{"id":17319,"date":"2017-05-17T11:55:32","date_gmt":"2017-05-17T15:55:32","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/?p=17319"},"modified":"2017-05-17T11:55:32","modified_gmt":"2017-05-17T15:55:32","slug":"brocks-banter-you-gotta-get-a-gimmick","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/brocks-banter-you-gotta-get-a-gimmick\/","title":{"rendered":"BROCK’S BANTER: You gotta get a gimmick"},"content":{"rendered":"

By Brock Weir<\/strong><\/p>\n

Mother\u2019s Day around my house usually follows a pattern or two.
\nBefore my maternal grandmother died in 2012, it was usually a day in which my family was required to pay her homage. Since her passing, however, the day can be best described with two words: road trip!
\nThis year, my mom had a particular objective in mind. After visiting it for the first time in decades on her birthday earlier this spring, she wanted a return engagement to a very nice restaurant on Toronto Island, spending the day poking around everything the islands have to offer \u2013 or, after the recent flooding, whatever is left.
\nBy the time Mother\u2019s Day rolled around, she figured mid-May would offer ideal patio weather.
\nWell, so much for that theory. As it became clear that mid-May was ultimately going to be mid-Mayn\u2019t, the reservations were duly cancelled and it was back to the drawing board.
\nShortly thereafter, however, a potentially fun excursion presented itself in the form of a military event in Goderich to mark the special and ongoing relationship between Canada and The Netherlands, one that has endured since the Liberation of Holland in 1945.
\nGoderich\u2019s festivities were to feature a special visit from the Dutch Princess Margriet and her husband.
\nThis particular Princess, as many Canadians know, has a special connection to our country, having been born at what was then Ottawa Civic Hospital when her mother, the pregnant future Queen Juliana, sought refuge with her daughters in our Nation\u2019s Capital after the Nazi invasion.
\nTo ensure Juliana\u2019s child could remain in the Line of Succession, the government of the day declared the delivery room territory of the Dutch Embassy so the Princess was technically born on her native soil right in the heart of Canada.
\nAs a special thank you not only for the Liberation, but also for providing safe harbour to the Royal Family, the Netherlands continue to donate hundreds of thousands of tulip bulbs to Canada each and every year.
\nHer story has become a piece of Canadian historical folklore. Case in point: As a student at Carleton University in Ottawa, I twice had occasion to sit in that particular hospital for an interminable time waiting to be seen.
\nOver the estimated total of 14 hours I spent there, the Princess\u2019 birth came up no less than three times.
\nSo, come Sunday, with the added attraction of taking in Lake Huron, Goderich was duly plugged into the GPS.
\nA beautiful drive awaited us on that chilly-but-sunny Mother\u2019s Day. With no reason to take a 400-series highway, it was a wonderful opportunity to pass through towns and villages known to us only from road signs and roadmaps. Then there were those whose very existence was news to us.
\nThere were long stretches of greenery, expanses of open fields, herds of cattle to pass, flocks of sheep, several heads of horses, and, truth be told, even a pack of camels.
\nThere were settlements of thousands, hamlets of only a few buildings, but each had their own charms.
\nRegional signs proclaimed \u201cOntario\u2019s West Coast,\u201d presumably referring to Lake Huron. A sign for a village proclaimed itself, slightly prematurely, as \u201ca former ghost town.\u201d And Goderich?
\nWell, the Princess and her husband were late for the first ceremony of the afternoon.
\nNearly half an hour after her scheduled arrival, the emcee came out on stage, holding onto his baseball cap in the blustery wind, to warm up the increasingly blustery crowd.
\nHe had a patter which seemed time-tested.
\nAfter approaching the microphone, he gave a royal status update and an introduction to the Mayor of Goderich which, he proclaimed to be \u2013 as it says on their Town markers \u2013 to be \u201cThe Prettiest Town in Canada.\u201d
\nApparently this was the cue for the locals to cheer wildly. And they did \u2013 but evidently not loud enough for the emcee\u2019s taste, so this exercise was repeated three more times before the royal arrival.
\nBy the fourth ovation, I started to think there was a common thread to the sites we had passed through earlier in the day: every town has a gimmick.
\nGoderich is not far off the mark. It is a beautiful town. It has a lovely and unique octagonal main street with an equally beautiful courthouse as its focal point.
\nOrangeville, our first port of call that morning, has rebranded its main street with a focus on the arts.
\nWingham has a main drag with some very unique examples of architecture.
\nAnd Wroexter? Well, if their Welcome To signs are anything to go by, it\u2019s still working on that whole \u201cformer ghost town\u201d thing.
\nThe point is, each place we encountered, had its own angle, its own draw, and its own sense of identity.
\nOn the drive back, I couldn\u2019t help but wonder how Aurora will fare in the identity stakes two or three years down the road.
\nIndeed, we could start getting an idea of the shape of things to come sooner rather than later with possible dramatic transformations up for grabs over the next few weeks.
\nBy the end of this month, plans to radically transform Aurora\u2019s historic Downtown Core with a new Aurora United Church and seven-storey seniors\u2019 residence could be firmed up.
\nWhether you believe the proposed development will be a \u201cjewel\u201d in Aurora\u2019s crown or a precedent-setting move with the potential to throw all of Aurora\u2019s heritage planning out the window, there seem to be very few disinterested bystanders in how this will ultimately shake down.
\nThe decision, one way or another, will be felt for generations to come.
\nAs will the discussions set to take place this week and next on Library Square.
\nOkay, so tacking additions onto the rear-ends of the Aurora Cultural Centre and Victoria Hall, and throwing a water feature into the middle of a new parking lot aren\u2019t exactly revolutionary concepts, but this could all be temporary.
\nPresuming a parking lot is approved to take the place of the former Aurora Public Library and Seniors\u2019 Centre buildings on Victoria Street by the end of next week\u2019s Council meeting (and, no, I\u2019m not placing any money whatsoever on this being brought in for a landing by the May 23 Council meeting, let\u2019s be clear) there is still an option to replace this parking lot with something more useful down the road; something that is a draw, something which could become a focal point and, yes, even a gimmick.
\nA parking lot will undoubtedly provide some temporary relief, but a well-planed amenity could stand the test of time. Aurora\u2019s historic downtown core is bleeding with a mass exodus to the west. Nobody wants the downtown core to become anything close to a ghost town because, if that does come to pass, I really don\u2019t think we can look to Wroexter for tips on rejuvenation! <\/p>\n\"Facebook\"<\/a>\"twitter\"<\/a>\"mail\"<\/a>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

By Brock Weir Mother\u2019s Day around my house usually follows a pattern or two. Before my maternal grandmother died in 2012, it was usually a day in which my family was required to pay her homage. Since her passing, however, the day can be best described with two words: road trip! This year, my mom […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2},"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[29,28],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-17319","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-columns","category-opinion"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p3D2k4-4vl","publishpress_future_action":{"enabled":false,"date":"2026-06-03 06:36:38","action":"change-status","newStatus":"draft","terms":[],"taxonomy":"category","extraData":[]},"publishpress_future_workflow_manual_trigger":{"enabledWorkflows":[]},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/17319","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=17319"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/17319\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=17319"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=17319"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=17319"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}