Mail bag: 10/29/26
Thankful voter
Dear Editor:
Thank you to all the candidates who sought election in Centre Wellington. Wining or losing is part of our democratic process and is of enormous significance to all within the community.
Indeed, we are so lucky to have so many willing participants putting forward many contrasting points of view explaining where they stand. The community only benefits from this range of options and commitment of purpose.
Congratulations to those elected and also a huge thank you to all those who also put their names forward for community service.
We are so lucky to live in this part of the world .
Alan Simpson,
Elora
‘Abhorrent’?
Dear Editor:
Apparently, questioning the level of tourism in Elora is now “abhorrent.” That’s quite a word. Abhorrent means morally reprehensible or repugnant. I can think of behaviours deserving that description. Racism, violence and serious criminal acts come to mind. A resident suggesting that perhaps there can be too much tourism does not.
Calling a contrary position abhorrent strikes me as the kind of Trumpian hyperbole increasingly used to delegitimize disagreement rather than engage with it. We should resist that, regardless of which side of an issue we are on.
Sarah Barber and MacLean Hann (‘Support local,’ Oct. 8)make an entirely legitimate argument that tourism supports their businesses and employees. I don’t begrudge them making it. Local businesses matter.
But local residents matter too.
The interesting question isn’t whether tourism has benefits. Of course it does. The interesting question is whether every additional tourist necessarily makes the community better off.
Economics gives us good reason to question that assumption. Research on over-tourism recognizes that visitor growth can eventually create significant costs through housing pressures, congestion, infrastructure demands and impacts on residents. The academic discussion increasingly concerns balancing those costs against tourism’s benefits and finding efficient tourism levels, rather than blindly maximizing visitor numbers.
Barber and Hann report that 95 per cent of their employees live within Centre Wellington. My own informal survey of 15 employees at Elora businesses found only one living in Elora and another two elsewhere in Centre Wellington. Obviously, my sample is small, and their businesses may be different. The truth is likely somewhere between those experiences. But again, that’s a reason for discussion, not condemnation.
I believe Elora has moved past the point where additional tourism improves the community overall. Others believe we haven’t. Let’s debate that.
Supporting local shouldn’t mean unquestioningly supporting unlimited growth in tourism. It should mean finding a balance that supports local businesses and the people who actually live here. We can disagree about where that balance lies without declaring the people on the other side morally repugnant.
That’s what a healthy community does.
Michael von Massow,
Elora
‘Money is power’
Dear Editor:
In my training as a psychotherapist we were taught the importance of understanding where power lies. In a room with a client, the therapist has power. They can use it well or poorly; it can be used as power over people or as power with a client to be an agent for change.
Trust is gained through accountability and accountability only happens in relationships where all parties are willing to come to the table and make meaningful change in support of that relationship.
I love this community and I applaud anyone who wants to keep their money local; support local business and local causes. However, money is powerful. It can buy a lot of things, but it can’t buy community trust. Especially when money is used as leverage and power over people.
In order to continue to grow together as community, we need folks with money to acknowledge that money is power and that you can either have power over people with the money you yield, or you can slow down, hear people’s concerns, gain trust through accountability and have power with the community, for community and be an agent of change.
Elora is seeing in real time what it looks like to have power over everyday humans and not only is it sewing division, it’s also harming public discourse and changing individual lives for the worse.
Tiffany Burtch,
Fergus
Not always ‘ghoulish’
Dear Editor:
The Halloween decorations are out in full force, including tombstones and references to cemeteries and graveyards. Death and the dead are linked to giving or getting a scare, to horror.
Cemeteries and graveyards have not always been signs of horror and the ghoulish. In the middle of the 19th century the first modern cemeteries were established in North America. These cemeteries were not immediately adjacent to churches, but rather were land set aside for the specific purpose of burying the dead.
These cemeteries were maintained as greenspace, park land, often on the rural edge of communities. For example, Woodlawn Memorial Park in Guelph which was open in 1854.
Families went to these memorial parks, cemeteries, to picnic beside the tombstones of loved ones. At these gatherings stories were told about the deceased family members. Stories that led to laughter and stories that reminded the family of who they were and where they came from. Stories that were poignant and stories that yes, brought tears. The graveyard was a place to remember with joy those who had died.
The day after Halloween is All Saints Day (Nov. 1). All Saints Day’s invitation is to remember those who have gone before us who have shaped our lives for the good – parents, grandparents, teachers, bosses, neighbours, aunts, uncles, cousins and so many more.
All Saints’ Day may be a day to go to a cemetery where a loved one is buried and say “thank you.”
Peter Bush,
Fergus
‘Rural neighbours’
Dear Editor:
On Sunday, Oct. 25 we were driving on Wellington 18/Northfield at 5pm, returning from Waterloo to Elora.
There was a large contingent of Mennonite buggies obviously returning from a funeral. We passed single buggies, some in groups of three or four and one group of 10 buggies in a row.
I was appalled by the dangerous antics of the drivers who passed these horsedrawn buggies at speeds over 90km/hr, hardly giving any distance between themselves and the buggies, even though there was often no oncoming traffic.
I honestly thought there might be another funeral as a result of these drivers not sharing the road. Unfortunately no sign of any police monitoring this situation.
We can do better to protect our rural neighbours.
Lynda Smith,
Elora
Wrong addresses
Dear Editor:
We have lived in Pilkington since 1984, and used the post office as our mailing address since then, as we chose to not have a rural mailbox.
At first we used the general delivery address and later paid for a mailbox. When the township suddenly expanded, we were forced to take on another mailbox number, and of course the price increased, but the staff have always been most helpful and we depend on their conscientious manner towards our mail.
Alas, not so with the equivalent department in the Centre Wellington Township office. Both our ballot envelopes were delayed as neither had the correct address on the envelope. One was addressed to our fire number, which has never been our mailing address, and the other to the original mail box number from at least 10 or more years ago.
It was only due to the devoted post office staff that both envelopes were stamped with a notice that this was a “temporary courtesy service only, please advise your correspondents of your correct address.”
Our “correspondents,” in this case Macdonald Square, do have our correct address. Several departments such as taxation, dog tags, miscellaneous correspondence related to bylaws, etc. – so why were they not correctly addressed?
Apparently a large number of other residents received the same ill-addressed envelopes, but many others could not be forwarded, so the residents were without a ballot.
Carol Williams,
Elora
Wants ‘risk assessment’
Dear Editor:
An open letter to the members of Erin council.
The purpose of this letter is to follow up on the discussion regarding reconsideration of the approval of the commercial fill project in Hillsburgh.
During the Oct. 8 meeting, councilors expressed interest in exploring this option and the legal ramifications for doing so due to new information presented by the public. The discussion was postponed and town staff stated that the earliest the discussion could be scheduled for was the second meeting of the new town council.
Based on the town’s website, that appears to be the Dec. 3 regular council meeting.
I respectfully request confirmation that “Reconsideration of the Hillsburgh commercial fill project” be added to the agenda of the Dec. 3 meeting. I also request that town staff (legal and otherwise) come prepared with all the information necessary for council to make an informed decision on this matter.
This includes, but is not limited to, a detailed risk assessment of both proceeding with the agreement and reversing the agreement and, an understanding of the procedure for reversing an approval made by the previous council.
Angela Lauryssen,
Elora
‘Headed to a bad place’
Dear Editor:
RE: ‘Threat to our privacy,’ Oct. 15.
I’m responding to the letter regarding Bill C22, the Lawful Access Act. I agree wholeheartedly with the writer.
I caution all those who take the position that “if you’ve done nothing wrong” you have nothing to worry about. This is how laws are passed over and over that are overreaching. There are many more like it and I suspect even more coming.
When Bill C22 was being debated it was challenged on the writer’s points and on the basis of who will control the use of it. From the government’s side, the police all over Canada have asked for this.
To the writer’s point about sharing information with foreign governments – that one, maybe to some people’s surprise, has been occurring for decades.
With the expansion of AI, possible surveillance on street, no real accountability for law enforcement and less requirements for reasonable cause to collect information, we are headed to a bad place.
Don’t get me wrong, there are bad people, and if they are committing real crimes they should be dealt with, but not at the total expense of all people’s rights and freedoms.
So no, we can’t just make it easier for police because if they had their way they would arrest all and sort it out later. For now we are supposed to be a rule-of-law democracy.
Doak McCraney,
Guelph
‘Distracting, irksome’
Dear Editor:
I wonder if the sheer plenitude of municipal election placards littering roadsides doesn’t actually defeat their purpose, and is why so few eligible voters vote. Or am I the only one who finds them mildly distracting and irksome?
Signs, however redundant, beg to be read. But what’s in a name? I almost voted for “Watch for Turtles.”
Chris Miller,
Fergus