EDITORIAL: A different kind of strength
by Brandon Mayer
Two weeks ago, we saw the beginning of what would end up being a historic event: two major winter storms just two days apart. We probably saw a minimum of 75-85 cm in North Dundas between the two storms (but don’t quote me on that). The first storm on February 13 happened to fall on the date of my first issue as owner of the Times. Schools were fully closed (a rare move), and Canada Post declared a “force majeure” delivery stoppage which led to my first issue being delivered a day late. Memories for my rocking chair days!
I won’t ramble about the storms themselves, since our local weather expert – Connor Mockett – has an update for you in this issue. Instead, I want to tie in the significant weather to more pressing matters. USA president Donald Trump wants Canada to be his 51st state. Unfortunately for Trump, Canada is not for sale, but that doesn’t mean we shouldn’t talk about the issue.
Related to this is a rather hurried provincial election, which has been hard for the Times to cover in any depth in print, but for those reading this on the day you receive your paper (or a day early via email, if you subscribe), you may not have casted your vote yet. If you need information on our local candidates before you decide, visit https://www.ndtimesnews.ca/election-information/. In the coming days, this same page will be updated with election results.
How are these two (or rather, three) things related? Despite having a majority government already, Doug Ford called an election reportedly so that his government would be in power for the entirety of Trump’s reign, to fight economic sanctions designed to make us Canadians essentially beg to be annexed by the USA. This explains why we had a seemingly random election, but how is a major weather event related? Simple – our handling of the two back-to-back snowstorms shows that a snowman would have a better chance surviving in hell than Trump taking over Canada.
Well all have our stupid moments, myself included. When the snow first began to fall during the second storm on February 15, I had a rather “non-essential” errand to run and figured I could get there and back before the weather got too bad. I made it all the way to where I was going and most of the way back before a wind gust and a snow drift combined forces to pull me into the ditch on County Road 16. I was miffed – in over 14 years of driving, I have never been in any kind of accident or been in the ditch, ever. My streak was ruined!
It wasn’t a very busy evening, traffic wise, owing to the fact that the rest of the local population has more brain cells than me. But three vehicles did drive by within 10 minutes or so. The first was a man in an SUV. He stopped and confirmed that I was okay – I told him I was and that my wife was on her way. The next was a man in a pickup truck who said he would drop of his kids just down the road and grab chains to pull me out. The third was a man who jumped into action, so eager to help that he almost seemed excited. He had the frame of my small car connected by a rope to his trailer hitch within seconds, and he pulled me out with no hesitation. He told me he had just pulled someone else from the ditch a few minutes earlier. I thanked him of course, not having the courage to tell him that I had gone out to get a pizza (far from essential travel and thus quite embarrassing), or that I own both a car and a 4x4 pickup truck and chose to take the car out to save gas!
It was absolutely mind blowing how quickly the people of our community took my situation from “no hope” to “on my way home” in a matter of minutes, with no cost or real effort on my part. Neighbours helping neighbours in true small town fashion, almost like it was straight out of an old movie. I’m sure many readers experienced examples like this of their own.
Two days later, when the snow was finally done falling, I found myself facing another problem. Those of us with smaller driveways – who didn’t plan ahead regarding snow removal this year in large part due to last year’s mild winter – were in for a nasty surprise with the dumping of snow we got. Shoveling would have felt impossible, even with forced labour from my kids. Like many, many people in North Dundas, I simply scheduled a one time service from a friendly local with a tractor, who had our driveway cleared in about 20 minutes.
Trump may be in charge of a bigger economy and a much bigger military, but here in Canada, we have a different kind of strength. We support each other. We’re there for each other. And we would absolutely fight for this awesome country with everything we’ve got. Besides, I dare say our winter season would wipe out half of the USA’s forces before they set so much as 10 feet into our turf. We are not to be messed with. Try at your own risk, Trump.
This issue of the Times, we decided to express that we are “Canada Proud”, and we’ve given local businesses a chance to do the same. Let’s keep supporting each other through these uncertain times. Shop local, and help your neighbours just as they help you. We are all stronger for it.