Life seemed so simple in my youth. Follow the path others had taken: leave my small community to get an education, a job, a spouse, perhaps have a kid or two …
With high school diploma in hand, I was excited, but also nervous, to attend university. After all, the campus was its own community – far bigger than the one I was leaving behind.
As the first in my family to attend a post-secondary institution, I was striking out on an adventure – my future was planned and it looked bright.
I’m so grateful my parents provided the opportunity.
Growing up in a small village everyone looked like me, mostly anyway. I’d had limited exposure to life – including people of different backgrounds, cultures, or sexual orientation. Thanks to a Liberal Arts education, I was challenged to look beyond my personal experience.
I became far more open-minded and accepting.
University expanded my thinking and my belief systems. Not everyone has the desire or the opportunity to attend but that should never be an excuse to stop learning, growing and challenging our way of thinking.
A few decades later, while working full time, I returned to university to spend another 7 years becoming a real estate appraiser.
Over the years, appraisal work took me to rural communities around the province. I’ve seen once vibrant communities fill with derelict and neglected properties. I’ve witnessed the despair as major employers abandoned the communities in favour of centralization.
Even as I was growing up, I observed the Canadian Pacific Railway reduce operations in my village. Many employees, including my father, were forced to follow the work in urban centres. Some families left the community to work in places like Montreal or Vermont.
It’s only recently as I faced my own work challenges that I considered how difficult that must have been for my father and the other CPR employees. Like generations before, most had built their careers around the railway. They planned to continue until retirement.
Over the years, other employers came and went in the village.
And each time, the naysayers were convinced that spelled the end of McAdam.
It’s my observation that those most familiar with struggle have the strongest resolve.
Having spent time in my hometown this summer, I was impressed by new initiatives and a number of new faces.
I watched with pride as a committed group successfully willed the restoration of the magnificent train station, a national historic site, to its former glory. The site draws thousands of tourists each year.
Small towns and villages across North America are facing similar economic challenges .
It’s an ongoing struggle to maintain the most basic amenities that I took for granted growing up – a hospital and family doctor situated in the community, on site-policing services, Mom and Pop shops offering amenities like food, clothing or gas, pharmaceuticals, or after-hour conveniences.
Even garbage and debris disposal can be a challenge when local landfills are closed in favour of regionalization.
It’s a huge blow to the area when a financial institution closes its doors. When schools are on the chopping block, it can feel like a death knell.
There was a time I viewed the above scenarios from a purely economic perspective.
Because, on paper, it can make sense to centralize health care, policing, perhaps even schools. Is it financially feasible to maintain a school with less than 100 students?
With an increasing demand for doctors across the country, is it reasonable to expect 24-7 care to serve a population of a few thousand? From a corporate perspective, why can’t police officers patrol areas within a 100km radius?
But for the tax-paying residents of those directly impacted communities? It’s not so straightforward. Bad actors, who know the police are a distance away, can openly break the law and get away with it.
Someone facing a life and death situation may not survive the hour commute to the nearest hospital.
And closing local dumpsites?
Not everyone is driven to make the 50km commute to the regional landfill. The environmental impact of illegal dumping may be felt for decades to come.
The trade war with the United States? Many industries that once seemed stable, including automotive, are hanging in the balance.
My hometown could be your town too.
When I first started this blog, someone recommended I conclude each post with a solution to whatever problem I was posing. If you’re looking for decisive answers to the problems facing society right now, you’ve come to the wrong place.
It is clear there are no easy solutions but that doesn’t mean we stop trying.
“The older I get, the more I learn that questions often matter more than answers.” – Thomas Brey
To the communities and hard working residents fighting the good fight, roll on…
Good news! I’d almost given up on blog development when some hometown friends provided a solution. Yay!😊 I’ve had a lot of support from my hometown lately and I’m grateful for that.
If you’d like to help, you can give the Disentanglement.ca Facebook page a follow. A like, comment or share of a post helps too.
Follow along as the creativity continues to flow on my YouTube channel: Disentanglement – YouTube. Ironing boards are a hot topic again but I think we’ve finally got it.
