Speaker Schedule

"Wildlife in the Kawartha Lakes"

Dave Ellis is a wildlife photographer that lives in Omemee and writes a wildlife column in the Peterborough Examiner newspaper.

Dave grew up in the Annapolis Valley, NS.  When he was younger he travelled and lived in places all across Canada. In 1982 while living in Edmonton, Alberta, Dave sold his small aluminum fishing boat to buy his first 35mm film camera and began learning how to use it. Eventually he settled down in Toronto. There he operated a small street vending handcraft business right downtown on Yonge Street. That was an education for a country boy! 

He says the best move he and his wife Astrid ever made was when they moved to Omemee in 2001. With all of the lakes and rivers and nature areas here, it is a great place to be. They love it here and even more so since they took up wildlife photography as a hobby in 2016. The wildlife that is all around us here in the Kawartha Lakes is quite phenomenal and they really enjoy being out in nature most days photographing it. 

You may know Dave’s work from his weekly column in the Peterborough This Week and Kawartha Lakes This Week newspapers. He began writing a wildlife photo column for them in 2018 and continued until the newspapers ceased publishing in 2023. His column and photos were moved over to the Peterborough Examiner where he continues to write a column each week. His photos have also been featured in Outdoor Canada Magazine, Canadian Geographic Magazine, The Toronto Star, PTBO News Canada, and in John McQuarrie’s coffee table book “Peterborough – Spirit of Place”. Each year Dave and Astrid publish a calendar featuring the wildlife of Kawartha Lakes.

Dave enjoys sharing his photographs and the stories that go with them at presentations all around the Kawarthas.

"Story:  The Shepherd"

Phil Craig is Co-Founder, Lead Historian and Master Story-Teller for Liberation Tours. He's also a professional actor with numerous credits in film, television and stage including seasons with the prestigious Stratford Shakespeare Festival in Ontario, Canada. In 2014 Phil embarked on a world tour in the highly successful stage production The Last Confession starring David Suchet (who many will know as BBC’s Inspector Hercule Poirot). Film-goers will recognize Phil as Rachel McAdams’ father in the hit movie The Time Traveler’s Wife or recall seeing him with Russel Crowe in Cinderella Man, or alongside Ralph Fiennes in David Cronenburg’s Spider. More recently he appears in the award winning Hardy Boys series and guest starred in the NBC mini-series Five Days at Memorial. He can also be seen in The Handmaid’s Tale, The Exorcist and in the acclaimed Netflix horror series Hemlock Grove. He has contributed several memorable characters for the CBC hit series Murdoch Mysteries and continues to lend his voice to numerous radio ad spots. Much to his chagrin, he is often remembered as the guy in the Lotto 6/49 commercial that gives away cottages to his family – and that commercial was a long time ago!
 

Phil has been guiding battlefield tours for over ten years where his combination of story-telling skills, knowledge and passion for history takes you inside the battle in a way that few historians can. He has been studying military history since his teenage years and has made numerous trips to the battlefields of Europe to investigate, research and remember. Some of the most poignant spots we visit have come as the result of Phil ‘tripping over them’ during his battlefield discovery tours.
 

Phil is co-founder of the Georgina Military Museum in Keswick, Ontario and has won many awards for his military historical work including the prestigious Ontario Heritage Trust Award. He recently became the proud recipient of the Minister of Veteran Affairs Commendation, awarded to individuals “who have contributed in an exemplary manner to the remembrance of the contributions, sacrifices and achievements of Veterans." Phil continues to make himself available as a guest speaker to ensure that the stories are never forgotten. He is the proud father of four university graduate children - two with Masters degrees and one pursuing her doctorate.
 

In his youth, Phil was a member of The Hastings Prince Edward Regiment Cadet Corps in Port Hope, home of famed ‘Hasty P's’ veteran and writer Farley Mowat, and he recently completed a term as a member of the Queen's York Rangers Regimental Council based at Fort York in Toronto.
 

Phil is a passionate traveler, whether it be the rolling hills of the Somme, the storied landscape of Britain or the more recent battlefields of Germany and Italy. They each have their poignant stories of service and sacrifice and Phil is honoured to be able to share them with you.