MAJORITY OF CANDIDATES WEAK WHEN IT COMES TO SOCIAL REALITIES

AND DOING SOMETHING TO HELP OUT-

When we find out there are hungry people in the world, we think to ourselves, “That’s too bad. I’d hate to be hungry.” When we hear or read about the fact, there are Canadians who are going hungry everyday, we snort in disgust, that we could have such a shortfall in the land of plenty. While some take it more seriously, and vow to do something about it, truth is, if more helped out, there would be a much smaller number of hungry folks. And when we are made aware that in our province, there are hungry amongst us, many, many just don’t care. Those who do, are heaven-sent. When we hear of hungry people in our hometown, and in our neighborhoods, well, there must be some mistake. We don’t see hungry people begging for food out on the street afterall! How is this possible in our neat and tidy little community at the Gateway to Muskoka? My question is, how can a town council remain so indifferent, when it should be leading the “good neighbor” example. Maybe if the new mayor was fully up-to-speed about these unfortunate realities, he or she would make it a council priority to keep the issue front and center, and commence plans to spread this awareness, and offer support to the Food Bank in one of many forms. Not all support has to be cash. I’m sure there are many other ways council could help their constituents who require assistance.

One of the major areas of neglect by previous and present town councils, and council hopefuls in this latest round, is their general malaise when it comes to any concern about the social problems we have in this region. While there is certainly more discussion about making ratepayers feel more comfortable and respected in local government, those who don’t own property, industry or business in this community, are severely neglected...... pretty much the unspoken disregard that they won’t play any serious role in determining the election outcome. Yet the folks who most definitely need council understanding and support, are very seldom sought out as a strategy for gaining a base of support. This makes up a fair chunk of votes, so you’d think a few candidates would spare a little space in their advertisements, to address some of the unfortunate actuality going on in their own ballywick.

As a municipality we must represent the needs of all our residents not just property owners. We need to have elected officials who walk the streets, now and again, on fact finding missions, at all times of the day and night. They might be very surprised to know what goes on in the wee hours, along our main corridor. They need to pull their heads out of the sand, and see and experience first hand, the root causes of drug abuse, drug peddling, crime, and vandalism, and recognize clearly that it is our problem, that will require a home grown remedy. The police can’t do much more than enforce the law. Our job is to nip crime in the bud, by a new proactive approach.......the first step, is to actually admit it exists, and to what level, by doing some fundamental research, and doing so with a critical approach, looking at all sides of the issue and comparing available statistics.

One night, just over a week ago (from the time of this posting), we heard five car alarms sounding at about half-hour intervals. It wasn’t the same car. A perpetrator, or several, were attempting to break into cars up and down the street. Earlier in August, we interrupted a would-be thief in out neighbor’s car, scaring the bike-riding bandit off. We called the police immediately, offering as best we could, a description of the suspect. We found out there were more incidents on our street that we never reported. Just as it is most likely, the folks who had cars affected, setting off their alarms, failed to report the incidents to police. A lot of residents now look at these attempted break-ins as “nuisance” only events, and won’t bother informing police. Thus there is a very distorted statistical portrait of this crime in our neighborhood. Now imagine this attitude stretching over the entire community.....people deciding not to get involved because the incidents are so frequent, and the process of reporting them, seemingly a waste of time. Well it’s not! We’re not helping the police or our community by ignoring the attempted break-ins. Sooner or later these brazen attempts will become more aggressive, with a potential for personal injury, if a resident confronts a trespasser on purpose or by accident.

I hear and read very little about our council’s concern about local crime and its prevalence. Why?

When do we hear anything from Council regarding the fact we need the services of the Salvation Army, to help feed our most vulnerable citizens. And for those ignorant of the actuality of the day, and the prevailing economic climate, for God’s sake smarten up. There is NO excuse for any councillor in this town to take for granted or minimize the need in our community.......from the very young to the elderly. Don’t expect to read an election ad suggesting that “I pledge to help the less fortunate,” or “I will be in the front line to help during food drives,” to keep the Food Bank shelves full. How many council hopefuls, for this coming election, know or have been inside our local food bank? Well I have, many times, to drop off donations we have raised during numerous fundraising concerts. And I can tell you, it’s a wonderful feeling, especially when you see how many people will benefit from that generosity bestowed. We can’t have these shortfalls in our community go unrecognized by the local governance, hell bent on spending money we don’t have, on a town hall we really couldn’t afford.

It has been the course of history folks, that when these problems aren’t dealt with, and allowed to increase unabated, wounds past, present and future can not heal. If we are truly the generous and caring community I believe we are, then we need a town hall that is acutely aware of the divides and disadvantages we have come to live with as a norm, simply because it has been mistakenly thought as being of lesser importance, than ratepayer sabre rattling.

As Jacob Marley’s ghost yelled at a miserly Scrooge, in Dickens, “A Christmas Carol,” “Mankind is our business.” It is the business of every elected official in this town, to be aware of the social / economic conditions that prevail.....not simply catering to ratepayers because they are the squeaky wheels.

THE BARGE CONCERT SERIES IS A PIVOT OF HOMETOWN WELL BEING

Fred Schulz only knows part of what his contribution to this town means. As manager of The Barge, and Sunday Concert Series, at Rotary Gull Lake Park, he certainly knows his services are appreciated. There are quite a few awards and letters of support to attest to this. What he doesn’t fully understand, is how much heartbreak his departure would create amongst all of us patrons, who consider him the barometer of well-being in the old hometown. He’s got a huge fan base, yet he’s not the entertainer. When he walks through the crowd, he attracts groupies. Not many concert promoters have this kind of crowd appeal. “Say, what happened to Fred. I thought he was just going to the snack bar for fries,” my son might ask. “Can’t you see his head,” responds my other son. “He’s in the middle of that group of people over there.” This is the truth. No embellishment. He’s a popular guy. Yet he’s modest beyond belief. Fred defers congratulations to all of the people who help him throughout the year, get the concert series up and running. As for ego, well, his success has never gone to his head, and if you know Fred at all, you’d have to agree he’s not in it as a popularity competition.

Few of the concert goers, who faithfully follow the summer events, would disagree, Fred is curiously symbolic of home town values, and one of our fondest summer traditions has been nurtured by this good neighbor for long and long.......and even by his own admission, it’s become so much a part of his life, that instinct takes over at key parts of the organizational year. If he ever did leave his post, to pursue retirement, he has confessed to me, he’s not at all sure how he’d be able to shake old habits, especially on concert nights, as it has been so much a part of his comings and goings, as if it is a flesh and blood part of his family life.

Fred has meant a lot to our family. He has been a mentor to our boys, who are both now firmly planted in the entertainment industry, thanks to his leadership, and he has given Suzanne and I many memorable summer nights, by offering us that wonderful venue overlooking a beautiful Muskoka lake. We look forward to the commencement of The Barge season, and what a joy it is to see Fred walk out onto that stage to launch yet one more season. I have told Fred this many times, that his highly successful concert program, each summer, is as much a hallmark of what Gravenhurst represents as a hometown, as when a silversmith boldly strikes a stamp on a beautifully crafted punch bowl or tankard. If you were to sample the audience, and find out just where these folks were from, what an international mingling you would discover......and the goodwill from this series travels globally as well, in first person, and I can’t think of many other venues and promotions for tourism, operated on such a tiny budget, that receive this much acclaim for excellence in such a routine fashion.

Fred is pretty modest about his accomplishments, and isn’t a “limelight” seeker. He has given up a huge part of his time over the decades, to give us something splendid.....a pillar of what any hometown wants as its marker of hospitality, friendship, and neighborliness. What has been my concern for many years now, is the apparent neglect of town hall, to recognize what the Concert Series involves each year, which begins early in the new year, when acts have to be sought out, negotiated with, booked, and a plethora of details worked out by ongoing communication with the participating parties. The concerts themselves are often grueling encounters, when dealing with the many details of organization, equipment, food preparations for the groups and volunteers, and having the weight of responsibility hanging over his head constantly, when a decision on inclement weather, may force a concert inside. Fred hates to pull a concert indoors, as he knows many folks won’t get a seat, as was proven this year when the Opera House was jammed to capacity for a concert, and he had to pacify many disenchanted folks, who left disappointed. Fred was devastated by the fact some people had blamed him, as if he had ordered the rain to fall. But with an amazing resilience he was back on the stage the next Sunday evening, as vibrant as ever, delighting so many of his ardent supporters.

Fred has managed to operate The Barge, for many years, on a shoestring budget. For a venue that attracts some of the largest crowds of any Muskoka entertainment offering, his ability to pull off the seasons, pretty much on budget each year, is nothing short of phenomenal when related to other municipal operations requiring much more funding for less output. But there comes a time when change is necessary. The Barge is in great need of restoration, as quite a chunk of woodwork must be replaced for the health and safety of all users. It has been this way for some time but the only repairs made so far, have been of a minor nature, much of this handcrafted by Fred’s faithful volunteer brigade.

The Town of Gravenhurst is fortunate to have the services of Fred Schulz but they must not take his kindness for granted one day longer. He is mortal afterall, and suffers as we all do, from time to time, from the rigors of the job. As a personal care-giver for his mother, Fred admittedly has been exhausted for most of the past five years. But you’d never know it, when he cheerfully heads down to the Gull Lake shoreline, crosses out to the The Barge with armfuls of supplies, to set up for the night’s concert. While he is, in our terms, the only one who can pull off this concert series, and he has a lot of testimonials to this effect, it is necessary for council to appreciate more fully, the importance of discussing, openly and honestly, his increasing capital needs for The Barge, and the ongoing concert series. In my own opinion, he needs a greater respect from all council representatives and NOW. Not just a handshake or pat on the back, which he gets plenty of, but a sincere direction of interest, in what his work, in local entertainment, means to our hometown generally, and how that tradition should not be lost because of a lack of interest. While some members of council have been supportive, and do care about the issue of a failing Barge platform, it certainly hasn’t found its way into the election debate so far. This I hope will change.

We all have a happily acknowledged conflict with Mr. Schulz and The Barge. Our sons Robert and Andrew have worked with Fred for years now, as have their friends, and we assist as they put on an annual fundraiser to help Fred defray costs of its operation. And you can find us along the lakeshore for every Sunday concert (unless rain sends us for shelter), where we have found our own little sliver of Muskoka nirvana. When we look out at the huge audience huddled on the embankment, through the park, and watch over the crowded beachfront on a beautiful summer night, I can tell you, it’s a feeling of pride we feel most of all, because they are all appreciating a homegrown tradition.....many citizens of other Muskoka towns making a point of spending these nights as our guests. All thanks to Fred. Frankly, without Fred, it just wouldn’t be the same. He instills an air of celebration about it all, and that’s the work of the man, not just the performance at hand.

It’s time that the Town of Gravenhurst appreciated The Barge and Mr. Schulz’s efforts, by placing the matter as a high priority......not the low priority it currently holds in town affairs. If it was a high priority, the rotting boards and unsafe conditions of The Barge would have been repaired three or four years ago. It’s time for action to save a wonderful entertainment program in our town. Insist on it. Talk to Fred. Support his position as ongoing manager. He would greatly appreciate hearing from you.

From all of us, thank you Fred.

BE PROUD TO REPRESENT SUCH A BEAUTIFUL PLACE ON EARTH

I used the incredible autumn backdrop of Gravenhurst, and the words of author David Grayson, from his well known book, “Adventures In Contentment,” to write my October column for “Curious; The Tourist Guide,” (available online and in some local shops in Muskoka). The theme for the column is pretty much defined by the statement, “There’s more to life than straight furrows, worry, and the preponderance of responsibility. As author Grayson discovered, upon moving to a farmstead, after a lengthy residence in the city, he had neglected the magnificent environs for most of his life. Even when engaged on his new farm, he contented himself with tasks completed efficiently, correctly, and he was consumed by making straight furrows, as if it was critical to the farmstead’s success. When on one autumn day, after a lengthy period of work, he stopped and looked down into the valley, he was amazed at the true and unfettered beauty of what he witnessed.....as if he had never before experienced such a vision of universality and freedom.....yet it had been there all along. He just hadn’t been interested in its unencumbered discovery. Everything he did was burdened by excess, as if survival was the hinge of every task.

I have written while holed-up in hotel rooms in London, then from a wee portal of landscape in Nottingham’s legendary “Sherwood Forest,” and I’ve sat making notes, on a sandy knoll of ocean front, while in Florida’s Ponce Inlet, watching a storm pound up the Atlantic shore. I’ve written on a rickety desk, in a rooming house near the intersection of Toronto’s Jane and Bloor, and found just enough urban inspiration, from a small window overlooking a tiny, fenced backyard, to compose a modest tome. I’ve penned journals from bus adventures across the continent, on short train junkets north and south, and found planes more than adequate to appease the urge to write. I’ve burned the midnight oil in my tiny residence at York University, and positioned myself in many, many outdoor cafes and pubs to figure stuff out. I’ve sat out on the peak of Canoe Lake’s Hayhurst Point, where the memorial cairn to artist Tom Thomson stands, and been spellbound by the Algonquin aura.

As Thoreau needed his Walden Pond, and Tom Thomson benefitted from the Algonquin Lakes, and the good Mr. Grayson required the farmstead’s meadow to be inspired, my days spent in Gravenhurst, have been my most productive and satisfying over a lifetime of composition. Whether it is being enthralled by the sight of a lone paddler’s canoe, traversing through the morning mist, near Muskoka Beach, the windsong of a blustery afternoon, as witnessed from the lookout over Muskoka Bay, or the haunting shrill of a loon in the late evening, I could never be bored with this truly enchanted place. I can be as keen to walk along the main street, to visit local shops, and meet up with friends and neighbors. Wandering the tree-line streets and boulevards as the autumn colors engage, the curious homes and decorations, folks raking and chatting with friends, brings about a gentle, but subtle embrace of belonging here......., as falling leaves rustle beneath our feet, the sweet aroma of a wood fire permeates the chilled air.......all the peaceful, soothing characteristics we all think we know but often neglect. It is the pleasing contentment of a worthy “home town.” That sense of being in company of good neighbors and kindly souls, who care about the folks who share these good graces of every day life. And who are willing to share the despair and help where they can, when adversity or disaster strikes.....such as the storm from a year earlier, when neighbors generously helped, where and when needed, those hardest hit by the storm’s fury.

While writing the most recent blogs, in an attempt to instill some necessity, urgency and added responsibility, to the campaign agendas of this year’s municipal candidates, I have been pre-occupied with those straight furrows and study of pressing realities. It’s possible I have scared a number of council hopefuls with this encumbrance of future demand, and heightened responsibility in virtually all aspects of local governance. What I haven’t done, and I shall correct now, is to thank you all, for having the courage to seek a council seat.....because we need your assistance, and it would be terrible to approach an election without a slate of committed citizens, willing to face the challenges ahead.

I am sure it will be a very proud moment, upon hearing of a successful campaign, to know the community has supported your vision and approved your credentials. While there is no denying the next four year term will be a difficult one, it is still a most important condition of representation, for you to be proud and perpetually inspired by this dynamic hometown of ours. I would rather be governed by an elected official, who looked up now and again from those straight furrows, to examine more closely, the true splendor of home within nature, because it is that effort of enlightenment, that influences decisions that will always put quality of life concerns ahead of simply “capital gain by the expense of compromise.” It is never too late to look up, and look out, over the place we dwell. Each time we will see things we had never witnessed before.

Even as I sit here now, with the hum of technology in my ear from this sputtering old computer, the crow calls, and chickadees chattering outside my office window, keeps a cheerful mood about this place we call Birch Hollow above The Bog.

Thank you all for keeping this a good old home town.

WE ALL NEED TO BE AWARE OF THE LIMITS TO GROWTH

I heard a neighbor of ours tell one of his guests about the “ecologist” living next door, and I suppose the disadvantages of dwelling so close to a family that monitors local disposal practices. The bog, across the street, has been a dump-site for a lot of residents in our neighborhood. I’ve caught more than a few in the act, and suggested I would help them load up their wheelbarrows, at no cost (and no municipal intervention). I do take the opportunity to ask whether they own the property they are abusing and if they have any idea how long it takes to break-down a plastic oil bottle, cans, small appliances, glass and ceramics. They give me the look, then admit it probably would take decades, maybe a century to erode to dust into the earth.

Every spring and every fall, these same folks will dump their lawn and garden refuse in the woodlands because they simply won’t pay to have it hauled away.....even in their own vehicles, and more than a few of these residents have appropriate vehicles to do so. One bloke who was casting off rather large chunks of a felled tree, felt no compunction at all, dumping it all into the lowland, along with sundry other plastic cast-offs he didn’t want to pay to dispose. While it’s not my job to police this environmental offence (and it is an offence indeed), it is my responsibility to educate those who need it most.

I am a frequent visitor at the regional landfill site and for the small price of disposal, and the re-cycling options, I just can’t understand how anyone can justify saving a few bucks, to pollute an important wetland instead. There are many dumping zones along our corridor, and throughout the municipality, where folks delight in dumping even major appliances. When the District of Muskoka gets the grand idea to charge for bags during regular curbside pick-up, it means a lot more work for citizens like myself, who make regular forays into the woodlands to pick up the refuse deposited by others. It may be a future plan with some merit but not before it is thoroughly examined, and a weighty fund and personnel arranged, to collect the items folks didn’t want to pay to dispose. In Toronto especially, illegal dumping costs millions to clean up, if and when they decide the pile has reached “eye-sore” level.....or there’s a G-20 coming-up.

When I was a kid, growing up in Bracebridge (1960's), the town dump was just outside the downtown business area, on the side of old Highway 11, where all visitors could come and see a hillside and creek below, covered in a colorful array of what society then had finished with. If you had some debris from the city, well, there were no checkpoints. Everything was accepted. And on Friday nights, if nothing else was going on, you could take a gun and shoot the rats. I’m not exactly sure the date when this dump-site was officially closed, but it had operated for many years, and I still ponder what drains into that abutting watershed, eventually flowing into the Muskoka River. It can’t be healthy knowing the items that are still contaminating that zone.

When I rear up about the local environment and the conduct of those who wish to foul it, I do have many, many critics, who wish I’d keep my opinions to myself. And I think back to how many folks, during the time the old Bracebridge dump-site on Highway II, operated, despite dissent by those who knew we would pay for our neglect sooner or later.

When I hear of someone else being diagnosed with cancer, and then another, and even more as the year progresses, I can’t help but wonder when it will dawn on this population generally, that we must change our ways entirely if we wish to survive. Treating cancer is one thing but dealing with its causes, well, its still hale and hardy out there, because we continue to contaminate the environment with full vigor......as was noted recently in a news account of the worsening conditions of our provinces waterways.

I don’t give a rat’s arse whether my neighbors think of me as an ecological nuisance. I have to do my part, and even though it’s not a big one, surely by now some of my adversaries are figuring out that I will continue to remind them about the law, which by now they should be well familiar.

I remember, as a reporter, a diver telling me during an interview, that the bottom of Muskoka’s Three Mile Lake looked like a used appliance warehouse. Since the first settlers arrived in Muskoka, so did the penchant for using the lake to dump their refuse. The inlanders did set up their own dumpsites, which are still polluting the landscape, but the lakeshore community, permanent and seasonal combined, rowed their junk away from their properties, and sunk it all, contamination oozing from car batteries to old fridges. It was a practice that continued until only a few decades ago. You can find many submerged appliances in the Algonquin lakes as well, much to my chagrin. While working on Tom Thomson research recently, my son and I paddled over a number of large appliances, near the old village of Mowat, on Canoe Lake. And yes, it makes your heart drop, that amidst this rugged, wonderful landscape, that inspired the likes of Tom Thomson and the Group of Seven, and so many artists since, it is as much an appliance graveyard reminding us all of the deep footprints of yore.

I’m pretty sure my neighbor looks down upon me as the rat fink of the neighborhood, watching for any indiscretions with can, glass or plastic refuse. While I really don’t study all that intently, I won’t cease being a watchdog. When an election candidate shares some of my values, well, I suggest we meet up some time, at roadside, and gather some refuse that didn’t quite make it to the landfill site. I’d really like them, when elected, to represent common sense with the rest of District Councillors, before they impose a plan, that will keep folks like me, travelling further to pick up more....because so many other folks don’t like paying to discard anything.

WHEN WILL WE REGAIN THE PRIDE IN OUR TOURISM INDUSTRY

I think it may have occurred in the mid to late 1970's. The time when our community economic development activists, and deluded governance, decided that tourists were a good way of making a buck but we needed to be more independent, just in case? I suppose there was some concern tourism was sliding backward and there might soon be a time when we’d have to count on our other industrial pursuits to keep our local economy chugging along.

It was at this period when we seemed to develop a more pessimistic attitude about tourism generally, and it heralded a new cocky period in our communities, as we began to delve into new ideas for economic diversity. Some of it worked for a period, others investments failed miserably but the attitude of independence from the tourism industry was strengthening. From my years of editorship with the former Herald-Gazette, in Bracebridge, covering the community political and commercial beat, I saw it first hand. Instead of looking at all the ways and means to make the most of the district’s number one region, the town movers and shakers were looking at everything else, and wasting a lot of time and energy on investigations and promotions designed at making our region an industrial mecca.

All these years later, I can reiterate the same editorials I was publishing in the 1980's. Tourism has been our mainstay industry since the late 1800's. It was the original catalyst of change from a resource based economy, timber, to a recreational paradise that suited those in search of clean air and thriving woodlands, for the good of their failing health, and for the adventure away from the din of their urban environs. The local settlers, who were having a tough go making anything grow on their Muskoka homesteads, were forced to diversify their economies, many working in the lumbering and related industry, and eventually, either renting out rooms in their abodes for visitors, or working in some capacity, to assist the rapidly growing tourism industry. Possibly it was helping to build one of the early hotel / resorts, providing guide services to anglers and hunters, selling off land and resources to assist the budding industry......everything from doing domestic services at the hotels, to augment homestead finances, to building and then working on the boats that facilitated travel across the quickly developing region.

There has always been a wee bit of a problem with the tourism industry and the modern generations, who have rebelled in a minor yet profound way, of being subservient for all these years to make a living. What had served this region of Ontario so well for so many decades, had apparently rubbed the relationship raw. Instead of economic advisors, in our Muskoka communities, pushing for new and larger re-investment in the tourism sector, we began to see far more interest in industrial and commercial development but the most obvious change was in the overflow of retail expansion. Not commercial investment tied directly to the advancement of tourism but rather, retail that would largely serve our own year-round population. While there was nothing terribly wrong with this, we admittedly have become a tad over-retailed......and it was a retail expansion the tourist industry didn’t require to enjoy a stay here.

If you were to examine a collection of postcards of the mainstreets in Gravenhurst, Bracebridge, and Huntsville, from the early part of the 1900's right up to the 1990's, you won’t have any trouble recognizing the transition. The main street of Gravenhurst from the 1950's is just a delightful image of a full and thriving main street. It is the kind of commercial landscape that was indeed, an image a tourist would cherish, and be proud to send off to friends and family. When you look down that same street today, (pre construction), you will see a starkly different image, and appreciate a much different image of prosperity. Despite all the efforts of the movers and shakers, who apparently know better than the historians and economic realists, far too much time has been spent on industry seeking missions, and not enough on tending the region’s undisputed, number one industry.....tourism.

In the past ten years there has been a slow but promising change in our town and others, from councils aware of the misspent years, trying to prove something that was unnecessary. The development of The Wharf, will, in the next decade, be a much more powerful economic draw in Gravenhurst, and although there are aspects I don’t fully appreciate, it is nonetheless, proof that the past council recognized that tourism dollars are of critical importance......and no matter how independent we desire to be, it can not be at the expense of this enduring and ever-adapting industry. We just have to adapt along with it!

As the economic soothsayers used to warn that an economic downturn in the tourism economy could kill our region, my retaliation editorially, has been the counter worry, that one day the federal government and the province will cut back on its civil service staffing, as it has in the past, and then folks, watch the economic tumble into the waiting arms of tourism......a good mate for a lot of years. Just consider how many government jobs there are currently in Muskoka, and the debt-load of both in this new and financially stressed century. Even cutting the work for by ten percent could cause a real estate panic, as displaced civil servants are forced to re-locate. While we still like to think we could get by without a thriving tourism industry, just consider how precariously perched we are, on the razor’s edge of the taxpayer. Government staff represents a really big chunk of our population. That’s not industry. And it’s always vulnerable because of new governments and new fiscal realities. We just shouldn’t get too cocky about our independence from either tourism or government cradling of the economy.

______

I live in Muskoka today because of a vacation taken in the summer of 1965, the guests at a new cottage on Bruce Lake. From the city to the country, I was in paradise, just as I feel today. My father worked in the lumber trade that made most of its income during the period of May to Thanksgiving. My mother worked in a small variety store, known as Bamford’s in central Bracebridge, that also had small rental cottages. I grew up playing with the kids who stayed at the cottages over the summer, and my first job was delivering fruit and vegetables to resorts and summer camps for Clarkes Produce. It was the only job I could get but it was my first education about the diversity and significance of the visiting population. I would go on to be an Assistant Editor of The Muskoka Sun, and for many, many years, I wrote for the largely tourist, second-home owner readership. It kept me in a job. Even to this day our family businesses, in the antique and music industry a very much influenced by the tourist economy.

My wife Suzanne’s family began working as part of the tourism industry from the late 1800's, in the Three Mile Lake area of the present Township of Muskoka Lakes. They were pioneer settlers in Ufford and although they weren’t involved in tourism entirely, they were beneficiaries just the same. Her grandfather and father worked for many cottagers, from the Eaton family, of department store fame, and the Burtons of Simpsons to name just a few. Her parents went on to own the Windermere Marina, on Lake Rosseau, where Suzanne worked for many summers, tending her largely tourist, cottager clientele in the snackbar known as “The Skipper.” Each summer the Stripp family rented out their home nearby, and their cottage and smaller guest cabin, (both which had been built by her grandfather, Sam Stripp, as residences), while they lived above the marina. It was opportunism plain and simple, and the money that was garnered over the summer months, padded the slower winter economy. One of Muskoka’s well known boat restorers, who previously owned the Ditchburn known as the “Shirl-evon,” (used to deliver cottagers and their luggage to their island properties etc.), Norm had a line-up of boats to work on each winter which was a fact right up until his final two or three years in Windermere. And he loved his association, as did all of his family, with the cottagers and visitors to the region.......friendships which still survive with my wife today, even though we no longer have property on Lake Rosseau or in the charming village of Windermere.

Our combined families have depended on the tourism industry in some form or other, from the homestead years in Muskoka. And despite our own diversification by profession, we are likely to continue our long and prosperous relationship with tourism long into the future.

We need councillors in this new municipal term of office, who are willing to run their own fact finding mission, to determine how tourism has and continues to affect our region.....and from second home owners (cottage owners), resort guests, day travellers, and all those businesses tightly related to their services and accommodation, it is necessary knowledge, that we know exactly how interconnected we are here with an industry that found us........not the other way around.

If we continue to appreciate that the tourism business can be bigger and more successful, and that we have shortfalls to accommodate new growth, possibly this well be the period of economic sensibility, to re-invest in the sector showing the most consistent, historic promise.

While there are times when the demands of the industry, and the volume tend to make us a little crazy by the end of the traditional season, our family is always sad to see the end of this most exciting and dynamic time of year. It’s when our friends return home. And they are indeed our friends.

The challenge is to make the season longer, and the opportunities and accommodations more abundant, to facilitate four seasons travel. This is happening, and it is an enormous improvement in attitude as well as infrastructure. Thanks to folks like the hale and hearty Cranberry gang in Bala, and the stalwart artists of the annual September Studio Tour, we have most definitely stretched the peak season a little further.

The trend in the future, and not so far distance, is that more people will take advantage of their winter-equipped cottage/homes more time through the off-season months. This as well, is a current trend that needs to be examined more carefully.

WHEN BIG IDEAS FALL, DO THEY MAKE A SOUND? NOT REALLY! JUST RED FACES

There isn’t anything wrong with council hopefuls coming up with new business plans to improve the economic diversity of our town. As long as each proponent appreciates that many, many grand schemes have crashed and burned before, when presented by candidates who have been doing nothing more than “idea snatching” from other municipalities, and attempting to bedazzle us here in the Ontario hinterland. We’ve heard them all. And when councillors showcase them at the all candidates meeting, the chortling shouldn’t be taken personally.....but honestly, some are pretty funny not to mention impractical even in a robust economy.

First of all, it takes a lot to impress us, because we’ve heard so many grandiose, “out of the old ball-park” plans for turning us into a four seasons economic dynamo......and very few have come to fruition over many decades of election promising. What these candidates forget is the actual council process, and that it is less than likely the new council will make fulfilling your promises a first or fourth-term priority. For those who want to restore our economic vibrancy, it will begin with a new and sensible spending policy. Frankly this is the only place to start. Finding out just how deep we’re in, when all the bills are tallied, and how we’re going to get many left-over projects covered on limited funds.

I like “idea” people but I prefer “hard working” and “patient, detail-oriented” municipal representatives, who realize what post recession recovery means for investment activity, and why frugality is the operative measure for the town over the next term of office. The “big plan” proponents are just trying to win votes and I can’t be bothered with their nonsense. I’m impressed by the first-time candidate who admits being hungry for experience and eager to learn more about the inner workings of the town. The inner reality of municipal governance, is in fact, the required ground level course, before any idea to transform our community can be sensibly proportioned to the prevailing limitations of support, authority and market potential. So we can talk about a main street mall and all kinds of commercial installations that might benefit our community, but considering the poorer than poor relationship between the town and the BIA, there are quite a few healing steps to take before introducing another intrusion upon an open wound. My advice to all candidates for election, is that they recognize the critical importance of immediately rebuilding the relationship with the main street business community.....because it is a core issue and a goodwill deficit. While the town must not be subservient, it must provide leadership and order, and if unattainable, seek approval on all sides to abandon the association in favor of something that may be more workable. But the relationship can not continue to falter, as it has been.

The collateral damage is very much an unsettling reality to the whole town, because you don’t have to be a main street merchant to know all about the ongoing feuding, within and externally. Eager councillors, who want to make this a term of change, can start with the BIA, facing one of the toughest challenges in their own history.....a high vacancy rate, lack lustre enthusiasm to open new shops on the main street, and the earth movers, as construction adds another challenge to the already stressed corridor. The leader of this initiative must be the newly elected mayor, and it would be advisable in advance to procure a really nice olive branch, to initiate a peace, first, and a plan for restoration of relations, second. Just don’t expect the town hall / fire hall debate to quell for a wee bit. As Ricky Ricardo frequently blurted, “You’ve got a lot of splaining to do Lucy!”

Town hall needs to bring about a greater level of co-operation between the business nodes and the main street, and this is one of those grand ideas I would heartily support.......and if it was to fail initially, it is definitely one that should be tried over and over until a new relationship is forged.

There is a confidence problem in this town that may be at historic levels, and the animosity will show itself in this election in a variety of forms. This isn’t the best incentive to vote, this get even attitude, but it’s one we’ll have to live with for now. It’s up to the residents of this town to start the process of rebuilding relations with town hall, by informing councillors that old values of neighborliness and helpfulness, mutual respect and hometown pride, trump all other big ideas, because if we continue to let things fester, as they have, that divide in confidence between town hall and us, will cause a catastrophic dysfunction that will derail the really good initiatives that will help our community.

Truth is, I have never lived in a more neighborly community than Gravenhurst, and it’s the reason we remain here, work here, and operate three businesses all with this town as the home address. It is a precious resource, this neighborliness thing, and it’s time to nurture it back to good health for all to benefit. Once again, it involves enlightenment. That is the asset of a truly dynamic council representative.

I’M NERVOUS WHEN COUNCILLORS VOTE UNANIMOUSLY FOR DEVELOPMENT

There is no way to deny progress its credits. I don’t despise urbanizing progress and its resulting development, if it’s handled properly, and is proportional to what we need for the accommodation of near future demand. A lot of progressive developments have occurred in our region, of which I have heartily endorsed. Sometimes, our elected officials however, are spellbound by opportunity, especially ones that promise the moon, only to deliver disappointment. Developers rather like the idea of councillors donning blinkers, to guarantee their focus is on the project they’re selling, and not on the ruffling feathers of constituents.

I spent my early years in Burlington, Ontario, a modestly sized community in the early 1960's. There was no way it was going to remain a small community for long, as everything around it was bursting at the seams. Even when I was going back in the 1970's, it was staggering how fast it all had arrived. I’m pretty sure I’d be lost their today. Yet I have many fond memories of parks, open spaces, ravines where I played hour upon hour, and the smaller town neighborliness a kid recognizes out on the hustings.

It was the same situation in Bracebridge. I loved that wonderful small town, and I realize today, it was due to, well, what it didn’t have. We moved our family from Bracebridge to Gravenhurst in 1989 because we didn’t appreciate the newfound realities of urban sprawl, and the interests of council and the town’s movers and shakers, to make a small, pleasant, convenient community, a city wannabe. The mood of the upper echelon still exists that bigger is always better, and I could not agree with the reckless abandon to which town officials were willing to go, in order to make their dreams come true. Frankly, when the Jubilee Park debacle occurred, and a wonderful heirloom open-space, in The Hollow, on Bracebridge’s Wellington Street, was sold off for a university campus instead, it validated why years earlier, I packed up my family and moved south. I’m by no means the only one to do this. Even though our family was comfortably positioned in Gravenhurst, this was a fight (for Jubilee Park) that went beyond the municipal boundary in principle. As it turns out, it was a pre-amble for a fight right in my own ballywick, that I simply couldn’t believe. Jubilee Park was kind of a warm-up for things to come.

You don’t sacrifice a park, especially an open space in a neighborhood that will increase in residential, commercial density in the next 20 years. People need open spaces, and in a reasonable proximity to their homes. How amazing it was then, several years later, to find that so many folks, who had been silent for the park debate, all of a sudden reared up when it came to selling-off the former high school soccer fields for a commercial interest. The irony was over whelming. The playing field, which was not sold off by the Board of Education, is less than a block from Jubilee Park, which was already more than a century old, yet it was dismissed largely as a waste of good, marketable, commercial space. Many contradictions arose during this period of urban conflict over values and good urban planning. At a public meeting, when I suggested councillors read Jane Jacobs opinions on open space in urban areas, the impression greeted me back...... “Jane who?” One of the best known urban planning gurus didn’t apparently ring a bell.....so it was a mountain of a task to sell that open space concept as “necessary” to a density-increasing community, flying on a wing and prayer that they were doing the right thing by selling off a town asset.

Several years ago, when Gravenhurst Council got the idea to sell off The Bog, our neighborhood wetland here, in the Calydor subdivision, which by the way was one of the reasons we purchased our house in this particular location, it was a sickening feeling, especially after we had just lost the fight (of which I was a part) to save Jubilee Park. What it meant was, there was a new reign of boldness and “yes” councillors who decided to test their mettle, and flog some surplus property.......as a means of cashing in on the pre-recession property bonanza.

What was most shocking to me, and I had seen it as a reporter many years earlier, was the “yes” momentum of council to accomplish particular ends. While I’m a big fan of positivism in all its upbeat glory, Bracebridge Council had employed this, one for all- all for one attitude, to sell Jubilee Park. It was as if the town was being governed by party politics.....only one party, and there were no dissenters on such a huge and controversial matter. I couldn’t believe that no one on that council would budge, or admit to a wee nervousness of selling off such a town asset. I’m pretty sure there was concern but all this was discussed and resolved before it came to public presentation, where citizens witnessed a wall of approval.......which should never have happened to this degree, on one of the most contentious issues of the town’s history. But it did! And I knew it could happen again if we couldn’t stop the negotiation for solidarity that could be mustering in the wings. We couldn’t take the chance this would happen.

I kept this in mind as we worked through The Bog situation, and as a committee we went to work finding dissent before it could be either muzzled or strengthened as a force of unity. We acted speedily and soon discovered some out of touch councillors, who had not yet studied the matter closely, and who might be willing to support a plan to kill the sell-off, if we presented a compelling enough argument. In the case of Jubilee Park there were many compelling arguments but there was not way of penetrating the wall of “yes” votes to “proceed at all cost.”

In the case of “yes” voting as a means of showing solidarity on an issue, or project, there is always an inherent danger of reckless endangerment, especially when it involves adopting something for the community that is controversial. While it isn’t illegal to vote as a unit to accept or deny an application etc., and it is a reality of democracy that pulling support from within is an operational necessity, as with the recent vote on the Long Gun Registry, the problem in a municipality, is the fewer number of votes needed to get a motion etc. passed or declined, and a lot less scrutiny, seeing as the national media doesn’t often show up at regular council meetings to investigate democracy in action. In the case of Jubilee Park, I would have been so pleased to have heard from one, just one council member, that they had been opposed to the sell-off for even one minute of the debate. In our town, I was pleased early on, that there was no clear and unyielding will to sell off the property, and it gave me considerable faith that there was indeed some room to wiggle a counter-point.......and a more willing audience in which to pitch the critical approach concept, to this ill-conceived plan to sell-off property.

It does take considerable courage to be a dissenting vote......a lone voice against an important motion, but it can lead to further debate, and can infuse a wee bit of critical thought into what may have been a done deal. When a mega development shows up on our doorstep, and it seems like a great idea, at least to some, by golly, we absolutely require councillors with courage to question and debate those who are pushing the plan from within........because everyone, especially the proponent or developer, thought it was great project. We’ve bought a fair share of magic beans over the decades and had to deal with plain old beanstalks instead.

Every time I pass Jubilee Park, I feel bad there was nothing I could do to stop its sale. As an historian and environmental shit-disturber, it was a personal defeat as well. When I get home and see this beautiful forest-land and thriving wetland next to my house, I feel so good about the councillors who gave it a second chance, just one more review, listened to all sides of the proposal, and gave us a reprieve.....not because they were scared of our persistence. Rather, it was due to the fact more than a few councillors came, at our invitation, to witness up close, a beautiful, cleansing lowland, filtering the urban neighborhood’s run-off water, before it enters Muskoka Bay, of the larger Lake Muskoka. On paper they couldn’t see the wildlife, sense the trickling of crystalline cataracts, along the myriad creeks running through the canopy of cattails and ferns, or smell the sweet aroma of open spaces of evergreen and leaning old birches (that Robert Frost would have found poetic), and see the trodden down path where neighbors walk their children to see Muskoka at its finest. When they stood on a tiny knob of embankment, and saw the amazing wildflowers, heard the birds and squirrels chattering in the tree tops, and then saw the urban configuration of houses surrounding it, they came away enlightened about what urban planning can do, to conserve the environment and urbanize without great consequence to either partner, still in the name of progressive governance of all resources.....and being contemporary to the key environmental issues of the day. The Town of Bracebridge had other options than to sell off Jubilee Park but they were unanimous......nothing was going to change their opinion regardless the weight of an impressive array of sound arguments from many experts.

We need individual councillors, unafraid of stating their convictions, even if it means rocking the boat of solidarity. I don’t suggest it is a bad thing, all of the time, to vote unanimously, because there are circumstances that warrant this high level of approval. There is however, a time, when a project is so aggressive and altering to the community as a whole, that dissent is the catalyst for negotiation, and potentially, with input that is welcomed, not discouraged, a compromise can be attained without killing a deal. So if I appear nervous when major developments come before our council, there are some precedents from which to draw information. I prefer even a feeble “my heart says,” objection, over a blind approval because it’s what everyone else is doing.

While so far the reader, possibly a council hopeful this election themselves, might perceive that being elected our representative, is more of a burden than it’s worth. It can be burdensome, most definitely. If however, a newly elected councillor, celebrates the democracy that gave them this wonderful opportunity to govern, they will by the same measure, be able to remind themselves of our inherent right of free speech guaranteed by that fundamental democracy. What most often happens, is that newly elected councillors believe that somehow, there was a divine hand that led them to office, not so much the will of the people. I have found quite a few elected reps willing to extend me “the finger,” the moment after they’ve been sworn to the next term of council. From handshake to finger in a matter of weeks from the campaign trail. This isn’t just my opinion but rather the feeling of many, who have also experienced the “distancing” and “indifference” when candidates have achieved what they desired. And while I don’t beg anything more than “responsible government,” from those I vote for, it irks us all to find out just how self-serving elected officials can become, forgetting a lot of the promises made weeks earlier. While most citizens just grumble and say “I knew this would happen,” I’m one of those persistent bastards who doesn’t forget the mandate of responsible government. Even if I didn’t vote for you, well, I still expect follow through on our behalf.

For the councillor, who wants to enjoy his or her term of office, it’s quite easy and fulfilling at the same time. Approach your employers with the same sense of neighborliness and concern, as you did on the election hustings, and we will come to appreciate you as being approachable, helpful, attentive, co-operative and sympathetic to concerns. There is no elected official on earth capable of meeting every demand, or able to offer the concessions to quell every conflict, but what we’re looking for is the good neighbor, who is as concerned about community welfare as we are, and isn’t afraid of mucking it up, to clarify an issue, attempt resolution, offer alternatives, and at the very least, being patient with the flexibility yet durability of democracy in action. We too are unyielding defenders of our hometown, so don’t let our civilian status fool you about the range of our power which we can and will exercise to ensure responsible government when it falters.

We can all learn to deal with each other better. Enlightenment is the key. It always has been. Always will be.

A MATTER OF CONSCIENCE - CAN YOU LIVE WITH COWARDICE

If I had been an advisor to each of the election candidates, in this October’s municipal elections, I would have spent the first hour with a reality bombardment. It would undoubtedly be a full hour of explanation, about the horrors yet to come, should they actually win their respective elections. I would fill them with doom and gloom, the concept of having four years full of untold responsibilities, having to face pent-up citizen frustration and anger, having triple the amount of phone calls, cards and letters, threats and innuendos about actions and reactions yet to come. I would make sure that each candidate was aware that the next four years serving Gravenhurst, as elected officials, will test their mettle above and beyond the call of duty. I would tell them to toughen up, expect the conflict of the century, and to prepare themselves for a barrage of anything and indeed everything. To bolster my point, I’d give them an eight by ten image of myself for their portfolios, to prepare them for the distinct possibility, I will be defending my citizen, neighborhood, town and otherwise democratic rights if and when provoked......and give them a chance to muster some sensible, intelligent answers to my concerns, before I get to the microphone. I’ve been told I irritate people with my honesty. I’m sure of it! I’m just not frivolous about any of my posturing for democracy and environmental protection.

And I would follow up by asking, “Do you think I’m kidding?” Well, if you’ve read much of this blog at all, you’d know I’m not being sarcastic or making light of a serious situation. So why will this term of office be different than the others? The past four years (especially with a guy like me ragging on about preserving The Bog) were kind of tough, weren’t they? Well, here are some differences, some showing through long before the vote.

I’ve covered a lot of elections for the local press, and I’ve studied them all out of my own interest in municipal governance. The difference this year is the carry-over anger, frustration, and economic woes of the past decade, all welling up and some of it still open to debate. There is a new and powerful confluence of unresolved issues and some catching-up to do, on the part of groups like the Ratepayers Association and the Business Improvement Association, who have some rather big bones to pick. And seeing as there are quite a few present councillors who are seeking re-election, three jumping at the chance to become the new mayor, the divide between the groups is different only by the torrent that rages in the gap between.....simply because outstanding issues over the past four years, were not satisfactorily resolved.

There are some possible elections scenarios however, that could put these unresolved issues into the life-blood of council itself, and cease to be items easily fobbed-off as distant annoyances, like sort of a headache but not quite yet! There are certain combinations of candidates, if elected, that could be quite volatile, (and we could use some of that to stir up complacency), and a council watcher might be quite amazed at how democracy can be improved by the critical approach I subscribe. We need more aggressive debate at the council table, and folks who are not afraid of standing up for what they believe, and to represent the interests and concerns of us all......that would be a capital idea.

There could be combinations as well, that create a dysfunction, to begin with, as the returning old guard, gets pushed out of their usual format of normalcy. I see a great likelihood of this happening, and there is a distinct possibility that the council debate might actually have a wee trace of fire within, and it’s going to upset the applecart, of those who have this “divine” aura about them, just because they won a poorly supported vote in a small, rural Ontario community. I would be surprised if this term doesn’t generate one or more resignations, when the elected officials begin to realize just how imposing new realities can be......and this will give other more courageous candidates a chance to run in a by-election. From knowing many of the candidates in this election, and their positions honed from past run-ins with local government, and all the past business that still rubs the citizens raw, the going is likely to be very, very aggressive from the onset, and personal agendas will be worn like breastplates. I’m not adverse at all to a wee bit of knocking about, because the survivors of this vigorous posturing, to finally get a say in municipal affairs, will eventually set democracy on its rightful course of grinding out solutions, like a giant pepper mill.

My advice to all candidates, is to review carefully the reasons they want to be members of council. If you’re trying to prove a popularity issue, gads, you’re screwed. If you’re doing this for a pay check, well, you’re nuts. It’s not enough to take what you are going to get from, as they say, “all sides!” If however, you thrive on adversity, love nothing more than a great, no-holds barred debate, are always willing to learn and adapt to prevailing situations, and you really, really love this community, and want to see it prosper, then by all means......represent us with the same dynamic.

I have known councillors brought to tears by angry ratepayers, and I’ve had coffee with some who wanted to quit but were ashamed to do so, because of the public opinion that they had somehow failed in a simple task. I’ve met with career politicians who got bored when there wasn’t controversy brewing, and did their best work under fire and in demand. I’ve had mayors who asked me, the scribe, what I would do in their position, to handle a pending crisis. And I’ve always had the same answer to all concerns. “There are folks counting on you to represent them, respect them, and warn them when required. They are as vulnerable as you are, and sometimes don’t know where else to turn to get help. What may seem like anger and rudeness initially, may simply be the budding of fear, having unresolved issues, and no one else to offer help.” I’ve also known councillors who made amazing turn-arounds, getting comfortable with the idea, that problem solving and the art of negotiation, aren’t as daunting in fact, as one expects in that gut-wrenching anticipation.....much like citizens who become life-savers at accident scenes, demonstrating courage they didn’t know they possessed.

The next four years serving Gravenhurst Council will be far more difficult than the previous term, because a number of candidates for office, represent a strong force of enquiry, that will force re-elected candidates and municipal staff to answer many more delving, intrusive questions that they may have been accustomed.....regarding past decisions particularly in the area of expenditure. It may be uncomfortable for some to be forced into re-opening discussion about past actions, such as the sale of Gravenhurst Hydro, which has had an enduring negative aura attached ever since. While I don’t expect council business will be dominated in this renewed interest in controversial decisions, the fire hall allocation, the new town hall, extra spending on the new recreation center and main street re-construction will definitely spark......whether into a wee bit of shed light, or a much, much bigger illumination. Just don’t be under any illusion this will be an easy way of getting a pay check. There’s a pound of flesh going to be taken in return. I didn’t make the rules.

In one of Dr. William Dawson LeSueur’s essays, entitled “The Critic as Historian,” there are a few insights I find apply to this advisory for council hopefuls. It was composed by the man who named our community.....one of Canada’s true intellectuals. It reads as follows:

“The mere avoidance of errors will not of course make a man an historian, any more than the avoidance of grammatical blunders will make him a distinguished writer; for, after he has got his facts right, he must let the world see how he understands and correlates them. A man of less learning will sometimes discover more meaning in facts and put a better construction on them than a man of greater learning. A word to the wise is more enlightening than many words to the foolish. Emile Reich says of specialists that they have a knack of dwelling on trivialities and neglecting the most important facts. The best way to acquire true historical insight, he thinks, is to knock about the world and come into direct contact with the hurly-burly of actual human life, and so to acquire varied and intense sensorial impressions. Ben Johnson said of Shakespeare that he was ‘naturally learned”, and his wisdom assuredly did not all come from books....”

Get out an experience our community like never before. To know it is to love it!

HISTORIANS DON’T GET INVITED TO PARTIES

Maybe some do. Get invited to parties, that is! Generally we’re a pretty boring lot, if you don’t have an interest in vigorously spun tales of yore. It goes back to high school history unfortunately, that didn’t impress upon the general student body, a passion to pursue it as a hobby once the final mark was scratched onto the report form. Those of us who have taken up as historians, antiquaries, and teachers of such, have been tarred by the same old brush. “Run, run, as fast as you can, here comes an historian. They’ll regale you with stories about old farts and the stuff old farts did before we were even born!”

Well, it’s sort of like that but most of us have learned to be good humored about our love for history, never apologetic, and never without footnotes and sidebars of explanation to validate our positions. Believe it or not, gatherings of historians can get quite jovial until it comes to the “in my opinion” part of the evening, when blood can boil....I mean get tepid, at the slightest provocation, which could be the result of a cocky contemporary taking liberty with a long held fact.

As much as I am an historian, (which kept my boys’ school chums away from our house), I am also very much a believer in the balance between what is relevant today, and what is an historic burden to maintain in perpetuity. It is perceived by many that us historians are the bane of everything modern, and are the thorns against the ease of progress in a modern world. We stop the destruction of old and dear buildings on the urban landscape, and we fuss and fume about historically significant sites that require lengthy research and digs, while earth movers sit idle, and personnel twiddle their thumbs to a developer’s howling outrage. Sometimes this is true, and again we make no apology. Often however, we do know what is best for the situation of present tense, and believe it or not, progress doesn’t, as a commonality, stab us in the heart each time we’re in its path. There are contemplative moments when we ponder aloud and pen in lengthy tomes like this, why we weren’t utilized in the decision making process, because we know about the many precedents that broke trail from here to there.

Many of my cronies, in this history-sparing and heritage promoting enterprise, are routinely miffed about why they have been bypassed yet again, when a municipal government was grappling with an historical conundrum of some significance, yet could not see their way to incorporating sage advice, learned from years of research, by inviting a wee dram of input from our rank and file. When we are, on occasion, invited to speak to such an issue of historic concern, we are absolutely delighted, and it would only be on the rarest of occasions when one of us would balk at the opportunity presented.....or strike the presenter.

Some elected folks believe us to be witch doctors who can curse projects and progress. In the case of the recent debacle over Bracebridge’s Jubilee Park, the outright refusal of the town to seek an opinion of regional historians, regarding a matter of considerable historic precedent, councillors decided that this would bring about damaging contrary opinion, and thus, selling their park-off for a university campus would be at risk. What because we’re smarter than they are? Wiser? More capable of mounting an argument than the one they had for selling an heirloom property that an urban neighborhood badly needed? This is a capital reason historians don’t get invited to opine often these days. We bring truth to cut through the fiction and blatant propaganda. The historians lost the fight to save Jubilee Park, and we will always have regrets.

In Gravenhurst we have a highly competent and incredibly co-operative community of history lovers, hard-core and gentle hobbyists, who are always willing to offer a hand on a delicate issue, and their sole purpose is to strengthen the links of community to its founding, not beat-down progress before it can muster. Yet most of us still yawn and fidget, feeling somewhat left out from our community’s future, because we are looked at as staunch rivals of anything contemporary or futuristic. Truth is, us historical types would be pretty much out of business if it wasn’t for the fact that history is being made every second of the rolling year.....such that this column, as I write it now, is already antiquated by time it reaches the next key stroke. So we are very much aware of contemporary issues, and understand how it all comes together. Historians know a lot about Gravenhurst’s cultural, social, economic and political past, that by golly, could benefit a council hopeful looking to broaden their own perspectives, and be sure of their claims well in advance of public presentations......incidentally, with quite a representation of historians occupying the seats out front, who make it a point to know what’s happening in their hometown, and are unafraid of making corrections and raising points of order.

We are sharing, sensitive, approachable folks living amongst you, and while it’s true we can be quite judgmental, we will back up our opinions with facts,....ones we’ve meticulously gathered in the many decades since we began studying our home region. Don’t fear us because of the information we possess. We have come upon it honestly. Take advantage of us.....it’s quite all right. We’ll thank you politely for thinking of us.

You can not hope to properly understand what makes a home region tick by judging everything that is present tense. And you couldn’t possibly appreciate history, if you didn’t incorporate the reality of the present. Many, many lives passed have influenced the way we live at this moment. Then to discount the viewpoints of those who pay attention to those profound and subtle influences cast by others, is to fall prey to a serious apathy of conscience,...... which indeed, in many past cases, has played a key role in the desecration of history and heritage for minimal if any tangible gain.

We don’t get too disappointed any more when we’re bypassed for social events, and if we get invited to one fete out of ten we’re absolutely speechless, we all feel there is more for us to contribute that justifies our years of research. So don’t fear us because we’ll rain on your parade, or stop you from digging a garden on ground that may hold buried treasure. Rather, appreciate the fact, we are hometown resources always ready to play our part in regional, provincial, national heritage.

We eat cheese and sip wine, watch Coronation Street sometimes, itch when we have to, and get blisters on our hands from working in the garden. Yup, we’re just run of the mill historians living in Ontario’s magnificent hinterland. Give us a call some time.

HOSPITAL CUT-BACKS AND FOOD BANK DEMAND

While the gad-about candidates for this year’s municipal elections, in Gravenhurst, seem to be preoccupied with getting elected only.....by posting really big and stupid looking signs, and coming up with fanciful plans for a main street wonderland, my support goes to the candidate who puts “Hospital Cut-backs” and “Food Bank Demand,” ahead on their list of priorities, beyond the juvenile boasting about their thoroughly amazing personal biographies.....which seems pretty much a high school tactic for winning friends and influencing others. In my own years covering municipal governments for the local press, I’ve come across some real political duds with great resumes......who didn’t live up to any of their past accomplishments. Don’t put all your faith in prior achievements.

Well, here’s the thing folks. We have a hospital in peril. I have written frequently about this but I’ll throw it out once more. Muskoka councils have welcomed with open arms, the senior citizens of the world, to come and settle in this lakeland paradise. They’ve done so even when it has been clearly known, published and protested, that cut-backs in local health care services were imminent and occurring. It seems a tad irresponsible, and dangerous, to be encouraging retirees to make their homes in a region that is facing such serious health care problems. I bet on the plethora of promotions, to get these developments here, in the first place, there was more than a little emphasis on “and yes, we’ve got a hospital close by.” The same promotion is used over and over again to attract new industry, commerce, and development generally. “We have a hospital!”

I am disgusted by the bare minimum of protest from local councillors, who have all in some way, participated in approvals, to endorse, welcome and glad hand all over the place, senior developments especially, knowing there were escalating problems ten miles north. It may be time now, to pay attention to editorials in the Gravenhurst Banner and The Bracebridge Examiner, that have for many months been reminding us of imminent problems and potential future departmental closures. Most recently it was the cafeteria. We’re not in the safe haven anymore, so generously offered us for many decades, by the staunch, unyielding willpower of Frank Miller, former MPP, and Frank Henry, former administrator of South Muskoka Memorial Hospital, who suffered greatly for so long, keeping our hospital building and services safe and sound. There are some, and I am one of them, who believe if it wasn’t for these two brave souls, it might have already closed. Only their closest friends and family know how hospital issues wore these men down, and threatened their own health. I won’t let anyone forget how folks like the “two Franks” kept our communities up to speed with quality health care. We owe the memory of these fine chaps, to carry on the fight to keep our hospital from the undertow of the present health care dilemma in this province. Please find out more about what our council can do to save the hospital from further cut-backs. It is your responsibility and in the next four years you will have no choice but to have an opinion, and a solution.

How many councillors know for fact, the present burden of the Salvation Army Food Bank? How many have thought it important enough, to find out what the demands of the day are, and what expectations are in the coming months of this recessionary period. The only thing that has changed in actuality, between the Town Hall and the Food Bank today, is that instead of a half block distance between the two, now it’s separated by multiple blocks of general indifference. But the Food Bank is not going away any time soon, and if council hopefuls want to represent their town responsibly, not just taking up space at the council table, and showing up for grip and grins all over the urban landscape, ask for a meeting with the Salvation Army Captain, and find out first hand how many clients require food bank assistance. Ask about the fear of shortfalls, when food drives are not taking place and the shelves are depleted. Put yourself in the shoes of these wonderful people, who try so hard, to feed our citizens in need. Think how heart-breaking it is at times, having to thin out provisions, to maintain a balance for all clients. Imagine if you can, going hungry in a community that seems to have so much to be pleased about. Stand out on the wharf at Sagamo Park, and see the show of prosperity.....and then recall our hometown’s need for a Food Bank in a small commercial corner, just over the hillside. Two realities very far apart. What we are most prosperous with in this town, is having the abundance of kindly souls, who generously volunteer to help their friends and neighbors get by, during the difficult times. That’s the hometown I’m proud to be associated. My greatest joy would be to discover that a new Gravenhurst Council will want to be good neighbors as well, and the first step, is to make a relationship where there has been the bare minimum.

The people who run the Salvation Army Food Bank are constituents as are their clients, and their opinions are important to understanding what we have and will face in this wonderful hometown, long into the future. And don’t think that you can get away with suggesting, “Ah, if it closed down, so would the demand. They’d just get a job and earn their own grocery money.” That’s just faulty logic. Our citizens are in need. There’s more to governing this town than catering to developers and debating infrastructure. We need to be a good neighbor town, and this revamping needs to come from the top......in the form of old fashioned leadership.

THE CRITICAL THINKER IS THE CATALYST OF SENSIBLE PROPORTION

In my opinion, and it’s just that.......If you do not understand or appreciate the significance of the following statement, you should not be seeking my vote in the upcoming municipal election. To be blunt, if you can’t figure it out, or understand its implications, you shouldn’t be representing our town at any level. In my world the critical approach, not to be confused with a negative perspective, is what we all need to save this planet, this country, this neighborhood we call home. It is the tool we must use to judge a good development from adverse, a good plan from one that is embellished to serve the promoter, not the user. It is what must be used by intelligent folk, to know bullshit and otherwise propaganda from the truth.

“Criticism should be the voice of impartial and enlightened reason. Too often what passes for criticism is the voice of hireling adulation or hireling enmity. Illustrations of this will occur to everyone, but there is no use in blaming criticism, which, as has been said, is an intellectual necessity of the age. The foregoing remarks have been made in hope that they may help to clear away some prevalent misconceptions by showing the organic connection, so to speak, that exists between criticism as a function, or as a mode of intellectual activity, and the very simplest of intellectual processes. Such a mode of regarding it should do away with the odium that in so many minds attaches to the idea of criticism. Let us all try to be critics according to the measure of our abilities and opportunities. Let us aim at seeing all we can, at gaining as many points of view as possible. Let us compare carefully and judge impartially; and we may depend upon it, we shall be the better for the effort.”

The author of this brief summation of the critical approach, was written by Dr. W.D. LeSueur, the gentleman who gave our town its name in the year 1862. One of Canada’s intellectual jewels, he was also an official of the federal post office, at the time, and Gravenhurst should be proud of this important connection. A writer, historian, philosopher, he also once wrote, “the essential nature of history....is not affirmation but enquiry.” This is a man who despised popular histories that lacked even a smidgeon of critical analysis. While some authors were writing “a good time was had by all” histories, LeSueur was debunking myths about what really happened, and who were the actual heroes of our nation, and who were the glad-handers, slackers, big-shots, self-promoters and bums. We need the guy right now because there’s a quagmire of bullshit out there to navigate.

If there is one aspect of council representation I’m continually chagrined about, it is this almost defiant refusal to be self critical, issue-critical, action-critical, and uninterested in anything but their own rallying cry.....and in the Survivor mentality, following their chosen Svengali. Many simply follow the leader and vote.....well, not according to a dogged pursuit of understanding but out of laziness and convenience. More than just a few lack the ability to question themselves, and admit they don’t have enough information from all sides, on how to vote responsibly. These are the same councillors who have given a much larger decision making power to municipal staff....and that is a problem faced by provincial and federal governments. The tail wagging the dog! Staff lasts through many changes in leadership, and it is this upper management that most often provides us with our general opinion of town hall’s demeanor. Who is really running the town. Those with the power of information, all the facts, adaptable capabilities to serve any master, contacts, networking prowess. The lowly elected officials are at the mercy of those who know exactly what the critical process is all about, and practice it as a means of survival.

This is not a profound or even enlightening statement. It is easy to appreciate that senior staff are the cogs of municipal governance. The problem presents, from time to time, when the cogs are overpowering who we have elected to represent us.....and seeing as we don’t have a vote as to who remains employed at town hall, all we can do is fiddle a wee bit with the four year rotation of citizens taking the plunge for elected office.

We need to make a change at the top. Those who are elected need to be more critical of administration, and just what their role should be......and matters of accountability. Rogue cogs exist in governments around the world, so why would it be different on home turf.

The people I vote for must be willing to challenge the commonplace of local governance, and practice a more critical approach in their representation. They must truly appreciate that something is not working in this town.....something is not as it should be, and there are many citizens who know why. Insight is a first step, and complacency is a step backward.

“To rejoice not in iniquity, but to rejoice in the truth is one of the marks of a very superior grace.” W.D. LeSueur.

If you don’t have an answer to a question, and the answer to this question will affect the lives of many, many people that you are ultimately responsible to, it does seem that logic would prevail upon the individual, to seek out the information necessary to make an informed, educated answer. Here then is the fundamental break down of sensibilities from the ground up. It is what would turn the good Dr. LeSueur in his grave, Complacency and resulting error in judgement. It is an epidemic and we, in turn, are placed at risk because of this failure of common sense as the protocol of responsible government.

As one example of where the critical approach would be of particular value, as we are continually patting ourselves on the back for being a good and safe community, consider what council should know about the prevalence of crime in Gravenhurst. On a goodly number of occasions, council reps would look at the statistics as presented by the Ontario Provincial Police and rest their judgement on that sole assessment. The critical, and really only sensible approach, if you want the truth beyond the anchoring that stats obviously provide, is finding out what crime occurrences, for any number of reasons, never made it to the blotter. The mistaken impression is that the OPP statistics are the end-all yet they will tell you on further enquiry, there are many other events that occur, when citizens, business owners, public employees are aware of a crime, from trespassing, vandalism and theft but do not report it to the police for a variety of personal reasons....one of course being feared retribution. In some cases this is quite valid, as business owners believe getting involved in shoplifting prosecution, will mean being targeted for future vandalism.

The council representative who wishes to be ahead of the curve, and truly aware of what is going on in their community, on the crime front, must seek out this information from a variety of sources, including opinions on this from the OPP, as well as checking with a sampling of store owners and residents, who have learned to live with break-ins, theft of property and shoplifting, refusing to make complaints that would engage a police investigation. The number of car break-ins in Gravenhurst may not seem huge on the OPP blotter, as compared to other communities of similar size, but what percentage are never reported. The number may prove much, much higher. So what is the crime level in Gravenhurst and vicinity. It is found in a compilation of information from many different sources. One collection of numbers won’t provide, in any way, an accurate profile of the community crime scene. But should you wish to enlighten yourself because you believe it’s important, I’m pretty sure the command of the OPP would be delighted to assist.....because having the local governance with their heads “out of the sand,” could greatly assist their efforts to fight crime......because we all need to be a part of this neighborhood watch.

More blogs to follow on the Election of 2010.

GRAVENHURST ELECTION? BRAVE SOULS

The next four years of business for the council of the Town of Gravenhurst, will be inundated with challenges nobody will be able to duck, blow-off, side-step or navigate through without some morale bruising.

With a new mayor at the helm, and at least a few new council faces, old business will be new again, and I suspect it will take more than a year to establish a new protocol, a new responsiveness and new attitude about how the town deals with its citizenry, which frankly has been poor at best. While each election year council hopefuls bandy about the idea of greater openness and transparency, generally the feeling we get is.....forget about it. The rules change as soon as councillors are sworn in. And the distance between us gets greater and greater over the four year term.

What’s different this term, is that there is a great deal of unfinished business with some weighty barbs attached that will have to be resolved by a new council. From what I see of the weak talent pool, I’m reasonably sure it will be a lengthy process of review and revamping, revision and restoration......particularly in the way the public’s interest in fiscal management has been stomped and heeled into the ground by council’s arrogance.

There are several council hopefuls who I know will institute a greater accountability, especially in fiscal matters, and this is good for us all. As for councillors who think it would be neat to win a popularity competition, you will be sucked into a vortex of high pressure you may not have anticipated, where you are going to be held to a much greater level of accountability than in the town’s history. I expect more than a few council hopefuls haven’t thought this out, more than how wonderful it would be to get a pay check and expenses to attend meetings. Add in the pissed-off public wanting answers on how their money is being spent. It could get pretty uncomfortable being this popular, at a time when some big issues are on the table.

The biggest of all, is the Highway 11 bypass. It is an enormous issue. It has a devastating potential, especially to all the investors who spent big money to locate in the town’s south end. It’s not just a main street issue or a south end issue, it’s a council issue, pushing each and every one of a new council, to jump on this matter swiftly, and prepare for a massive protest to the province. Unless of course you like the idea of a northerly interchange.

Be careful who you vote for. This is a pressure cooker term. We need brave souls who won’t throw in the towel because the going gets a little rough. We need a council that doesn’t ignore the people who can help......and that would be us......a very interested group of citizens who happen to love their hometown, and want to see it have a fighting chance of competing with its neighbors.

Talk to the candidates. Measure their responses. Hold them accountable. But be informed.