder Bay Events
The last full week of August fills right up: free music in Waverley Park tonight, a run around Boulevard Lake Tuesday, the two-night Summer Send-Off at Marina Park, and both Ribfest and Harbourfest opening Thursday. ✅ Outdoor events can shift on short notice — confirm with the organizer before you head out.
Monday, August 24
AUG 24 · Monday Evening Concerts at Waverley Park — 6:30–9 p.m. · 📍 Waverley Park, Waverley St. · The Coalition for Waverley Park's summer concert night, and the forecast has handed it the sunniest evening of the week · 📅 Add to Calendar
AUG 24 · Dawson Diner Monday Night Cruise-In — 6:30–8 p.m. · 📍 Dawson Diner, 1889 Dawson Rd. · The Lakehead Antique Car Club fills the lot with antiques, hot rods and custom builds; BBQ, ice cream and music for everyone else. Weather permitting · 📅 Add to Calendar
Tuesday, August 25
AUG 25 · Tuesday Group Run — 6:30–7:30 p.m. · 📍 Boulevard Lake, meet at the Rita St. parking lot · Free · A friendly 5K around the lake, run or run-walk, any speed welcome · 📅 Add to Calendar
Wednesday, August 26
AUG 26 · International Overdose Awareness Day — 11 a.m.–2 p.m. · 📍 Intercity Shopping Centre, 1000 Fort William Rd. · Free · An open gathering for anyone touched by substance use — people in recovery, families who have lost someone, and the local services that support them · 📅 Add to Calendar
AUG 26 · Live on the Waterfront — Summer Send-Off — 6–9 p.m. (also Thursday, 6–10 p.m.) · 📍 Festival Area, Marina Park · Free · The two-night close of the city's summer concert series, with food, vendors and family activities alongside the music · 📅 Add to Calendar
Thursday, August 27
AUG 27 · Ribfest 2026 — opening day — 11 a.m.–9 p.m., through Sunday · 📍 Thunder City Speedway, Lucy Dr. · Four days of barbecue, live bands and beer gardens, with a vintage and classic car show on the Saturday from 11 to 4 · 📅 Add to Calendar
AUG 27 · Harbourfest — 4–11 p.m. · 📍 100–200 block, Red River Rd. · A 90s downtown festival revived by the Waterfront District BIA, with live music, sidewalk sales, dog contests, a fashion show and local vendors · 📅 Add to Calendar
Friday, August 28
AUG 28 · Tumblestone Music and Art Festival — from noon, and again Saturday · 📍 Gorham, about 20 minutes north of the city · A two-day, multi-genre music and art festival that started as a backyard pig roast in 2011 and now leans hard on local and emerging artists · 📅 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 Sunday evening. Monday is the dry, bright one before showers move back in Tuesday — the only thing worth guarding against is the sun. Latest alerts at Environment Canada.
☀️ Monday, August 24 — Thunder Bay
23°C
Overnight low 9°C
Sunny, clouding over late afternoon · Humidex 25 · No rain expected · UV 6 (high)
The best day of the week, and it is the first one. Monday starts sunny, with cloud building only late in the afternoon, and the high reaches 23°C — a degree above the seasonal normal, and a humidex of 25 once the humidity is counted. No rain is in the forecast, which makes it the one dry day before showers return: Tuesday and Wednesday both carry a 40 per cent chance. The UV index is 6, or high, so a full afternoon outside still wants sunscreen. Cloud fills in overnight before clearing after midnight, and the low settles at 9°C. If you have an outdoor errand this week, do it today. Full forecast and any new alerts at Environment Canada.
A sea of purple takes back the Boulevard Lake trail
Three months after she was attacked while running at Boulevard Lake, Rebecca Carr went back to the trail on Sunday — and a crowd went with her. Kids ran ahead, dogs came along, and the walkers wore purple, the colour of the hat Carr had on the morning of May 7, which she believes helped two St. Ignatius students spot her and stop to help. The event, Take Back the Trail, was organized with help from local clothing company Ungalli after Carr reached out with the idea, and proceeds go to Beendigen and Victim Services Thunder Bay. Carr was careful about what the day was and wasn't. “We're not promising that the trails are going to be completely safe after this,” she told the crowd. What she wanted people to take away was smaller and more useful: “Do we see each other? Do we stop? Do we believe? Do we check in?” She still runs. “I don't know if I'll run exactly the same way I did, but I run — and every time I do, I take a little bit of it back.”
🗳️ Your call: Carr's point was that people showing up matters more than any promise of safety. Still, the city elects a new council on Oct. 26 — what would do the most for the trails?
Hundreds walked the Boulevard Lake trail Sunday. What would do the most to make Thunder Bay's trails feel safer?
A school car show keeps Russ's Garage going
A calendar of photos from the car show at école secondaire catholique de La Vérendrye has raised $2,000 for Russ's Garage, the collection of cars and memorabilia housed at Oliver Paipoonge Heritage Park. “All the sales, 100 per cent of the proceeds are donated,” said teacher Joshua Murphy. Russ was a teacher too — he and his wife Elaine taught at rural schools around Oliver Paipoonge and in the city, and after retiring he spent years collecting and restoring vehicles, especially anything tied to local circle track racing. Rod Spicer of the Friends of Oliver Paipoonge Heritage Park says the building exists because Russ made the municipality an offer: “I will give you the best of all that I have if you will build me a building.” The school's show brings the cars, and their owners, onto school grounds. “They've built it with their own hands,” Murphy said — and for students, “it allows kids to see that and realize that it's attainable.” The next show is Sept. 18, with a new calendar due in October.
Forty years of public service, and a run at the mayor's chair
With the ballot now set for the Oct. 26 municipal election, the candidates are starting to make their cases. Doug Vincent is one of the names running for mayor, and he is running on résumé: 40 years in public service, 20 of them in municipal government across four municipalities — three in Ontario and one in Nunavut — including six and a half years as the City of Thunder Bay's manager of licensing enforcement, where he oversaw the restructuring that became Municipal Enforcement Services. He has lived in Northern Ontario since 1983 and in Thunder Bay for about seven and a half years. His priorities land in three buckets: community safety, infrastructure — particularly aging water and sewer — and social issues including homelessness, mental health and affordability. “It's really poised to take off,” he said of the city. “It just needs strong leadership and the right decisions being made.”
The Thunderwolves hire a coach with nineteen seasons behind him
If Lakehead was shopping for experience, it found some. The Thunderwolves have hired John Campbell to lead the men's basketball team, replacing the departed Ryan Thomson. Campbell spent eight seasons at the University of Toronto after 11 with the Dalhousie Tigers, was named Atlantic University Sport coach of the year in 2010-11, and earlier took Laurentian to a pair of conference championships and three coach-of-the-year nods. He arrives most recently from an assistant role at Toronto Metropolitan. “I am excited to have the opportunity to lead Lakehead Basketball and work to build on the past successes of the program,” Campbell said. Athletics director Tom Warden called him “highly respected throughout basketball,” with “a tremendous wealth of experience both on and off the court.”
Meme of the Day
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Trivia answer: Vladivostok. The main line covers about 9,289 kilometres, crosses eight time zones, and takes the better part of a week end to end.
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