Here’s something to shout about … on July 28, Erin’s official town crier was declared the 2018 provincial champion by the Ontario Guild of Town Criers.
This is the second time Andrew Welch has been declared the overall winner of the prestigious annual Ontario Provincial Town Crier Competition.
It is also the second time that he has been awarded the Dave Thomson Memorial Trophy for Most Humourous Cry.
This year the judges included Harold Redekopp, former executive vice-president of CBC TV, and CBC Radio’s Eric Friesen.
Ontario is recognized internationally as boasting some of the finest town criers in the world, and a number of past world champions competed in this latest tournament, hosted on Amherst Island at the east end of Lake Ontario.
Welch, appointed town crier by both Erin and Caledon councils seven years ago, continues to hold his own against veteran criers from all over the province – many with decades of experience.
In competition, criers are scored on their proclamation content, their presence, their vocal delivery, and their accuracy; and this year’s repeat win was the result of a lot of hard work.
Welch says he spent many hours crafting and reworking his proclamation wording, which he often creates with the additional challenge of being poetry with perfect rhymes and meter. There was also a historic Amherst Island cry that called for significant research ahead of time.
The tradition of modern town crying is often credited to Peter Cox, who was named town crier of Halifax, Nova Scotia in 1974. Among other civic duties, he became famous for welcoming thousands of cruise ship passengers to Halifax’s port every year. That public office rested empty after Cox died in 2009, until a new young Halifax crier, Will Brewer, was appointed earlier this year. (Brewer made his own Canadian history as the first official crier with Down syndrome.)
Having an Official Erin Town Crier is not something the town takes much advantage of – it’s been over a year since he has been asked to proclaim at any Erin civic function, although Welch does get the occasional request to appear at no charge for local charities.
In some historic Ontario municipalities, such as Brantford and Kingston, the role is a central piece of their tourism and marketing plans, and has even grown to be a full-time job, similar to Cox’s back in Halifax.
Although proclamations are nowhere near a full-time job for the local crier, appearance fees from other towns and businesses allow him to travel to competitions around across Canada, promoting his home.
“A crier is there to put a face and a voice to the cultural identity of a community,” says Welch. “And to add a blast of pageantry, heritage, and civic pride to any event at little or no cost.”
