Feature Article February 20, 2003
LAND O' LAKES NewsWeb HomeContact Us
Another Quiet Revolutionby John MeiselWhen Canadians hear the words Quiet Revolution, they normally think of the enormous changes that, starting in the 1960s, transformed Quebec from a very traditional, inward looking community to a modern, bustling society. But other, less noticeable but equally far-reaching upheavals have been transforming the Canadian landscape. One of these is what we can call the Rural Revolution. I first came to what is now called Central Frontenac in the 1960s. The scenic and recreational features of the place brought us. These were so attractive that we soon settled here, although I continued working in Kingston. Our new neighbours, acquaintances and friends came from local areas. They and their immediate forefathers were mostly born here, and shared a farm background. Things are very different now. There are many new dwellings surrounding our erstwhile isolated home. Cottages have sprung up everywhere and some are now being upgraded to permanent residences, often to provide retirement havens. Secondly, the majority of the new people are not farmers or rural souls, but have varied urban occupational backgrounds. When we came here artists, craftspeople and professional folks were a real rarity, they now pepper the landscape, providing new seasoning. Seasonal inhabitants form another piece of the mosaic. Cottagers play an important role in the summer months. Many are becoming more deeply rooted here because they see their holiday home as the site on which present and future generations will continue enjoying an extended family life, something which is becoming increasingly difficult in crowded cities. A fourth important element is the retirees. They have come to like it here while cottaging and have decided to become permanent residents. Refugees from the traffic congestion, smelly air, high cost of housing and stress of urban, and particularly metropolitan life, form the fifth component of the new human equation. They find it more pleasant, healthier and cheaper here and flock to what are literally greener pastures. Finally, the younger generation whatever its antecedents -- is becoming a stakeholder in the newly emerging communities. Thoroughly comfortable in cyberspace, the Internet and Google, they form a constituency with its own interests, in part quite different from those of their parents and grandparents, and from the rural traditions which affected the latter. It is no exaggeration to call this metamorphosis a revolution. Old ways are being turned around so much that a new world is emerging. It is not fashioned according to a master plan, but is evolving out of the co-habitation and co-operation of both long-established and new groups. The old settler families are still here, as are their institutions churches, fraternal associations, political practices, family and other ties. They are the bedrock providing the base for the new order, which is being created without our being fully aware of it. Since the changes noted here have appeared gradually, we have coped with them on a piecemeal basis, and reasonably successfully. Our political and associational life is not marked by deep tensions. But it is nevertheless hard to escape the sense that in many areas, notably education, providing opportunities for youngsters, taking care of the elderly, economic life, environmental protection and even recreation, the new conditions call for conscious, innovative efforts to tackle problems.
The fact is that the Rural Revolution has transformed our human environment. We no longer live in a rural world, but in one in which rural and urban, local and world wide, traditional and new forces determine how we live. Our world is now rurban. Under these conditions we need to develop new skills, new procedures and new institutions required for the management of our collective lives. And these need to take into account, and orchestrate, the interests of the six sub communities identified above.
