Contrarian Commentary
Honesty, Wry Humour and Clarity on Canadian Living
by Mel Fisher

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How did bananas come to be? Who is the most useless member of society? What do language fads tell us about the history of human development? What would space aliens say about our well-kept lawns? These short pieces and essays provide thought-provoking and entertaining social commentary from a point of view not usually seen—that is, Contrarian. Written for a small-town (Dryden, Ontario) newspaper and the author’s blog between 2012 and 2023, Mel Fisher appeals to the “common sense of the common people,” writing about everything from breakfast cereal to Darwin to global warming to God. Contrarian Commentary pokes fun at the foibles of modern life, questions mainstream media, and celebrates the profound strangeness of humanity on the blue-and-green planet we call home.

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Mel Fisher is an essayist, humorist, mechanical engineer, gardener, author, and activist from Northwestern Ontario. Along with his spouse of forty-three years, Mel raised a family (two sons and a daughter) on a small-scale hobby farm outside Dryden, Ontario, working half of his career as an engineer for a local paper mill, and the other half as Dryden’s Director of Engineering and Planning. He is the author of The Third Way, a book written and published in the ’90s when he was actively involved in the Reform Party, as well as several small local history books. Through his life, he has received honours such as a Jaycees Senatorship, two Paul Harris Fellow recognitions via The Rotary Foundation, and a Fellow of the Engineering Institute of Canada appointment for excellence in engineering. Mel retired from active employment and became a farmer, then after loss of his wife moved to town. He now lives happily with his second spouse, a widow friend from their youth, in a seniors apartment, no more farm. As he puts it, he keeps busy trying to manage the entire universe through his writing hobby.

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Contributors

Author

Mel Fisher

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