The arrival of Great Lakes Cruising Club’s members in the Port of Little Current to celebrate the occasion of the club’s 60th anniversary Rendezvous highlights the longstanding and deep ties of Manitoulin Island residents and our neighbouring communities on the Great Lakes—be their home ports in Canada or the United States of America (USA).
Many citizens of the USA have called Manitoulin their summer home for five generations or more, and many partners from each nation sealed the deal with marriages over those same centuries.
Perhaps most famously is that of Danny Dodge and his wife, Gore Bay’s Annie Laurine MacDonald, whose 1930s honeymoon here on Manitoulin unfortunately ended in a tragedy that has inspired both books and film after only 13 days of marriage—but less famously, at least to the outside world perhaps, was that of the late Doug Hore and his wife Marilee, whose 62 years of wedded bliss stand testament to those ties.
Visitors to Mr. Hore’s celebration of life this past Sunday included folks who had flown in from Philadelphia, Pennsylvania specifically to honour his memory. More than a few of those in attendance also hailed from communities south of the border.
Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney has famously suggested that the bonds of trust between our two nations have been irrevocably sundered—we beg to differ.
While our relations have been strained in a way that has not been seen since the War of 1812 (still a point of contention—we say we won that one, they say they won—we will agree to disagree) by the recent trade strategies of the current occupant of the White House our personal bonds remain strong.
It is saddening to hear one of our US residents, someone many of us consider to be friends and family, feel the need to apologize for the land of their birth and citizenship with pleas to “please don’t hold it against me.”
Politics may make for strange bedfellows, but more often than not, politics gets in the way of simple humanity.
That is why, despite the ongoing trade turmoil, despite the US president’s disrespectful assaults on our sovereignty, we still manage to remain, on a personal level, not only friends, but close friends. While in urban centres some might greet the singing of the Star-Spangled Banner at sporting events with jeers and catcalls, our visitors should know that we do not consider that kind of protest to be the true Canadian way and certainly not a “Manitoulin” thing—no matter how badly we feel about current events.
Our bond with our southern friends remains strong here on Manitoulin; in truth, not even strained. The vast majority of our US visitors (and certainly those who are Island residents) are the folks who know and understand our country better than those who have never made the journey North.
We will not let the vagaries of politics tear us apart. To be sure, we do appreciate those apologies offered up so often by US citizens when telling us where they are from, but for the vast majority of Manitouliners, be they Haweater or originally from away, also greet those apologies with a bit of unease, embarrassment really, as we find ourselves saddened that our friends and relatives feel it is necessary to offer them.
There remain rough waters ahead, at least for the next three years or so, but together we will endeavour to trim our sails and set out the sea anchors of our longstanding connections to weather this and any other storm.
We will not let politics tear our relationships asunder. We both have far too much invested in this relationship, far too much water under our respective bridges, to become adversaries.
So, we say to our visitors from the US, whether you come by boat, car or have lived here most of your live, you are welcome. Together we will get through these most trying of time.
