A Year to Celebrate Frontenac County and Reveal its Weakness

Jeff Green | Dec 16, 2015

This year in the paper, we looked backwards many times, running a year-long series of articles to mark the 150th anniversary of Frontenac County. Many of the articles, which will continue into 2016, were based on interviews with people from our communities who made their lives in this part of the world when it was a different world.

At that time electricity was just coming in; communication infrastructure was just being developed; the world they lived in was smaller. But major global events, such as world wars, had an impact on their lives, and in the 1930s, people from all over Canada trudged up to meager farms near the K&P and CP railroad lines looking for a meal or a day's work. They came from the west and from the east, looking for something, and when they found there was no more here than anywhere else, they slipped onto the next train and carried on, never to return.

What also came out in those interviews is that although life in Frontenac County was harder than it is today, the communities were stronger in many ways. Because people travel constantly for work and shopping now, our villages are not the retail centers they used to be. Still, permits for $40 million in residential construction were taken out in Frontenac County this year, so people are investing in our county.

But Frontenac County still lacks an identity. For its 150th anniversary Frontenac County put on one minor and one major event. This stands in stark contrast to the scope and breadth of the 200th anniversary events set for the Township of Tay Valley and the Town of Perth in 2016, which will take place on almost a weekly basis.

The North Frontenac News was established 42 years ago to help bridge the gap between the communities in northern Frontenac County, and as the Frontenac News we have served southern and northern Frontenac for 18 years. The issues are the same throughout the county as they were in the north 42 years ago.

The ties of community are strong in and among the neighboring villages and hamlets, and week after week we publish stories about how we gather together to help each other and to celebrate with each other.

However, there is no coherence to Frontenac County; there is no overall community.

The county level of government is not where this kind of coherence will come, at least as it functions currently. Frontenac County is an upper-tier municipal institution, more concerned with institutional framework than the human level of politics, more adept with “best practices” and “accounting principles” than with building community.

My sense is that there is a lot of frustration at meetings of Frontenac County Council, as if it does not satisfy a need among its member politicians to really tackle the issues that brought them into municipal politics. After watching these meetings over the years, my conclusion is, more and more, that these issues do need to be tackled by the people at that table, but in some other way and in some other place.

It might be helpful if county politicians made some informal efforts outside the confines of the council. More might be accomplished with a phone call or a cup of coffee once in a while, than with a well-argued position at a council meeting.

But enough of that. We have enjoyed bringing you stories about the past, and the trials and tribulations of the present, this year, and I would like to thank all our advertisers, readers, staff members and volunteers for helping us put out another 50 editions this year.

In two weeks we will be back in the office to start putting another 50 out, and we hope everyone enjoys a good holiday as we enjoy our time off.