OrilliaMatters welcomes letters to the editor at [email protected] or via the website. Please include your full name, daytime phone number and address (for verification of authorship, not publication). The following letter expresses concern about Orillia's transformation from a place rich in culture and history to one where the scenery 'in our own backyard continues to dim and darken.'
Why does Canada turn a blind eye to the issues on its own soil in favour of issues and investments abroad?
We all know that Canada spreads itself thin out to international locations as an addition to foreign aid of one kind or another. We've done that for quite a while. Nothing new.
Yet as the scenery in our own backyard continues to dim and darken, I have to wonder why such an ideologically promiscuous nation doesn't even pay much mind to its own worsening social and cultural issues. The loss of any sense of national identity, sovereignty or loyalty to such an extent as we have before us today is morally bankrupt enough. Moral relativism cleared the table long ago.
I see the same global trend wherever I travel. The world is one big busy market place and department store it seems, a disenchanting ideological grey. Life not really living to it's fullest developmental potential. Reduced to level of production, nothing more.
Orillia is a prime example, too. Growing up there, it had all the novelty and charm of a Faulkner novel. It was more or less the perfect Rockwellian little town with its few sore spots that was generally a great place to live and make memories.
The '90s saw the dissolution of liberal (not political) concepts such as history, tradition, national identity, sovereignty and independence. This has gone on to this day with disastrous social consequences as one can see with a quick trip to the corner store on the east end of any city.
If it weren't for nostalgic fond memories of old Orillia whispered by Mississaga Street historical architecture, I wouldn't be able to aptly draw comparisons from then to now. The green space got butchered. Yes, nice structures, but the whole idea of space like that near water is to leave it alone y'know? Now it looks like a GTA parking lot. Nice one.
And like everywhere in our neck of the woods lately, international and domestic tourists congesting the town and city streets and bobbing around like oblivious pigeons, staring at their phones and missing the vacation or outing they stopped by for in the first place.
True, you sometimes gotta go where the money is during the uncertain times in business, yet at what cost? I think Orillia would've fared better in the short term and long term had it resisted the globalization marketing and development trends of the nineties and early millennium. This place was charming, rustic and had enough memory making magic to be cash in the bank and well reputed for a long time. Now it's Dodge City and a coffee on the way to Toronto.
They're even slowly carving up Tudhope Park now, too, the last piece of untouched history that southern Orillia (which is where Orillia began) has. What next?
It's great that Orillia has new blood running through it and that certain sectors are booming. Yet we are wrapped in the trend of stark globalization to such an extent that every place, small or big, is starting to become uniform and concrete, without personality or any distinguishing characteristics that any visitor would remember. Orillia was known for its charm and now its just another passing victim of the global market, another face in the halls of people almost late for work.
Orillia has a super rich colourful history, not unlike the film Gangs of New York starring Daniel Day Lewis. From pioneer times to the cowboy town of the 1800s, Orillia was a historic and cultural spot worthy of a great major motion picture. I think to myself, "Why did they just toss such a suspense thriller history right out the window? They surely could've cashed in on that big time!"
Orillia isn't just "another place" somewhere. It's worthy of further consideration.
Tyler Dunlop
Toronto
