GHOSTS IN THE CLOSET

WORKING WITH GHOSTS A GOOD DIVERSION FROM POLITICS AND TOWN FOLLIES

- SON ROBERT BOUGHT ME A GOOD BOOK - REMIND ME WHY I WRITE AT ALL!!!

When I graduated university, in Toronto, I eagerly returned home to Bracebridge, determined to spend the rest of my life in Muskoka. It was the only real mission-statement I’d anchored to, by that point, and as far as career, well, that was yet to be determined. I had a degree in Canadian history, which qualified me for nothing more than self-admiration, and bragging rights with school chums, hunkered down at the local tavern......talking about great expectations. We all had big dreams that’s for sure, and a big thirst. I drank like my hero Paul Rimstead, columnist with the Toronto Sun, and fellow hometowner. He and his sister had launched the famous Beatrice Bugle, as young adults, up near Falkenburg, north of Bracebridge, and Paul became a model for many local writers in waiting. I sort of figured the more I drank, the greater the likelihood my early free-lance submissions, to the local press, would reflect that sage aura of great wisdom...... of being old before one’s time.

Staying in Muskoka, wishing to work in the hinterland of Ontario, cost me my long-time local girlfriend, Gail, who adored her new life in Toronto. That and the fact I was a horse’s arse as a mate, and I over-drank, played too hard, was reckless and insensitive, and was pursuing a career that would destine me, and all who joined me, to endless misery and poverty. Gail was wrong about the misery. She was right to dump a guy like me. I’d have done the same thing but I was the bloke in question. I divorced myself many times in my mind, let me tell you. But the saving grace for me, was in the architectural embrace of an old mainstreet house, in Bracebridge, built by a doctor whose work for the region, I had greatly admired. I moved into the former house and medical office, built by Dr. Peter McGibbon, which looked out over Bracebridge’s picturesque Memorial Park, and the glowing marquis of the Norwood Theatre. To my left, when I stood out on the small balcony, over the front entrance, was the bell tower of the St. Thomas Anglican Church. One block over was Bracebridge Public School and Bracebridge and Muskoka Lakes Secondary School, both places contributing to my budding Muskoka appetite for knowledge. Afterall I did become a Bracebridge and Muskoka historian. In fact, the first, however small, meeting of the Bracebridge Historical Society, was held in Dr. McGibbon’s attic.....the place where I would write and write and write. It was the place I would also fill a thousand waste baskets with copy-paper that had two lines of print on them. As a fledgling writer, in a truly neat house, in a great location, I suffered greatly from writer’s stalemate. It would eventually end but the hours of frustration, staring at that huge white page in the typewriter carriage, very nearly drove me to quit altogether. Some folks might say.......and this would be unfortunate because?

This winter I ran into a similar period of inspirational shortfall. I don’t like writing mad, and I despise politics, and by general mis-adventure, I’d got caught up in last fall’s municipal election, working as an editorial / policy advisor for a local mayoral candidate. Made a mistake. Got so worked up I became unceremoniously addicted. The only way out of it was to force myself back into the realm of “my good old days,” writing about anything else......and I mean anything. I even wrote fiction.....which I despise, but to soften it, it was closely biographical. You can read this tome on the Haunted Muskoka site. This has happened before, so I began four other blog-sites as a means of letting off pent-up frustration. I can jump from blog to blog when the need for diversion dictates.

I have one entitled Muskoka as Walden (where I write my landscape pieces), a take off on Thoreau’s “Walden Pond,” and another about the Nature of Muskoka. I have one on historic cookery, believe it or not (on the hobby of collecting handwritten recipes), this one about Gravenhurst for the most part, and one on the Ghosts of Algonquin and Muskoka. I’ve been writing about ghosts for many years now, encouraged by my friend John Robert Colombo, one of Canada’s revered paranormal researchers, and the writer of many, many books on Canadian themes. After I’d contributed to one of John’s books in the 1990's, he suggested I begin to document my own collection of paranormal encounters. He agreed to write the opening column about Muskoka ghosts, for a lengthy series of feature columns I was preparing for The Muskoka Sun. So several years ago, feeling the need to write about something other than politics and current events, I started a biographical mission to properly record all our family’s encounters with the spirit-kind since the 1960's. As John had suggested, many years earlier, it can be an amazing experience, just jotting these stories down.....and he was quite right.

Son Robert, while on a recent business trip to Ottawa, with brother Andrew, found a copy of John’s 1999 book, “Mysteries of Ontario,” and because it had a picture of old dad, on page 53, he decided to buy it for the family archives. I had submitted information about my years living at the McGibbon House, and some of the paranormal encounters experienced during my years as writer-in-residence. It was haunted by kindly spirits. We have numerous copies of Barbara Smith’s book, of Ghost Stories of Ontario, from about the same period, that contains two of our family stories from two houses we had formerly dwelled. They’re not scary ghost stories but ones that were very real to us at the time. Son Andrew factors into one of the stories, of a wayward child, we named Herbie, who made late night visitations to his room at our Golden Beach bungalow.

I was pleased to get this copy of John’s book, which can still be found in bookstores, and online from vintage book dealers....Advanced Book Exchange, for example. I loaned out my signed first edition to another ghost hunter, and never got it back. Maybe one day.

If you have an interest in the paranormal, or in cookery heritage, what Walden Pond and Muskoka have in common, I’d be delighted to share my other blog sites. As for the McGibbon House, I will always hold a special place in my heart, for the house that gave me a lifetime in my chose profession. The haunting was a bonus.

Now my haunt.....and it is certainly a haunted abode with characters like the Curries, is Birch Hollow, in Gravenhurst......a place we are all glad to be!

WORKING WITH GHOSTS A GOOD DIVERSION FROM POLITICS AND TOWN FOLLIES

- SON ROBERT BOUGHT ME A GOOD BOOK - REMIND ME WHY I WRITE AT ALL!!!

When I graduated university, in Toronto, I eagerly returned home to Bracebridge, determined to spend the rest of my life in Muskoka. It was the only real mission-statement I’d anchored to, by that point, and as far as career, well, that was yet to be determined. I had a degree in Canadian history, which qualified me for nothing more than self-admiration, and bragging rights with school chums, hunkered down at the local tavern......talking about great expectations. We all had big dreams that’s for sure, and a big thirst. I drank like my hero Paul Rimstead, columnist with the Toronto Sun, and fellow hometowner. He and his sister had launched the famous Beatrice Bugle, as young adults, up near Falkenburg, north of Bracebridge, and Paul became a model for many local writers in waiting. I sort of figured the more I drank, the greater the likelihood my early free-lance submissions, to the local press, would reflect that sage aura of great wisdom...... of being old before one’s time.

Staying in Muskoka, wishing to work in the hinterland of Ontario, cost me my long-time local girlfriend, Gail, who adored her new life in Toronto. That and the fact I was a horse’s arse as a mate, and I over-drank, played too hard, was reckless and insensitive, and was pursuing a career that would destine me, and all who joined me, to endless misery and poverty. Gail was wrong about the misery. She was right to dump a guy like me. I’d have done the same thing but I was the bloke in question. I divorced myself many times in my mind, let me tell you. But the saving grace for me, was in the architectural embrace of an old mainstreet house, in Bracebridge, built by a doctor whose work for the region, I had greatly admired. I moved into the former house and medical office, built by Dr. Peter McGibbon, which looked out over Bracebridge’s picturesque Memorial Park, and the glowing marquis of the Norwood Theatre. To my left, when I stood out on the small balcony, over the front entrance, was the bell tower of the St. Thomas Anglican Church. One block over was Bracebridge Public School and Bracebridge and Muskoka Lakes Secondary School, both places contributing to my budding Muskoka appetite for knowledge. Afterall I did become a Bracebridge and Muskoka historian. In fact, the first, however small, meeting of the Bracebridge Historical Society, was held in Dr. McGibbon’s attic.....the place where I would write and write and write. It was the place I would also fill a thousand waste baskets with copy-paper that had two lines of print on them. As a fledgling writer, in a truly neat house, in a great location, I suffered greatly from writer’s stalemate. It would eventually end but the hours of frustration, staring at that huge white page in the typewriter carriage, very nearly drove me to quit altogether. Some folks might say.......and this would be unfortunate because?

This winter I ran into a similar period of inspirational shortfall. I don’t like writing mad, and I despise politics, and by general mis-adventure, I’d got caught up in last fall’s municipal election, working as an editorial / policy advisor for a local mayoral candidate. Made a mistake. Got so worked up I became unceremoniously addicted. The only way out of it was to force myself back into the realm of “my good old days,” writing about anything else......and I mean anything. I even wrote fiction.....which I despise, but to soften it, it was closely biographical. You can read this tome on the Haunted Muskoka site. This has happened before, so I began four other blog-sites as a means of letting off pent-up frustration. I can jump from blog to blog when the need for diversion dictates.

I have one entitled Muskoka as Walden (where I write my landscape pieces), a take off on Thoreau’s “Walden Pond,” and another about the Nature of Muskoka. I have one on historic cookery, believe it or not (on the hobby of collecting handwritten recipes), this one about Gravenhurst for the most part, and one on the Ghosts of Algonquin and Muskoka. I’ve been writing about ghosts for many years now, encouraged by my friend John Robert Colombo, one of Canada’s revered paranormal researchers, and the writer of many, many books on Canadian themes. After I’d contributed to one of John’s books in the 1990's, he suggested I begin to document my own collection of paranormal encounters. He agreed to write the opening column about Muskoka ghosts, for a lengthy series of feature columns I was preparing for The Muskoka Sun. So several years ago, feeling the need to write about something other than politics and current events, I started a biographical mission to properly record all our family’s encounters with the spirit-kind since the 1960's. As John had suggested, many years earlier, it can be an amazing experience, just jotting these stories down.....and he was quite right.

Son Robert, while on a recent business trip to Ottawa, with brother Andrew, found a copy of John’s 1999 book, “Mysteries of Ontario,” and because it had a picture of old dad, on page 53, he decided to buy it for the family archives. I had submitted information about my years living at the McGibbon House, and some of the paranormal encounters experienced during my years as writer-in-residence. It was haunted by kindly spirits. We have numerous copies of Barbara Smith’s book, of Ghost Stories of Ontario, from about the same period, that contains two of our family stories from two houses we had formerly dwelled. They’re not scary ghost stories but ones that were very real to us at the time. Son Andrew factors into one of the stories, of a wayward child, we named Herbie, who made late night visitations to his room at our Golden Beach bungalow.

I was pleased to get this copy of John’s book, which can still be found in bookstores, and online from vintage book dealers....Advanced Book Exchange, for example. I loaned out my signed first edition to another ghost hunter, and never got it back. Maybe one day.

If you have an interest in the paranormal, or in cookery heritage, what Walden Pond and Muskoka have in common, I’d be delighted to share my other blog sites. As for the McGibbon House, I will always hold a special place in my heart, for the house that gave me a lifetime in my chose profession. The haunting was a bonus.

Now my haunt.....and it is certainly a haunted abode with characters like the Curries, is Birch Hollow, in Gravenhurst......a place we are all glad to be!

WORKING WITH GHOSTS A GOOD DIVERSION FROM POLITICS AND TOWN FOLLIES

- SON ROBERT BOUGHT ME A GOOD BOOK - REMIND ME WHY I WRITE AT ALL!!!

When I graduated university, in Toronto, I eagerly returned home to Bracebridge, determined to spend the rest of my life in Muskoka. It was the only real mission-statement I’d anchored to, by that point, and as far as career, well, that was yet to be determined. I had a degree in Canadian history, which qualified me for nothing more than self-admiration, and bragging rights with school chums, hunkered down at the local tavern......talking about great expectations. We all had big dreams that’s for sure, and a big thirst. I drank like my hero Paul Rimstead, columnist with the Toronto Sun, and fellow hometowner. He and his sister had launched the famous Beatrice Bugle, as young adults, up near Falkenburg, north of Bracebridge, and Paul became a model for many local writers in waiting. I sort of figured the more I drank, the greater the likelihood my early free-lance submissions, to the local press, would reflect that sage aura of great wisdom...... of being old before one’s time.

Staying in Muskoka, wishing to work in the hinterland of Ontario, cost me my long-time local girlfriend, Gail, who adored her new life in Toronto. That and the fact I was a horse’s arse as a mate, and I over-drank, played too hard, was reckless and insensitive, and was pursuing a career that would destine me, and all who joined me, to endless misery and poverty. Gail was wrong about the misery. She was right to dump a guy like me. I’d have done the same thing but I was the bloke in question. I divorced myself many times in my mind, let me tell you. But the saving grace for me, was in the architectural embrace of an old mainstreet house, in Bracebridge, built by a doctor whose work for the region, I had greatly admired. I moved into the former house and medical office, built by Dr. Peter McGibbon, which looked out over Bracebridge’s picturesque Memorial Park, and the glowing marquis of the Norwood Theatre. To my left, when I stood out on the small balcony, over the front entrance, was the bell tower of the St. Thomas Anglican Church. One block over was Bracebridge Public School and Bracebridge and Muskoka Lakes Secondary School, both places contributing to my budding Muskoka appetite for knowledge. Afterall I did become a Bracebridge and Muskoka historian. In fact, the first, however small, meeting of the Bracebridge Historical Society, was held in Dr. McGibbon’s attic.....the place where I would write and write and write. It was the place I would also fill a thousand waste baskets with copy-paper that had two lines of print on them. As a fledgling writer, in a truly neat house, in a great location, I suffered greatly from writer’s stalemate. It would eventually end but the hours of frustration, staring at that huge white page in the typewriter carriage, very nearly drove me to quit altogether. Some folks might say.......and this would be unfortunate because?

This winter I ran into a similar period of inspirational shortfall. I don’t like writing mad, and I despise politics, and by general mis-adventure, I’d got caught up in last fall’s municipal election, working as an editorial / policy advisor for a local mayoral candidate. Made a mistake. Got so worked up I became unceremoniously addicted. The only way out of it was to force myself back into the realm of “my good old days,” writing about anything else......and I mean anything. I even wrote fiction.....which I despise, but to soften it, it was closely biographical. You can read this tome on the Haunted Muskoka site. This has happened before, so I began four other blog-sites as a means of letting off pent-up frustration. I can jump from blog to blog when the need for diversion dictates.

I have one entitled Muskoka as Walden (where I write my landscape pieces), a take off on Thoreau’s “Walden Pond,” and another about the Nature of Muskoka. I have one on historic cookery, believe it or not (on the hobby of collecting handwritten recipes), this one about Gravenhurst for the most part, and one on the Ghosts of Algonquin and Muskoka. I’ve been writing about ghosts for many years now, encouraged by my friend John Robert Colombo, one of Canada’s revered paranormal researchers, and the writer of many, many books on Canadian themes. After I’d contributed to one of John’s books in the 1990's, he suggested I begin to document my own collection of paranormal encounters. He agreed to write the opening column about Muskoka ghosts, for a lengthy series of feature columns I was preparing for The Muskoka Sun. So several years ago, feeling the need to write about something other than politics and current events, I started a biographical mission to properly record all our family’s encounters with the spirit-kind since the 1960's. As John had suggested, many years earlier, it can be an amazing experience, just jotting these stories down.....and he was quite right.

Son Robert, while on a recent business trip to Ottawa, with brother Andrew, found a copy of John’s 1999 book, “Mysteries of Ontario,” and because it had a picture of old dad, on page 53, he decided to buy it for the family archives. I had submitted information about my years living at the McGibbon House, and some of the paranormal encounters experienced during my years as writer-in-residence. It was haunted by kindly spirits. We have numerous copies of Barbara Smith’s book, of Ghost Stories of Ontario, from about the same period, that contains two of our family stories from two houses we had formerly dwelled. They’re not scary ghost stories but ones that were very real to us at the time. Son Andrew factors into one of the stories, of a wayward child, we named Herbie, who made late night visitations to his room at our Golden Beach bungalow.

I was pleased to get this copy of John’s book, which can still be found in bookstores, and online from vintage book dealers....Advanced Book Exchange, for example. I loaned out my signed first edition to another ghost hunter, and never got it back. Maybe one day.

If you have an interest in the paranormal, or in cookery heritage, what Walden Pond and Muskoka have in common, I’d be delighted to share my other blog sites. As for the McGibbon House, I will always hold a special place in my heart, for the house that gave me a lifetime in my chose profession. The haunting was a bonus.

Now my haunt.....and it is certainly a haunted abode with characters like the Curries, is Birch Hollow, in Gravenhurst......a place we are all glad to be!

A SMALL BUT SIGNIFICANT ACHIEVEMENT - OF PEOPLE POWER - A TOWN RE-CONCILIATION - IT’S A START - EVIDENCE OF MAKING THE BEST OF IT

Just a bit of providential harking but I nearly got hit by lightning first thing this morning, while out on an amble through The Bog. Jesus, it just came out of an otherwise harmless looking sky. No storm, no warning, just a beautiful misty rain over Gravenhurst. I haven’t run in twenty years but I’ve proven what willpower and a keen sense of self preservation can muster from a pile of old bones and sagging muscles.

I just moments ago, started banging my hairless head onto the computer table, after a brief power-outage swallowed all my morning copy. I survived the near lightning hit, and son Robert was able to recover my copy. I was either supposed to write this editorial or was warned not to by forces beyond, but before something else tries to take me out, here’s a little opinion-piece about a group I’m usually at odds with! Just as a humorous anecdote to a weird atmospheric day, the computer went down again, and when the tears and screaming didn’t fix it for me, Robert once more came to the rescue. I’m not computer literate you see. I just play with this keyboard. Let’s get on with the story Currie.

This morning the section of Muskoka Road, that has been closed due to the unfortunate confluence of road construction, and the recent structure fire that damaged three buildings (two may be hauled down), is being paved, apparently re-surfaced for the benefit of the walking public, if not vehicular traffic. A street mall as a trial? Seems like a good idea! An idea emerging from the chaos of construction and a frightening conflagration.

Point is, the members of the BIA, and those intimately connected to the block-in-limbo situation, made a strong argument, via a bold and compelling on-site protest this week, that with the hardships already endured by the hard-hit zone, the balance of restorative work beneath the surface of the road, should be delayed until later this year. Allowing merchants, adversely affected by both fire and construction, and the closure of the road due to the dangerous architectural state of the remaining buildings, an opportunity to find some commercial saving-grace to prepare for a summer season getting precariously close. With no strict schedule so far, as to when the work on the two remaining buildings will commence, whether a rebuilding project or outright demolition, the road closure was becoming a financial disaster after the fact.

I don’t often agree with the BIA administration, and frankly they wouldn’t think it was important either way, but this latest foray does compel me to credit this particular effort. You can’t help but be inspired by the fact they ruffled feathers, made some demands, (rightly so), and have achieved in this town what some would have believed impossible. They may get a chance to play around with what they have been interested in for years, having a street mall closed to vehicle traffic. I don’t know if this is the full intent but at least in the meantime, it’s a worthwhile experiment for main street business enhancement. And it has generated forth from a rather disastrous situation. As for the town and district going along with this.....it shows, if I’m not being too presumptuous, that negotiation and sensible proportion are still out there in full vigor. It’s not a great situation but for what they have suffered already, from being in a closed zone, they deserve to get whatever breaks they can get right now, on the hair’s breadth of the summer season......which afterall officially begins on the Victoria Day weekend.

Presenting a compelling, forceful and yet sensibly balanced argument, for the immediate re-paving of this section of main street, shows the kind of business moxie we can all benefit from.....and despite the history of bickering and nit-picking from one end of the street to the other, something exciting has emerged from the rubble of discontent. “We’re mad as hell....and we’re not going to take this any more!” When applied in the right way.....and timing has a lot to do with it, positive change arises like a glorious phoenix........and that’s what this humble scribe saw after sunrise, manifesting in his home town. It’s the kind of evidence that shows us all, including the town, that there is a point where necessity and opportunity outweigh the methods and politeness of gentle, formal protocol. We’ve all tried that, and at best it’s usually a poor, slowly achieved, half-outcome, making us feel we got something..... but not much for our efforts. After seeing how this situation has been resolved, at least temporarily, I’m beginning to think we’re going gonzo here, in this conflicted burg, just south of the 45th parallel of latitude. Citizens and business-folks now seem quite prepared to deal with the challenge of straightening up this present mess at town hall. And they’ve certainly commanded the attention of town hall. They’ve made demands, and seen at least some positive resolution. Protest may be a last resort but for many of us, there’s no other choice, standing in a sort of suspended animation at this crossroads of a town past and present.

It’s the kind of determination we’re going to need in full harvest, to recover from the present unfortunate realities. The BIA has, in a small but significant way, shown us the importance of getting involved, and refusing to succumb to circumstance. After the dust settles here, the one true advantage we will have achieved, as a business community at the very least, is a clear and strong new voice, and the working frequency from the mainstreet to town hall, which will ensure keen regard from our elected representatives. Thank you for demonstrating how we should all honor and respect democratic privilege.

I hope it works out for them. I trust we can take some inspiration from the BIA determination, to help solve other dilemmas we find ourselves faced with in 2010.

I’m calling in the resident computer expert to get this latest tome online. Will he make it? You tell me! Always like to hear from readers.

History in the Making

“NOT INFREQUENTLY HISTORY IS FOUND TO BE CORRUPTED IN ITS VERY SOURCE. IF AN ORIGINAL NARRATIVE IS FALSE, OR EXAGGERATED IT MAY EASILY HAPPEN THAT THE MISTATEMENTS IT CONTAINS WILL BE REPEATED FROM AGE TO AGE BY A SERIES OF UNCRITICAL WRITERS.” DR. WILLIAM DAWSON LESUEUR.

Folks are talking about tax revolt! Canadian style impeachment! Expectations are of big changes coming! It’s the talk of coffee shop bull sessions, and in stalled line-ups at grocery stores; animated talks about citizen-action and about a lack of faith in even this new town council. Should we blame them? We don’t know who to blame if anybody at all. All we know is that stuff is happening, and those who enjoy working on puzzles, are finding this an interesting time to fill in the blanks. I couldn’t, in good conscience, print all the wild stories I’ve heard since last Thursday, when the Star brought allegations to our attention. I’ve felt very strongly about anchoring onto something solid, and letting the wind blow. It’s the finding-something-solid thing that’s posing a wee problem. What you may have thought was solid, isn’t really! Of course our faith is shaken. But nothing, since Thursday, is giving us any confidence in town hall. I can only hope what’s happening there is better than the word on the street!

The speculators are digging for gold, and there is nothing from town hall to allay fears of an impending implosion. They understand what investigation means, just not why there is a gag order, from somewhere or other, stopping up administration of this town, taking responsibility for reaching out to constituents, who feel, rightly so, abandoned and disenfranchised.

FROM ME TO YOU

If, as you might think, I’m full of pomposity and bluster, then I would tell you I live in a bigger house than a subdivision bungalow. If I wanted to present myself as an expert, and not an underling, I would never admit that I still crave learning and new experience. If I was the jack-ass some believe, sooner or later I’d realize how ridiculous it was, to expect my actions would ever be considered worthwhile and constructive. As pompous as I might appear, or unscholarly as you might critique, I must retire myself to this pursuit none-the-less, and believe with my heart and soul, that it is infinitely better to be a seeker-of-truth, than one who has given up in its very existence.

I was confounded this afternoon, about whether to drift away from the turmoil spinning away in Gravenhurst, or get an early start on my next column about Tom Thomson, for a new publication I’ve joined up Almaguin way. Admittedly exasperated, trying to wrestle with latest developments here, it would probably have been time well invested, to put myself in Thomson’s canoe for a paddle through the lakes of Algonquin. I was that close. Reaching for my Thomson notes, I first had to move my dog-eared copy of “A Critical Spirit,” which includes numerous important essays by W.D. LeSueur, a writer/historian, of which I have enormous respect. I tend to get sidetracked easily these days by anything that isn’t political, as such. So I started to read a few passages. LeSueur, in case you’re new to my blogs, and tomes of local history, was the bloke responsible for naming our community in the summer of 1862. He chose the name “Gravenhurst,” based on the title of a book by British poet/philosopher William Henry Smith. LeSueur, when not debunking the work of established historians and philosophers, he didn’t like, was working with the federal postal authority, and assisting fledgling communities name their new community post offices. In essence he was playing the “history maker,” as in numerous cases, he rejected submitted names, granting instead, storied titles that had a wealth of provenance. LeSueur has been described as one of the country’s most accomplished scholars, and a historian with a dogged determination to set the record straight. He got himself into a lot of hot water by challenging historical facts, and re-writing what was long held as milestone heritage.

I started browsing through the text, as I do almost monthly, and I found several passages that do sum-up how I feel about fact and presentation......as an historian....as a Canadian, feeling at this time very conflicted by the actions and reactions of all levels of government. Here is one passage I’ve often used when addressing the importance of accuracy in statements made.

“Not infrequently history is found to be corrupted in its very source. If an original narrative is false or exaggerated it may easily happen that the mistatements it contains will be repeated from age to age by a series of uncritical writers, and thus pass into unquestioned, not to say, unquestionable tradition. Count Frontenac, in a despatch to the French Government, gave a greatly exaggerated official report of the Lachine massacre. Charlevoix took his word for numbers and details, and Charlevoix’s account has become classic. It is in all the popular histories. But how do we know that Frontenac exaggerated? Through the careful researches of the late Hon. Justice Girouard in parish registers. Not half the number reported by Frontenac as killed were missing after the disaster. In this case there were motives for misrepresentation. There was the ever-operative motive of trying to impress the French Government with the dangers to which the colony was exposed, so as to get more liberal supplies in men, money and material; and there was a special motive on the part of Frontenac who had just been sent back to Canada for his second term as Governor, of showing how terrible a calamity had overtaken the colony in his absence. Denonville, the retiring Governor, had just a few weeks before, ordered the abandonment and destruction of Frontenac’s favorite fort of Cataraqui, and this did not help put the two men, who already differed greatly in temperament and principles, on better terms.” The chap who named our community, wrote the authoritarian biography of Frontenac, for The Makers of Canada series.....should you ever want some light reading.

Please read on:

“Every student of Canadian history will remember Father Rochemonteix’s criticism of the Relations des Jesuites, a series of annals which, on the whole, like the rest of the world, he highly esteemed. He said in effect that they consisted of carefully selected incidents of a particular character and significance, and did not, therefore correctly reflect the normal life of the country. What the good fathers had mainly in view was to interest their countrymen in the work of the missions of Canada.” In other words, it is supposed by some, that one should never let fact ruin a perfectly good story.

As my bible of history and its critical overview, I am drawn like a moth to a lamp, by LeSueur’s poignant assertion that:

“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 the 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 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 very effort.”

Prior to the municipal election, in about September, I offered this statement by LeSueur, in part to explain my own method of dealing with fact, as I am presented, and how I see situations manifesting.......based on what has happened in the past, and what in all likelihood will occur once again. I am a perpetual critic but very much in the spirit of one of Canada’s best known critics. When accepted thought was that Firebrand William Lyon Mackenzie, was the pivotal activist central to the Rebellion of Upper Canada, LeSueur noted instead that Mackenzie, a wee bit of a tool and bungler, wasn’t as much a mover-and-shaker, as had long been held by Canadian historians; and that the rebellion would have occurred even without him. Mackenzie’s kin, Prime Minister William Lyon Mackenzie King, was so upset by LeSueur’s debunking, that he was able, with a massive power play, by protracted litigation, to shelve the book for decades. It was eventually published, long after LeSueur’s death, and what it served, was to welcome diverse approaches and criticism of accepted thought. The world didn’t come to an end. Mackenzie is still considered a father of rebellion, and LeSueur finally got his chance to put the Firebrand in a different light. Now it is a sought after reference book for other studies on Mackenzie.

LeSueur reserved particularly harsh criticism for writer’s like Stephen Leacock, who he accused of perpetuating popular history, much of it bordering on fiction...... moreso than his glossy histories being sculpted, as LeSueur believe they should have been, from newly uncovered, uncompromised fact. While it’s accepted that some historians took the short way from here to there, LeSueur was deeply concerned what these liberalities were going to cause students, and researchers, down the road......when they were confronted by deviations and misinformation, all contributing to a general misunderstanding of the history of this country. If anything LeSueur has made me far more self-critical about what I record, what I enter as observation, and a sincere reckoning with how my work, my summaries of situations, will be viewed in the future. The last thing I want, is to be credited for bending truths and purposely misrepresenting issues, and situations I encounter along the way. I loathe to be corrected, so I beat myself up many times, before any blog or editorial print copy, is ready for public consumption. From my own editorial days with Muskoka Publications, I have stayed the course. It’s been a long and wearying learning curve but I never took a short cut.

I am ready to address my readers, as the town should be communicating with their constituents.

I love this town for what it has contributed to my family’s well being. It has been a wonderful place to live, work and raise a family. I have always taken a sincere interest in its history, and unlike some who re-locate here, from other communities, our family learned about Gravenhurst from the work of historians past and present. I find myself, in many situations, these days, feeling as if I must defend the history of this community, as some others have decided to re-write it to suit themselves, their perspectives, and vested interests. I have found my contemporaries rather silent on the issues, as if they’re quite exhausted always having to correct what has been misrepresented or misunderstood. Although I have never been one to shy away from a challenge, or to step up in defense of home and neighborhood, I must admit to being frustrated by the way town hall operates these days, and for the past decade, showing such profound disconnect with the desires of the population......from the sale of Gravenhurst Hydro to moving the town hall. The aura of town hall, especially now that it has moved from the downtown core, seems as distant as Oz some times, and the way it is operated generally, gives one the feeling we’re getting the finger with the welcoming wave.

I have been at odds with town hall for years, and I must consider this before pronouncing that this latest debacle troubles me......considering I’m halfway to “troubled” to begin with, just thinking about tax bills and land grabs. What I want to suggest, via this rambling ode, is that despite the misconception we can be bedazzled by evasive, rounded, sculpted explanations, instead of fact, or its appreciation as being important......, truth is, our citizens are smarter than town hall assumes. I do think, unless they stop treating us as fools, they will experience the wrath of a population, vocally unhappy with its current representation. Admittedly, we should all be patient. We should let the process proceed. We should be open minded and conciliatory, keen but not vigilante-keen. We should all be prepared to consider the facts, and judge fairly the actions of our elected officials, to handle this present conundrum. Still, and no one will take this away from us, we will have occasion to review and assess the governance, we’ve had through this difficult period. So it seems imperative for council to get one thing straight......we’re not going to accept spin or fobbing-off for long, before our determination for change becomes evermore acute. That is fact.

I’m jumping in Tom Thomson’s canoe now. It’s the place, at this moment, I most want to be. Looking at the scenes he witnessed, the feel of water current, waves and wind, in such a magnificent land as this. I’ve got research to do, columns to write, and well, subjects I’d rather pursue, than taking it upon myself, to instruct local council, on how it should treat its citizens. It’s time for others to demand fair play, transparency and effective, responsive officialdom.....so we know where we stand.....if we can afford to stand here for long, and just how much money we’ve got left, if any at all, to traverse into the future.

I’m committed to Gravenhurst. Hopefully we all are!

THE PUBLIC’S RIGHT TO KNOW - WHEN THEY FEEL LIKE IT!!!!

Despite being aware, for some time, that all was not well with the progress of a large town building project, and that a national newspaper was sniffing out a story, you’d think someone at town hall would have recognized, very clearly, a public relations disaster was about to occur.

A pre-emptive media release, about a pending investigation, would have been a credible way of showing constituents here, town hall thinks we’re worth the effort, and can handle bad news. Jesus, I think we’re getting used to bad news these days. If we had been afforded some basic, re-assuring information that we should expect a full range of future inquiry, the angry community might have only been mildly pissed.......instead of wanting resignations and heads to roll.

While we members of the rank and file citizenry, clearly understand the legal issues surrounding the allegations, and all personnel, confidential matters at town hall, we also, as stunned as we apparently are in their opinion, can handle some information without imploding. Time and again we have to read about our town’s nuances courtesy someone else’s digging. While they probably have dozens of reasons why they didn’t think it important to re-assure us, they had the matter under control, there is absolutely no reason whatsoever, for council not to have insisted on issuing a press release to us prior to the first front-page jaw dropper last Thursday. Our press release came in the form of an investigative report published by the Toronto Star. Then again on Good Friday, and once more yesterday.

I was kind of hoping the town would have issued a press release to the Gravenhurst Banner, for today’s issue, as kind of state of the union address, to let us know what’s going on with our home town governance. While we can handle sensitive matters of allegations, and judicial inquiry, personnel matters etc., we can’t handle a lack of the most basic protocol between any town hall and its citizens. It is a huge sign of disrespect and one that will cause damage to relations far down the line. It is foolhardy to believe we’re mad cause we’re always constipated. We’re mad as hell because of the way we are generally ignored, when in fact we have a perfect right to know when our town is in crisis........because maybe, just possibly, we have the way and means to assist, as we always have, to work with, instead of against, the folks apparently in charge.

The fact we have to read about the welfare of our town in the press, without anything more than published answers to a reporter’s questioning, coming from our elected officials, means they are way behind where they should be at a time like this. They need media relations. They need to face up to constituents, not hide behind words like “investigation,” as being the reason we can’t be more forthright. We don’t want a media relations officer to spin stories but to help us understand all the implications of what is about to come......before we get the very next bit of enlightenment from the national press. If it irks them to have all this rampant speculation banging around in their community, filling their respective in-boxes, here’s an idea......give us what you can.....give us what will prepare us for what is about to happen.....and give us the assurance that we have a fully committed council, gung-ho to meet the upcoming challenges. Forgive us if we’re suspicious here.....but that’s what happens when information is choked at the source, on the mistaken belief, it will make things worse. Not true! It can’t get too much worse than at present. We’ve been trained to watch the press for our freedom of information. Apparently, this is the way it must be.

Sensing but not acting upon concerns that may have gone back a number of months, means to me, at least, that town hall either couldn’t care less about transparency, or felt that somehow they could “duck” and it would pass like a pound kidney stone. Or they could handle it all internally and we’d be spared the negative connotations. I can’t imagine a staffer or councillor not being aware of a reporter nosing-about. Even before this media foray, there was probably enough information to start a little pro-active, pre-meditated something or other, that would inform us of the Tsunami about to hit our shore. I think being partially informed is better than being uninformed. In this case, it would have cause unrest but most of us would have respected the honest attempt to spare us the shock of a front-pager for the nation to see. Even as an historian, I hate retrospective statements like....maybe we could have handled it better, or we didn’t think it would happen like this! We can be sensitive, proactive, compassionate and educators. We can be a particularly nasty group when we are treated with disrespect. There is a chance here, for council to come clean with us, about what they are doing to stabilize and correct the situation......or shall they continue to leave it to the media to work on their behalf.

So, if the Toronto Star had not raised allegations........most of us know that answer. It would have been handled internally!

A TIME WHEN WE WOULD SAY - WE CAN’T AFFORD IT! WIPE THE TEARS AWAY AND STEP-UP THE FUNDRAISING - OR AGREE TO WAIT UNTIL WE HAVE MONEY

Very few people, these days, seem to worry about the burden of debt. The “live-for-the-moment” era has put so many folks in economically vulnerable situations. The credit they’ve received from lenders, and credit card issuers, has, for many customers, been irresponsible and entirely reckless. We look at the United States and the credit crunch there, and heave a sigh of relief that Canadian banks have never acted in this fashion......to give money to those who are at high risk of not being able to pay back what they owe. BUT! It’s also the fact that many borrowers are simply not admitting all the debt they have, or revealing the suspected insecurities of their employment, when applying for lines of credit, car loans and mortgages. They take out mortgages without really understanding all the implications, and the risk they’re assuming. Today, paying off the mortgage is something beyond reach anyway.....so most just consider it renting from the lending institution......and exercise their credit cards to buy themselves frills. Frills that, by the way, devaluate faster that they’ll ever be paid off.

The kicker here, is that real estate values drop periodically. If you’ve borrowed on the froth of an over-heated market valuation, then you most certainly don’t want to hear about any bursting of the bubble. Real estate can’t continue its ridiculous climb. Wage increases and employment doesn’t warrant the valuations, and sooner or later, there will have to be a settling period. Young people are getting priced out of the market, and first time home buyers have been a huge reason behind the most recent market surge. Still there is an urge to buy what we can’t afford, and deal with the consequences at a later date. I’ve been up close and personal to that “later date,” and let me tell you.....it’s a bastard!

I’ve lived it folks, so I’m pretty much an expert on the pitfalls of being over-extended. My boys have grown-up appreciating what the fluctuations of the economy can do to those who don’t pay attention to debt management. Suzanne and I got caught up in the house-flip bonanza of the late 1980's and early 1990's. We had sold two houses and were about to sell the third, when the recession hit like a real estate tsunami. To get the house prepared for re-sale, we spent quite a bit of money re-decorating and sprucing up the grounds. At the same time, I went from having four means of income down to one in a matter of months, due to recessionary fears and downsizing. Suzanne was in a car accident.....not her fault, and the automobile that should have been written-off wasn’t, and we had to live with a car that developed every expensive problem there-after. It cost us a fortune but we still had a car loan, and no dealership on earth wanted an accident-car.

We had our antique business as a remnant, and I’ve got to tell you, it was the most stressful period of our lives. Two kids, a huge mortgage, car loan, credit card debt and a wonky car and both workplaces ten miles down the road. The most common site on the roadways of Muskoka, back then, was our red Oldsmobile on the side of the road.....and the driver smacking his head repeatedly on the steering wheel. The real horror for us, was that, for about five years, we lived in fear of the very next tag on the front door when we got home after work. We had all the colors of the rainbow in “last notice” warnings. We had grave concerns about our ability to hang onto our house, which had devalued to about $120,000 from the $140,000 or so we had paid only a few years earlier. Our grace here, was that we had put twenty-five percent of the purchase price as a down-payment. If not, I’m pretty sure the bank would have asked for a re-assessment. If that had been the case, it would have been a walk-away situation without question. We didn’t have a prayer of paying any more as downpayment. From the real estate gambler to the pauper in such a short span of time. There were thousands upon thousands of folks in similar situations. Many did lose their homes. One of the ways I made money, with some tragic irony, was operating our antique shop, selling off consignment collectibles, from folks who were struggling to make ends meet......and those who had lost their homes but had a few pieces of furniture to sell for travelling money. It was a sad yet remarkable period. A learning curve that stretched for miles and years. There were a lot of grasping-at-anything folks back then, and it kept us in the black throughout this period. I went from having a small inventory and no money to re-purchase, to having an over-flowing inventory of great stuff, that belonged to some really stressed-out people. We had buyers and they got money. I guess we helped one another through some dark days.

This may seem like a convoluted way to enter a discussion about municipal over-spending and government debt-load. I got thinking about it over the Easter weekend. I reminisce frequently, as important lessons learned, how we nearly experienced financial calamity, because we forgot some very simple fiscal rules and realities. We had some lean holiday weekends, let me tell you, and none of it was the result of anyone else having influenced us.....to do stupid things. We just got cocky. So much so, that we forgot all about who and what was controlling the world economy. And it wasn’t us. I imagine there are many millions of Americans feeling the same way. Of course it was too good to be true. Fantasy is compelling.

When we feel empowered, sometimes it’s a positive, but it can be a negative, and an expensive one. Municipalities in our region have definitely felt empowered, and have thought less about the negative potential of their actions. I see in them a recklessness to enter extreme debt, abandoning sage advisories from those who understand risk management.....who appreciate the need for frugality and rainy-day funds.

Back in the old days.....not ancient, but more recent history, citizens got the idea for something in their community, and held meetings to determine the level of support. What that support meant, ranged from volunteer representation on a committee overseeing the project, being ready to pitch-in as a builder, painter, interior decorator, roofer, or landscaper. It could mean manning fundraising booths at special events throughout the year. It meant a huge commitment of time and patience, drumming up donations to help offset costs. Although it didn’t mean money wouldn’t have to be borrowed, to get the project started, it was a manageable amount to repay.....and there was a strict schedule on how this was to be done. We are reading a lot about large, outstanding amounts left for fundraisers, in Muskoka generally, and the inability to meet pay-back obligations they took on, to forward the project. This didn’t happen a while back. The citizens wouldn’t allow a debt to remain unpaid.

Today we are too quick to borrow large sums of money, with very little conscience about how the hell it will ever be paid back. Oh, there might be a benefactor or a substantial bequeath from an estate. Or on the other hand, maybe there will be a lingering recession, and many folks will stop donating, in order to offset their own household debt instead. We borrow money as impulse, when in fact, we should insist on targets, like in my day, when we didn’t go begging without cash and commitment to match our enthusiasm. It is the reason we have recreation centres and arenas. Further back in time, it was even more weighted on the good-hearted generosity of the citizens, with less dependance on town hall to fund everything, all of the time. As one of the founders of the Herald-Gazette Rink Rat Hockey Club, and the still operating “Loveable Losers Hockey Tournament,” in Bracebridge, we helped raise money to buy the town a new ice-resurfacer. We were always helping out the community in this fashion.....if we didn’t like the way something was operating, we offered to contribute by holding a fundraiser. Of course the town kicked in money, as it should have, but many groups were quick to help their hometown acquire better equipment and facilities. It doesn’t matter what town it is.....the same goes on today. There are many generous folks and groups doing yeoman’s work helping us achieve goals.

The difference is, it might require a much greater commitment, for us to be able to save our communities now, some in nose-bleed level of prolonged debt. It’s bring fundraising to a whole new level. Yet when you add up the collateral damage of interest being charged on the debt....folks, this isn’t a good thing at all. We’d rather have the interest-money to use for other upgrades.

The citizens have stood back and watched, and read about, the over-spending of our own town council, here in Gravenhurst, for quite a few years now. Some of us have complained silently, or in bull sessions on various street corners or in coffee shops, without any organized attempt to protest our increasing debt-load. The still youthful Ratepayers Association had as its origin, this building dissatisfaction with the town’s free-wheeling and tax burdening. Yet even when the town was clearly aware citizens were deeply concerned, and angry about tax increases and borrowing extravagances, there seemed to be very fleeting regard for what we believed was sensible proportion. Unnecessarily nervous, is what councillors thought of us! We were just overly cautious folks. Not really in touch with the new age of borrow, borrow, and borrow! The accounting predictions might suggest we’re in pretty good shape despite all the doom-saying. Well, I for one don’t feel any compulsion to abandon my gut instincts.....earned by experience and so many years of trial and error, and......these instincts now tell me we’re in too much debt for our own good. Look at us provincially, nationally, globally! While the speculators continue to draw us in, with promises of better times coming, I think it’s time to fall back on that old standard.......of how much coin is jingling in your pockets.....and it’s what you’ve got to work with.

Over the next four years, the Town of Gravenhurst will be forced to wrestle with massive debt-load.......just as District Government needs to address crisis. Taxpayers generally, in this region, can not afford to carry the burden we have now. Businesses are closing. Jobs are disappearing. And clients for social assistance aren’t dwindling. Food bank visitors are increasing annually. As local government, sitting in their new town hall.....which we couldn’t afford, contemplates the new realities of over-spending......and what they may wish to finance in the future......they must familiarize themselves with the people they represent. They must take a few moments to talk to the Salvation Army about the critical importance of the food bank to many citizens of our community......and understand how many amongst us, are in financial crisis......and accept it as part of the new protocol of awareness they have clearly over-looked in the past two council terms.

We have a chance to put hometown values first. If the town continues to operate as it has, we will suffer greatly in the future. The world economy is in dire straights.....and it is not the time to be facing the massive debt we have been burdened with in this town, this region and this country. As individuals who got caught up in a recession once, and suffered greatly yet survived, there’s nothing as destructive to family, health and home, as the misery of poverty. We deserved our dance with fiscal disaster. Some get pulled in without having made a financial mistake. Others are carrying on the burdens of generations, not being able to escape their fetters. Maybe we are a small percentage of the population. I’m willing to bet, the percentage is rising. This may soon be reflected by more folks not being able to pay their taxes. Or buy groceries.

There is every reason now, not only cutting projects and dumping the tax burden onto property owners, to smarten up about the true costs of debt carrying......at a time of still-low interest rates. They will change. And so will our complexion trying to cope with it all!

The Bear Sleeps No More

STANDING UP FOR OUR COMMUNITY - WE’VE BEEN INSPIRED BY CRISIS - ONE AFTER THE OTHER - WE’VE BEEN ON THE SIDELINES FOR FAR TOO LONG

On the day we began our fight to “Save The Bog” several years ago, as the Town of Gravenhurst thought it would be a sure money-maker (possibly to invest in a new town hall), selling it off for residential lots, my anger peaked when I was blown-off, dismissed, ignored by numerous council members.....who had the gall later, to say our persistence to save a wetland nearly gave them ulcers. We asked, right from the beginning, for an on-site visitation by council, to see for themselves what they were deeming surplus property. We had one confirmed visit and one unconfirmed. The rest sort of let us know they knew the place well enough, not to require a meeting on the property, or to stand toe to toe with ulcer-makers like us. The fact that they thought of me, and our family as intrusive, and unworthy of their time, brought out the old “Shane” in me.....and although I’m bigger than Alan Ladd.....let me tell you folks.....there was know way I was going to be casually dismissed. They couldn’t believe I wouldn’t go away. My wife feels the same way most days. I’m like a fungus with remarkable staying power.

I made a comment.....no a clear statement, that I would personally seek the resignation of any council member, who would vote on such a contentious environmental issue, without a full appreciation of the property being sacrificed. Which by the way is a small but significant acreage in the Calydor Subdivision, that filters a huge volume of run-off water, from a large area of the urban town, before it drains into Muskoka Bay. The bottom line is that, the town backed down, and changed their perspective on the property. It helped that we were able to count on assistance from the Ratepayers Association and cottager associations who phoned in support for the conservation effort. Councillors had to know they were being studied closely, and weren’t going to get away with anything remotely cavalier, or profoundly arrogant, by snubbing those who truly care about the quality of life in this community. When we heard the news that the bog had been taken off the surplus property list, we were ecstatic. They would have been too, if they’d appreciated what would have come next. We had garnered huge support from well beyond our neighborhood and town in fact, and many offers of financial support if the matter had gone further. It wasn’t a show of force for something frivolous. It was a demonstration that citizens can accomplish a great deal when they organize and push back, when they feel their elected officials are fobbing them off.

Today I had the opportunity to hear more feedback regarding the situation at our newly restored (almost) recreation centre, that’s been getting a fair amount of news coverage in recent days. What I’ve found, is a genuinely interested....and certainly agitated group of friends and neighbors, some who haven’t had a municipal grievance in decades, others who read the papers for entertainment, not to inspire conniptions. I’m impressed by the chatter of concerned citizens who want to know more. Folks who stay as far away from controversy as they can, who now are peeved by embarrassing press coverage.....and that their taxes are going up due to recreation centre problems. Hundreds of residents of our town, having family roots firmly planted in the generations of community builders past, are deeply upset by the whole winter’s toll of bad news; whether it has been the chagrin of downtown businesses, the tragic mainstreet fire, a huge tax increase for 2011, and this latest bit of adverse news to make the front page. And I’m very pleased that the folks I’ve talked to, while upset with current events, are sensible in proportion, when they say with some tiny prick of venom...”Someone’s got to pay for this!” Not one person, I talked to today, suggested any sort of angry protest or march on town hall. I heard that yesterday.

When we rallied against the sell-off of the bog, it was a simple and persistent information sharing with town hall. When I was told by one council member to relax and enjoy the summer, I made it clear, abundantly so.....that we would indeed be most delighted to relax, when council dropped the proposal. We maintained polite pressure, and let our elected officials know the height and breadth of our position to protect the wetland. I had a length of chain and a lock, and a tree in mind, to attach myself. I’d been boning up on my Zen meditations, so that the sound of a chainsaw wouldn’t frighten the bejeebers out of me. I think they believed I would do it. My impression was they didn’t like the idea of facing the national media......like now. With us, we had our plan of defense, drawn up and ready to go, within hours of the first newspaper mention that the Calydor acreage was being considered surplus. They certainly didn’t like the fact we were so well organized, and had a better plan than they did. My headlines read “Wetland to be sacrificed to fund new town hall.” I was the horse’s arse let me tell you. No Christmas cards from council that year.

That’s why I’m so pleased today, to find citizens who are tuned-in to what’s going on in their town. I remember reading comments by several councillors, pointing out poor attendance at public meetings, on many occasions in the past. They frequently and mistakenly equate the low numbers with disinterest in the community’s well being. I really think they believe the public is less astute and less interested.....and thus, won’t really be much of an imposition pushing through certain aspects of council business.....like honking big tax increases.

Then comes along one of those revelations, one of those “last straw” situations, and the sleeping bear comes roaring back to life. As I’ve written about before, I loathe the idea of any kind of nasty, retaliatory protest that might seem appropriate to some citizens at this moment. While I certainly do believe this is the time for present members of council to appreciate just how well informed their constituents are, the critical issue here, for a positive outcome, is that we allow investigators to shed light on allegations. I had bad vibes yesterday about some looming over-reactions, and how terribly contrary this would be to an already precarious and complicated situation. Council, I’m pretty sure, recognizes by now, the folks they represent are pissed, and they will demand accountability for their role. It would be unwise to the extreme, for our elected officials now, to suggest we “chill.” We will be patient, I believe, but we won’t be treated as if we can’t handle the truth.

The signs are good, that the citizens of Gravenhurst, who have had a rather difficult winter all told, have been invigorated to a sharp point by recent affairs, and it means, to me, we will be part of the solution to what ails us presently. We are not a vigilante group.....we are hometowners who care deeply for our friends and neighbors, and the good name of this community. It is true that many folks in this town have felt helpless to change political will.....to hold back massive tax increases,....to save forests and lowlands from development, and to create pro-active goverenance that does give a crap about mainstreet maladies. I think we are seeing a turn-around in this town that will clearly imprint citizen values, and expectations, on the town hall that we have paid for. Make no mistake, the sleeping bear slumbers no more!

Allegations Are Yet To Be Proven - So Chill

REMEMBER WE’RE DEALING WITH ALLEGATIONS - STEP BACK, COOL DOWN AND LET THE EXPERTS CARRY ON THEIR INVESTIGATIONS

I have talked to a few people in the past several days, who are seriously confused, angry and a tad spiteful about recent newspaper coverage, relating to problems at the new recreation centre. There was another front-pager in today’s Toronto Star, regarding the alleged financial problems, facing the revamped arena and new pool facility. I’ve heard that many citizens are outraged and want immediate answers from town hall. We don’t need vengeful actions here.....no yelling and screaming to make a point.......just the appreciation that investigations of this magnitude take time. Town hall, and councillors, while this investigation gets underway, will have little or no choice but to answer to authorities first......and while this might seem added disregard for the citizenry at large, this is where patience, understanding and compassion must play a role. Staff and councillors must feel pretty crappy right now, and like us, they care about the town they work for, and reside......and I truly believe they’re as angry about the turn of events as we are.....stuck on the so-called “outside looking in!”

While a majority of folks here in Gravenhurst, were stunned to read about the allegations, first on Thursday, and then again this morning, most appreciate that there must first be a thorough inquiry by forensic auditors, and at present, and for some time to come, we’re going to require patience and sensible proportion with all involved. The situation presented, while compelling, and important for us to know, is inconclusive and contains allegations, that must be investigated and proven. Having heard some angry retorts from ratepayers in the past 48 hours, and feeling they have already made up their minds about wrong-doing, we must surely appreciate that harsh responses, vengeful thinking and irresponsible reactions, will only make things more complicated for all concerned. If we’re as fair a society as I think we are, and a caring, resilient home town, we must appreciate the privilege of innocence until proven otherwise. For everyone implicated in this crisis, we must place democratic rules of order above shoot-from-the-hip accusations, and treat allegations as such. Not yet proven as fact! So before marching on town hall in protest, while certainly a democratic right, think about the consequences of fanning the fire.

Town Hall will get a lot of blame for this unfortunate situation, and I have expressed some of my Council Critiques in many, many previous blogs......published on my site long before this current event. This week, our suspicions have been cut to the nerve, by the media exposure, and we are entitled to be angry. We are not a wealthy community despite what some overseers think. The increases to taxpayers coming, will be brutal to many families, and all those on fixed incomes. When we read about taxes and alleged fiscal mismanagement, it’s to be expected protest will be aggressive. I caution my friends however, feeling justified to ask for resignations from council, that it is infinitely more important, to follow the steps here, and realize that everyone has a right to a fair hearing. My suspicion is that some critics have tasted blood and they will want immediate action, and it may mean firings and resignations. I’m hoping that those who read my blog-site, will be sensible and allow investigators to do their job, before pronouncing individuals guilty based on allegations and innuendos. Seems compelling information but there are many steps of investigation first to prove or disprove the claims made.

Following the mainstreet fire, several weeks ago, the number of conflicting stories coming from the so-called informed amongst us, were outrageously out of proportion, and most were factually inaccurate. Hearsay is a dangerous thing right now, and I’m sure a few folks are assuming roles of judge and jury, passing around information that is wrong and incredibly hurtful, at a time when we all feel the vulnerabilities of our little town here in South Muskoka. I will never deny the right of free speech. I’ve lived it my whole life. But I know the dangers of hateful, spiteful lashing out, by those who believe it is their democratic right to express themselves.....even if they are completely wrong. I urge all those defenders of democracy to think before they assess blame, and handle fact responsibly. While they believe they know what’s going on.....most don’t, and what they perpetuate is a prejudice that will hurt us more than a ten percent tax hike.

Of course I’m mad at these allegations. I won’t suggest for a moment that I’m not mad at town council for a number of budgetary impositions. But I must sit back, and refrain from all urges to hurl blame at individuals, and let the good folks who know more about accounting than I do, give me....give us all, the accurate low-down.

While it might seem a good idea, at the time, to make a smart ass comment to a councillor or town staff, grocery shopping or at a community event, cause it takes a load off your chest,......I beg you, as one agitated citizen to another, to reconsider and refrain from personal attacks. I’m sure they’ve already experienced some feedback. We owe them the opportunity to the same fair hearing as the project managers. We would ask the same for ourselves, if we were in their position