Don Smith

Don Smith is a highly respected, award winning journalist and publisher who, since 1971, has been recording and conveying to locals, visitors and potential visitors, the many facets of his beloved Muskoka in print media.

After enjoying a number of summer holidays in Muskoka, Don Smith moved to Glen Orchard in 1968 at the age of 16 and attended Bracebridge and Muskoka Lakes Secondary School where he was editor of the school yearbook. In 1971, he was able to convince R.J. “Bob” Boyer the skills he had learned working on the yearbook qualified him to be a junior reporter-photographer for The Bracebridge Herald-Gazette. Boyer became Smith’s mentor and appointed him the first editor of The Georgian Bay Beacon in 1973. Boyer sold The Beacon to Smith in 1976. Since then, Smith has been the publisher of newspapers and magazines throughout north-central Ontario, launching over 30 new titles, a number of which won provincial and national awards.

Almost all of his publications and writings focus on the richness of Muskoka’s heritage and vibrancy, be it natural, cultural, social or political.  Don’s work has ensured that the record of Muskoka is accurate and its story told in such a way as to entertain and inform.

In the community, Smith has been active in a number of groups. In 1972, Smith was elected to the Township of Muskoka Lakes, becoming the youngest councillor in the District of Muskoka. He is a former school trustee, past president of the Rotary Club of Bracebridge, was a long-time director of the John McConnell and Margaret Ann Wilson McConnell Memorial Foundation and is a former director of the Muskoka Community YWCA. Smith is particularly proud of being involved in a project with his wife, Susan, which resulted in the microfilming of local newspapers, dating back to the 1870s. These files are available locally at the Bracebridge Public Library and at the Provincial Archives in Toronto.

Active in the broader community newspaper industry, Smith was a director of the Ontario Community Newspapers Association for 12 years, serving a term as provincial president, and was a director of the Canadian Community Newspapers Association.

Don’s most recent publication, the highly acclaimed and successful Muskoka Magazine, showcases aspects of Muskoka raging from its natural vistas, to the arts, to built heritage, to species indigenous to the area, all through informative prose and spectacular photography.