Canada South is a diamond-in-the-rough often mistakenly referred to as a lump of coal by the rest of Canada. The CBC doesn’t even include us on their national weather map. Like every community we have shortcomings for sure. The area is extremely left wing and not as enterprise friendly as it should be what with its outsized business taxes, ubiquitous law suits aimed at anything that moves, and a hub city (Windsor) that in the past has suffered from tremendously inept leadership.
The city council and mayor’s office over the past 15 years have spawned an endless list of costly white elephant real estate projects and a stunningly expensive leasing scandal. And the city still places its non competitive unionized workforce ahead of the needs of its taxpaying customers. Windsor’s 1960’s era infrastructure is starved for investment and maintenance while its overzealous meter maids ticket to the point of writer’s cramp. And our health care, with exception of eye surgery, is on a par with that of Cuba and Russia. But many other communities across Canada suffer from these same government driven shortcomings.
But, in spite of our negatives, Canada South remains a vibrant community which still enjoys one of the highest per capita incomes in Canada populated by a large, educated, and skilled workforce. We are the most southern area of a very cold Canada located on the same latitude as Spain, Portugal and Italy. Not surprising then that this region is one of the largest wine making areas of the country in addition to being the bread basket of Ontario with agricultural exports spanning the globe. And as for recreation and living, Canada South is surrounded by the Great Lakes and has one of the most affordable housing markets in Canada situated at the gateway to the U.S., the largest and most economically powerful market on earth. It doesn’t hurt either, that we enjoy a free trade agreement with these 300 million customers.
What the area needs is a dramatic marketing makeover. We should be the retirement capital of Canada for starters, and since we are the oldest European settled area of Ontario, tourists should be beating a path to this region. So lets hope that the leadership is found to begin changing the face of this much ignored, and unjustly maligned jewel locally referred to as the Miami Beach of Canada.
Mickey Moulder