Ontario’s groundhog Wiarton Willie predicts early spring

Ontario’s groundhog, Wiarton Willie has predicted an early spring.

The community’s celebrity groundhog, Wiarton Willie is the renowned rodent expert in Ontario with the next close neighbour being Nova Scotia’s Shubenacadie Sam.

Shubenacadie Sam however, along with Punxsutawney Phil in western Pennsylvania, predicted six more weeks of winter.

Early spring!
Early spring!
Early spring!

— Wiarton Willie (@WiartonWillie) February 2, 2023

Groundhog Day aficionados will recall that Willie was nowhere to be seen on Feb. 2, 2021. The town later acknowledged the white-furred albino rodent had died.

An understudy was brought in last year by Willie’s handlers but that animal was the usual brown colour, a break from a decades-old tradition of Willie being white.

Town spokeswoman Danielle Edwards says the latest replacement — another white groundhog — was recruited last summer from Cleveland, Ohio.

It is not known where the Groundhog Day ritual comes from. There was a belief in medieval Europe that if farmers saw hedgehogs emerge from their burrows to catch insects, that was a sure sign of an early spring.

And it is thought to have something to do with Feb. 2 landing midway between winter solstice and spring equinox, but it is not known for sure.