BLOG ENTRY
Gravenhurst and the rest of the world
Early on in this blog’s editorial inventory, I wrote at some length about my own personal satisfaction living here in Gravenhurst, nestled into the southern topography of the well known District of Muskoka, one of the best known tourist regions in North America.
When I noted that it was a wonderful place to hole-up and write to infinity, I was being honest with myself and blatantly truthful to my audience and fellow citizens. I have enjoyed a prolific writing enterprise here at our humble homestead we call Birch Hollow. I have never had the inclination to write as frequently or as much in any other locale in this district, where I have lived first as a bachelor, and then as a husband and father. This writing portal has given me an ongoing current of fresh inspiration, in part of course, because of the proximity to the amazing little urban wetland, we call with only affection, “The Bog.” With one foot in the urban scheme of things where we do business, and the other in the midst of the hinterland, it is our own modest estimation of the promised land. We did of course nearly lose the Bog this year to political interference but we won our battle to keep the wetland doing what it’s supposed to…..filter the water with its array of contaminates before in gets to Muskoka Bay of the greater Lake Muskoka.
In 2007 for the first time since we arrived in 1988, our whole family got involved in local current and business planning events and I dare say we brushed ever so closely to the gritty exterior of local political will……the ambitions of those movers and shakers and self proclaimed prophets who bet the farm that urban change will in all proportion, be an advantage to our way of life…..cause apparently you can’t be a worthy or healthy community unless you’re bursting at the seams. While my lads Andrew and Robert have been part of the entertainment scene for a number of years, and both my wife and I have a distinct public life as writers, historians and antique dealers, we had all kept well away from those who peddled their progress-is-good agendas. We remained insulated by the common sense approach, because we are a dangerous mix of Irish, Scottish and Dutch and I’ve got to tell you, there’s no scrap we enter that we don’t finish. My wife’s family, pioneers in the Ufford and Three Mile Lake area of Muskoka were known as the Three Mile Lake Wolves, and were known to walk abreast down the centre of Manitoba Street in Bracebridge, challenging those of varying opinion to intrude on their march. It’s in the history books. I didn’t make this up.
At my urging we did get involved in a number of controversial issues particularly in the business community, and some of the fall-out from the group activists, did make us ponder as a family, what had happened to our wonderful, peaceful, and quiet existence here in the south woods of Muskoka. What we found was a cantankerous element of the population we had never been exposed and it was quite enlightening to find out there was so much disharmony with life, times and politics in the town most citizens of Muskoka know as the true “sleepy hollow” of the region.
As I have noted previously in this collection of blogs about our adopted home town, we moved here specifically because it was a town respectful of its past, a town less interested in sacrifice and more concerned about quality of life issues, and a neighborly burg where residents do give a hoot about how you’re doing…..and it’s sincere. In the past 20 years however, we’ve seen a great many changes here and some of them we believe have been invisible trigger-points festering for years……we just didn’t recognize the anger brewing beneath the surface of this pretty much average Canadian community.
For the first time since 1988 I do have some doubts whether the good folks of Gravenhurst will be able to embrace all the change headed their way, without destroying their own heritage with this same anger and indifference to the values of neighborliness. It’s not to say we haven’t played a part, or that I’m the best neighbor to have…..cause I’m pretty restrictive about the qualities of peace and tranquility I enjoy here and wish to preserve……but I am troubled by the fact so many public animosities are allowed to thrive without any significant bid at reconciliation. I have most recently attempted to mediate one disturbing dust-up in the public domain and it has been a tell-tale, no holds barred spectacle for one and all to see…..where only peace and co-operation should prevail.
I blame most of this on local municipal council because it is their leadership and capability to mediate in a wide variety of areas of public life and business, that could and should be the catalyst of intervention…..the parties in conflict brought to the table by a council concerned about the way it all looks……it’s not just this writer who perceives there is widespread disharmony about what the present and future should look and act like……and there appears to be little willingness to hammer out workable arrangements that would appease all parties. What we have now is a council very interested in progress and expansion for the good of the community but taking on the appearance of a square spike being driven into a round hole. Change is being forced upon the citizenry and it isn’t working in the spirit of goodwill…..the result is an ongoing series of retaliatory moves and counter strikes, and even random boycotts to teach one or the other a lesson about small town sensitivities.
I have researched some of these pressing issues bubbling over with anger and distrust and know that none of the hot button issues exist without roots, all dating back decades, the result being a shingling of issues that become more complicated and onerous each year. There is a crisis in the business community largely based on the disinterest of town council to rectify the problems. It is their job to make this a better place to live……also more blatantly because that’s the way they advertise Gravenhurst when they’re out on the hustings looking for new business investment. While it’s not their responsibility to bandage every hard feeling or referee each argument, it is their clear mandate to intervene and let the warring factions know there is greater economy in co-operation than perpetual conflict…..and it all has to do with leadership and its governance by the protocols entrenched…..which seemed to be ignored as an annoyance to those who wish to govern as they feel like, not as is just and fair according to respective constitutions. So the good name of Gravenhurst gets crushed in the middle of senseless, endless, pointless debate, and the square peg is hammered into that round hole till it hurts.
I have this feeling that Gravenhurst was handling these issues better twenty years ago, Maybe even ten years ago. Today I believe change has intruded upon the Gravenhurst citizenry who have been told repeatedly that progress “won’t hurt a bit,” and that “we will all prosper” when we are truly at the pinnacle of the definition…..”a progressive community.” I have this lingering doubt about the folks still hammering that square peg because the weight of resistance has never been truly taken into consideration as it should. Many local politicians today do not have the kind of historical sensitivity about the town they represent, because if they did, the Gravenhurst Archives Committee volunteers would be consulting every day of the week about sparing the integrity of the local identity; conserving the character of the first community of Muskoka dating back to the late 1850’s. Instead we have allowed developers to tell us what our history was and will be in the future. Frankly, they’re not qualified so we should be exercising a hundred percent more authority, about the way history is being dismissed and bypassed by the agendas of a few, not by the will of the people.
I have no wish to leave the place that has afforded me so many wonderful days of inspiration and good company. I can still sit here in my office looking out over the Bog and feel truly Muskokan, and connected to both the urban life and times, yet immersed in the natural splendor of all life and creatures making the wetland home. I will soon look out from this same window and see the lilac buds emerging, and I can’t tell you how splendid it is, to have those beautiful blooms wavering in the spring breeze just metres from this old writer’s desk. And because of this, and all the other kindnesses bestowed by the citizens of this community upon our family, I will carry on with these occasional forays into public life, when I think an historian’s insight and comparisons can be effective in defusing a dispute…..one that need not have inspired ill will and insensitivity as it has perpetuated most recently.
Some readers may accuse me of being overly negative in regards to these issues, and my only response is that to fix the issues currently dogging the town, only the most critical, constructive approach can expose where the contamination has been rooted, and uncover the reason(s) it has been allowed to flourish. Reconciliation depends first on honest appraisal and truthful explanation, and then a clear willingness for some to acknowledge their part and failings, so reconstruction can commence without the rigorous agendas that have routinely sabotaged needed rehabilitation.
Going into an economic downturn should be motivation enough, for warring factions to make peace and herald new co-operation. The Town, instead of blowing smoke about what’s in the best interest of the community, should start taking care of the hot spots and shortcomings in the business sector particularly before the consequences become more distinctly dire than they are at present…..from the days of the bull to the new worries of the bear market grumbling evermore onto the scene. We need some survival measures not more of the same adversity to get through the next few years.
I won’t give up on Gravenhurst no matter what but I think it’s time the citizenry took back the community they built, and demanded a great deal more from elected officials than they’re getting for their dollars invested. The best way to deal with the local government’s idea of progress is to meet it head on with the citizen’s demands for a healthy and dynamic hometown…..and change council if need be, to entrench this goodwill forever.
Gravenhurst and the rest of the world
Early on in this blog’s editorial inventory, I wrote at some length about my own personal satisfaction living here in Gravenhurst, nestled into the southern topography of the well known District of Muskoka, one of the best known tourist regions in North America.
When I noted that it was a wonderful place to hole-up and write to infinity, I was being honest with myself and blatantly truthful to my audience and fellow citizens. I have enjoyed a prolific writing enterprise here at our humble homestead we call Birch Hollow. I have never had the inclination to write as frequently or as much in any other locale in this district, where I have lived first as a bachelor, and then as a husband and father. This writing portal has given me an ongoing current of fresh inspiration, in part of course, because of the proximity to the amazing little urban wetland, we call with only affection, “The Bog.” With one foot in the urban scheme of things where we do business, and the other in the midst of the hinterland, it is our own modest estimation of the promised land. We did of course nearly lose the Bog this year to political interference but we won our battle to keep the wetland doing what it’s supposed to…..filter the water with its array of contaminates before in gets to Muskoka Bay of the greater Lake Muskoka.
In 2007 for the first time since we arrived in 1988, our whole family got involved in local current and business planning events and I dare say we brushed ever so closely to the gritty exterior of local political will……the ambitions of those movers and shakers and self proclaimed prophets who bet the farm that urban change will in all proportion, be an advantage to our way of life…..cause apparently you can’t be a worthy or healthy community unless you’re bursting at the seams. While my lads Andrew and Robert have been part of the entertainment scene for a number of years, and both my wife and I have a distinct public life as writers, historians and antique dealers, we had all kept well away from those who peddled their progress-is-good agendas. We remained insulated by the common sense approach, because we are a dangerous mix of Irish, Scottish and Dutch and I’ve got to tell you, there’s no scrap we enter that we don’t finish. My wife’s family, pioneers in the Ufford and Three Mile Lake area of Muskoka were known as the Three Mile Lake Wolves, and were known to walk abreast down the centre of Manitoba Street in Bracebridge, challenging those of varying opinion to intrude on their march. It’s in the history books. I didn’t make this up.
At my urging we did get involved in a number of controversial issues particularly in the business community, and some of the fall-out from the group activists, did make us ponder as a family, what had happened to our wonderful, peaceful, and quiet existence here in the south woods of Muskoka. What we found was a cantankerous element of the population we had never been exposed and it was quite enlightening to find out there was so much disharmony with life, times and politics in the town most citizens of Muskoka know as the true “sleepy hollow” of the region.
As I have noted previously in this collection of blogs about our adopted home town, we moved here specifically because it was a town respectful of its past, a town less interested in sacrifice and more concerned about quality of life issues, and a neighborly burg where residents do give a hoot about how you’re doing…..and it’s sincere. In the past 20 years however, we’ve seen a great many changes here and some of them we believe have been invisible trigger-points festering for years……we just didn’t recognize the anger brewing beneath the surface of this pretty much average Canadian community.
For the first time since 1988 I do have some doubts whether the good folks of Gravenhurst will be able to embrace all the change headed their way, without destroying their own heritage with this same anger and indifference to the values of neighborliness. It’s not to say we haven’t played a part, or that I’m the best neighbor to have…..cause I’m pretty restrictive about the qualities of peace and tranquility I enjoy here and wish to preserve……but I am troubled by the fact so many public animosities are allowed to thrive without any significant bid at reconciliation. I have most recently attempted to mediate one disturbing dust-up in the public domain and it has been a tell-tale, no holds barred spectacle for one and all to see…..where only peace and co-operation should prevail.
I blame most of this on local municipal council because it is their leadership and capability to mediate in a wide variety of areas of public life and business, that could and should be the catalyst of intervention…..the parties in conflict brought to the table by a council concerned about the way it all looks……it’s not just this writer who perceives there is widespread disharmony about what the present and future should look and act like……and there appears to be little willingness to hammer out workable arrangements that would appease all parties. What we have now is a council very interested in progress and expansion for the good of the community but taking on the appearance of a square spike being driven into a round hole. Change is being forced upon the citizenry and it isn’t working in the spirit of goodwill…..the result is an ongoing series of retaliatory moves and counter strikes, and even random boycotts to teach one or the other a lesson about small town sensitivities.
I have researched some of these pressing issues bubbling over with anger and distrust and know that none of the hot button issues exist without roots, all dating back decades, the result being a shingling of issues that become more complicated and onerous each year. There is a crisis in the business community largely based on the disinterest of town council to rectify the problems. It is their job to make this a better place to live……also more blatantly because that’s the way they advertise Gravenhurst when they’re out on the hustings looking for new business investment. While it’s not their responsibility to bandage every hard feeling or referee each argument, it is their clear mandate to intervene and let the warring factions know there is greater economy in co-operation than perpetual conflict…..and it all has to do with leadership and its governance by the protocols entrenched…..which seemed to be ignored as an annoyance to those who wish to govern as they feel like, not as is just and fair according to respective constitutions. So the good name of Gravenhurst gets crushed in the middle of senseless, endless, pointless debate, and the square peg is hammered into that round hole till it hurts.
I have this feeling that Gravenhurst was handling these issues better twenty years ago, Maybe even ten years ago. Today I believe change has intruded upon the Gravenhurst citizenry who have been told repeatedly that progress “won’t hurt a bit,” and that “we will all prosper” when we are truly at the pinnacle of the definition…..”a progressive community.” I have this lingering doubt about the folks still hammering that square peg because the weight of resistance has never been truly taken into consideration as it should. Many local politicians today do not have the kind of historical sensitivity about the town they represent, because if they did, the Gravenhurst Archives Committee volunteers would be consulting every day of the week about sparing the integrity of the local identity; conserving the character of the first community of Muskoka dating back to the late 1850’s. Instead we have allowed developers to tell us what our history was and will be in the future. Frankly, they’re not qualified so we should be exercising a hundred percent more authority, about the way history is being dismissed and bypassed by the agendas of a few, not by the will of the people.
I have no wish to leave the place that has afforded me so many wonderful days of inspiration and good company. I can still sit here in my office looking out over the Bog and feel truly Muskokan, and connected to both the urban life and times, yet immersed in the natural splendor of all life and creatures making the wetland home. I will soon look out from this same window and see the lilac buds emerging, and I can’t tell you how splendid it is, to have those beautiful blooms wavering in the spring breeze just metres from this old writer’s desk. And because of this, and all the other kindnesses bestowed by the citizens of this community upon our family, I will carry on with these occasional forays into public life, when I think an historian’s insight and comparisons can be effective in defusing a dispute…..one that need not have inspired ill will and insensitivity as it has perpetuated most recently.
Some readers may accuse me of being overly negative in regards to these issues, and my only response is that to fix the issues currently dogging the town, only the most critical, constructive approach can expose where the contamination has been rooted, and uncover the reason(s) it has been allowed to flourish. Reconciliation depends first on honest appraisal and truthful explanation, and then a clear willingness for some to acknowledge their part and failings, so reconstruction can commence without the rigorous agendas that have routinely sabotaged needed rehabilitation.
Going into an economic downturn should be motivation enough, for warring factions to make peace and herald new co-operation. The Town, instead of blowing smoke about what’s in the best interest of the community, should start taking care of the hot spots and shortcomings in the business sector particularly before the consequences become more distinctly dire than they are at present…..from the days of the bull to the new worries of the bear market grumbling evermore onto the scene. We need some survival measures not more of the same adversity to get through the next few years.
I won’t give up on Gravenhurst no matter what but I think it’s time the citizenry took back the community they built, and demanded a great deal more from elected officials than they’re getting for their dollars invested. The best way to deal with the local government’s idea of progress is to meet it head on with the citizen’s demands for a healthy and dynamic hometown…..and change council if need be, to entrench this goodwill forever.
