From the President's Pen: When It Comes To Brantford, Been Down So Long It Looks Like Up To Me

Since the last newsletter I have visited theSouth Bruce Grey branch, speaking at the ACO's biggest asset, the Victoria Jubilee Hall, and touring a part of Ontario that I did not know very well at all. Then on Saturday I was in Brantford, a town I sometimes feel that I know too well, having spent much of last year in the battle to save the south side of Colborne Street. Visiting the site of this vandalism, one has a dramatic vista of a casino, a parking garage and a shopping plaza, I could only shake my head. (I am told that supporters of the demo say how great it is to see the river again, but I just saw a sea of parking, not a hint of river)

On the other hand, the town has a dynamic new mayor who came to our meeting and said all the right things. Chris Friel claims to be a supporter of heritage, is implementing a new heritage plan, has put ACO members on the Heritage Committee and was all round a great sport at the meeting.

Yet the municipally owned Cockshutt Building, future home of the Canadian Industrial Heritage Museum, continues to rot. If we could see some visible progress there, it would be more proof that Brantford really has turned a corner.

But sitting in that fabulous restored Carnegie Library, with so many heritage activists doing such a great job putting on what I think was the best meeting of my term, convinces me that, yes, at last, things are looking up in Brantford.