DID YOU KNOW: Canada Once Printed 25-Cent Bills Called "Shinplasters"?

If you dig through an old desk drawer or inherit a family keepsake tin here in Canada, you usually expect to find worn copper pennies, old silver voyageur dollars, or maybe a crisp terracotta two-dollar bill or two. But finding a tiny slip of paper that reads "Dominion of Canada Will Pay on Demand: 25 Cents" definitely makes you do a double take...

Yes, Canada actually printed paper quarters. They were official legal tender, circulated nationwide for over five decades, and carry one of the most delightfully sarcastic nicknames in Canadian history. I recently pulled this exact bill out of my mother's old stash, and having it sit right here on my desk got me digging into its backstory—especially when I noticed an odd printing quirk that proved it wasn't quite cut the way it was supposed to...

From my mother's collection: an authentic July 2, 1923 Dominion of Canada 25-cent fractional note.
Look closely at the very top edge—the mechanical blade cut sliced off the printer line from the bill above it!

The American Silver "Invasion" That Forced Canada's Hand

You might think Canada printed paper quarters simply because pocket coins were heavy, but they were actually born out of a cross-border currency headache. During and right after the American Civil War in the 1860s, boatloads of United States silver coins poured northward across our border.

The Big Winter Drain: What Happens Beneath the Welland Canal

If you take a stroll along the Welland Canal trails once winter sets in, the view is downright surreal... where massive 740-foot lake freighters churn all summer long, suddenly there is nothing but mud, bedrock, and empty air.

Every year around Christmas, one of North America’s busiest commercial shipping routes shuts down for the season. The St. Lawrence Seaway begins its annual "unwatering" routine, draining the canal reach by reach down to Lake Ontario—leaving the chambers bone-dry straight through January and February. But pulling the plug on a waterway that holds billions of litres of water isn't quite as simple as opening a drain in a bathtub...

The exposed floor of the Welland Canal during the winter maintenance shutdown.
Illustration by SCG NIAGARA

The Careful Drain: Why Engineers Can't Just Rush It

You might think workers simply open up the gate sluices and let gravity dump all that water into Lake Ontario overnight. In reality, Seaway operators have to throttle the drainage down to a crawl—strictly keeping the drop between 6.4 and 7.6 cm (2.5 to 3 inches) per hour.

VIDEO: Threat of flooding looms over Niagara as heavy rain forecast | CHCH NEWS

Environment Canada has issued a special weather statement for the Niagara Region today, forecasting upwards of 50 millimetres of rain.

While there is no significant rainfall reported this afternoon, the next 24 hours could see the same type of storm pattern that caused major basement flooding across the region weeks ago.

“Training storms” are back-to-back-to-back systems that bring heavy volumes of rain to a localized area over a short period. This dynamic drove the initial wave of storm damage in St. Catharines and the Town of Lincoln, and remains the primary concern for the incoming system.

“The special weather advisory today kind of feels like some cosmic joke.”

— Ashley Brown, St. Catharines resident

For the Brown family in St. Catharines, the first round of storms brought floodwater straight through their basement window. “I think it makes us all shudder just a little bit,” Brown told CHCH News as residents monitor conditions and prepare for another wet 24 hours.

Video & Report via CHCH News

The Rat Surge: What Niagara Floods Could Mean for Neighbourhood Pests

Just when we thought the worst of the summer storm cleanup was finally behind us across Niagara... another mess could surface.

Between late July and early August, our region was hit by two severe, back-to-back storms that overwhelmed municipal drainage, left heavy standing water across neighbourhood roads, and flooded basements across the area—mine included, twice. It was exhausting, frustrating, and pushed storm systems past capacity.

Now that the water has receded, if you put two and two together on where all that runoff went, we aren't the only ones dealing with disrupted spaces. When underground sewer lines and burrows submerge, rodents are forced upward to seek dry ground—and our yards, foundations, and garages could easily become their next stop...

Flooded municipal sewer lines and storm drains push subterranean pests upward toward residential areas.
Illustration by SCG NIAGARA

The Science of Displacement: Why Post-Storm Conditions Matter

You might not see pests darting down the sidewalk in broad daylight—rats are nocturnal and avoid open spaces whenever possible. However, basic urban pest biology explains why severe flooding disrupts their habitat so drastically.

Why the US Tax System Hates Canada’s TFSA (And Why You’re Foolish Not to Take Advantage of It!)

Wow, that TFSA... talk about a masterclass in policy design. Yet every spring, Canadian banks launch a massive marketing blitz screaming at you to dump your hard-earned cash into an RRSP.

This isn't a bank script, folks. This isn't even coming from a financial advisor. It's even better—I’m sharing this purely from real-life experience.

But let's get real: if you are a low-to-modest income earner, rushing blindly into an RRSP is a financial trap that will actively slash your senior benefits later in life. While high-income earners benefit from immediate tax deductions, everyday working Canadians are often better off using our absolute best tax shelter—the TFSA. If you are sitting at 40, 50, or 60 trying to protect your future on a modest paycheck, it is time to stop listening to generic bank pitches and start playing the smart hand...

The mainstream financial trap hitting everyday savers.
Illustration by SCG NIAGARA

The Mainstream Trap: The Illusion of the RRSP (For Modest Incomes)

For my entire working life, I’ve heard people constantly hyping up the RRSP. I always had a gut-level dislike for it. In fact, I used to warn my kids not to dump their money into one. Back then, my reasoning was simple: your wages are already taxed, so why put them into an account where they will just get taxed again when you take them out?

Years later, I finally figured out the real mechanism: it isn't double-taxation, it's just delayed taxation. But for people living on lower or middle incomes, that delay isn't a benefit—it's a trap. You aren't avoiding taxes; you are just pushing them into your retirement years, where every dollar you withdraw can slash your senior benefits like the Guaranteed Income Supplement (GIS).

If you live on a modest income (under $50,000/year), those future RRSP withdrawals will count as taxable income. This can instantly disqualify you from crucial low-income senior benefits like the Guaranteed Income Supplement (GIS). You aren't beating the system; you are setting yourself up to lose your government support when you need it most.