North Bay, Ontario - For more than 25 years newspaper readers in 23 countries around the world have related to, and enjoyed the family humor of the 'For Better or For Worse' comic strip. Most readers don't realize that it originates from a small community near North Bay, about 3 1/2 hours northwest of Toronto. Creator, writer and artist Lynn Johnston, who originally based the strip on her family, attended the Vancouver School of Art, and then worked as an illustrator in Hamilton at McMaster University's medical school. While she was pregnant she illustrated the ceiling of her doctor's office with cartoons for the amusement of fellow patients, and that lead to her book 'David, We're Pregnant' and launched her career. One of the family's contributions to the community of North Bay is that her husband, Rod Johnston, chairman of the Heritage Railway Co. (a popular mini train at the city's waterfont park), has been the leader in getting the town's hand-painted Heritage Carousel going, a project carried out with the help of passionate volunteers.

Where: North Bay, which is on the Trans Canada Hwy, sits on the eastern shore of big Lake Nipissing, one of Northern Ontario's largest lakes. You can explore the lake on the 320-passenger 'Chief Comanda II', which offers regular day-time and evening summer cruises. You can visit the Dionee Quituplets Museum, which is in the original homestead, and at Discovery North Bay in North Bay's Historic CPR Station, you can learn about local heritage. North Bay can be reached by road, rail and air. Want to see the fall colours? Ontario Northland often offers a 'fall colour' train trip from North Bay called the Dream Catcher Express, which travels the 100 km to Temagami and returns the same day.

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