I have a hobby that has taken me to Tofino many times over the years and I always compare the situation there with ours. Like Pender Harbour, Tofino was once a thriving fishing and logging community full of local character and historical pride. It just happened to have this national park nearby that the locals had to drive through to get home.
The place had always attracted a few visitors but nobody ever really paid it much attention until the numbers of those visitors started to affect the way of life many had taken for granted. The influx of people coincided with a decline in the fishing industry so there were lots of people ready to accommodate this land-based bounty; deckhands became whale watching guides and so on.
At first, locals were happy to have a few extra people around to fill the tables at the local pub or coffee shop but then a few spirited entrepreneurs moved in and set up new businesses. And then some more people came and bought houses and, again, locals were happy because somebody just paid Uncle Bob four times what he’d paid for his house only six years ago. Suckers. We’ll buy back in when the prices go back down.
You know what happens next, I presume. The locals aren’t happy anymore. Fancy urban shops advertising outdoor designer wear, ubiquitous local art galleries, whale watching and surfboard rental businesses scream at you from everywhere you look.
It’s a plastic consumerism that seems out of place and foreign. Paradise paved again and the tension’s causing a West Coast apartheid. When a local sells you a muffin in a coffee-shop, (like here, natural law dictates that locals and tourists can always spot each other) there’s a palpable wariness that seems to say "I’ll put up with you but don’t get in my way."
It’s a bitterness borne out of loss but, so far, that’s where Tofino and Pender Harbour differ. I don’t see the same ugly attitude towards visitors here yet.
Sure we wish things could go back to the old days sometimes but tourists bring money and add a welcome change to the scenery. After a winter of staring at the same 20 cars in the Madeira Shopping centre, it’s fun to sip a coffee and watch the cotton-headed motorhomers try to parallel park in front of the Harbour Spirit. I’d like to think we’re a friendlier, more tolerant community that welcomes our summer visitors.
Or maybe we’re just where Tofino was 15 years ago, complacent that we’d never let it get that far.
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