April 2010 editorial: Why are we like that?

 

By Brian Lee

When people ask what it is about Pender Harbour and Egmont that seems to foster a distinct identity from the rest of the Coast, it’s hard to answer. There’s the quick response ― inbreeding, which usually gets a good laugh from anyone who wasn’t born here, but there’s something else too.

The other day I was asked by a senior member of the SCRD staff why Area A residents are so emotionally attached to their landfill. I know his genuine confusion is shared by others down there because the topic came up repeatedly during board discussions.

It’s an important question because the lack of a short answer has fostered the misconception that Area A residents misunderstand the issue or haven’t "evolved," and that’s made it morally palatable to decide on our behalf. But I think his question is part of a larger one that looks to understand what forms our collective identity and why we’re so protective of it.

That evening I attended "Quiz Nite" at the Legion ― a fundraiser for two local families suffering from medical problems.  As I sipped my beer and looked around I thought about his question. There were close to a hundred people in the hall but it seemed as intimate as a dinner party. People were joking with one another across the room and there was a general feeling of familiar ease. It made me feel good ― like I was among family. (Insert inbreeding joke here.)

It’s hard to deny we are still a close-knit community that cares for one another. And that unity is enhanced by the distance that separates us from the rest of the Sunshine Coast. There’s a certain vulnerability associated with being geographically separated from the centres of population and it creates a bond of self-reliance. It’s a bond under constant threat from those who might not share the same values.

There’s an uneasy fear of a northward-creeping bureacracy that makes it illegal to have a backyard fire or requires a permit to cut "any woody plant which is 3 metres (9.84 ft.) or more in height."

We’re a rural area that likes it that way and every time we’re forced into the lower Coast’s system, it chips away at our identity. It’s not that we want to root in our own garbage but that we want to be responsible for it; to have some control over our future.

There are some who say we should embrace our inclusion as a colour in the SCRD rainbow but, as nice as that sounds, maybe it’s impractical. And maybe it’s not that we need to "evolve" but that we already have, and that’s made our divergent interests such that future conflict is inevitable ― and we need to complete the process.

Are we a distinct community or "a child needing to be told to take his flu shot?"

It’s difficult to say and, as in my response to the SCRD staffer, I’m pretty sure I’ve failed to answer convincingly.

If you have any ideas, send them along.

Comments

[Beverly Saunders]

Brian, great comments on Area A's individuality. Interestingly, Loys Maingon's column, Sustainable Values in this week's Sustainable Coast magazine, addresses the same topic. He discusses how the lack of diversity can lead to social and economic poverty. "Unlike the evolutionary sustainability paradigm, official “sustainability” does not increase the number of interactions and relationships characteristic of real rural life. It reduces them. Actual rural life creates and fosters the rare creative dynamism of individualism."
I urge you and your readers to read his column at: www.sustainablecoast.ca.