Jon Wells

Ontario

Writer at The Hamilton Spectator (Hamilton, ON)

Writer at The Hamilton Spectator. Author of Poison, Sniper, Vanished, Post-Mortem, Death’s Shadow, and Heat. Western poli-sci/Carleton M.J.

Articles

‘15 minutes out mama’: The tragic story of Port Dover fisherman Michael Smith who drowned in Lake Erie

1 month ago | thespec.com | Jon Wells

Frigid water shushing against the hull, spray peppering windows, as the fish tug bores through Lake Erie, clouds breaking to reveal the pale, fleeting blue of a mercurial March sky. On board, Michael Smith sent his wife a text like he always did to start the day:“Good morning beautiful, I love you.”They headed southwest around Long Point, the 40-kilometre sand spit that stretches nearly halfway across the lake.
Made-in-Canada NBA megastar Shai Gilgeous-Alexander stays true to Hamilton roots

1 month ago | thespec.com | Jon Wells

Don’t tell the mad hatter in the White House that Canada’s most eye-popping export is immune to tariff whims, and that this Made-in-Steeltown product puts equivalent U.S. goods — NBA players — to shame.
Everyone told Robin Lennox not to enter the political arena — and then she won

1 month ago | thespec.com | Jon Wells

Robin Lennox received one consistent piece of advice when she started talking about running for office in the 2025 provincial election. The advice? Don’t do it. “Nearly everyone I asked told me that, actually,” said Lennox, a family doctor. She spoke on the phone Saturday afternoon, less than 48 hours after winning handily as the NDP candidate in Hamilton Centre in the 34-year old’s first foray into an election race.
Rookie MPP revels in pulling off ‘unthinkable’ PC win on Hamilton Mountain

1 month ago | thespec.com | Jon Wells

Monica Ciriello rejoiced in the win for big blue, achieved in traditionally hostile territory, where few gave her team a chance. “Go Blue!” she posted on social media. Of course we’re talking U.S. college football, not Ontario provincial politics. But yes, in politics, Ciriello, 36, won her first election victory last week for PC blue, in the NDP-friendly Hamilton Mountain riding that had voted orange for more than a decade, and last elected a Tory when she was six years old.
Back to back wins for Tory Neil Lumsden in Hamilton East-Stoney Creek

1 month ago | thespec.com | Jon Wells

Neil Lumsden, a CFL Hall of Famer who won three straight Grey Cups with Edmonton (and one as GM of the Ticats), knows about repeating, or in sports jargon, “going back-to-back” winning championships. And now he can call himself a back-to-back champ in the political arena. He pulled it off Thursday night in a part of Hamilton that for 15 years had been a provincial NDP stronghold, before Lumsden broke through for the PCs in the 2022 Ontario election.
Feeling stressed? Music is as good for you as hitting the gym

1 month ago | thespec.com | Jon Wells

The therapeutic power of music involves such things as brain waves, neuroplasticity, and a tear-jerking hormone called prolactin. But everyone knows what it’s like to feel it in their non-scientific soul. That might help account for why 2,400 students, from multiple faculties, enrolled this year in the “introduction to the profession of music therapy” course at McMaster University.
Liberal and NDP candidates trade fire in Hamilton East—Stoney Creek TV debate

2 months ago | thespec.com | Jon Wells

When Liberal candidate Heino Doessing spoke of his party’s plan to address the housing crisis — in part, he said, by reducing development charges to encourage building homes for low- and middle-income Ontarians — NDP candidate Zaigham Butt jumped in. “He doesn’t understand, the Liberals had 15 years (in power from 2003 to 2018) and they did not deliver for this province,” said Butt. “What makes (Liberal leader) Bonnie (Crombie) different? What makes you different? Enough is enough.
Liberal and NDP candidates trade fire in Hamilton East—Stoney Creek TV debate

2 months ago | hamiltonnews.com | Jon Wells

When Liberal candidate Heino Doessing spoke of his party’s plan to address the housing crisis — in part, he said, by reducing development charges to encourage building homes for low- and middle-income Ontarians — NDP candidate Zaigham Butt jumped in. “He doesn’t understand, the Liberals had 15 years (in power from 2003 to 2018) and they did not deliver for this province,” said Butt. “What makes (Liberal leader) Bonnie (Crombie) different? What makes you different? Enough is enough.
Mission accomplished: Legendary Lancaster bomber pilot Jack Finan dies at 105

2 months ago | thespec.com | Jon Wells

Jack Finan didn’t talk much about how he defied death more than 80 years ago, piloting Lancaster bombers on dangerous raids against Nazi Germany in the Second World War. About half of Allied bomb crews returned from missions safely. He tried not thinking about the airmen who didn’t make it, nor souls 18,000 feet below in cities scorched by their payloads. “I only think about the good times now,” he said, drinking a beer in the canteen of the Canadian Warplane Heritage Museum in Mount Hope.
‘Damn cold’: CityHousing tenant weary of five weeks and counting of frigid temps in apartment

2 months ago | thespec.com | Jon Wells

“Unacceptable.”That’s what Barbara Thornborrow thinks of the frigid, three-layer temperatures in her apartment, dragging into a fifth consecutive week of what has been a tough winter. Thornborrow, who is in her early 70s, has health and mobility issues, and lives with her cat at 155 Park St. S., a five-minute walk south from city hall. She said the heat stopped working properly in her unit Jan. 6.