Royal LePage Lakes of Haliburton is celebrating its 50th anniversary in the real estate business this year. Owner and broker, Anthony vanLieshout, joins us to discuss one of Haliburton County's favourite topics: real estate. In this episode we cover historical price and activity patterns, changing cottager dynamics, short term rentals, the insane COVID period and subsequent cooling-off. Anthony gives his predictions for 2026 and explains why he has a pretty good idea which year prices will start rising again and why he's confident they will. Spoiler alert: it's not 2026. When exactly? We wanted to know too. Listen and find out!

Depending on how you define it, the county has at least two downtowns: one in Haliburton Village, and one in Minden. And depending on what time of year you visit, they can be nearby and friendly stops to get what you need, or crammed with cottagers and out-of-towners taking up all the parking. A Business Improvement Area (BIA) is often set up to maximize the functionality and attractiveness of a downtown, bringing local business owners together with a member of council, aiming to align municipal policies with good economic development practices. Haliburton Village has one. Minden doesn't. In this episode, Brandon Nimigon, president of the Haliburton BIA, tells us what they're working on and what he'd like to see happen next. Will he succeed bringing something similar to Minden? And why does Minden clear its piles of snow on the curbs when Dysart doesn't? Are people in Dysart more spry? Brandon shares his thoughts on that and much more. Bonus: our first lighting round!

Ontario has many programs for children and parents who need help. So why is it that someone in Haliburton with a full time job still struggles financially to support herself and two kids? And how can we call ourselves a society that supports families when we consistently make decisions to not adequately fund services like affordable daycare? Our guest shares some of her challenges as we brainstorm a few ideas to make life better for local parents, including the example of a school district in New York where they have programming from 7am to 7pm to support working parents. Is that something we could try here?