Citizens need to get off the fence - and demand accountability of councillors

I’ve just now finished reading the weekly news and have been clenching my jaw for the past half hour. The elected officials representing our home town interests, have made it clear they’ve cut individual department budgets responsibly, and that a proposed eight percent increase is the result of fiscal responsibility. No it’s not! If they were responsible the new town hall project would be scrapped, plain and simple. It’s what most of us have had to do throughout our lives. We’ve had to deny luxuries, even staples, in order to survive financially in all other areas of life and times.
The problem with our elected officials is really quite simple. They believe, when they are elected, the votes "for" are clear evidence of popularity and support for their management prowess. Elected councillors have a false sense of security, and may be quite delusional in fact, about the range of authority they’re entitled. Almost sensing a divine right to possess the seat at the council table, they almost immediately develop the "do you know who I am" self-righteousness that has doomed many, many high fliers in the past. From the pre-election begging for votes, to the post election arrogance, is a really short but profound adventure in character. From being sincere that they do give a crap about your concerns, to not recognizing your right to question them within weeks of the turn-around, it’s an all too familiar failure in democracy. While elections do not provide us with conduits to everything we, the constituents desire, we do assume that councillors will remain humble and insightful enough, to recognize that democracy does have inherent checks and balances. As they have their rights and privileges to govern and make responsible decisions, they shouldn’t be aghast when constituents challenge actions and policies that appear to be irresponsible.
An eight percent tax increase is staggering to this ratepayer, and if it happened in the City of Toronto, not just heads would roll. And although councillors can claim they’ve been as fiscally responsible as they can be, without cutting services further than they already are, the very reality of a new town hall is sickening. The new pool is far more important than town hall, and even though I probably won’t use the facility myself, its longterm benefit to the community is undeniable. If there was a separate demand for fundraising, a one time extra hundred dollars or so, to offset that cost, it would be infinitely more acceptable than providing frills at town hall, regardless of the feeling of entitlement,...... a few councillors view as "making all the difference" to a happy town administration. Councillors are not living within their means as most of us have to contend.
There is a serious disconnect blooming hardily in our town.....an unacceptable indifference to the personal hardships and disadvantages that weigh us down. Do councillors appreciate the fact that we need the Salvation Army to operate the Food Bank? Has any town councillor given five minutes thought to the potential that the group may not be able to operate the facility forever.....and is there a plan "B". When one councillor recently was quoted as saying the downtown is such a vibrant place, it was clearly a case of delusion because it’s not the case. Maybe councillors need to actually walk up and down the mainstreet, that will soon be ripped up for re-construction, and count the vacancies in this vibrant zone. I apparently don’t understand what "vibrant" means, because in the case of some business folks downtown, it means having one foot on a banana skin. I can not tolerate elected officials being unaware of the intricacies of their own town. Do we have a poverty issue? How big is it? How many people are going through the food bank each week? Are you aware of the difficulty the Food Bank is having presently, to meet demand? If you are a councillor who knows that the answers to these questions are "large," "expanding," and "precarious," then for God’s sake drop the facade and the word "vibrant," and pull some of the other naysaying, or nothing-saying councillors onboard, for a truly revealing tour of stuff they should know inside and out.....and be bloody concerned that the illusion of progress is just that.......an illusion.
Gravenhurst citizens have few choices left. Either get involved in this year’s municipal election or live with many, many more tax increases in the near future. When you are afforded an opportunity this year to discuss issues with council hopefuls, don’t hold back asking questions about competence and leadership capabilities. Ask about what democracy means to them......and if they subscribe to the dynamic of democracy that allows us access to the government process. If they sputter and fart about, and don’t know what you’re getting at, don’t waste a vote on these folks. When you have a chance to address one of these "I’m going to save democracy" grip and grinners out on the election hustings, ask of them for a wee meeting of the minds..... to make a few inquiries about reasons they wish to be councillors / mayor; for civic good or "I just want to prove that I can be a winner!"
The wake up call in Gravenhurst is clear. There are many folks today in organized groups well aware of the shortfalls in responsible governance, of the past seven years...... which has been a highly controversial period in local history......and I am afterall an historian with no reason to lie about such a thing. Councillors have drawn a huge amount of attention to their decisions to allocate funds and borrow more. They have made claims about being fiscally responsible yet feel it is almost an invasion of privacy to be hounded by those who pay the taxes. My honest advice for any one interested in a council position for the coming four year term, post November, is to think about your own commitment to democracy. Think before you put your name on that ballot, about the balancing act you must perform to work responsibly for a more prosperous community.....and how to separate your personality and opinions, from the job you have been elected to perform.....which is to be open to constant education, committed to reason and debate, crowned by insightfulness and open-mindedness. Sometimes staunch opinions should be left home when the elected official goes to the council chambers.....unless it is one that unquestionably brings the right ingredient to the improvement of municipal governance. Far too much untutored, unhelpful, non-requested personal opinion enters the forum where it clearly doesn’t belong......good business and good management do belong.
I have found, in large part, many elected officials believe they are smart and accomplished enough, and that’s why they were elected. With the miserable turn-out of voters, they should be well advised that even as a popularity contest, well, it’s not much of an endorsement. Years of being abused and ignored by local government hasn’t done much to inspire the electorate to surge in enthusiasm. They truly believe the new crop will be the same as the old no matter what! It’s the trend all over in a population that feels democracy is the act of electing a dictator. Yet every now and again there is a rearing of civil disobedience that makes being an elected official quite precarious. Objectors do get involved and they do make demands. With an eight percent tax increase this year, in Gravenhurst, it’s reasonable to assume the old crew is on the way out. I can’t imagine lakeshore property owners relaxing on this issue, and I happened to be a reporter in the early 1980's, when several cottager associations, in our region, ran a slate of candidates for municipal elections...... to insist on representation for their concerns. I think it will be an issue again. And rightly so. There are many inequalities out there that will soon have to be addressed as taxes and property assessments continue to climb.
It’s not easy to be an elected official.....admittedly, you’ve got to be somewhat popular and convincing to get the votes. I don’t underestimate the stress that is placed on councillors, and the huge responsibility they face running the community infrastructure, budgeting and servicing us all. At the same time it is exactly what they signed up for......and while they might complain about the burdens they are expected to carry.......we offer not a single apology. Don’t run if you have a fragile constitution, or you feel above criticism. If on the other hand, you are the candidate who carries on with the same enthusiasm as demonstrated before the election, into your term, then you will appreciate that meeting adversaries and inviting counter-point, is the very reason hot water is applied to ice at the arena to make a good, fast drying surface. Being prepared for contrary opinion is just an aspect of enlightenment. Most adversaries of town council maintain their grudge because of longstanding indifference. Yet it might surprise councillors to know that adversaries can also be good friends of government, as hot water to ice, when approached as equals, not as pursuers and shit disturbers for the sake of argument.
I like this town. I don’t like the politics. I don’t like the indifference shown by some councillors to counter-point, just because it doesn’t mesh with their own mission statement or game plan. We need councillors who represent all of us at once, and respect that it is our home town as much as theirs, and we have every right to defend its prosperity and welfare regardless .......whether we are elected officials or just plain old folk who have a little common sense to reflect upon.
No councillor should feel too comfortable, too complacent about their role in democracy, if they believe constituents only have a say once every four years. It’s the first misconception of many that need to be stripped away in this new reality of fiscal reconsideration.
As for the new council term, the number one issue is the status of South Muskoka Memorial Hospital, and its reduction of services. As our councils in Gravenhurst, and Bracebridge, have been encouraging and facilitating retirement communities to expand residences, how irresponsible to be so quiet when cutbacks are being imposed.......to the very health care provision that inspired those senior resident developments in the first place. This is a clear example of stupidity at a zenith, and will necessitate ongoing municipal protest and action against the province.

My Father Took a Chance on Muskoka
It was the winter of 1966. Our snug little family of three was on the move from Burlington, Ontario, to the 45th parallel of latitude. On our merry way to the small town known as the summer home of Santa Claus, at the internationally famous Santa's Village, on the Muskoka River; situated in a pinery just beyond the urban boundary of Bracebridge, in the beautiful district of Muskoka. My father, Ted Currie Sr. had secured a job with the historic Shier's Lumber Company, in Bracebridge, and it was a good enough opportunity to warrant leaving the city and its opportunities behind. What an amazing adventure.
The summer before,our family had stayed at the company owner's small cottage property, on Bruce Lake and we all admittedly were smitten with the lakeland. I was eleven years old at the time and the thought of swimming in a lake and running through the forest, seemed far more attractive than my present life, pounding the tarmac of the urban jungle and swimming at a public pool. I was ready to go with the flow, you might say. The rest is family history.
When my father and mother Merle arrived in Bracebridge, our first neighborhood was up on Toronto Street, in one of the new spec. houses built by Shier's Lumber, and its proprietor at the time, Bob Jones, who had known my dad for decades in the Southern Ontario lumber trade. It was to become a tumultuous relationship, with many resignations, and in those first ten years my dad held down a number of jobs in and outside the lumber industry to keep us in Muskoka. He knew it was the best place to raise a kid and it was......just as it was a great place for both Merle and Ed who made many friends in their apartment situation up on Alice Street, which was properly known as the Weber Apartments, a sort of 1960's commune of really nice folk who enjoyed each other's company....and games of cribbage and euchre long into the winter nights. The longer we stayed in Muskoka, the harder it was to leave.....not because of circumstances but because we all really enjoyed living in a country town with the privilege of being called a "local." Mind you, that took more than a few years but was worth the wait. It's not to suggest small town living was easy because with opportunities being less, particularly in the case of employment, one had to hunker down sometimes in adverse conditions, at a task not fully enjoyed. I personally held many jobs I didn't like in Muskoka, just to be able to afford my ongoing stay in the region.
My mother died in May of 2007. On the 15th of December 2009 my father had a small stroke at his apartment in Bracebridge, and has been in hospital ever since, with a number of serious medical issues that will most certainly adversely affect his quality of life in the future. We have spent many hours with Ed in the hospital, talking about fond memories and our happy days in Muskoka. I'm not sure if he believes my bestowed gratitude for his determination to make our Muskoka experiment work. I've spent more than 30 years writing in and about Muskoka for the local and provincial press, and I've never been without a source of inspiration. Today I'm writing from a book cluttered office in a modest homestead we call Birch Hollow, surrounded by snow-laden evergreens and leaning old birches, across from a wonderful little wetland we call The Bog. I can look out this small window and find inspiration each season of the year, whether it’s from the shadowy, silver appearance of iced-over rasperry canes in the front garden, or the beautiful sprays of lilac blooms that push toward the sky in late May. In the autumn evenings, the moonlit forest might appear as Thoreau saw his Walden Pond on star-filled nights, and as I drive along the Muskoka River, on a visit to Bracebridge, I can imagine it as author Washington Irving interpreted the historic Hudson River, passing in deep, misty silence past the village of his own Sleepy Hollow. Irving did have a hand in the naming of Bracebridge proper, as it was borrowed by a postal authority, in 1864, from the title of a famous book of sketches, known as "Bracebridge Hall." Long before I researched this, and subsequently wrote a book about the relationship with Irving, my mother had always referred to her new home in the hinterland as "Sleepy Hollow."
No, I could not possibly be without sources of inspiration here in the beautiful lakeland, and I have my father to thank for enduring many hardships to keep our family in paradise.
We are still on that prescipice of the unknown with my father, a worthy adversary of life challenges.......admittedly he is aware of the serious nature of this latest illness but never letting it get in the way of present determination to see his grandsons or hear news about his many friends and former co-workers.
My dad and I were born argumentative and there was enough Irish in him to frequently and with near-glee, initiate a no-holds barred debate.....and enough English stubborness in his son, to always make the log-jams interesting whether about hockey or politics, current events or future predictions. As he never walked away from a fight in his life, I refused to let him plant the last word, and if we had recorded these little spats for posterity, they'd show a father and son who loved a good scrap more as practice-rounds than for settling anything specific. Merle used to say "You two are crazy!"
He was the sailor-dad who didn't run to the school every time his son came home with a black-eye or bloodied nose. "Soldier on, son," he'd say. "Put up your dukes and defend yourself." Good advice in his day and with his demeanor but the more I tried to defend myself, the harder and longer the beating got. But I knew where he was coming from.....this afterall was a guy who grew up in Toronto's legendary Cabbagetown, was abandoned by his Irish father with his three brothers at a young age, joined the Navy under-age, and manned an anti-aircraft gun on his ship, a River Class frigate, the Coaticook. A kid with a big gun trying to down German aircraft. He wasn't raised to be tough but to survive he had no choice but to be tough.
What I didn't know until recently, was that my father had taken a lot of flack about his son the writer, reporter, editor, historian that I didn't know about. When I began writing for the local press, back in the late 1970's, his desire to have three generations of "Edward Curries" kind of backfired. As his father had been named, "Edward," and he was granted the name as well, he saw little disadvantage naming me Edward as a kind of a family hat-trick. I began my writing career as a poet/bard and that caused him chagrin, when his lumber customers began teasing him about moonlighting as a country philosopher. "That's my son....certainly not me!" When I became a reporter for the local press he got many more adverse comments, particularly if I had been working on a crime story that issue, that involved friends, neighbors and kin of his customers. While they knew it wasn't Ted Sr. writing the news copy, they couldn't resist unloading on him about his stupid kid who had tarnished their good family name. He internalized a lot of it of course. I knew it bothered him generally but we really never talked about it. We both needed to make a buck and afterall it was his choice to name me Edward........both of us being called "Ted". To ease his suffering in silence, I changed my byline to Edward Currie from "Ted" for several years but it didn't really work. On the other hand, I had hundreds of phone calls home asking questions about lumber and accessories.......the callers believing I was their main man at Building Trades Centre, where he became the eventual manager in the 1990's.
Since my mother Merle passed away, Ted Sr. has been pretty lonely. He and Merle used to take scenic drives every day, winding up having coffee at a variety of local restaurants, where they celebrated the good qualities of rural, small town life and times. When I think back to the many times, since 1966 that we faced the question of whether to stay or go, leaving Muskoka for job opportunities in Southern Ontario, we always managed to find a way to bridge the problem, and preserve our adored way of life.
When Merle and Ted Currie decided to move to Bracebridge back in '66, they were in fact extending me a creative future beyond their wildest expectation. Because of their belief, living rurally was better for raising a family, my own parallel future in Muskoka led me to marry a local girl, Suzanne Stripp, of Windermere, and raise our own family, Robert and Andrew, now businessmen in the Town of Gravenhurst, in South Muskoka. And when I try to express this to my father now, his eyes still have that old sparkle......meaning to me, at least, he's contented with his choices in life; some that didn't work as planned, others that worked magnificently well. When I think back to the books I've written, sitting at this same desk, with this same wonderful view, and recall all the late night vigils I've happily occupied this office to pen feature stories and columns for so many publications, the feeling is unmistakable contentment, on my part, that I did "soldier on," and fight all adversity that might have forced me to move away.
This morning is calm and slightly overcast. The intense wind of the past few days has ceased and the snowflurries have finally stopped. I think the sun might soon break through the cloud cover, and dazzle down on this snowy mantle across Birch Hollow. I will always think about my dad's own passion for the countryside I watch over now.....and wonder how a Cabbagetown boy got so interested in the hinterland......but I will always acknowledge that it was Ted Sr., who forced this place on an eleven year old child. How thankful I am that he was a visionary but one who never ever, not once, wrote a poem. He did however, on more than one occasion, sing his Navy song about the legend of "The North Atlantic Squadron." I only remember several of the verses but the melody will be hummed forever.

GRAVENHURST AND ELECTION YEAR
Judged with other municipalities in North America, well, Gravenhurst’s governance is adequate in my opinion, and not one molecule beyond. What makes them "just adequate," is the disconnect they show as a group to the real community that they are supposed to represent. What they see and interpret of their home region welfare, isn’t an accurate assessment. Askew by the fact they sit in the golden imagination of self imposed pomposity, on stacked ceiling-high bylaws as if their collective throne, and rely on what is written far more than what is actual, and occurring every day just beyond their short sightedness. The fact many in our community must make use of the Salvation Army Food Bank to survive is, to me, one of the most obvious trigger points for reaction from the municipal leadership. If councillors were really on the ball, they’d be pouncing on this increasing need for assistance, to create a new and enlightened focus on the truthful conditions in our town.....not the convenient truths they like to knit about them for comfort. As they use the word "progress" like it means "for one and all," they see economic development as the holy grail. The more development means prosperity all round. Alas, they delude themselves by choice, and mutual admiration from the rest of their ilk.
With this election year for municipalities, in Ontario, we will once again see, hear and read some pretty impressive projections for our community, and grandiose promises to secure votes from a fed-up electorate.......a majority of citizenry who believe it doesn’t matter anyway because they all act the same once in office. They’re not wrong to think this, and if you measure our own town council with the most recent liberties being taken by the provincial and federal governments, bending the rules to accommodate their agendas, what on earth would make us then believe a newly elected municipal council is going to worry about protocol and fairness.....and govern as they themselves would like to be governed responsibly. Once sworn in, the distance increases and the pomposity of elected office swells to fill every open space in the town hall.
This doesn’t mean I’m unwilling to challenge their authority and I certainly plan to watch carefully as new candidates begin the dream-building exercise, of trying to convince us that they’re more deserving of our vote. There are more than a few present councillors I would not like to see re-elected or achieve mayoral status. While the present council might believe they have done a superior job running this municipality over the past three years, they have at best participated in the process......but I don’t see a better or more progressive town. It will take more than a new town hall and new strip mall developments to impress this civic watcher. My idea of prosperity is to no longer need a food bank. My idea of a worthy member of council, is an elected member who openly and actively speaks out in support of helping the less fortunate in our community, and assisting those tireless groups of volunteers who work non-stop to fundraise in order to help all those in need. It’s one thing to show up to all-candidate meetings with the usual tomes about how you’ve helped the community in the past,...... and how well you handled yourself as an elected official this term...... but quite another to recognize that polished sentences and vein-bulging hubris won’t provide the groceries to the food bank, or hot meals to those who can’t adequately provide for themselves. So what candidates see as an opportunity to win a popularity contest, shortchanges us all.....because this is not what we need. There are a million glad-handers out there smiling for the camera but no so many bringing groceries into the food bank.
There are people I know who will be running for local council, who possess good intention to represent their constituents. And even those who try hard can fail because their initiatives are voted down by the majority. Yet my criticism is this. As I have never once spared a criticism or an ovation when earned, throughout my lengthy writing career, the most unholy of situations I can find myself, is being afraid of speaking or writing my opinion because of anticipated fall-out. I’ve long been the bane of publishers because of my insatiable appetite for muck-raking. Instead of capitulating because they threaten my job, I take the time to sell them on the virtues of honesty despite the cost. For my outspoken assaults, it’s true I’ve been blacklisted about a thousand times....to the point where I’ve come to expect being shunned as a matter of daily functioning. It’s hard to find a publication willing to ruffle feathers especially if they belong to advertisers. I don’t go to bed at night however, feeling bad about this consequence of honesty but I surely wouldn’t sleep a wink if I bottled up my opposition. Thus, if I was elected a councillor, I’d surely be as forthright and unwilling to be muzzled. And seeing as I’m not running for council, I would love to find a council hopeful who shares the same disdain for "going with the flow," and who would far sooner leave work a little bloodied from the full rounds of an electric democracy, than retire frustrated and unresolved. Call me if you can handle blunt truth and want a better future in Gravenhurst.
My advice to constituents leading up to this November’s election, is to truly investigate the shortcomings of the present council, and what you wish could be corrected by a new council. Stay the course and attend all-candidates meetings. Not to kick ass.....well maybe just a bit....but rather to point out that the prosperity of a town isn’t always about money, expansive developments on every square inch of earth, or a show-piece town hall....... but rather on the show of good-will throughout. The kindness of a home town. The coming-together of citizens to help one another in feast or famine, natural disaster or catastrophe of fire. A town councillor must be a citizen first, and appreciate fully what ground zero feels like. Give me an enlightened elected official......even one, who senses and appreciates what the majority of us do everyday of our lives in order to survive........and I’ll show you potential and genuine progress. What a thrill it would be to find someone interested in elected office who shares the opinion that there is indeed a precarious balance between a hometown and just "a place to live and work." A balance that needs to be nurtured and maintained. The self-supporting diatribes of councillors, to reflect on themselves as caring and involved in their community, doesn’t hold up to a general audience that knows all about avoidance and the art of deferring responsibility by council.....because they’ve been paying attention to four years of hide and seek.
Take it from an historian. This is a critical election to the future well-being of your home region. Don’t sit on the sidelines because you believe your comments and your vote won’t count. Another four years of weak leadership will ruin the hometown we have come to know and love.
My idea of a perfect council representative is one who speaks up for the less fortunate, and one who doesn’t hide behind "council’s wishes," as reason to fob-off about "democracy has spoken." That’s an okay headline as long as the secondary heading reads, "Councillor vehemently argues for constituent rights."
I’ve been a news hound in Muskoka, as well as an active historian since the late 1970's. I read every council story and as a former long-serving editor, who prided himself on exposing under-handedness within the municipalities of our district, I can tell you honestly this is not the time to get involved in local politics as a hobby. Coming next year is one of the toughest council terms in modern history because of excesses of the past. So many pressing issues that should have been addressed, have been side-stepped by council, preferring instead to concentrate on their misguided concept of what true progress and a good and prosperous hometown is all about. It is exactly why our downtown in Gravenhurst straddles the precarious canyon between success and failure, as a direct result of urban sprawl, at a time when councillors are preoccupied with anything and everything else.
I would love the opportunity to sit down with council hopefuls and help them find their way to the truly important issues of hometown life and times, so that this blindness to reality might be reduced. You’ve got my email. Love to hear from you.

GRAVENHURST BLOG
Since the fall of 1989, I’ve been watching out over these shadowy old woodlands, we call with deep devotion, "The Bog," and I don’t think anyone is more tuned to the change of the seasons than me. Yet it is in the winter season that this 20 acre lowland is most engaging and altogether haunted but in a good and friendly way. It’s the season when I love to get back to the interior to see the way the snow has drifted over the lowland, and encased the north side of the evergreen and birch forest. In all these years looking out this portal, from our bungalow we call Birch Hollow, I’ve never found a shortage of things to write about. Today the view is strikingly beautiful, and it makes me so glad I made a decision to remain in Muskoka, back in my early years, when I had tempting job offers from other parts of the province. I knew nothing else in Ontario was going to be as motivating as these moody woods over the four seasons. And since 1989 I’ve written enough editorial copy to fill my office to overflowing yet, I can’t wait to sit at this keyboard each morning, eager to start another interesting project. I do, without apology, spend a great deal of time daydreaming about this place on earth, and my place within. Then it’s truly time to take a stroll with dog Bosko for a dose of reality.
A very significant number of the writing and research projects we have undertaken, in the past five years, in particular, have all been launched with Gravenhurst as the background. While we don’t go to great ends to promote this, other than what you can read on my online business and professional sites, we do know the importance of working in a place we feel comfortable and inspired. Lately, despite some political differences of opinion with local politicians, I’ve realized that my hometown has become even more important in our creative jags, so much so that we now fully appreciate what that comfort zone has really meant. I can’t work in an environment that doesn’t inspire me. Period. I might as well roll up the old keyboard and move on. I’m too set in my ways to not take this seriously. I’m also superstitious and you’d be surprised about the routine I set out for myself before start another writing day. The point is, and I’ve noted this frequently in my blogs, Gravenhurst has never had to put out any measure of extravagance to keep me living here. All I’ve asked for is a little space and latitude to come and go on my adventures, feel the spirit of a good and caring town, find good neighbors around me, and see the Muskoka woodlands whenever I want. We nearly lost our neighborhood greenbelt, several years ago, when the town thought it would be neat to sell it off, and open the door to the earth movers to expand the residential community. The reason we purchased in Gravenhurst, was in part, the great view next door. Fortunately our good neighbors joined together to mount a force to be reckoned with, and the town backed away from the idea. Since then however, I’ve never taken this property, or this view for granted. To think of it being compromised is still a dull ache in my heart. To look out on this snowscape today, is sheer magnificence of nature undisturbed. I wish everyone could see this in their work day, like I enjoy from my portal at Birch Hollow, during my business hours.
We offer heartfelt family greetings to our many friends and readers, for a wonderful Christmas season, and a Happy New Year. Please take the time to visit some of the other blog and web sites that we have just recently published in late 2009. Watch for my column in Curious; The Tourist Guide, monthly again, beginning on February 1st, 2010.
Drive safely out there. Have a safe and healthy holiday season most of all!

GRAVENHURST’S WINTER OF DISCONTENT
We folks here at Birch Hollow, in uptown Gravenhurst, have been working hard on our business ventures over the past six months, and it has been one of my longest writing hiatus periods in my own recent history. My writing jags are being disrupted by the basic need of business attention, and I must note that the sacrifice of writing time has paid dividends in the antique enterprise.....while other businesses have taken a whipping in this most recent recession the online antique enterprise has been surprisingly strong. While I can’t stray too far from the keyboard, especially in the autumn season...which has always been my favorite time of the year, it is a nice, fuzzy, warming feeling to have accounting that spills favorably in the profit column for a change.
This is going to be one of the toughest economic periods in Gravenhurst history, moreso than for the other major Muskoka communities. The main street has been hit hard by the failing tourist economy and of course by the decentralizing "pod" commercial developments.....robbing, as they say, "Peter to pay Paul." Any modest economic visionary should have seen this coming and done everything possible to revitalize the historic main street business community before the recession, before the commercial expansion in the town’s south end, and before the winter of 2009-10 when we can expect a typical late recession hangover,....."the long-way from full recovery atmosphere," that will take its toll on those businesses just hanging on. And there’s road re-construction in 2010 to look forward to that will not be met with business enthusiasm..... when it comes to the anticipated inconvenience to be faced by already stressed business owners and landlords. We have family members in one of those storefronts so we know first hand just how precarious these lead-up months are to, remaining a for-profit mainstreet business.
I will never give up on Gravenhurst’s inherent capability to overcome adversity as it has for well more than a century of ups, downs and wobbles. It’s a survivor and it’s why I like living here. While it’s true I’m not a fan of local government, I am tremendously confident that the resident investors will push ahead regardless and get ready to meet the 2010 municipal elections, embracing the spirit of change. There are some folks on council who need to retire, or at the very least, to be defeated should they decide to give the council-experience another try. While I won’t endorse any candidates in this blog-site, I won’t hide my enthusiasm for a full house cleaning, in favor of some better economic leadership that benefits the whole town......and my town includes the historic and all important main street.
Trust me, I’ll be back soon with regular blog contributions. There’s too much at stake here in South Muskoka to sit on the fence and ponder.
As for the new pool.....well, all I can say is......FINALLY! And this is the problem. It has taken far too long to get one, and this needs to be understood to make pro-active changes for all the other improvements long over-due in Gravenhurst.
Thanks for visiting my Gravenhurst blog-site. More coming soon!

When you just want to scream - "Stop The Madness!"
I was wandering through The Bog the other day, admiring the transformation from winter slumber to this amazing regeneration of ferns and soon-to-emerge wildflowers.....enjoying the sounds of all types of creatures large and small, adjusting to this pleasant new reality of an emerging, soul-restorative spring.
There had been some earlier activity this particular day, in our neighborhood here in Gravenhurst, attributed to a rattling All Terrain Vehicle, with some resident-driver on a mission of some sort. For about two hours this gent drove back and forth along our lane on whatever mission or adventure in progress, with his youngsters hanging on the back. We watched him pass a couple of times so we know kids were involved, as was some haulage endeavor because we noticed the trailer hitched behind.
About the mid-zone of The Bog trail, I was staggered to find many deep ruts into the mud where someone had driven through, stopping at the edge of the basin to dump a large quantity of evergreen cast-offs from a neighbor’s recent property clean-up. I was actually standing there with my chin on my chest when I heard the ATV coming down the lane once more. I stood out in the open so I wouldn’t surprise the driver.....I didn’t want him to be surprised to see me then hit a tree......but then again! He drove that sucker right up to the toe of my boot which was itching to kick his arse. Onboard he had a load of cuttings from a tree that had been felled in his yard. He was going to dump this trailer-full as well over the edge and down into The Bog.....which by the way we fought to save from destruction two years ago when the Town had a plan to sell it off as a small subdivision......as a fundraiser for other town projects at the expense of an important wetland. We won, the neighborhood won, and all ecologically minded folks in Muskoka rejoiced at this small victory for the little guy over the capitalists.....who very much wish to pave over paradise for that insatiable financial gain.
When I confronted the BOG-Dumper, as to "What the hell are you doing," he simply stated "I’m dumping some stuff here." "Well I can see that sir, and you’ve been busy but do you own this property?" "No," he answered, encouraging me to ask therefore, "Why then are you dumping your refuse on someone else’s property?" "Cause everybody else is doing it?" he answered as if bolstered by the constitution of general consensus. When I informed him that he had no right whatsoever to dump anything on this beautiful and important bogland in the centre of the urban community of Gravenhurst, he had the kind of puzzled look that actually looked pretty sincere. And while there was a trace of sarcasm and some concern that I was an unauthorized "watcher in the woods,’ on such matters of what can and can not be considered trespassing and unlawful dumping, he did finally concede it may not have been a good idea to follow his equally uniformed, dumb-ass neighbors who do indeed dump regularly into these beautiful woodlands.
As well I pointed out to him the great ruts his day of dumping had caused to a beautiful expanse of soon-to-be ferns that in all likelihood will not flourish this year as a direct result. He admitted that his transgressions had indeed left a scar on the landscape and he offered to disappear from this sight and never pulverize it again with his ATV. Whether he was genuine with his apology or not, I was satisfied he had learned a little something from our encounter that just might be relayed to his neighbors when they pile up their refuse in preparation for a little dumping somewhere or other.
Last spring I caught a local handyman-caretaker doing the same thing......dumping the assorted lawn and household debris from a neighbor’s property into the same woods. When I confronted him, after having first gathered enough evidence to back my case for illegal dumping, he told me "He (the property owner) said it’s okay to dump it in there (The Bog)." And I asked "Does he own the woods over there?" "I don’t think so," he answered, a little annoyed I had bothered his disposal in progress. "Well then, if he doesn’t own it, and you don’t own it, then why would you think it’s okay to dump your crap on someone else’s property?" "I don’t know," was the best response I could get. So I asked if he knew how long it would take for the plastic oil bottles, he was casting with leaves and branches into The Bog, to diminish into dust as he obviously assumed would happen eventually. What I found was that he simply couldn’t have cared less whether the garbage ever broke down and in fact he didn’t find it all that offensive to stare at the garbage between the birches, ferns and trilliums. So that’s when we took some photographs of the offence in operation and suggested that the bylaw office would be interested in knowing of his opinion on the matter.....and possibly a fine would help him learn about illegal dumping and the property maintenance business. Haven’t had a problem since and all the refuse is bagged and hauled away.
I do footnote this last paragraph to inform you that I didn’t leave it at that.......I let him know that if I ever saw him dumping the refuse gathered anywhere else in the region....other than at a registered disposal site, I’d fulfill my promise to file a report with the bylaw department and see him lawfully prosecuted. The good news is,......seems he got the message.
The biggest problem we have as a global community desiring health and welfare, is the ongoing pollution and contamination of the already compromised wild places that give us a modest grip on ecological balance. The small restoration project here in The Bog has shown a glimmer of possibility for the wider community and the district.....until you meet up with someone who has a different plan.....to remove crap from one property to another despite the peril to an important resource. The Bog by the way, filters a huge run-off of town surface water and springs before it hits Muskoka Bay of Lake Muskoka. The flavor of the water, should you be outlandishly inclined, is going to have a distinctly pine taste for awhile until the wood dumped here deteriorates.....thankfully it’s not oil and anti-freeze which has wound up there in the past.
It makes me sick to think of all the contamination being dumped into our rivers, lakes and forests by morons who have no concept of the danger they are inflicting upon all of us.....just to avoid paying a tipping fee at the landfill site where these materials can be properly disposed.
Get involved. Let an illegal dumper know just how stupid they are for endangering our lives because they’re too cheap to haul it to the landfill site......so give them a couple of bucks as a donation toward a healthy tomorrow, and draw them a map to the disposal location......or show them the phone you’re going to use to call the bylaw department and report them for illegal dumping.
Look out for the welfare of your community by getting involved. They’ve had their day to dump as they saw fit.....now it’s your time in history to make an imprint for a better, cleaner, healthier future. And I trust you’re not as daft as some who can’t really see too much wrong with a field of beer bottle empties and car parts rising from the ferns and wildflowers. It’s time for concerned citizens to mobilize and nab perpetrators.....grab a licence number and make a phone call!

Spring sensations welcome at Birch Hollow
Still writing here in Gravenhurst.....with just a few words left to spare
Strangely this has been an incredibly prolific period in my senior years as a writer. I can’t believe I can still sit for four and five hours at this keyboard without collapsing into a great heap of expired authordom. While in some areas I’ve been penning much less, in others I’ve been pumping out copy like I did my first years as editor of the former Herald-Gazette, in Bracebridge, back in the early 1980's. Then I was driven by a passion for expression and the weekly gain of readership.....fueled by raw enthusiasm and beer. Lots and lots of beer. My young writing days almost killed me.....many times. The more I drank the more I wrote. The more I wrote while drinking.....the less I could salvage when I went to edit the copy later. I would be lucky to get one decent paragraph. I used to hold off on the booze until the writing was done. I can’t watch the movie, "Lost Weekend," without feeling it was my biography. The good news is that I can’t afford to drink any more and I’m getting a much better feeling.....a pretty fair high, just enjoying the fact I can still compose a well received column these days minus the fuel.
This past winter was spent getting the bulk of my paranormal stories on line, in my Muskoka Ghosts blog, including a long series of columns on the mysterious circumstances surrounding the death of Canadian landscape painter, Tom Thomson, back in July of 1917, while on a canoe traverse of Algonquin Park’s Canoe Lake.
I have been writing many columns ahead on a new series of antique and collectable themed columns for Curious; The Tourist Guide (available locally). These are all biographical accounts of a lengthy career as a treasure hunter. I’ve been hunting antiques and interesting stuff since I was about five years old, and gathering assorted stuff while on my way to school at Lakeshore Public School in Burlington. By time I got home each night I had my pockets jammed to over-flowing, and arm-fulls of old auto parts I found on the road, broken hockey sticks, dozens of chestnuts gathered on the hillside of Torrance Avenue, and anything else that was shiny and would attract the attention of a racoon. My poor mother Merle never knew what was coming home in those topped-up pockets and hidden in my bulging coat. She used to cull the items in my room once a month or I would have filled every open space by year’s end. I’m still doing this at 53 years of age so you can imagine how much patience my wife possesses, to put up with the calamity of road trips and ceremonious returns with van loads of treasure.....some purchased, some found, some given for the asking, some retrieved from the sidewalks beneath the sign that reads.... "Free to Good Home." I figured it was time this year to begin a biographical work for my kids because they’ve never really appreciated that there was a method to my madness. I began writing a memoir of a crazy collector and it went from an old ledger book where I was making notes to the pages of Curious; The Tourist Guide, which reaches about 40,000 readers a month. Not bad for a few anecdotes about collecting excesses over the years. If you can’t poke fun at yourself.....life’s too bloody serious.
All this writing stuff has been happening here at our mid-town, residential cabin we call Birch Hollow, and once again I must say it has been a most wonderful, calming sojourn in this magnificent Muskoka. As I have noted before, I was concerned when we moved to Gravenhurst back in the late 1980's because for a time, my writing wasn’t generating with the same vigor as in other abodes, particularly in Bracebridge and Windermere. Writers need a safe and inspiring haven. After about a year of plucking about at the typewriter I gradually found The Bog across the road, and the sea of lilacs and raspberry canes outside my window, were the generous treats of semi-solitude, and ever since spring has always set me free....... No danger of running out of things to write about. And I’m not disappointed this year either. It’s been one of those second-wind kind of situations, and it would be wrong not to express my gratitude to my hometown here for kindnesses bestowed an old writer. I might not have much praise for local politicians, but then they’re used to it, and urban sprawl which I despise, but by golly, I do love the setting here at my Gravenhurst retreat.