{"id":1006,"date":"2018-05-10T12:56:47","date_gmt":"2018-05-10T16:56:47","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/alanskeoch.ca\/?p=1006"},"modified":"2018-05-10T13:54:52","modified_gmt":"2018-05-10T17:54:52","slug":"fwd-welcome-to-port-credit-let-the-good-times-roll-what-we-have-here-is-a-love-in-port-credit","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/alanskeoch.ca\/?p=1006","title":{"rendered":"Fwd: WELCOME TO PORT CREDIT: LET THE GOOD TIMES ROLL: WHAT WE HAVE HERE IS A LOVE IN….PORT CREDIT"},"content":{"rendered":"

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Begin forwarded message:<\/div>\n


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From: <\/b><\/span>SKEOCH <alan.skeoch@rogers.com<\/a><\/a>>
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Subject: <\/b><\/span>WELCOME TO PORT CREDIT: LET THE GOOD TIMES ROLL: WHAT WE HAVE HERE IS A LOVE IN….PORT CREDIT<\/b>
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Date: <\/b><\/span>May 9, 2018 at 10:50:29 AM EDT
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To: <\/b><\/span>Alan Skeoch <alan.skeoch@rogers.com<\/a><\/a>>
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LET THE GOOD  TIMES ROLL

alan skeoch
May 2018
(speech May 9, Clarke Hall, extolling virtues of Port Credit)<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/blockquote>\n

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What he have here today is a LOVE IN.  At least I hope that is what\u2019d will happen.  There is going to be plenty of time for problems\u2026and there
are lots of problems facing Port Credit in future months and years.   Our population will swell \u2026 some low estimates say 10,000\u2026and one high
estimate is 58,000 new residents will arrive along the whole Mississauga lakefront.     People are coming.  This is not Fort apache\u2026not the Alamo\u2026not L\u2019Anse aux Meadows.  We are not circling the wagons.
We are saying welcome.  We want newcomers to love our community as  we do.
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So, Today we are extolling the virtues of Port Credit.  Doing so in the hope\u2026no, in the belief, that our new residents will share and protect our community.

What is worth protecting\u2026what do do we love about our home \u2026 our village by the Lake.

“How much do I love thee,
Let me count the ways\u201d
    (borrowed  from poet Robert Browning)
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1) First and foremost is our river\u2026the Credit river…the curving spine that winds through our city and terminates here in Port Credit.
A few years ago I  wrote a book extolling the virtues  of the Credit River.  WHERE THE RIVER SPEAKS   But let me be brief
-love watching the fisher people on its banks
-love watching the rowers and paddlers\u2026young people honing olympic  skills
-love seeing the power boats in harbour
-love the fishing derbies
-love the fact that not far out in the Lake\u2026200 feet down\u2026there are schools of salmon as there have always been
-love seeing the great snapping turtles emerging to lay their eggs from our railway bridge to the QEW bridge
-love the wildlife\u2026beaver, muskrats,  deer, foxes, coyotes, mink, \u2014 just above above the railway bridge\u2026a highway of  wetland for living things
-love seeing those sleek Go Trains rocketing over our upside down railway bridge
-love the fact we have a large public park along the banks of the river
-love that our library is in that park
-love that we have huge public celebrations annually on the banks of the river
-even love the fact that our last vestige of commercial fishing days lies hidden behind a derelict house on the west bank
-love the fact our public ice arena is  close by the river
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-love the times when an early freeze up makes our river a mile long skating rink.
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2) Love Our Waterfront on Lake Ontario\u2026much of which is publicly accessible
-love the sunrise vista on a summer day
-love the angry waves on a winter day with slabs of ice smashing the shoreline
-love seeing the flights of water birds zipping along in flocks and alone\u2026
-love the occasional discovery of fossils in our tiny shingle beaches\u2026speaks to a time deep in the past when we were at the bottom of a vast inland sea
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-love the wind surfers, the stand up paddlers, the sailors,  the sleek cigarette boats; the porcupine looking fishing trawlers
-love to reminisce about those days long gone when different boats  were on the water\u2026
    -Love to think about Lorne Joyce aboard his father’s fishing boat heading for those islands in the middle of Lake Ontario\u2026and returned  ice encrusted with a load of whitefish.
    -Love the bootleggers who  hid their crates of booze in gunny sacks near the old  lighthouse in Prohibition days
    -Love to imagine that broken down schooner, the Lillian, with its crew levering great slabs of shale as building foundations for Toronto
-love the wreck of the Ridgetown resting immobile where river and  lake meet.
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3)  Love our First Nation connection…Barely visible though it be
-Love to imagine the banks of our river, at the river mouth where for hundreds of years indigenous people gathered\u2026set up tents\u2026gossiped\u2026procreated
-Love to be  reminded that  Port Credit was native land longer than it has been our land.
      -some time ago I wrote a book titled YOUR HOME ON NATIVE LAND that extolled those First Nation years…tragic and betrayed years in many ways
      -Love  their values especially the concept of \u2018sharing\u201d\u2026Canada\u2019s native people had deep trouble understanding the difference between owning and sharing
      -Fences in those early years of European settlement were hard for them to understand\u2026as was greed.  
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(PAUSE: \u2026Consider these two words:<\/div>\n

                GREED?  Everyone say \u201cMy, my,  my, my, mine, me, me, me\u201d\u2026that should open up our minds a bit.)<\/div>\n
                SHARE?  Now everyone say \u201cWe, we, we, we, our, our, our, our, share, share, share.\u201d)
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4) Love Our Village\u2026the commercial community\u2026the shops, restaurants\u2026even the place where men smoke big cigars  in easy chairs.
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-I asked three young 15 year old boys what they loved best about Port Credit \u2026 they said three things immediately
   – \u201cThe winding trails\u2026room for bicycles\u2026and the stores\u2019\u2026they didn\u2019t mention the girls but next day  I saw them
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     socializing with three females\u2026.love Port Credit as a meeting place.
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John, Jackson, Sean , three Grade Ten boys living in Port Credit\u2026interviewed<\/div>\n

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   -Love the fact that 3 fifteen year old boys loved the village\u2026the streetscape.
  -Love the people mixing together on our sidewalks\u2026all ages\u2026all origins\u2026a vertical community<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/blockquote>\n

    -Love to eat and drink in Port Credit\u2026from a dollar cup of coffee to a $400 dinner for eight\u2026and  everything in between.
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  -Love The Farmers Market
  -Love the churches of all denominations…distinctive architecture that breaks the straight line severity of the apartment buildings.
  -Love the designated  Heritage village on the west bank
  -Love the night life when neon replaces the sun and  people relax on street benches or inside our bars.
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    -Love the music of those summer nights


    The are the men and the horse that paved Lakeshore Road.  No more muddy streets. 
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5) -Love our public parks
  -In many ways  we are a community still surrounded by fields on all sides and in our centre
  -the Adamson estate on the east
  -the rhododendron park on the west
  -Love Confederation park in the centre
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    -Love our huge lakefront park on the west bank<\/p><\/div>\n

   -Love our long cement spit where people stroll on the east bank
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6) Love our Festivals
-Love Busker Days\u2026salespeople  of a different sort.
-Love Paint the Town Red parade where thousands gather dressed  in Canadian  flags
-Love the Waterfront festival where fake Blues  Brothers entertain in the midst of blues, jazz, folk, rock bands of all hues
-Love the Fishing Derby even though I never fish.

7) Love our connection to Jane Jacobs\u2026a livable village with a ferment of human activity\u2026on foot\u2026ON FOOT!
-Love our Wide sidewalks with lots of room for diversity as Jane would  admire\u2026perhaps even where restaurants seem  to usurp the public space.
-Love People watching\u2026Humanity  of nosiness\u2026certainly so in Port Credit at all times of day
-Love the architecture that stresses Windows on the Street… facilitates people watching\u2026

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   WELCOME TO ALL:<\/p><\/div>\n


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Young men outside the Port Credit Post Office around  1925.   <\/div>\n

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\u201cWhat are these men and boys staring at?\u201d<\/div>\n
\u201cThe radial street car has just arrived  from Toronto.\u201d<\/div>\n
\u201cSo?\u201d<\/div>\n
\u201cSo there are young women on the street car.\u201d<\/div>\n
\u201cSo\u201d\u201d<\/div>\n
\u201cIt is  a  long step from the street car to the road.:<\/div>\n
\u201cSo?\u201d<\/div>\n
\u201cSo when they stop down they show a bit of their legs and stockings.\u201d<\/div>\n
\u201cSo?\u201d<\/div>\n
\u201cSo, mixing of the sexes has long been a part of our village<\/div>\n

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-Love the fact that Port Credit has been a welcoming village for a long time.<\/div>\n

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 And if you are a newcomer to Port Credit, we say welcome\u2026like the Mississauga First Nation people\u2026we  want to share
our community with you\u2026and we hope and pray the concept of sharing has equal place with the concept of owning.

alan skeoch
May 2018

Detail:  An excellent research paper was done by Frarm Sloker \u2026 developers \u2026back in 2006 \u2026draws a  profile of
our population a decade ago when Port Credit was converting from a formerly small industrial village into\u2019a high
end residential community.
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<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Begin forwarded message: From: SKEOCH <alan.skeoch@rogers.com> Subject: WELCOME TO PORT CREDIT: LET THE GOOD TIMES ROLL: WHAT WE HAVE HERE IS A LOVE IN….PORT CREDIT Date: May 9, 2018 at 10:50:29 AM EDT To: Alan Skeoch <alan.skeoch@rogers.com> LET THE GOOD  TIMES ROLLalan skeochMay 2018(speech May 9, Clarke Hall, extolling virtues of Port Credit) What he […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1006","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/alanskeoch.ca\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1006","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/alanskeoch.ca\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/alanskeoch.ca\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/alanskeoch.ca\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/alanskeoch.ca\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=1006"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/alanskeoch.ca\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1006\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/alanskeoch.ca\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=1006"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/alanskeoch.ca\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=1006"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/alanskeoch.ca\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=1006"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}