President Len opened the meeting by welcoming everyone.  The national anthem was led by Bill Sibeon. 

 

Guests: PP Brampton Club Badar Shamin; Lynne Strickland, Rose Young, PP Harry Edgar (brother of Mary Rashleigh); Exchange Student Jorge Valdebenito.  

 

-Mary Rashleigh presented exchange student Jorge with gifts from the club for his 16^th birthday.

   

 

-Peter Redwood gave the sad news of the sudden passing of Debbie Kirwin’s 49-year-old son.

 

-The fishing tournament last weekend had 44 boats, and the longest pike caught was 1.2 metres long.  Several Rotarians attended.

 

-PDG Ron presented Bill Sibeon with his Paul Harris Fellow Plus 5 pin.  Congratulations to Bill. 

 

 

-Adrian asked for volunteers to help with putting new plants in the ground at Avery Beach at 10 a.m. on Friday June 5, weather permitting.  Friday June 12 if the 5^th is rained out.  Peace poles have been ordered, and signage should be ready soon.

 

-Town Clean-Up project by Evening Club on Sunday May 25 at 10 a.m. at Muskoka Heritage Place.  Volunteers welcome. 

 

Induction of New Member:  Rob Saunders sponsored new member Remo Campitelli.  President Len gave the induction ceremony and Rob pinned Remo, who was then asked to tell the members about himself. 

   

Remo was born in 1944 and worked part-time in his dad’s candy store in their basement from when he was 8 years old.  At age of 12 he left school and worked for his dad full-time.  He met his future wife at age 17, and they have been married for 62 years.  Remo and his wife opened their own candy business, and eventually he got his real estate licence, and was very successful in that career for a number of years.  He showed his “80+ Hockey Hall of Fame” card.

 

 

He is having a very good time in his retirement in Huntsville.  Remo was welcomed into the Rotary Club of Huntsville. 

 

Lynn Strickland's ticket was drawn for the Foundation Funding draw but as you can see by her face, no joker appeared, other than the character to her right!

 

Following the meeting a few members attended at The Door. The Door serves youth in Huntsville in giving them a non judgemental place to go and socialize with their peers and build self esteem  The Club donated $2,500 to support their good works. As they are in a capital campaign to improve their home base these funds will assist with ongoing programming.  

 

Conner was invited to speak to the club about Trump and tariffs. There have been fundamental shifts taking place, which historically happen every 30-40 years.

Interest rates peaked in the 1980’s and bottomed during Covid.  After World War II, women entered the work force, and that was the era of the fall of fascism and the rise of communism.  There was rapid inflation in the 1970’s.  There is more US currency in circulation globally than all other currencies combined.  Cheap labour in China and some other countries affects manufacturing in US and Canada.  The US got built up as a powerful economy.  Economics are now managed by interest rates, which increase the debt bubble.  Pension funds are now under-funded, seriously so in Europe, not quite so bad in Canada. 

Covid showed how reliant the world was on the global supply chain.  Trump knows what he is doing, he is trying to reorganize the global system.  He is trying to devalue US currency, using tariffs to gain influence around the world.  He is weakening the US dollar, to bring manufacturing back to the US.  He wants to lower the debt, trying to avoid the demise of the US economy.  If the US gets into a war, they need to manufacture their weapons at home, not be dependent on other countries for their arms. 

Trump does not want Canada to be the 51^st state, but he does want access to our critical minerals.  He hopes the tariffs will benefit the US this year, to help the vote at the midterms in 2026. 

From a Canadian perspective, the tariffs are hindering us now, and there will likely be a recession in the next few months.  Europe is now trying to stand on its own feet.  Canada, with all its resources, should be the richest country in the world. Over the past decade we have actually lost position in our productivity and that has to change. 

Following his talk there were a number of questions from members which Connor readily answered. The bottom line seemed to be that as we are in a period of transition there needs to be flexibility and ability to change and adapt.