REGARDLESS OF POLITICS, CONTROVERSY, AND MONEY, MY HOME IS MUSKOKA
It’s pretty rough these days having our home region profiled so adversely in the national press, as if we all had a part begging for money from the federal government, to make our region evermore worthy of hosting international celebrity. We’ve been hosting celebrities for a long time and our international reputation goes back to the first visitors, seeking out the region for what it didn’t have in the way of urban contamination. In the mid 1800's sportsman were finding Muskoka an abundant and beautiful place, despite the dangers of all wild places.
As a regional historian I find this most recent foray into international relations, and political hosting, about as wild around here as you can get. Our beautiful little, largely unassuming but inspiring region, has been turned into the rest of the world.....at a time when we thought we had successfully removed ourselves from this crazy old urban conundrum that sent those same sportsman scrambling for serenity-now in the 1850's onward. It’s a pretty different and armed region now, and despite or on the other hand, because of the efforts of facade builders, there’s a disturbing image cast down on an otherwise unremarkable but successful advance of history. This is a period not soon forgotten but an event wished over.....such that we might again return to the paradise hinterland we enjoy without such bold, unflattering intrusion.
I hope we will be considered good hosts at the end of it all, at the very least, as we have always been kindly folk throughout our history. And no matter how the media from afar opts to portray us as leaches and opportunists, the majority of us non-political types, made no fuss to get the event, and still make no complaint about it, despite having to live with a rather wicked burden of unwanted, undesired attention, in this nasty transition of a wonderful place to visit......into just any place on earth.
I am looking forward to a much more relaxed and familiar July in this beautiful region we call our home.