Prologue:
In the beginning, there was no Swan Lake. No planet Earth. There was only the void.
Thankfully for us, after millions of years of cosmic chaos, one little planet, third rock from a small sun, evolved bacteria and microbes, and water and air, and plants and animals. Those animals evolved from fish to amphibians and reptiles, to birds and mammals, not to mention a myriad of insects. One of the birds became Cygnus buccinator. One of the mammals became Homo sapiens.
As the millennia passed, Earth’s surface formed and shifted. Homo sapiens came out of Africa and settled on every continent except Antarctica. Cygnus buccinator settled in what is known today as North America. At the end of The Last Ice Age, the retreating glaciers left behind great lakes and tonnes of gravel ground off the Canadian Shield. This is where our story begins … with gravel. Because if it hadn’t been for a certain little gravel pit in Ontario, Caledon’s Swan Lake would never have come into existence.
The influx of European colonists to Canada after the War of 1812 led to the deforestation of 80% of southern Ontario. At the same time, over hunting led to the extinction of the Passenger Pigeon in North America by 1914. But long before that, in 1886, the Trumpeter Swan was declared extinct in Ontario.
The land near Caledon Village known as the former Warren Gravel Pit gave us food, water, and shelter; in colonial times it gave us lumber, wheat , and most recently gravel.
So, consider what a success story it is that we now have Swan Lake in Caledon. After years of giving sustenance to our First Peoples, wheat to feed Europe, and gravel to build Ontario, the depleted gravel pit was fully rehabilitated, creating a freshwater lake and lush surrounding habitat. In 2025, it became home to seven pairs of Trumpeter Swans. I bear witness to this event. If we build it, they will come. Or, if we let our Town Council and a developer destroy it, they will fade away.
We have the chance here to give a once extirpated species a chance to breed and fly again over Caledon. Swan Lake is not for sale. The Town’s CEO and the Mayor should be held to account for ever bringing up a motion that would lead the town to even consider the dumping of excess GTHA soil into our Swan Lake. That is beyond the pale. It is ecologically and economically stupid. And morally reprehensible.
The land has given enough. Let her rest. The way I see it.
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Parts One and Two coming soon …
“A rose by any other name would would smell as sweet.” Or the well-known, “If it walks like a duck, and quacks like a duck, it must be a duck.” And how would our perception be swayed if we changed the name of “Rape and Pillage Project Management Corporation” to “Strawberry Fields Forever ULC”?
The real reason President Trump is angry about Doug Ford and Ontario airing the Ronald Reagan speech warning about the dangers of tariffs and his support for fair and free trade has nothing to do with his trade policies. The public domain speech simply illustrates how a President can deliver an articulate, factually informative speech in five minutes. No dancing, no ranting off topic, no one hour diatribes of meaningless drivel – just the need to know, clean and clear.
, “Dick Taters” often portray themselves as benevolent leaders who are working for the greater good. They may use slogans, symbols and other forms of propaganda to create an image of themselves as heroic figures who are fighting for the people. However their true intentions are usually far from noble, and theory are often motivated by greed, ego, and a desire for absolute control.