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Welcome to the New Oakville News!

Paddle boarders beyond Oakville Harbour lighthouse | Nolan Machan
Paddle boarders beyond Oakville Harbour lighthouse | Nolan Machan

Along with a group of community-minded Oakville investors, Nolan Machan, founder and publisher of Oakville News, is proud to welcome you to the new improved Oakville News:  more and even better articles, more intuitive navigation, clearer fonts and a more contemporary look and feel.

A strong, trustworthy local news source is the lifeblood of any community.  The transition to digital has led to the decline of the once thriving and influential contributor to our shared life, the local paper.  The Oakville citizens behind Oakville News are committed to restoring the best of local newspapers in the digital realm.  The mission of the Oakvillenews.org website is to build community and to support effective democratic government in our town.

We plan to be a digital village square:  a place where Oakvilleans can hear about issues that matter to them, celebrate each other’s achievements, find out about local events and things to do in our community.  

It has been said that community newspapers are “little engines of democracy”.  We believe that this comes from the way they encourage dialogue, emphasizing what we share (a hope for a good life now and a better one for future generations), and creating a forum where disagreement doesn’t have to be disagreeable, where openness to learning from one another means we don’t congeal into adversarial, polarised groups.

We are committed to the belief that the best understanding comes from forcing yourself to mount a defence for a position to which you are instinctively opposed:  only in so doing can respectful disagreement lead to productive compromise.  So, you can expect to read opinions in Oakville News you will wholeheartedly support…but we will also publish well-articulated opposing views.  

Local government is unique in Canada in not having an official opposition, except at election time.  Shining a light on the actions of local elected officials from the mayor, councillors to school board trustees was always the job of local newspapers, and we are committed to helping ensure that you are informed and can communicate your views to your local councillors, and ready to make your choice when it is time to vote.

All that is important, but the core of our community life is Oakville residents, the individuals and families who make up our town.  We are really excited to restore the essence of local news:  where your child doesn’t have to play for the Leafs before they get the goal they scored reported in the paper;  where the local amateur theatre production is reviewed, or a local artist’s development recorded; where you can find out that one of your fellow Oakvilleans has written a historical fiction bestseller.  When traditional local papers covered these things, they went into family scrapbooks and were clipped out and mailed to grandparents perhaps far away.  Oakville News wants to make sure these events are again given the coverage they deserve, so you can share them on social media, save them in your family online archives, email them to grandparents and relatives around the world.

Oakville is a new home for many people, and more and more enriched by diversity.  Many of these new residents have arrived since our former prize-winning community newspapers helped us connect with each other.  Through community interest stories and by engaging you in the political life of our town, we hope to play a small part in integrating these new Oakvilleans, and to contribute to a cohesive, thriving, prosperous and happy community.

We thank you for supporting Oakville News and its founder, Nolan Machan. He, often singlehandedly, overcame the challenges of starting from scratch and worked hard to attain this new level. We’d love to hear from you with comments and ideas for stories we could cover, and we will welcome and consider for publication any articles you send in.

Oakvillenews.org wants to be your window on your town, and we need your help and support. We hope you will enjoy our publication, visit our website often, subscribe to our daily and weekly newsletters, follow us on social media, and share Oakvillenews.org with everyone you know[CS2] .

OakvilleNews Editorial Board