editionap.ca NEWS The nursery that grew
Exodus averted
“Well, it looks like we will not be m oving in with y ou after all.” The m essage fro m south of the 49 th parallel arrived a few m inutes after Barack Oba m had been re-elected. The President’s victor y touched off a wide range of responses, on both sides of t Canada-U.S. border. A sense of relief was shared b y all when the inter m inable ca m paign finall y ended. So m e had special reasons to be pleased with the outco m e, since a win b y the Repu licans m a y have caused a m ajor alteration in living arrange m ents. Seriousl y . So m e nervous A m ericans were so worried about the prospect of the R publicans reclai m ing the White House that the y had begun conte m plating a m ove Canada. If the Mitt Ro m ne y -Paul R y an ticket had prevailed, certain left-leaning Yan were prepared to pack up and head north. Occasionall y , whenever the Oba m a ca m paign faltered, there would be queries, pro ing for details about life in the Great White North. “Is it reall y , reall y cold up there in Ju Do y ou get all the sa m e TV stations we receive down here? What about wireless? Is D Cherr y reall y the Pri m e Minister?” So, fortunatel y , an Oba m a-Joe Biden win annulled a m igration of A m erican refuge and averted a frantic atte m pt to clean up that spare bedroo m in order to acco mm oda the poor wretches fleeing the GOP, y earning to breathe free. During the pre-election long-distance Canada 101 orientation, it had beco m e cle that a transition to Canadian life would not have been onerous for our neighbours. Sure, the y have bland currenc y and wi m p y football rules. (Co m e on -- four downs m ove a ball ten y ards and the “fair catch” rule?) Yet, we have so m an y things in co mm o To paraphrase a once-fa m ous politician, we can al m ost see parts of New York State fro our y ards. Plus, based on certain trends in the Ho m e of the Brave, A m ericans are beco m ing m o like Canadians, and it is not onl y because the U.S.A. turns out so m e great hocke y pla y e In the m ost recent election, three states endorsed sa m e-sex m arriage and two sta supported the legalization of m arijuana. But the y reall y have to do so m ething about their voting m ethods. Re m e m ber t hanging chads? (No, that is not a rock group.) This ti m e around, voters in m an y sta waited in line all da y to cast ballots. The solution? Use the Internet and phone s y ste m s that we have been using here m unicipal and school board elections for y ears. Speaking of shared experiences, the m ost recent earth tre m or, which was centr near Hawkesbur y , registered 4.2 on the Richter Scale here and 3.7 in New York Sta Facebook users on both sides of the international divide were up and posting shor after 4 a. m . Although this was considered to be a “ m inor” seis m ic event, it did not see all that har m less when the world shook for a few seconds. How was it for y ou? Prett y frightening, according to the social m edia traffic. Speaking of frights, considering the huge a m ounts of ti m e, m one y and creativit y th are being used to celebrate Halloween, wh y not organize a Halloween decoration co test? There could be town and countr y divisions. Prizes would be awarded for the scari and m ost original displa y s. Extra points would be awarded for the m ost innovative u of pu m pkins and corn stalks, and entrants that focused on local and organic product The Place Speaking of local resources, check out what has happened at Place des Pionniers Hawkesbur y , where the downtown park has been transfor m ed into a war m and liv “garden.” With the help of the m unicipalit y , Jardin des Pionniers m anagers Do m iniq Carrière and Ovila David Huard have given new life to the space which has never qu lived up to its billing. Re m e m ber that when it first opened, the Place was to beco m The Place to be, a gathering place for locals, a showcase for talent, a m agnet for touris consu m ers, and their dollars. OK, so Ro m e wasn’t built in a da y . But Le Jardin can help counter the atroph y that has beset the downtown busine core. Carrière and Huard obviousl y have the necessar y talent and energ y to m ake t space flourish. However, Le Jardin will need constant nurturing, and the continu backing of the m unicipalit y , if La Place des Pionniers is to realize its potential. Shifting gears...how is y our infrastructure? The Federation of Canadian Municipalities has launched The Great Canadian Inf structure Challenge initiative “to bring Canadians into the conversation about m unicip infrastructure and its i m portance in our da y -to-da y lives.” Visit FCMchallenge.ca. “We know that Canadians have bus y lives and don’t have a lot of ti m e to talk abo fixing roads and water pipes, but in the next few m onths the federal govern m ent w be m aking critical decisions that will affect Canada’s infrastructure for the future. It’ once-in-a-generation opportunit y we cannot afford to m iss and we need all Canadia to be involved in the debate,” said FCM president Karen Leibovici. Decisions taken b y our govern m ents in 2013 will affect the 2014 federal infrastructu invest m ent strateg y . All of this m a y see m re m ote, or even worse -- boring. But this see m ingl y m undane process will deter m ine whether y our m unicipalit y w have the m one y to fix a road or replace a culvert. So take a few m o m ents to conve about infrastructure.
Photo Richard Mahone y
Claire Diamond and Marie Pageau Handfield remember the founding of the service. 1972. The structure was m odest – it was fashioned fro m two portable classroo m s fro m the for m er Vankleek Hill Public School.
Richard.mahoney@eap.on.ca VANKLEEK HILL | Four decades ago, a group of citizens approached Vankleek Hill council about the establish m ent of a new day care progra m . So m e council m e m bers “thought it was a craz y idea,” re m e m bers Cha m plain Town- ship Ma y or Gar y Barton. At the ti m e, the notion of a public da y care service was con- sidered to be avant-gardiste. But a group of citizens, led b y residents including Claire Dia m ond, convinced the council to proceed with the erection of the building on Derb y Avenue in Septe m ber,
“We are luck y to have it,” noted Barton. With the help of subsidies fro m the On- tario govern m ent, Cha m plain Township continued to support the service when Vankleek Hill beca m e part of the new m u- nicipalit y in 1998. It re m ains one of the few such progra m s in eastern Ontario that receives direct support fro m a m unicipalit y . At the start, three e m plo y ees cared for 25 children. Over the y ears, the Pre-Ma- ternelle Vankleek Hill Da y Nurser y grew, recalled coordinator Marie Pageau Hand- field during celebrations m arking the 40 th anniversar y of the service last week. Toda y , 35 e m plo y ees care for 271 chil- dren at various locations in the township. “Through the y ears, the needs of the parents changed and the Nurser y school evolved into a full-ti m e da y care,” noted Pageau Handfield, who has worked at the centre for 22 y ears. “Those parents who got involved in 1972 had a vision and were co mm itted to providing adequate services to all the children in the area and we have kept this vision alive.” Toda y , the Cha m plain da y care services offer full da y care to 30 children at L’ Atel- ier des Petits in L’Orignal and 49 children at Garderie Cha m plain, school-age da y - care services to 16 children at École St- Grégoire, 27 at CECLC St-Jude, Vankleek Hill, 52 at St-Jean-Baptiste in L’Orignal and earl y childhood progra m s for 62 children at St. Jude’s and 35 at St-Jean-Baptiste. Since Septe m ber 18, 1972, the da y care/ nurser y School has served approxi m atel y 3,000 fa m ilies and m ore than 4,000 chil- dren. “We are a unique part of the area’s co m - m unit y living. We serve parents who are labourers, doctors, owners, office workers, and m ore. Most, if not all of our parents, work in the area and are m ajor pla y ers in the co mm unit y . In this da y and age, with the econo my as it is in Prescott-Russell, fa m ilies need two inco m es to survive. Long gone are the da y s where Mo m sta y ed ho m e to care for the children. Parents de- pend on our services ever y working da y . So m e have no other fa m il y in the area to handle e m ergencies and m ore than once a week, we are called upon to help the m deal with different situations,” relates Pageau Handfield.
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