We're Going Home

By tomorrow night at this time the four of us will be homeward bound. We plan to be resting comfortably at the Days Inn in Timmins. I love Northern Ontario more than you can possibly imagine. If I have my way, I will live the rest of my life in the North. When I die, they can bury me deep beneath the frozen ground.

It's not that I hate Southern Ontario. The thing is, Toronto is the only locale in the South I would ever move to. Christine and I are all or nothing kind of people. Give us the bustle of downtown Toronto or the quiet solitude of the Northern wilderness. We have no desire to live in Suburbia. We don't want to be a slave to the automobile. We would like the freedom to walk to work. We want our kids to be able to walk to school. Now, I am by no means looking down on suburbanites. I have several friends who love the suburban lifestyle as much as I do the Northern Way.

Don't get the wrong idea here - we are not small town, backwater folks. Christine and I are as progressives. It just happens that we live on a First Nations reserve that up until six years ago had no indoor plumbing. Pavement is still years away. No drivers licence is needed, thank you. Bicycle and ATV helmets? Hell, you would get laughed off the reserve if ever you wore such a contraption.

Christine has agreed to let me pick the next place we live, and by golly it's gonna be in Northern Ontario. I'm just not sure where yet. Here's my long list of potential places of residence: Timmins, Kirkland Lake, New Liskeard, North Bay, Sudbury, Sault Ste. Marie, Wawa, Blind River, Manitoulin Island, Matheson, Cochrane, Kapuskasing, Sturgeon Falls, Espanola.

OK, that's a pretty long list. Can anyone out there help me out? Where should we move? Any places on the list we should avoid?