It is quite amazing to think that Cornwall actually had a trolleybus system in the past. Its population has been more or less stagnant since the mid-80s, which I guess is not as bad as rust belt style double-digit population decline, but is still really bad given the insane growth in Ontario.
One thing about Cornwall is that while it was not alone in dealing with the effects of deindustrialization, unlike a lot of other places in Ontario there really wasn't a lot of things to fall back on. Cornwall doesn't have things like a university, or (I'm pretty sure) any large scale institutional or public sector employers (like the CRA in Sudbury), and it doesn't really have anything to attract tourists besides maybe stopping for McDonalds or Tim's on trips on the 401 or to the US. It was also too far from the GTA (and important transportation and trade routes in the US) to benefit from any agglomeration effects.
I also believe Cornwall was more connected economically to Montreal than the rest of Ontario (the major employers there like CIL and Domtar were based in Montreal), so a lot of the socioeconomic changes in the 70s and 80s wrt. Quebec's relationship to the rest of Canada probably hurt (I'm saying that Cornwall will never be Montreal's KW despite the similar distance) though I don't know the history here well enough to say anything definitive.
Also, Cornwall was a chemical industry town, and quite nasty chemical manufacturing as well. At one point it was one of the most polluted places in Canada, and there are still huge swathes of land there that are badly contaminated and would likely cost more to remediate properly than they're worth. Cornwall had a reputation as a smokestack town when I was a kid and that kind of reputation sticks.
A few years ago, when there was a whole political controversy over Doug Ford cancelling a plan to build Ontario's first wholly francophone university in Toronto, there was a lot of discussion about how Toronto was a poor choice to build a francophone university given how far it is from any of Ontario's francophone regions. And IIRC quite a few people suggested Cornwall as a potential new location, given their historical francophone community, the city's desperate need for an economic boost, and proximity to Montreal (for easier recruitment of professors and the like).
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"It is only because the control of the means of production is divided among many people acting independently that nobody has complete power over us, that we as individuals can decide what to do with ourselves." - Friedrich Hayek
Cool to see them turn the overpass sideways to let the boats through then watch the locks in operation. You know those who don't regularly see it are going to spectate. I think this was only the second time I've seen a manual crank one in action. I've seen the railway lock in Big Chute in action. I've seen the massive lift lock in Peterborough in action. The gigantic cargo ones in Welland and Thorold and lift bridges like the Burlington one and a few in Florida, but there something cool about seeing two dudes turn the wheel a few times, wait and repeat the process. Barely any effort and you can fill up a lock with water and open the big doors.
My old boss went with this friend from Midland to Whitby on the Trent Severn Waterway. Went through tonnes of locks. Would kill to go on a trip like that. When I was watching, it was three big boats, with one especially big, and it appeared they were all friends, probably from Quebec.
Also a pic of the two dudes manually lifting out the weeds from the river before going over the falls. Unlike in Almonte where they used the excavator on rails.
Last edited by megadude; Jul 24, 2024 at 10:58 AM.
Can't say that I've ever seen an honour system roadside coffee stand before. Plenty of honour system fire wood stands everywhere and lots of honour system produce, bakery and egg stands in Mennonite country, but this was a new one for me.
And I passed a lot of beautiful hotels on the trip, none more so than this Econo Lodge.
Thanks. There’s many I didn’t know about either and a couple small ones that weren’t on my itinerary because I didn’t notice them on the map and I just stumbled onto them.
I knew the towns around the grand river used stone extensively as building material, but I did not realize this for Eastern Ontario. For the bigger and more important towns and cities, sure, but small towns and random structure in the middle of nowhere was not on my radar.
I had basically never heard of Perth until a few years ago when I looked up a list of the most charming towns in Ontario. And I couldn't tell you the difference between say Brockville, Almonte, Merrickville and Perth. But yeah, Perth is next level. It's in that tier with Niagara on the Lake, Stratford and Elora. The first of these two are very popular in the GTA and SWO due to proximity but also because of the Stratford Festival and Shaw Festival. Lots of people attend plays there. And NOTL has the whole vineyards area thing and proximity to the Falls.
Elora is not as popular as the first two, but I have talked to people who have visited. I've never had anyone say to me that they've been to Perth or you should go visit Perth. Of course, that would be way more on the radar of Ottawa people than Toronto people.
Perth is 3:30 away from Toronto. The other three are between 1:15 and 1:30. That's the biggest reason.
Lol at that building with the Miami aesthetic. It's funny. I like it. And glad it's one street over and not on the main street.
Yep, Perth is just delightful. I haven't been there in years, but I remember it very well. There are few small towns that match or exceed Perth in terms of cosy charm.
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The whole problem with the world is that fools and fanatics are always so certain of themselves, and wiser people so full of doubts. (Bertrand Russell)
And I wonder if it's haunted, like this one is supposed to be in another smallish Ontario town that's part of the Niagara Region collection of places. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Merritton_Tunnel
Last edited by ScreamingViking; Jul 25, 2024 at 3:45 AM.
Never been to Perth but it looks like a nice place to visit.
On a semi-related note, basically only since it was mentioned, Stratford is in Perth County.
Lots of same names in Ontario. I suppose because it's big and goes way back. So far back that when people were naming places they weren't aware those names were used elsewhere.
There's Durham the town and Durham Region (formerly County) that are hours apart. Simcoe County and Simcoe the town are hours apart. The beach I went to on Sunday is called Thunder Beach, located on Thunder Bay, which is part of Lake Huron, as opposed to the city of Thunder Bay on Lake Superior.
There are also tonnes of lakes named Little Lake (there's three half hour apart in Barrie, Midland and Severn), Island Lake, Bass Lake, Trout Lake, etc.
There are also tonnes of lakes named Little Lake (there's two half hour apart in Midland and Severn), Island Lake, Bass Lake, Trout Lake, etc.
Many duplicate+ river names too:
The Black River.
Mississippi and Little Mississippi.
Beaver.
Caribou.
Indian.
Gull.
Fox.
Sturgeon.
Montreal.
Whitefish.
Poplar.
I imagine it got a bit confusing for trappers, though they probably brought their skins to the local buyer who knew which river they had plied.
Some random places between Perth and Tweed along the twisty road recommended to me. There was a 15 minute stretch of no cell signal. I did indeed heed the advice of filling up before and grabbing some grub too. No food or gas along the way. Some houses and cottages and lakes. I imagine some island cottages too.Some people would like that in a getaway. No connection to the rest of the world.
This is the place where the teens jumping off the bridge looked at me suspiciously and then one followed me from a distance back to my car and shouted out my licence plate and car make to her friends while I was getting in to leave.
This one was a surprise. There was some nice landscaping in the park and around the river. And the multiple diagonal streets made it interesting. And confusing at the lights.
As you'd expect, the river in Perth is the Tay. In Stratford, it's the Avon.
I didn't even know that. For most of the rivers I was passing over in towns, I didn't know the names. I know I heard of the Mississippi River being in Ontario, but didn't know I was around that until I saw it on signage
There is Tay Township in Simcoe County. Located on the shores of Georgian Bay. And I see there is a town called Tay Valley beside Perth.
And I wonder if it's haunted, like this one is supposed to be in another smallish Ontario town that's part of the Niagara Region collection of places. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Merritton_Tunnel
reminds me of the Screaming Tunnel (featured in "The Dead Zone" movie), in Niagara Falls, Ontario.
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The whole problem with the world is that fools and fanatics are always so certain of themselves, and wiser people so full of doubts. (Bertrand Russell)
Perth (Scotland) is also nice. Original home of Scone Palace, crowing place of Scottish Kings (and the famous Stone of Scone, seen below). I visited with my family about 5 years ago.
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The whole problem with the world is that fools and fanatics are always so certain of themselves, and wiser people so full of doubts. (Bertrand Russell)
Loving the continued tour - great stuff! Perth is certainly one of the better towns in the area and I remember going there a decent amount when I lived in Ottawa. Not sure if you've made it to Almonte but it also has a reputation in the Ottawa Valley as being one of the more vibrant places. I have quite a few friends from the town and there used to be a pretty big music scene (for a small town at least), heavily tilted towards punk/post-hardcore type stuff. Propagandhi even played there the night before an Ottawa gig in the late 90s.
This past weekend we drove through Tweed on the way back from Bancroft and took some back roads instead of the highway. These rural parts of Eastern Ontario are pretty densely populated though it's not as noticeable on the 401/416. Lots of "ghost towns" too - places bigger than 4 corners, not abandoned (houses seem occupied) but in the sense that most of the commercial buildings are gone or a place that could have been larger but just never grew in favour of other towns. A few we went through:
Yeah, Almonte is one or two pages back. I was pleasantly surprised by how nice it was. I stopped on the river to cast a few times and talked to two anglers practicing fly flshing. They came up from Ottawa for the day.
Virtually all the towns I stopped in that had a main street was at the very least pretty decent. Pretty low vacancy. Good to see. You can tell there's a great deal of pride to keep things looking pretty or at least maintained. Those smaller "settlements" that had a handful of businesses at most, that were spread out, those were the ones that had abandoned places. Actually, some were probably still operational but kind of looked abandoned. It makes for an interesting aesthetic when observing, but you'd rather they be fixed up and functioning if you lived there. I always wonder about the back story. And who owns it at the moment, paying property tax on it to sit empty. Are there any plans at all?
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