Event Type : Speaker Series

The Accidental Canadian

Who: Dougie Walker

Tickets: $15/person

Bio

Douglas Walker is thrilled to be taking on an exciting new role at the Highlands Summer Festival this season, having been recently appointed as the festival’s Artistic Producer! This significant new position builds on his history with the Festival, which includes a moving performance in Every Brilliant Thing and his directorial debut with the hilarious 25th Annual Putnam County Spelling Bee. As Artistic Producer, Douglas will now be helping shape the entire festival experience.

His creative talents extend beyond directing and producing, though. Douglas has also showcased his writing and performing chops in Candid Cabaret with R.C.S., and his choreography has been featured in The Rink at the Edinburgh Fringe Festival and A Funny Thing Happened On The Way To The Forum at the Haliburton Summer Festival.

On stage, Douglas has toured extensively across Canada and beyond, appearing in popular productions like Jersey Boys, Mamma Mia, and The Soul Of Motown (Stage West), as well as Avenue Q on its UK National Tour. He’s also performed in The Voice of the Turtle and Affairs of State (Classic Theatre Festival), Miracle on 34th Street (Pitlochry Festival Theatre), and even Scooby Doo Live: The Mystery of the Pyramid (UK National Tour, Warner Bros.). His theatrical journey has taken him across the globe, including performances with The Tenors (Netherlands Tour) and Sesame Street (Universal Studios Japan).

Beyond the stage, Douglas has appeared in several television productions, including Frankie Drake Mysteries (CBC), A Christmas Exchange (Lifetime), In The Dark (The CW), Jazz Ramsay: A K9 Mystery (Hallmark), and Rabbit Hole (Paramount). He’s also lent his voice to Hyperscape (Ubisoft) and the audiobook Unrest by Gwen Tuinman (Penguin Random House).

As he steps into the exciting role of Artistic Producer, Douglas is dedicated to fostering artistic excellence, innovation, and community engagement at the Highlands Summer Festival.

Tales of Miners’ Bay

Who: Russ Wunker

Tickets: $15/person

Local historian and colourful character, Russ Wunker, takes us on a journey back in time to discover Miners’ Bay. Russ has many stories but one of his favourites is the mystery of the Lost Indian Silver Mine: A century ago, local residents knew the story of the mine that gave Miners’ Bay its name. Today, the story is muddled, or forgotten. Local geology may provide a clue to this mystery.

Russ will also tell us about the early days of tourism at Miners’ Bay. As a gateway to Haliburton County, this area helped shaped our tourism industry. Vintage postcards, photographs and memories tell the tale.

Bio

Russ was born in Toronto, but has spent the majority of the past three quarters of a century at Miners’ Bay. He attended a one-room school until its closure. Grades 7 & 8 were at the new Lutterworth consolidated school, followed by five years at Haliburton County District High School, where he served as Student Council President, and won the History Award in Grade XIII.

He attended Nyack College, in New York state, majoring in History, Philosophy, and Theology, and received a BA. Next came a Masters degree (Canadian-American Relations – The War of 1812) from the University of South Florida in Tampa. While working on that, he taught at a private college in Clearwater.

He returned every summer to Miners’ Bay, working at the family summer resort.

Russ offered his services as a volunteer to local Member of Parliament, Bill Scott in the 1972 election. He ended up staying in Ottawa for over a decade. In addition to serving as assistant to the local member of Parliament, he was Special Assistant to Jake Epp, Minister of Indian and Northern Affairs, Chief of Staff to Epp as Minister of National Health and Welfare, and Energy Mines and Resources.

Between those two sessions in government, he worked as Director of Personnel, Director of Operations and Organization, and held other positions at National Headquarters of the Progressive Conservative Party. He was liaison between the Party and the Republican National Committee.

Russ was involved in many election campaigns, both provincial and federal. In 1984 and 1988, he served as Assistant to Norman Atkins, National Campaign Chairman.

He left government in 1988 to take over the running of Miners’ Bay Lodge, continuing to do so until 2018. In the offseason he assisted a Canadian Christian organization in taking Apollo astronauts, and business and political leaders on reconciliation trips to Africa and East Block nations, and consulted for a Forensic Accounting Firm, and a Canadian Health Care Business.

He has served on a number of Boards, both domestic and international, including nine years on the Board of the Canadian Center on Substance Abuse.

Russ is a collector of all things historical, specializing in the American Civil War, local and Canadian history. While spending winters in North Carolina he assisted in the development of three museums, as well as local historical and architectural preservation projects.

Russ and Dottie, his wife of over 50 years, retired in 2018.

The Power of Therefore

Who: Helen Parker

Tickets: $15/person

Helen Parker is a film and television producer and a screenwriter. She is in the 2% club. That’s the 2% of screenwriters whose work is licensed in Hollywood. Her aim of a Hollywood Oscar nomination is lofty but to even get this far, Helen’s extraordinary career needed a driving force. Helen calls it the “Power of Therefore”.

We all know the value of setting and achieving goals – but why is this rarely enough? When one action triggers another action – the therefore effect kicks in.

Helen’s incredible career has taken her to: 17 countries, she has filmed in Moscow with the elite hockey players of the 72 Summit series as a guest of Putin, had tea in Buckingham palace with the Royal family, flown test flights in new planes (filled with water ballast) with Qantas pilots in France, been to Peace Keeping Zones with the Australian military, filmed in three prisons, interviewed three Prime Ministers in the Prime Minister’s office. Helen has flown 250 hours in helicopters – doors off while filming, mustered cattle in the Outback, interviewed mafia members, she swam in crocodile infested waters and was given exclusive access to Red Bull’s Formula One garage and pit crew during an F1 grand prix event (Team Weber).

Helen’s first career goal was to get a job in ABC TV in the national newsroom which she did at age 19… against thousands of applicants. That role lit a flame and therefore opened doors to extraordinary adventures and a life of learning that Helen shares with corporate teams and associations.

The Accidental Canadian

Who: Dr. James Raffan

Tickets: $15/person

This year, 2025, marks the 50^th year in a row that writer and explorer James Raffan will have spent at least part of the year travelling, researching and learning in the Arctic.To celebrate this career milestone, James has written a one-man musical show he’s calling The Accidental Canadian, referring to the fact that his British parents flipped a coin after WWII to decide whether to emigrate to South Africa or Canada.That coin toss made James and his three sisters “accidental Canadians” and, since he was old enough to venture out on his own, James has been travelling to the most remote corners of the Arctic by every conceivable means—canoe, dogsled, icebreaker, floatplane, snowmobile and on foot—returning with stories that have found their way into books, films, radio documentaries, magazine articles, and countless presentations including his popular Storyfest series that, since 2010, has raised tens of thousands of dollars for community development through the Seeley’s Bay and Area Residents Association.

With overtones of the growing Elbows Up initiative, The Accidental Canadian is a light-hearted yet thought-provoking show for all ages with stories, images and songs animated with James’ trademark mix of humour and erudition.Adding to his usual mix of sounds and images, this presentation will feature several stories written into original songs that will be sprinkled throughout the show and performed live. .As with all of JR’s presentations, this show will take you to places you’ll likely never see and introduce audiences to people and voices they would likely never hear—all part of the incredible country that The Accidental Canadian has discovered in half a century of rambling and writing in the Great White North. James will charm you, inform you, make you laugh and cry, and perhaps help you get a new appreciation of Canada through his reflections on a lifetime of Arctic experience.

Dr. James Raffan is a cultural geographer and writer who has produced more than twenty books, including bestsellers like Fire in the Bones, Circling the Midnight Sun, Deep Waters, Bark, Skin & Cedar, Emperor of the North and Ice Walker. He has created documentaries on a variety of northern subjects and has written for film, radio and media outlets including National Geographic, Canadian Geographic, Up Here, The Walrus, The Globe and Mail as well as for CBC and The Discovery Channel. This work has been recognized with nominations and awards including the Queen’s Golden and Diamond Jubilee medals and Canada’s Meritorious Service Medal for his foundational work in bringing the Canadian Canoe Museum in Peterborough, Ontario onto the national stage. James and his wife, Gail Simmons, live in the Rideau Lakes District of Eastern Ontario where they raised two daughters and continue to be active in as community volunteers.