Children in Nature

Posted on September 1, 2026 by Skid

Share this post:

For two decades, I have conducted a program called “Children in the Woods” for Ontario Nature. Ontario Nature launched its first Earth Summit for Youth in 2010 at Cedar Glen YMCA Centre in York Region. The Summit moved from the Cedar Glen site to many years on the wonderful Lake Simcoe location at Geneva Park near Orillia until Covid hit. The Youth Summit for Mother Earth has risen like a Phoenix and found a new nest at renowned Camp Tawingo in Huntsville.

This year I will be delivering the same program, “Children in the Woods” to a new generation of youth leaders at Camp Tawingo. Whether it is woods, fields, ponds, rivers or lakes, like Lake Ontario, these youth are on fire to protect their present and future. Theirs is the passion that encouraged me to continue to keep speaking out for environmental policy sanity at a point when I was about to throw in the towel.

I had launched Global Perspectives: The Periwinkle Project in 1989 as a response to the messages of Our Common Future to pursue a path of sustainable development, and the World Meteorological Organization warnings about accelerating climate change. It was an appeal to educational institutions to make Environmental Literacy a key component of the 21st Century curriculum. Research real problems, search for real solutions.

The Ontario Teachers Federation had just approved a ten point agenda for the inclusion of environmental and social justice issues as a mandatory part of the school curriculum. Then came Mike Harris and his Common Nonsense campaign. This racist, eco-illiterate Premier dismantled all of the curriculum we had put in place to educate students to prepare for their future. His chief-of-staff, Guy Giorno, responding to a complaint that all critical thinking skills were being removed from the curriculum, allegedly said, “It is not our job to nurture critical thinkers; it is out job to train productive consumers!”

The Harris government dismantled all of their Environment Ministry staff who had been a fabulous education resource for schools seeking solid fact-based information for their projects. My contact at the Ministry was labelled a “hostile employee” for continuing to provide me with inside information until her dismissal.

I was more than angry – we were just beginning to raise awareness and turn the tide and we elected a colonial troglodyte to lead us. My wife said, “Don’t water the rocks.” I put all my slide shows and presentations away and went into my cave. And then I got a call from Ontario Nature to present at their First Annual Youth Leadership Summit. Cedar Glen was right around the corner from our home in Caledon. I remember thinking, “Once more into the breach dear friends, once more.”

The positive energy and enthusiasm of the ON leaders and the youth in attendance, reignited the fire in my belly. If they were willing to pick up the torch, I was not going to stop fanning the flames. This is our home, and the care and security of our home should be dominant in the hearts, minds and spirits of every citizen of this planet. We are a miracle. For those of us not living in Gaza or Sudan or Ukraine, where basic needs of survival are dominant, we who live in the fairy tale world of North America should be able to give our energies to something greater than our cell phones and streaming media.

So, now I find myself about to head to Huntsville. In a world governed by Fords and Trumps. They keep us all in a constant state of fear with their taxpayer funded ads of “Protect Ontario”, and “Tariff Terror” messaging. Not quite the encouragement to our youth to fight for environmental literacy, social justice, economic security, and respect for the integrity of creation. Not on our current Ontario provincial government’s agenda due to developer greed. Reduced to the back burner of our federal agenda due to Trump’s Terrible Tariff War. But these youth refuse to give up. So, in my elder years, I will give you whatever you need to never give up.

From another old poker player passing on wisdom:

“You’ve got to know when to hold ‘em,
Know when to fold ‘em,
Know when to walk away,
Know when to run.

You never count your money
When you’re sittin’ at the table.
They’ll be time enough for countin’
When the dealin’s done.’

And remember children, the deck is marked, and the house always wins … unless someone like us cares a whole awful lot. The way I see it.

Skid Crease, Caledon

The Westerners

Posted on August 29, 2026 by Skid

Share this post:

Gee whiz, can you believe it Canada? Premiers Scott Moe (Saskatchewan) and Danielle Smith (Alberta) want to play ball with the Mad King of the South. Alberta wants to continue drinking bourbon and keep selling its tar sands oil to the USA, and Saskatchewan wants to keep pumping potash into American agribusiness. So much for a Team Canada approach to dealing with Trump’s Terrible Tariffs.

Keep in mind that both Alberta and Saskatchewan are part of the original “western alienation” movement that sprang from the federal government’s stance on national control of natural resources when the two areas became provinces in 1905. Based on their oil and cattle economies, Texas and Alberta seem made for each other, while Saskatchewan matches the oil pumping and dry land farming culture of some of the Great Plains states.

The majority of these US States and two provincial populations also tend to be socially conservative and fiercely supportive of individual rights and local resources over the collective national good. Politically, the old joke about “What happens when you cross a Texan with a Dakotan? Why, you get a conservative voting white, Christian Albertan!” rings all too true.

However, stereotyping is not helpful to constructive conversation. And considering my wife and I were married in Kananaskis, Alberta on the banks of the Bow River under the gaze of the Three Sisters mountain peaks, the separatists do not include some of my best friends. That and the memories of Grasslands National Park in Val Marie, Saskatchewan, as the most unique landscape on our cross-country trip for Canada’s 150th makes that province’s separation not open for discussion.

Canada is a unique coast to coast to coast experiment immersed in First People’s culture, colonial exploration and exploitation, resistance to American Republicanism, an outgoing, if sometimes superficial politeness, a sense of social justice, realization that we all “come from away,” and that “here” is where we choose to be. We are lobster, maple syrup, corn, wheat, beef and salmon. We are wood, hydro, uranium, aluminium, and steel. We are either paddling our canoe to safe harbours or dragging it back into the maelstrom.

To the fringe far right wing in Alberta and Saskatchewan, and the young protesters in Quebec, it’s time to decide if you are on Team Canada, or time to get out of the canoe and sink or swim on your own. Swim south down the Mississippi to the Gulf of Mexico!

This is no time for Lily dippers.The way I see it.

*****

Skid Crease, Caledon

On a Happier Note …

Posted on August 25, 2026 by Skid

Share this post:

In tumultuous times it’s wise to reflect on the random acts of kindness that keep us human. To calm myself down this morning after hearing about The Donald’s desire to rename Lake Ontario as Lake America, I recalled a chance meeting at my bank the other day.

It was one of those long line-up days where every teller was dealing with customers wanting credit cards or mortgage check-ups. To distract myself I started to focus on the back of the sweatshirt the person in front of me was wearing. It featured two Muskoka chairs in a bright sunset circle. I tapped her on the shoulder and said, “I like your sweatshirt logo – I’d love to be sitting there right now.”

The woman turned around with a sunshine smile and said, “Me too!” One question led to another and then to a discussion about our common love of the beauty of nature. I told her about the recent overnight camp I had done with children, and how awed they were with the sunset and sunrise they experienced. The wait in line flew by, and we shook hands and exchanged names before it was our turn at the teller’s booths. I left the bank with a smile.

A few days later, I was walking my dog around our neighbourhood when I heard my name being called. “Skid! I thought that was you.” I looked up into that sunshine smile once again. It was my new friend from the bank! “Hi, Andrea,” I said. “Do you live around here?” And yes, she did. Turns out we are one street apart and she knew the family that had given us our dog. We parted with a wave and a smile. New friends in the hood. When the universe throws us a lemon, it also gives us a chance to make lemonade.

We all need more Andrea moments. The way I see it.

The Gang of Five: 1 down, 4 to go

Posted on August 24, 2026 by Skid

Share this post:

For a full term in our current Caledon Council, we witnessed the negative impact of Strong Mayor Powers on democracy. We also witnessed a record of voting block blindness that boggled the imagination. The infamous “Gang Of Five” voted as a team on almost every issue that challenged the line between developer influence and citizen concerns.

Well, with our Strong Mayor suddenly announcing her retirement after her multi-thousand dollar private fundraiser gala, we are one down, with four to go. Out of those four, only one is running unchallenged in his Ward. One is challenging for Mayor, and the other two are seeking re-election in their Wards.

The rest of the current list of candidates for Council consists either of Real Estate agents from Brampton, or Developers from Brampton, including a former Councillor seeking election as Mayor. Only one Councillor seeking election as Mayor represents the rural/urban composite that is Caledon.

Only five current candidates for Councillor positions are uncontaminated by the last term’s dictatorial behaviour. Let’s wake up, do our homework, and vote accordingly. The decision will obviously be up to Caledon’s constituents. I have my list of preferred current candidates based on track record, defence of democracy in Caledon, social justice and environmental literacy support, and no fear of speaking their truth to power.

And I can assure you that no member of the Group of Five will ever receive my support in a Caledon election. You are either with the people or with the Developers. Greed is not good, the way I see it.

Skid Crease, Caledon

An Elder Story

Posted on August 22, 2026 by Skid

Share this post:

Son, Always Leave Your Campsite Cleaner Than You Found It

originally published by suzukiwebmaster | 10/25/2018 | Intergenerational Story Project

by Skid Crease

My father was, and still is, my hero. A prisoner-of-war survivor from Stalag Luft III of “The Great Escape” fame, he raised me with stories of ingenuity, humanity, and perseverance. Some of our favourite times together were on our fishing, camping and canoeing trips, when stories around the campfire took on mythical proportions.

Some of the best lessons I ever learned in life came from those stories, and often those lessons were encapsulated in wise one-liners. Here is my favourite life lesson, and the basis of my environmental literacy.

It was the late 1950’s, and we had spent a week out camping and fishing on Rice Lake. He was a wise teacher, framing every lesson in a story credited to some other person. When he showed me how to tie on a hook, or find bait under a log, or look for the ledges and overhangs and riffles and reed edges where fish might be waiting, or to eat what you caught, it was always something passed on from someone else.

It was an Anishnaabe guide from Temagami, or a trapper from Golden, or a canoe maker from Peterborough who had taught him. He was just passing on their wisdom. He was wise enough to know that it is very difficult sometimes for a son to listen to his father’s advice, but if it came from someone else’s wise father, well, that was acceptable. To paraphrase Mark Twain, “When I was a kid, I couldn’t believe how dumb my dad was; by the time I’d turned twenty, I couldn’t believe how much the old man had learned in ten years.”

On this particular trip, I learned to fillet a fish, cook a full meal over a campfire and make certain that fire was dead out before leaving. I learned how to select and prepare a safe and appropriate tent site, scavenge for firewood far away from the campsite, search for wisps of birch bark that had blown off the trees, chop and split wood safely, and light a fire in the pouring rain. I learned to find the North Star off the cup of the Big Dipper, read the wind and the clouds and the skin of our canoe in the morning for weather wisdom. All of this was taught to me through stories allegedly from someone who had taught my dad. He was simply passing it along.

He never took credit for any of these wisdoms. His motto was: “First, comes the Great Spirit that Loves Life; my fellow creatures come second; I am third.”

But the greatest lesson of all came when we prepared to head home. My dad walked me around the campsite, even back to the farthest areas from where we had collected firewood. Every trace of our time there was removed.

Even the campfire rocks were moved back and the ashes washed into the duff. The only thing left behind was a small pile of kindling and birch bark protected under a piece of tree bark, “For the next campers, if they know where to look,” he told me. Then he stood with his arm around my shoulders, looked out over the lake and said, “Son, always leave your campsite cleaner than you found it.”

The wisdom of our elders.

In memory of Harry S. Crease, father and friend