By Brian Lee
Most of the people I meet these days are through e-mail. It’s an efficient way to communicate but doesn’t really leave you with a sense of a person’s character. Not that it stops me from judging. I’ve made all kinds of assumptions about people in this town through their grammar and spelling alone.
People who type in all caps and use unnecessary exclamation? Type A egomaniacs.
Papyrus font? Flaky new ager.
Incapable of assessing digital file quality?
Just about everyone!!!
Circumstances related to getting this little nuisance off to the printer each month don’t give me a lot of time for personal interaction so I accept the trade-off. But while delivering canvas prints of whales chasing dolphins, I recently had the opportunity to meet a hidden segment of the community. It gave me a brief glimpse into what looks to be a bright future.
I’ll call them "transitionals" because they all seem to have one thing in common. They’re couples who, while looking ahead to retiring here, haven’t been able to pull it off yet. They have one foot in the Harbour and the other in Vancouver, the States or even Europe. They were friendly and intelligent people, genuinely interested in unlocking more of the area’s secrets. I left each meeting wondering how many more like them are quietly waiting to adopt our community full-time.
Unfortunately, they sometimes get a bum rap. The widening gulf between our summer and winter populations often stirs up resentment towards those able to cream off the summer. It’s a little ironic because many of the folks I met wish they could stay all year.
And soon they will. When they do, they’ll bring with them varying degrees of financial comfort and a wealth of skills and experience.
Just about every one of them bubbled with a passion for the area that reminded me, once again, how much we on the Sunshine Coast (heck, I’ll even include Powell River for now) take it for granted. Sure, a couple of full-time winters will beat that out of them but it’s still nice to witness.
Two of the couples even mentioned they’d like to bring their businesses with them and why not? It’s easy to get wrapped up looking for the magic pill — an instant economic generator that will return us to the heyday we’re all nostalgic for. It’s unlikely Microsoft will ever relocate to Francis Peninsula but a lot of smaller companies might.
And though I’d encourage newcomers to consider relocating their business here, most won’t be interested — they’re looking to slow down. But folks like that won’t sit still for long and I see a bounty of experience soon available to bolster our volunteer-dependent infrastructure.
Who knows why they choose to come here but it’s reassuring to know our community still attracts good people.
Just like it always has.
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